Four platforms cover most of the Australian lifestyle scene. They differ enormously in price, in how Australian they actually are, and — the part nobody reviews — in how much personal data they collect and what they do with it.
Every review of these apps you’ll find online is an affiliate page. This one isn’t: we take no commissions and there are no tracking links anywhere below.
How we did this. We haven’t used these apps under test conditions and won’t pretend we have. This is a desk comparison of what each platform publishes about itself — its own website, and its own App Store listing including the privacy disclosures Apple requires every developer to complete. A narrower claim than a hands-on review, and a far more verifiable one.
How we judged
No star ratings, for the same reason we don’t rate venues — a number we invented wouldn’t mean anything. Instead:
- Price — taken from current Australian App Store in-app purchase listings, in AUD.
- Privacy — taken from each developer’s own App Privacy disclosure, which Apple requires them to complete and which is legally binding on them. This is the single most useful and least reported difference between these apps.
- Fit for the lifestyle — whether couples, partner-linked profiles and non-monogamy are designed in or bolted on.
- Australian relevance — a large global user base is worth nothing if nobody near you is on it.
On prices: App Store pricing changes regularly and varies by region and promotion, and buying directly on a platform’s website is sometimes cheaper than in-app. Treat the figures below as at time of writing, on the Australian store, and check before you subscribe.
The thing nobody tells you: these apps are not equally private
If discretion matters to you — and in this scene it usually matters more than anything else — this is the section to read.
Apple requires every developer to declare what data they collect and whether it’s linked to your identity. Those declarations differ sharply here:
- SDC declares that the data it collects is not linked to your identity — user ID, usage data and crash diagnostics only. That is a materially more private posture than the others.
- Feeld declares data linked to your identity including precise location, email address, your contacts, photos and videos, device and user identifiers, and sensitive information. It also declares data used to track you across other companies’ apps and websites.
- RedHotPie declares data linked to your identity including precise location, contact info, photos and videos, and sensitive information — used, among other things, for the developer’s advertising and marketing.
“Sensitive information” in Apple’s taxonomy is a defined category that includes sexual orientation. On a lifestyle app, precise location plus sensitive information linked to your identity is a meaningful thing to hand over, particularly when it’s also used for advertising.
None of this means these apps are unsafe or dishonest — this is ordinary practice across dating apps, and all of it is openly declared. But it should inform how you use them: what you upload, whether you grant location and contacts access, and which email address you sign up with.
RedHotPie
Digital Quarter Pty Ltd · Australian · 18+
The most established Australian name in this category and the one most people in the local scene have heard of. It describes itself on the App Store as a platform for dating, video chat and parties, connecting people for dating, parties and events.
Price. A layered model with more purchase types than any other app here: Plus at $24.99 a month, Extras at $18.99 a month, Premium at $43.99 and $109.99, PremiumPLUS at $49.99 and $149.99, conversation credits from $14.99 to $29.99, and coin packs from $9.99.
That structure is worth understanding before you spend. Where the others sell one subscription, RedHotPie sells subscriptions and consumable credits and coins. Work out which tier actually unlocks messaging before buying credits on top of a subscription.
Privacy. Declares precise location, contact info, photos and videos, purchases, identifiers and sensitive information as linked to your identity, used for developer advertising and marketing, personalisation, functionality and support.
What we could not verify. RedHotPie’s website blocks automated access, so unlike every other platform here we could not read their own feature and pricing pages directly. Everything above comes from their App Store listing. If you are on Android, check current availability on Google Play before planning around it; listings in this category change.
Who it suits. People who want the largest Australian-founded platform and are comfortable with a more commercial, credit-based model. If you’re in a regional area, this is the one most likely to have someone nearby.
Feeld
Feeld Ltd · UK-based, used worldwide · 18+
The most modern product of the group and the one that treats non-monogamy as a design premise rather than a category. Its own description centres on open-minded people exploring desire and alternative relationships.
Built for couples properly. You can link a partner’s profile and browse as a couple, and group chats let all parties talk together before meeting. This sounds minor and isn’t — most apps make couples improvise with one account and an explanatory bio.
Genuinely good privacy features. Incognito mode hides your profile from the feed; images sent in chat can’t be screenshotted; you can set timers on photos or send videos viewable once. They also state they use biometric identity verification so people are who they claim, and run a 24/7 safety team alongside published community guidelines.
Price. Free to use, with an optional Majestic membership at $35.99 for 30 days or $59.99 for 90 days. Pings — the paid way to message someone you haven’t matched with — are sold separately: $2.49 for one, $11.99 for five, $19.49 for ten, and around $29.99 to $31.99 for twenty. Uplift is $10.99.
The tension worth naming. Feeld markets privacy hard, and its in-app privacy tools are the best here. But its own data disclosure is the most extensive of the four: precise location, email, your contacts, photos and videos, identifiers and sensitive information linked to your identity, plus data used to track you across other companies’ apps. Strong privacy from other users; considerable data sharing with the company and its advertising partners. Both facts are true and worth holding together.
Who it suits. Couples wanting a proper shared experience, anyone who cares about interface quality, and queer and non-binary users — it’s the most comfortable of the four on gender and orientation. Weakest for regional Australia, where the user base thins out fast.
Adult Match Maker
Australian · 18+
Describes itself as Australia’s largest adult dating app for sex-positive singles and couples. Of the four, it’s the most explicitly built around the Australian swinging scene rather than adjacent to it.
Lifestyle-native features. Its profile fields include a “how we play” section for stating things like full swap or same room — the kind of structured detail that saves an enormous amount of messaging. It runs swingers chat rooms, lists swingers parties, clubs and events, and publishes a substantial library of guides, a swingers glossary and community content.
Verification through the community. Members who have met face to face can write a validation confirming the other person is genuine. It’s a social rather than technical solution, and on a platform this size it’s arguably more useful than a document check.
Other features they list: text and webcam chat rooms free to members every evening, a Messenger for unlimited conversation, private photo galleries you control access to, filters over who can contact you, daily winks, an “available now” status, and the option to hide your location if you’re concerned about being identified.
Membership. Tiered as Standard, Premium, and Gold and Platinum Premium, with the higher tiers unlocking things like private cam-to-cam. We could not verify current pricing from a first-party source, so we’re not publishing figures — check their site.
Who it suits. Australians who want the scene itself rather than a general dating app: club and party listings, swinger-specific profile fields, and a local user base. The interface is dated next to Feeld; the relevance is much higher.
SDC
SDCmedia inc · International · 18+
Long-established couples-and-singles platform, stating over three million members across more than 100 countries. Strong in Europe and for lifestyle travel; thinner in Australia than the local options.
The privacy standout. The only platform here declaring that the data it collects is not linked to your identity. If minimising your data footprint is the priority, that’s a genuine differentiator.
Pricing, and something to be aware of. Membership is priced by gender. Couples and women pay $39.99 a month, $79.99 for three months, $129.99 for six, or $199.99 a year. Men pay $49.99, $99.99, $149.99 and $249.99 for the same periods — roughly 25% more.
Gendered pricing is common in this category and follows the same ratio logic that governs venue door policies. Whether that’s reasonable is your call; it should at least be a known cost before you sign up.
Who it suits. Travellers, couples who want an international network, and anyone whose main concern is data minimisation.
Also out there
We haven’t reviewed these in depth and aren’t going to pretend otherwise. Named because you’ll encounter them:
- Kasidie — established lifestyle social network, stronger in North America.
- FetLife — kink and BDSM social network rather than a dating app. Different scene with overlap.
- 3Fun — couples and threesome focused, with a mixed reputation on privacy historically. Check its current disclosures yourself.
- #Open — built for non-monogamy, small user base in Australia.
If you’d like any of these covered properly, tell us and we’ll add them.
Compared
| RedHotPie | Feeld | Adult Match Maker | SDC | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Based | Australia | UK | Australia | International |
| Entry price | From $18.99/mo | Free; $35.99/30 days | Not published | $39.99/mo (couples & women) |
| Annual | $109.99–$149.99 | Not listed on AU store | Not published | $199.99–$249.99 |
| Gendered pricing | No | No | Not published | Yes — men pay more |
| Linked couple profiles | Not stated | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Data linked to you | Yes, incl. sensitive info | Yes, incl. contacts | Not disclosed here | No |
| Cross-app tracking | Not declared | Yes | Not disclosed here | Not declared |
| ID verification | Not stated | Biometric | Member validations | Not stated |
| Lists local events | Yes, per listing | No | Yes — clubs & parties | Yes, travel-oriented |
“Not stated” and “not published” mean we couldn’t verify it from a first-party source — not that the feature is absent.
Best for…
Best for the Australian scene — Adult Match Maker. Swinger-specific profile fields, club and party listings, and a local user base. If you want the scene rather than a dating app, start here.
Best for couples — Feeld. Linked profiles and group chats mean you behave like a couple instead of improvising around a single account.
Best for privacy — SDC. The only one declaring data not linked to your identity, and the only one not asking for precise location tied to you.
Best-known in Australia — RedHotPie. The longest-established local name, and most likely to have members outside the major cities.
Best for queer and non-binary users — Feeld. The others are largely built around male/female couples.
Best free experience — Feeld. Genuinely usable without paying, where the others gate messaging behind a subscription or credits.
Practical advice, whichever you use
- Use a dedicated email address. Not your work address, not the one attached to your public social accounts. Free, takes two minutes, and it’s the single most effective privacy step available to you.
- Decline the contacts permission. There is no benefit to you in an app reading your address book, and at least one of these declares contacts as data linked to your identity.
- Turn precise location off. Approximate location is enough to find people in your city and dramatically less revealing.
- Use private galleries. Most of these support photos released only to people you’ve chosen. Use them for anything identifying.
- Assume anything you send can be kept. Screenshot protection is a deterrent, not a guarantee — a second phone defeats it.
- Check whether the web price beats the app price. Subscribing through a website sometimes avoids app store margins.
- Cancel through the App Store, not the app. App Store subscriptions keep charging until cancelled in your Apple account settings.
- Meet in public first. Venue nights are a good option precisely because they’re staffed and public.
All prices and privacy disclosures come from the platforms’ own Australian App Store listings and websites at time of writing, and change without notice — verify before subscribing. We take no commissions and use no affiliate links. Corrections welcome at hello@swingershub.com.au. Next: the best Melbourne venues, your first night, or what’s on this weekend.
Details checked 9 August 2026. Venues change things at short notice — always confirm on their own site before booking. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.