Thundr alternative: filters that aren't priced in coins
Thundr's boost store puts thirty minutes of matching priority at 1,000 coins, and coins come in packs — 500 for $4.99, 1,050 for $9.99. A half-hour of being seen first is a ten-dollar item, paid in a currency you stock up on first. Veilr is a Thundr alternative built the other way round: the gender filter, all three chat modes and the matching itself cost nothing, and exactly two things are sold. The video chat above is Veilr's — press start.
What the coins are for
The conversation itself is free, video and text, with no advertising in it. The money sits one layer up, in a currency. Boosts are priced there — 450 coins for ten minutes, 1,000 for thirty, 2,100 for an hour, 7,900 for five hours — under a promise to match you "ONLY with the hottest people on Thundr". The coin store also lists filters among what coins activate, without publishing what a filter costs — so the answer to "what does it take to meet only women" is: buy coins and find out.
Daily crates are lootboxes stacked on the paid currency, and an opened crate is final. Coins are non-refundable under the terms you accept, and disputes go to individual arbitration, with class actions and a jury signed away. Match History, the way back to somebody you liked, is priced in coins too.
The parts that do not line up
It does not point at one service. thundr.com belongs to Lightningware Inc. of Wyoming; thundr.cc calls itself Thundr Chat under a Singapore operator; thundr.video names nobody. Landing on the wrong one is easy.
And its own materials disagree about whether you need an account: the homepage description advertises zero sign-up, while the random-video-chat page makes creating an account step one. The Play listing has a gap of the same shape — it invites you to join the ten million-plus people already on thundr.com, on a page showing 100,000+ installs.
What free means on Veilr
Set your gender once and the partner filter opens. Free, tried first whenever someone you asked for is online, and if nobody is, you are connected to someone else rather than left waiting. The other person’s choice is always respected. With Boost your choice is a hard filter and you go first in line; people who registered as non-binary are matched by those who chose ‘Any’. Age and country ride on top as preferences: honoured first, widened if nobody matches, with the chips saying so. Boost stops that widening too. None of it sits behind a currency you have to buy first.
The queue takes signed-in accounts only. You arrive with a social account you already have — the sign-in screen shows which ones are open — and there is no guest mode. In an anonymous match your partner sees your gender, your age band and, when it is known, a country flag; in text and voice they also see your profile photo blurred, a verified or Boost badge if you have one, and the native language on your profile unless you switch it off. If that partner has Boost running, they can open the photo clear for the chat, and nothing tells you. Your exact age goes only to somebody who set an age filter, and a stranger you are matched with never sees your real name, email address or city. Veilr is adults only, 18+, and our servers refuse a match to an account whose recorded age is under 18.
You each stay in your own language. Type in yours and your message can reach your partner in theirs, the original one tap away; every free account starts with a run of translations, earns more, and Boost lifts the ceiling. On a call between two declared languages, live captions start on their own — five free minutes with a new account, then a top-up, Boost or a reward.
The mode you picked holds to the end. Text, voice and video have their own queues, and the mode is fixed at the match, so a chat begun by typing cannot become a camera aimed at you. Calls are never saved as recordings. Report somebody mid-chat and you are moved on to the next partner, the two of you kept out of each other's matches for a day.
Side by side
| Thundr | Veilr | |
|---|---|---|
| The conversation | Free, video and text | Free, text, voice and video |
| Queue priority | 1,000 coins for 30 minutes | A Boost pass, bought as time |
| Gender filter | None in the free web version; the shop lists 'filters' only in general | A free preference once your own gender is set; strict with Boost |
| Video ↔ text with the same person | Switched instantly, mid-session | Not possible — the mode is fixed |
| Meeting somebody a second time | Match History, reconnect for coins | ‘Add to contacts’ — free, if you both press it |
| On top of the match itself | Interests, match history, two dozen themes | Translated messages, captions on calls |
| What is sold | Coins, boosts, crates | A Boost pass and caption minutes |
Thundr takes two of those rows. The switch is worth dwelling on: what stops a typed conversation turning into a video call is the same rule that stops you flipping to the camera yourself. Thundr flips, we hold — and if that flip is what you came for, it is theirs.
Getting into a chat
Sign in at the top of this page, choose video, voice or text, and press start; a filter is set before the search rather than bought during it. When somebody is worth keeping, press ‘Add to contacts’ — a contact exists only if both of you do.
Questions people ask about Thundr
Is Thundr free?
The chat is, in video and in text, without ads. Coins are the paid layer above it: boosts, crates and — going by the coin store — filters. The free part of Veilr reaches further, taking in the gender filter, a starting run of message translations and five minutes of live captions. Only two things are sold: a Boost pass and extra caption minutes.
Do I need an account?
Thundr's own materials answer both ways, as above. On Veilr the answer is plain: yes, through a social account you already have, and the rule is enforced on the server rather than only in the interface , so no one can start a search without signing in.
Is there a Thundr iPhone app?
Not as of August 2026: a US App Store search returns only unrelated apps with similar names. Thundr is web and Android. Veilr runs in a phone browser and has an Android app.
Can coins be refunded?
Thundr's terms make purchases final, crate openings irreversible, and a rule-break ban a reason you are not eligible for a refund. Veilr sells no currency: a Boost pass buys a length of time — an hour, a day, a week or a month — and caption minutes are bought as minutes.
Who else charges for the filter?
Most of this shelf does. Flingster keeps gender and country inside its VIP tier, and Monkey does the same with its Plus subscription. On Veilr you state your own gender and the filter is yours — no tier, no coins.
Related
- Every service we compare
- Monkey — the filter, behind a subscription.
- Flingster — gender and country live in VIP.
- Video chat — this page's mode.
- Text chat — typing only, no camera in it.
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