 Murray lauded the songwriting and light production.Tanner Stransky of "Entertainment Weekly" awarded "What Makes You Beautiful" a B+ grade, calling the song "shallow but crushworthy", writing that the song shows that boy bands are not dying out.Jason Lipshutz of "Billboard" characterised it as "the real deal", regarding the song as "endlessly playable" as 'N Sync's "Bye Bye Bye".