Should You Choose a Niche Dating Site?

Apart from being kind, loving and having a good sense of humor, what is the most important thing you are looking for in a potential partner?

If your religion, cultural background, similar interests (i.e. goth, hipster, gamer, smoker, conservative) or dietary requirement is the most important factor in a relationship, you might wish to consider choosing a niche dating website (or niche app) to suit your needs.

There are, of course, pros and cons when choosing to use a niche dating website over a mainstream website that you will need to consider.

There are lots of positive reasons why you may wish to choose a niche online dating website, which include:

1. A common outlook

If you’ve joined a site based on your religion, family situation, or a love for the environment, you can tell in advance that you have a common outlook. After all, you both selected the same niche, as it was important to your choice of partner.

Although it is said opposites attract, it is in fact more important for couples to share common ground and the same outlook on life.

2. Shared interests

Choosing a niche dating website means you are more likely to share common hobbies and activities with your new date.

So if you’ve both joined a dating website for horse-loving people, you could arrange a date around horse riding, or a couple who enjoys golf could head to the driving range together for their first date.

Joining a site where you have a shared interest allows you to talk openly about your hobby or interest without baffling the uninitiated with your abbreviations and acronyms.

3. Less need to filter your searches

With fewer profiles than larger dating websites, there is less need to spend your time separating the wheat from the chaff.

4. A website tailored to your niche

With specialist websites, the whole site is tailored to a particular niche.

This might mean a religious dating site would allow you to choose a more specific sector of that religion, whereas generic sites may only allow you to select the name of a religion as a whole.

“You could always try out both

and see which you like best.”

There are reasons why you may not wish to choose a small niche dating website:

1. Fewer profiles

Niche dating websites by their nature tend to have fewer profiles than large dating sites. If you are looking to join a site with lots of profiles, a niche dating website is not the best place to start.

2. Not all niche dating websites are true to their specified niche

Some dating networks run niche dating sites but share members across their niches. This means people may not genuinely fit that niche.

For example, you may wish to join a website for people who enjoy country music. However, instead of meeting people who genuinely love country music, you may find your potential match (who ticked the country music box on another site because they liked Dolly Parton’s “9 to 5”) thinks bluegrass is something you grow in the backyard.

3. Doubling up

If you can’t decide if you want to go for a niche dating website or for a larger generic dating website, you could always try out both and see which you like best.

Most online dating sites allow you to join for free, so it won’t cost you anything to see which is the most suitable for you.

You may find you enjoy being a member of both types of site, as they offer different things.