Key Takeaways
After testing and rating hundreds of dating apps, we’ve selected the best ones that work for forming committed relationships.
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Match is our overall best pick for relationship seekers.
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OurTime.com is the best senior dating app for singles over 50.
When endless swiping and ghosted conversations get you down, the best dating apps for relationships are there to pick you back up.
Online dating has the power to change the lives of singles with serious intentions and good hearts. A recent survey of newlyweds found that 27% of spouses now meet online, making apps the most popular resource for falling in love.
As a matter of fact, I met my husband on a dating app. He actually messaged me on two different apps, but I only accepted the match on one of them. Whoops! That’s why I always say to join multiple apps because timing matters, and different profiles might serve you well.
Let’s talk about the best apps for getting serious. I’ve ranked the top dating apps for relationship seekers who are ready for their happily ever after.
Match.com
- Relationships: Fun Dates, Serious Relationships
- Match System: Browse by location, age, interest, and more
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About the App:
Match is built for browsing rather than swiping. You can search by location, age, and interest, then take your time reading profiles before reaching out. The app is free to download, create a profile, search for date prospects, and receive compatible matches based on personalized preferences. Free members can also chat with select members and send unlimited likes.
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Match is the original online dating site, and its companion dating app can bring a lot of value to singles who are looking for love. It’s free to chat with matches, just like it is on swiping apps, but Match profiles have a lot more personal details and insights.
Pros
Cons
- No video chat
Since its launch in 1995, Match has supported a virtual dating space where personal compatibility powers all new connections. Singles can see how much they have in common based on their overall match rating, and those who score 80% or higher can use the free communication feature to pursue a relationship.
Setting up a Match profile is totally free and took me less than five minutes. Only one profile photo showing your face is required, but the site recommends adding at least three pics. Match has over 40 unique prompts that members can choose to answer for their profiles as well.
eharmony
- Relationships: Long-Term Relationships, Marriages
- Match System: Get daily match suggestions
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About the App:
Responsible for 4% of marriages in the U.S., eharmony is among our top picks for relationship-minded heterosexual singles. To become a member, add the app to your phone (iOS or Android) and then take its 29 Dimensions® of Compatibility Matching Quiz. It’s absolutely free to do both these things — as well as receive matches and communicate during other special events.
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Since its launch in 2000, eharmony has been a beacon of hope for love-driven individuals. The online dating site and app get to the heart of who a person is and curate a potential match list full of desirable and compatible people.
Pros
- Extensive personality assessments
- Accurate compatibility ratings
- Marriage-minded members
Cons
- Limited free communication
- Must pay for extra filters
The Compatibility Quiz is the foundation of eharmony’s scientifically proven matchmaking. This psychological assessment analyzes personality quirks, communication style, lifestyle, and family values, and then the algorithm calculates a compatibility rating with personal insights on every profile.
Here’s an example from a profile I viewed: “The ability to have an honest conversation is something you and John have in common. This openness would be a strength in a relationship.”
More than 2 million American couples have met thanks to eharmony, and the dating service creates a new love connection every 14 minutes.
OurTime
- Relationships: Dating and Relationships
- Match System: Search by age as well as zip, gender, more
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About the App:
Made just for single seniors, OurTime is one of the most well-known niche dating apps. It’s a fun and straightforward app with simple swiping features. Once two people swipe right on each other, they can communicate. For more match options, visit the ConnectMe and I’m Interested pages.
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When you reach a certain age, finding companionship can seem out of reach. OurTime can help senior singles feel less alone. The dating site has practical search tools, daily match suggestions, and instant chat options to encourage a real relationship to grow.
Pros
- Caters to singles over 50
- Interesting icebreaker prompts
- Active moderation and profile vetting
Cons
- No age verification
- Must pay for advanced filters
If you’re looking for a partner in your golden years, then you can depend upon OurTime’s support and assistance. It’s free to send messages to those you’ve matched with, so I’d recommend liking a fair number of profiles to get something going.
“I’ve found my soul mate,” said an OurTime user in a testimonial. “We’ve been together for 6 months and are perfect for each other. We are in a serious relationship. He is one of the nicest, sweetest men I have ever met.”
- Relationships: Dates, Relationships
- Match System: Browse by city, hobbies, age, etc.
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About the App:
Since it was founded in 2002, BlackPeopleMeet has established the largest online dating community for black and biracial singles of all orientations. Every month over 1.4 million daters use this simple and safe platform to connect with African-American singles in their area. You can download the app and create a profile for free to find new friends, hot dates, and love interests online.
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Since its launch in 2002, BlackPeopleMeet has gotten a lot of attention as the #1 online dating site for Black singles in the U.S. and Canada. The BPM team is on a mission to empower minorities and promote greater diversity and inclusion in the online dating world.
Pros
- Profiles highlight Black culture
- Free chatting with matches
Cons
- Users have mixed intentions
- Smaller user base
Anyone interested in finding a date in the Black community can create a free dating profile on BlackPeopleMeet. Its networking tools facilitate Black relationships as well as interracial relationships, and many singles say they enjoyed going outside their social circle to find a date. The Android app currently has a 3.7-star rating after over 14,400 reviews.
5. Hinge
If you want something more than a casual fling, Hinge has your back. It boasts being “the dating app designed to be deleted,” meaning its end goal is to get its users into a committed relationship as soon as possible.
I know from experience that Hinge really works. I met my husband on Hinge in 2019, and we both deleted the app within a week of meeting each other. I liked that the app has a field for relationship type in the profile, so I never had to do the “what are you here for?” screening question.
Hinge offers a quality-driven experience where users must like or comment on something specific to spark a mutual match. This system leads to more creative greetings and interest-based conversations than you’ll find on the average superficial swiping app.
The Hinge team actually asks for first date feedback from its users and has found that over 90% say they enjoyed their date with a Hinge user, and about 72% say they want to go out again.
6. Christian Mingle
Christian Mingle is a faith-driven dating site dedicated to uplifting singles in the Christian community. Since 2001, its dedicated services have led to countless Christian relationships and marriages.
When I joined Christian Mingle, I saw a lot of decent guys, and I was impressed with how many of them wrote that they wanted a Christian wife and to get married.
The God-centric message of Christian Mingle appeals to singles who are actively looking for a Christian soul mate. Religion isn’t a taboo topic here; it’s an icebreaker. The site fosters a friendly place to talk about your interests, your relationship goals, and your faith.
About 80% of Christian Mingle members said they would recommend the dating service to a friend, and the Christian dating site boasts having the best success rate when it comes to Christian marriages.
7. Bumble
Bumble is a dating app created by women for women, and it doesn’t compromise when it comes to quality. This progressive platform encourages single women to make the first move, but that’s no longer an enforced rule. Anybody can message after a match is created (but they only have 72 hours to send that first message).
The app is all about setting a positive and respectful tone in the online dating scene, and it’s undeniably popular. In the spring of 2020, Bumble surpassed 100 million users worldwide.
Bumble is a great place to get serious about finding an equal partner in life. Over 85% of Bumble users said they’re looking for a relationship on the app, and fewer than 4% said they were interested in a casual hookup.
8. Coffee Meets Bagel
Three sisters in Silicon Valley launched Coffee Meets Bagel (also known as CMB) in 2012 because they wanted to bring civility back to online dating. They felt the key to doing this was to slow down the matching process and motivate users to place greater value on every dating profile in their match list.
Coffee Meets Bagel puts a cap on the number of likes a single person can send each day, and the app automatically deletes conversations that have been inactive for over three weeks.
The CMB algorithm prioritizes quality over quantity, which means it doesn’t overwhelm female users with too many options or give male users an incentive to blindly swipe right on every dating profile they view.
“There’s a lot of exhaustion and frustration with modern dating. I think it’s become really complicated,” said Coffee Meets Bagel Co-Founder Dawoon Kang. “I’m interested in using Coffee Meets Bagel as a vehicle to change the conversation [and] to get this generation to share and connect more authentically.”
9. OkCupid
OkCupid is a free dating app where online daters can send messages and carry on lengthy conversations without paying for a subscription. The only catch is that you must establish a mutual match if you want to go beyond the first message.
If you’re looking for a real relationship, OkCupid can be your wingman. Its learning algorithm uses a combination of profile details, match questions, and browsing history to determine which users will be the perfect match.
For over 20 years, OkCupid has fostered an open-ended dating space where people of all ages, orientations, gender identities, and cultural backgrounds are welcome. It’s even open to poly dating and ethical non-monogamy.
Countless friendships and relationships have blossomed thanks to its smart matching technology and free communication system.
10. Happn
Happn is a mobile dating app that is constantly working in the background to find a potential match for you. The app uses your real-time location data to power its match recommendations, which come with a map reference of all the places where you and another person have crossed paths.
While you’re on the bus, getting coffee, shopping for groceries, and going about your daily routine, Happn is hard at work scoping for singles who share similar interests and habits.
The Happn app has over 100 million users worldwide, and it is particularly popular in New York City, San Francisco, Paris, London, and other large and bustling cities where singles swipe on a daily basis.
We’ve ranked Happn as one of the best apps for finding a relationship because it doesn’t ask users to go very far out of their way to find common ground. And its live chat feature is completely free.
11. Tinder
Tinder has the reputation of a hookup app, but it has actually led to many serious relationships as well. You can read dozens of Tinder love stories on Reddit as proof of the app’s matchmaking success. There is no faster or easier way to meet a new person, and those romantic connections could lead anywhere — even down the aisle.
Since its launch in 2012, Tinder has sparked over 100 billion matches and seen over 630 million downloads, making it one of the most popular dating apps of all time.
I like that Tinder lets users identify if they’re looking for a long-term partner, if they’re open to short-term dating, or if they’re still figuring it out. That is vital information to share with potential matches, and it helps relationship seekers find one another more quickly.
12. Badoo
The last one is a wild card. The Badoo app has one of the largest dating pools in the world — 483 million members and counting — so singles will certainly have a lot of potential date options here.
This fast-paced dating scene is a nice change of pace if you’re burned out on other apps. It’s got a mix of video chat and call options to spark more personal conversations.
Badoo is available in 190 countries, and its members exchange over 350 million messages per day.
Badoo is a popular dating app on which singles can mix things up and see where their conversations take them. Not all Badoo members are looking for something serious, but their profiles are upfront with their intentions and expectations.
Online daters often mention what type of relationship they want in their dating profile, and it’s pretty common to pop the “what are you looking for” question before meeting up.
How Do I Find a Relationship Online?
My biggest pro tip for singles is to use multiple apps and try different strategies until you hit on what works for you. Online dating success isn’t a one-size-fits-all thing.
Lean into your strengths, whether it’s asking good questions or telling funny stories. Let your personality show, and be honest about what you want and what you have to offer.
Don’t play games. It’s not “cool” to leave someone hanging for days. Being responsive and emotionally honest is going to endear to you to someone in a deeper and more lasting way. If you want to find love, the best thing is to say so and act like you’re really trying to build trust and intimacy the right way.
And you have to be resilient in the face of rejection and disappointment. Because it’s not always going to be smooth sailing. Successful online daters know how to pick themselves back up and keep their chin up, even when their matches aren’t going their way.
What Are the Best LGBTQ+ Dating Apps for Relationships?
All the dating apps on this list are open to LGBTQ+ singles, but if you’re looking for an app where it’s only same-sex matching, I’d say the top two definitely-not-for-hookups apps are HER and Taimi.
HER is a women-only dating app that, unlike many of its competitors, was actually created by a lesbian woman. In 2013, Robyn Exton decided enough was enough, and it was time to give the LGBTQ+ women a place where they wouldn’t be hit on by creepy men and unicorn hunters. Dare to dream, right?
The HER community currently includes over 15 million lesbian, bisexual, and queer women in 55 countries.
Taimi is an LGBTQ+ dating app geared toward genuine connections. It’s open to all types of daters, but relationship seekers seem to be more of a majority than they are on, say, Grindr.
While Taimi isn’t the largest dating app ever, it’s got a special something that keeps certain users loyal. Users aren’t limited to only their neighborhood, so it’s possible to find pen pals and new friends in other countries. You can also use voice and video features to see if there’s a spark worth pursuing.
What Should I Look For in a Good Dating App?
This depends on your dating style. Some confident singles don’t mind wading into a giant dating pool and competing for attention. Others prefer to join niche dating apps where there may not be as many options, but they’ll all have something in common off the bat.
A good dating app is one that has a good balance of swipe options and quality filtering. Ideally, it lets members set preferences right off the bat to avoid any mismatches. I also like to see when apps have robust profile verification, including liveness checks and photo analysis.
If you like to know as much as you can about a date before even matching, then an app with a questionnaire like eharmony or OkCupid will be your speed.
If you think a picture says more than 1,000 words, then you should go with the classic swiping apps of Bumble, Hinge, or Tinder.
When I’m looking for a good dating app, I’m not just interested in how many members it has. I want to know what features it uses to help me narrow those options down to the most compatible one.
How Do Dating Apps for Relationships Work?
Online dating is one of the most effective ways to meet new people these days. And it’s easy to make someone’s acquaintance, strike up a conversation, and create a foundation for a committed relationship.
First, you’ll download the app and create your dating profile — be sure to complete every section so the match algorithm has a lot of information to work with. Then you can start swiping and searching for a potential match based on your criteria for age, location, gender, education, ethnicity, and other factors.
eharmony differs a little from the norm because it requires users to complete a long questionnaire before joining. Its insightful questions range from “why are you single?” to “how would a friend describe you?”
Most dating apps offer some sort of free communication tools, but serious daters can choose a paid alternative to get faster results and receive more matches and messages.
Singles can waste precious time looking for dates in bars or waiting on a mutual friend to make an introduction, or they can be proactive, download a free dating app, and pursue local dates anywhere and anytime they want.
How Do I Choose the Best Dating App for Relationships?
Every dating app is different, and choosing the one that’s right for you is just a matter of knowing what you want and trusting your instincts. We’ve listed a lot of great options in this article, and any of them could lead you to relationship success. Here’s a quiz to narrow down the best options for you:
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The best dating apps for serious relationships have quality-driven matching tools, a mature membership base, and security protocols to make the experience a positive one. Do your research and ask friends for their opinions about popular dating sites and apps.
Plus, it never hurts to look at user reviews on Google Play, TrustPilot, and the App Store to make sure you know what to expect.
Are Dating Apps Safe to Use?
Yes, mainstream dating apps offer an array of security features to foster a safe environment for all singles hoping to put themselves out there and meet new people.
Online dating companies don’t run extensive background checks on all users, but they do put in place verification tools to automatically flag any fake profiles. For instance, if you’re required to connect to a valid Facebook account when signing up, that’s a good sign for the authenticity of the user base.
Online daters can also do their part to keep unsavory characters out of their inboxes. Dating apps have reporting tools to make sure online harassment never gets very far. It’s usually a simple one-click action, and the person will never know it was you who reported them.
If you spot any suspicious or harmful activity, you can block the user and report them to the dating app. Taking such a step will delete your conversation and hide your profile from that user, and it could also lead to the online dating account being permanently removed from the database.
Just remember that dating apps can screen new users by asking for an email address, phone number, or Facebook login, but that won’t always be enough to stop people from lying on their dating profiles or in their messages. It could be as innocent as a single guy claiming to be taller than he is, or it could be a more serious deception that involves a scam, a cyberattack, or infidelity.
Can You Search by “Relationships” on Dating Apps?
No, not all dating apps have search filters based on relationship type. Most don’t even require singles to disclose that information in their dating profile. If it is listed as a search filter, it’s almost always going to be a paid feature.
OkCupid is one of the few dating platforms that has a detailed Looking For section. It includes the question, “What connections are you looking for?” with checkboxes for new friends, hookups, short-term dating, and long-term dating. “Open to any” is also an option if you’re not really sure what you want.
How We Ranked the Best Dating Apps for Relationships
Our team of online dating experts tested and evaluated popular dating apps with relationship seekers in mind. We created dating profiles and assessed the app’s search features, dating pool, safety provisions, and success rates.
When selecting and ranking the best dating apps for relationships, we considered the following factors:
- Relationship focus: We looked at whether the app attracts singles seeking serious relationships, long-term partners, and marriage.
- Matchmaking and search tools: Compatibility matching, detailed search filters, dating preferences, and other discovery tools can make it easier to find promising matches.
- Profile quality: Detailed profiles, prompts, interests, and relationship filters can help singles evaluate compatibility before starting a conversation.
- Safety and authenticity: We hold high standards for profile verification, reporting and blocking tools, privacy features, customer support, and other measures designed to promote a safer dating environment.
- Membership value: Our team compared what members can do for free and which features require paid subscriptions and upgrades.
- User experience: We assessed how easy the platform is to navigate, communicate with matches, adjust preferences, and manage a dating profile.
- Reputation and track record: We considered an app’s history, audience, industry reputation, and available evidence of its ability to help make lasting connections.
Our rankings draw on our editorial team’s experience researching and reviewing each app’s features, pricing, audience, and policies. Because dating apps frequently update their features, an editor returns to check up on published articles every year to keep our reviews accurate and useful.
Our goal is to help readers compare their options and choose the dating app that best fits their relationship goals.
The Best Apps Help Singles Build a Real Relationship
An old saying tells us that the road to love never did run smooth…and that can be painfully true when you’re online dating. Singles can get stuck in a swiping rut or feel bogged down by incompatible matches. They might spend hours on the apps without getting any closer to their ultimate goal of finding true love. I’ve been there.
If I could go talk to my frustrated single self, I’d tell her to keep going, even when she’s pretty sure all her current matches are duds. Those conversations are teaching her what she wants and how to express it. “You might not realize it now,” I’d say, “but you’re learning and getting better at this with every swipe and chat. By the time you meet the right person, you’re going to know it’s different, and you’ll have the skills to turn it into something real.”
If I could go talk to my frustrated single self, I’d tell her to keep going.
The best dating apps for relationships can help you focus on your values and filter out undesirables, but they can’t do the work for you. It takes time and effort to build quality connections. And don’t despair if it doesn’t turn into love the first time or the second time or even the 20th time.
My husband was online date #42 (yes, I kept a list) after about four years of swiping and several situationships. It isn’t always easy, but it is 100% worth it.
All it takes is the right dating profile on the right dating app to spark a new love interest. Download one or two of the apps on our list so you can stop playing games and actually find your person. Like I did.
