The safest dating sites can offer some protection from the hazards of putting personal information online and soliciting conversations with strangers.
Online dating safety is a high priority for dating companies big and small. Only by fostering real connections and safe meetups can they grow in this competitive arena. Of course, even the most reputable platforms can’t keep out all the weirdos and jerks of the world, but individuals can use filters, blocks, and reporting tools to take action if something concerning happens.
Here’s a list of totally safe dating sites and apps where single people can meet one another and build real friendships and relationships.
Match
- Relationships: Friends, Dates, and Relationships
- Match System: Browse by zip, age, appearance, more
- Our Experts Say: Match has facilitated the most dates and relationships of any dating site, and its large audience and high success rate make it our top review. Our Review »
- Browse Free: View Photos Now
Match has achieved top marks when it comes to keeping online daters safe from unwanted contact and romance scams. Since 1995, this dating platform has established itself as a place where serious daters can establish genuine connections.
Match has teamed up with Garbo to incorporate a range of safety tools into its dating services. The aim is for members to access free background checks within the app. Meanwhile, they can use the Date Check-In tool to inform up to three contacts about the time, day, and location of their first date with someone new.
Joining Match requires you to provide your first name and verify your identity through email, phone number, or social media profile. The platform confirms your authenticity by sending you an activation code. Additionally, uploading your picture is necessary if you want your profile visible on both the website and app.
Match moderators review all profile content and pictures, typically within 24 hours, removing anything inappropriate or explicit before it goes live.
eharmony
- Relationships: Casual Dates, Deep Relationships
- Match System: Personality test suggests matches
- Our Experts Say: Accounting for 2% of U.S. marriages, eharmony's compatibility-based system and commitment-minded user base are ideal for those seeking a serious relationship. Our Review »
- Browse Free: View Photos Now
Since 2000, eharmony has earned the trust and esteem of serious daters all over the world. This online dating site uses science and psychology to identify long-term compatibility between two people, and it’s not easy to get a fake profile past the moderators.
For one thing, eharmony requires a lot of information to complete an online dating profile. You have to provide the basics (location, age, gender, sexual orientation, etc.) as well as write original responses to prompts like “I’m thankful for” and “I spend my free time.” It can take up to 20 minutes to answer everything — and then users have the option to take the Compatibility Quiz, which has over 80 multiple-choice questions about a single person’s goals, interests, and personality quirks.
As a final security measure, eharmony places restrictions on free members, encouraging them to upgrade to a paid subscription for a better online dating experience. Without a subscription, users can only exchange a limited number of messages.
OurTime.com
- Relationships: Dates and Relationships
- Match System: Search by profiles by zip and more
- Our Experts Say: OurTime is well-known in the over-50 dating crowd, particularly because it has a ton of helpful search features and an easy layout. Our Review »
- Browse Free: View Photos Now
OurTime endeavors to make online dating more accessible to older adults in the U.S. and abroad. Its three-step signup process is fast and easy, but it includes an authentication process through email. OurTime even offers a call forwarding tool so users can text and call without exchanging their real phone numbers.
As a People Media site, now owned by Match Group, OurTime has a vast database with dating profiles sorted by location and online activity. Users can set filters to ensure only attractive and like-minded singles appear in the potential match list.
OurTime is a great ally for singles over 50. The dating service helps senior singles feel comfortable online by offering safety tips, best practices, and match recommendations. The online dating website also sets limits on messaging to ensure fake profiles and scammers don’t run rampant.
4. Coffee Meets Bagel
Coffee Meets Bagel is a dating app launched in 2012 by three sisters who wanted to bring greater civility to the online dating scene. They saw modern daters suffering from swiping fatigue and struggling to connect in a superficial environment. And the sisters knew they could do better than that and started offering smarter matchmaking tools geared toward serious relationship seekers.
Today, Coffee Meets Bagel has gotten overwhelmingly positive reviews and created over 98 million matches worldwide.
The CMB app prioritizes quality over quantity. It limits the number of profiles you can view daily, encouraging you to take each potential match and conversation more seriously.
5. Bumble
Bumble is basically the feminist response to online dating. This game-changing dating app was designed by a former Tinder Co-Founder named Whitney Wolfe Herd. She didn’t like how mobile dating apps made women vulnerable to unsolicited messages, pickup lines, and dick pics, so she decided to launch an app that gave women the power to make the first move.
To date, Bumble has surpassed 100 million users and created a respectful environment for finding a potential date, making a new friend, and creating a meaningful connection.
When Bumble creates a match between a man and a woman, the woman has 24 hours to send a message; otherwise, the match will vanish. Men can’t message a woman until she unlocks the chat by liking his profile and sending a greeting first.
Women set the tone on Bumble, and that makes a huge difference in its overall vibe. According to a survey, about 85% of Bumble users say they are on the app to find a boyfriend or girlfriend, and fewer than 4% say they’re interested in a casual hookup.
6. Hinge
Hinge has been called “the relationship app” and the “anti-Tinder” because it’s the dating app with the highest first-date success rate on record. According to feedback given through the app, about 70% of Hinge users who go on first dates say they would go on a second date.
To complete your Hinge profile, upload six photos, provide some basic information, and answer three unique prompts. Plus, a mutual match is necessary before you can send a second message to anyone online.
Hinge’s quality-driven matching appeals to quality daters who know what they want and would rather have an interesting conversation before meeting on a first date.
Since its launch in 2012, Hinge has seen many success stories in the dating scene. Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who was the first openly gay man to run for president, met his husband on Hinge. It so happens that I too met my husband on Hinge, and we just celebrated the birth of our firstborn son — so I’m a pretty big fan of this online dating app and know for a fact that it works.
7. OkCupid
In 2004, OkCupid made a promise to online daters that it would always be free and would always look out for their dating interests. To this day, the dating site and app have kept that promise.
Not only does OkCupid not charge a single dime for its communication tools, but it also provides data-driven matchmaking and compatibility ratings that are famous for their accuracy.
Despite its free chat features, OkCupid fosters a safe and welcoming atmosphere where it’s exceedingly rare to come across a scammer or fake profile. The moderators are serious about removing potentially harmful individuals, and they don’t give many warnings before booting a trouble-making person for good.
OkCupid creates more than 91 million mutual matches every year, and it leads to over 50,000 first dates every week. Plus, OkCupid has been mentioned more times in The New York Times’ wedding section than any other online dating app.
8. Tinder
Even if you’ve never tried online dating before, you’ve probably heard of Tinder. It’s the original swiping app. Since its launch in 2012, Tinder has created over 97 billion matches worldwide, and over 630 million people have downloaded the dating app to give it a go.
A Tinder app user has complete control over their own inbox. Singles are essentially gatekeepers — swiping right to open the door to a new conversation and swiping left to slam that door shut.
Tinder wouldn’t have become as incredibly popular as it is without offering enough safety and security features to make singles feel at ease and have a successful dating experience. The dating app has a block tool that ensures online daters cannot be harassed, and its reporting system ensures any romance scam is short-lived.
9. Plenty of Fish
Singles often choose Plenty of Fish as their go-to wingman in the dating scene because it’s completely free to search for and chat with a potential partner. You don’t even need to create a mutual match first.
Plenty of Fish has over 150 million users worldwide, and it sparks over 57 million new connections every week.
This free dating site and app use verification tools to keep fake profiles to a minimum, although occasionally a scammer or inappropriate user might slip through. POF experts share safety tips encouraging you to use sound judgment, thoroughly vet potential matches, and never send money to anyone.
10. Grindr
The Grindr app launched back in 2009 to give gay men a social networking tool that worked for them. Today, Grindr is widely known as the most popular gay dating app of all time, and it has over 27 million members who identify as gay, bisexual, queer, or bi-curious.
Grindr supports an all-man community where romance and sex is never far away. The app uses a smartphone’s GPS data to find dating profiles of guys within a few miles (or even a few blocks) from each other, so it’s easy to see how guys at the club could use this app to hook up with anonymous strangers.
Even though Grindr encourages flirting with strangers, it does not allow app users to cross certain boundaries. For instance, Grindr users cannot post naked photos of themselves or put their phone number in their online dating profile.
11. HER
HER is an online dating app designed by women for women. Over 15 million app users have joined the all-female community in hopes of making a new friend or finding a potential date. All members must identify as a woman who is primarily interested in dating lesbian, bisexual, trans, or queer women.
HER requires users to follow its community guidelines and treat every person online with respect and dignity. Anyone who fails to live up to the credo “No judgment, no drama” will not be active on the dating app for long.
HER moderators take the time to thoroughly review each new dating profile, ensuring it’s genuine. While the app can automatically verify some details using Facebook, having a human touch helps catch any suspicious or inappropriate content.
HER has a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to a man creating a fake profile on the app, and it will immediately ban members who engage in unicorn hunting, sexting, slut-shaming, and other activities that are degrading to women.
12. Badoo
Badoo keeps a running tally of its new registrations, and some pretty impressive stats back the online dating service. In 2020, Badoo exceeded 485 million users in 190 countries. Its users make over 12 billion swipes and send more than 350 million messages per day.
Badoo offers a simple sign-up process for anyone with a valid Facebook account, email address, or social media profile. It also provides free communication tools that quickly help singles up their flirting game.
Since its early days, Badoo has integrated video chat tools into its social network and encouraged its app users to interact more organically and let their voices be heard. Its video options have become particularly popular in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, and the app’s team intends to expand this premium feature in the coming months.
How Do Safe Dating Sites Work?
Safe dating sites tend to provide a lot of matching filters and reporting tools that give users greater control over their experience. Users can often control who can send them a message by either proactively liking a dating profile or responding to online harassment by blocking a dating profile.
At times, communication features may require a premium account, which helps minimize the risk of scammers misusing the messaging system. If meeting in person isn’t an option, you can choose to have a video call instead.
Online daters will have to disclose some information about themselves on a dating site or app, but most platforms do not publish identifying details (addresses, full names, and contact information). For instance, mobile dating apps often use location data to make matches, but they will not reveal anyone’s real-time or exact location — and they almost always allow users to operate under a first name or nickname.
When you sign up for a dating platform through Facebook or Instagram, the app might use your friend list to find potential matches within your social circle. It may even alert you if you have mutual friends, enhancing trust in your connection.
Is It Safe to Use Dating Sites?
Yes, using online dating sites to meet people and build relationships is safe. However, it’s important not to trust someone new too quickly. Treat your online matches with the same caution as you would a stranger at a bar or nightclub. Feel free to chat, flirt, and exchange numbers, but be wary of anyone who seems to rush things or makes you uncomfortable.
Above all, do not agree to go on a first date at a house or apartment and do not get into a car with a new person you have only talked to online. It’s best to arrange to meet in a public place and have an exit strategy in case that person turns out to be a catfisher or a creep.
Are There Any Safe Hookup Sites?
Casual hookup websites generally get a bad rap in the dating scene because they offer anonymous browsing and virtually no nudity filters. But not all platforms are sketchy and unsafe. You just have to know where to go. Certain adult dating sites have been around for decades and cultivated active membership bases of real people looking for sex.
We’ve reviewed several good options for single men and women interested in finding sex with no strings, no hangups, and no fakes.
- Relationships: Hookups, Casual Dates, Affairs
- Match System: Search by age, location, appearance, and more
- Our Experts Say: With its massive user base and advanced privacy features, Ashley Madison is the #1 site for discreet hookups, dates, or relationships. Our Review »
- Browse Free: View Photos Now
Ashley Madison is a discreet dating site and app for affairs, and it has robust privacy features to support anonymous browsing, matching, and chatting. Married people can mask or blur their faces in photos and choose a nickname for their dating profile to keep their real identities a secret.
Hackers went after Ashley Madison’s database in 2015 and caused a huge scandal by releasing the personal information of millions of people on the dark web. But since then, Ashley Madison has taken great pains to encrypt its data, protect its members, and earn back the trust of the dating public.
- Relationships: Hookups, Chats
- Match System: Search by encounter, location, and more
- Our Experts Say: NaughtyCharm is a premier hookup app where you can feel comfortable expressing your desires. Plus, it's free to join, browse, and flirt.
- Browse Free: View Photos Now
NaughtyCharm is a free hookup site where communication is open to everyone with a valid email and profile picture. So it’s understandable to have concerns about the quality and authenticity of people you meet here.
However, NaughtyCharm has proven to have more real daters than romance scammers because its blocking and reporting tools actively keep the bad folks out of the membership base. All you have to do is click a button to get an unwanted person out of your inbox for good. If only it were that easy in person, right?
- Relationships: Hookups Only
- Match System: Search by location, interest, more
- Our Experts Say: Make no mistake: this site isn't about making friends, it's about finding hookups and casual encounters. No adult site has a larger or more active user base of those seeking discreet fun. Our Review »
- Browse Free: View Photos Now
Finally, Adult Friend Finder has been in the business of hooking up online daters since 1996, and it’s very good at it. The AFF community currently has over 103 million members worldwide, and it has approved over 98 million photos that are definitely for adult eyes only.
AFF allows free members to browse the adult site, view erotic content, and post in group chat rooms, but only paid subscribers can send private messages and view videos.
Adult Friend Finder has created a sexually charged and flirtatious atmosphere where singles and swingers can pursue their desires without judgment.
How Should I Choose the Best and Safest Dating Site?
Singles put their hearts on the line when they create a dating profile. They deserve a dating site that will protect them from online harassment, romance scams, and potentially dangerous situations.
The safest dating sites watch out for scammers and delete fake profiles, so singles can rest assured that everyone they message and match with is an authentic person.
We’ve highlighted some popular dating brands that ensure a secure environment for meeting new people. As you venture into new territory, these dating sites and apps will support you, allowing you to build an online connection that can thrive in the real world. Stay smart and safe!
