As you go about your day, you’re surrounded by date options, but sometimes it takes a dating app to help you make a real connection.
In high school and college, meeting people is as easy as turning to your right or left — you’ve got classmates, teammates, roommates, friends of friends, and fellow commuters, partiers, and studiers to flirt with you.
Single professionals often have more difficulty, though. Between work, house chores, and other responsibilities, adult singles have little time and energy to go out meeting new people. Mostly, they just want to go home to a Netflix marathon. Fortunately, you don’t have to give up your couch time to meet people — that’s what apps are for. Read on to learn more about our favorite apps for meeting people who are single and ready to mingle.
Best Apps to Meet People (#1-4)
We figured it’d be best to start with the top apps for meeting people and then work our way through the individual niches. Whether you’re black or white, gay or straight, old or young, in the mood for a date or hookup, you’re sure to find an app you like in this section.
1. Match
Match has been helping people meet and fall in love since 1995. Not only is Match a leading dating app, but the company also hosts fun singles events in major cities throughout the country.
- Relationships: Fun Dates, Serious Relationships
- Match System: Browse by location, age, interest, and more
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About the App:
Available via the App Store and Google Play, Match is a fantastic app for dates and relationships. With a user base of 30 million singles, Match is where you’ll have a high chance of success. It’s 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.
- Browse Free: View Photos Now
You can create a dating profile on Match as well as add photos, search through and like members, receive matches, send and receive virtual winks, and create a Favorites list, among other things — all for free. Compatible singles who are in each other’s Top Picks list can also chat for free on the dating platform.
2. Tinder
Tinder is basically a household name for singles… or just people, in general. If you haven’t tried it, you probably know someone or know someone who knows someone who’s tried it. Tinder took the dating world by storm when it introduced its GPS and swiping matching system. Meeting people has never been easier or more fun.
Here’s another look at Tinder by the numbers: 97 billion total matches since 2012, over 2 billion swipes a day, about 1.5 million dates a week, 196 countries, and 40 languages. And still growing!
3. OkCupid
Always free and fun, OkCupid is where millions of men and women go to connect for friendship, dating, and love. The online dating app has unique personality questions it uses to get to know you and find your ideal match. Once you answer a question, you’ll specify how you want someone else to answer that question. You’ll also rate how important that question is to you.
OkCupid attracts over 1.3 million visitors each month, focusing on “substance, not just selfies.” It offers a variety of advanced features, like seeing who liked you, reading your messages, and boosting your profile daily. The best part? You don’t need to be on the A-List to send messages, which is what truly matters.
4. Bumble
Bumble launched in 2014 on a mission to combat unsolicited dick pics and flaky messages, and the way the app does that is by only allowing women to initiate communication in an opposite-sex match. If it’s a same-sex match, either person can send the first message.
Another important component of Bumble is that once you match with someone, one of you has to start the conversation, or the match will disappear after 24 hours (or 48 hours if one of you chooses to extend it). The team wants to encourage users to meet in person to see if the chemistry is really there — instead of getting trapped in the back-and-forth messaging phase.
Best Apps to Meet Black People (#5)
Approximately 50% of Black Americans have never been married. In addition, 12% are divorced, 6% are widowed, and 4% are separated. For Black singles who want a quick and stress-free way to find one another, you can turn to these two apps.
5. BLK
“You deserve to be happy” is what BLK believes, and the app will do everything it can to make sure that happens. All members have to sign up with their Facebook and LinkedIn information, so you can rest assured that everyone is who they say they are. This is especially important because BLK is for Black professionals.
On BLK, you’ll make meaningful connections — you won’t just have random interactions. To be matched and to enable chatting, both people have to like each other.
Best Apps to Meet Senior People (#6-7)
I’ve watched many older single relatives and friends struggle with dating after divorce or the loss of a spouse. They were in relationships when online dating and apps became popular, so there’s quite a learning curve. The good news is they can quickly get the hang of it by exploring the following senior dating apps.
6. eharmony
eharmony is a great option for single seniors because only commitment-minded people tend to join the community. Members also often lead religious or spiritual lives. Your deepest wants and needs are taken into consideration more so than on some other dating apps — specifically because of eharmony’s signature Compatibility Questionnaire.
- 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.
- Browse Free: View Photos Now
eharmony is behind millions of marriages in the US and doesn’t charge for basic stuff like registration, profile creation, uploading photos, taking the questionnaire, and receiving matches.
7. OurTime
Mature daters flock to OurTime for many reasons — some of them being its clean interface, simple signup process, and large targeted user base. The app has millions of over-50 singles who are looking for all forms of companionship.
- 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.
- Browse Free: View Photos Now
To get started for free, OurTime just needs a few pieces of information like your name, age, location, gender, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, and lifestyle habits (e.g., smoking).
Best Apps to Meet Gay People (#8-9)
Mobile dating can be twice as frustrating for gay singles because most general dating apps don’t know how to cater to them. I’ve heard plenty of friends tell me they still receive straight matches even though they selected gay as their sexual orientation. Two apps that really have a grasp on the gay dating audience are Elite Singles and Grindr, which you can learn more about below.
8. Elite Singles
Elite Singles is a go-to for intelligent gay men. The app was made for college-educated singles who are looking for someone with a similar background, lifestyle, and values. About 82% of its users hold at least a bachelor’s degree.
Every month, more than 290,000 people visit Elite Singles’ homepage, over 165,000 people create a profile, and 2,500 people find love thanks to Elite Singles.
9. Grindr
Grindr was launched so gay men could have a dating app that better meets their needs. It works in pretty much the exact same way except it’s only for gay, bisexual, and curious men. You’ll swipe right if you like someone and left if you don’t, and matching is mostly based on your location and age.
Grindr is 100% free to do all of the important stuff, but you can upgrade to Grindr Xtra if you want to remove ads from your experience, view as many profiles as you want, and save and send chat phrases, among other things.
Best Apps to Meet Lesbians (#10-11)
You’d be hard-pressed to find lesbian dating apps that are better than the two we’ve chosen. They have everything going for them — affordability, efficiency, size, ease of use, entertainment, reputation, and success rate.
10. Zoosk
Zoosk is a top choice for lesbian singles. The app is one of the most inclusive in the dating industry — not to mention one of the most advanced. Zoosk was among the first platforms to introduce social media integration.
The app has a 3-star rating on iTunes and a 4-star rating on Google Play, where Bobby Fuller shared his experience: “Very easy to use and very easy to meet new people. You will like this because it is so easy.”
11. HER
Created by LGBTQ women for LGBTQ women, HER (formerly known as Dattch) reinvents mobile dating for this community across the globe. In addition to finding romance, you can find friendship, support, and events. Today, HER has over 15 million users worldwide.
One person raved about HER on Google Play: “It’s amazing! I’ve met some great people at the HER party. I’d definitely recommend this app to those who are looking for new people to meet in their city/state.”
Best Apps to Meet People for Sex (#12-14)
Fewer people are following the traditional dating steps once observed by older generations. You know, boy asks girl out, they go on several dates before making it official, they wait a reasonable time to get engaged, they don’t have sex until they’re married, they have kids, and they grow old together. If you’re one of those unconventional people just looking to enjoy yourself and the company of someone else (without the pressure of it leading anywhere), look no further than these two sex apps.
12. NaughtyCharm
Some people just want sex, and they should be able to find it without feeling bad or being judged for it. NaughtyCharm is where they can go. This popular hookup app has millions of turned-on users of various ages, genders, sexual orientations, relationship statuses, locations, and appearances.
- Relationships: Casual Encounters
- Match System: Sort profiles by ZIP code, appearance, more
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About the App:
On NaughtyCharm, everyone is interested in finding sexual encounters with no strings attached. Within a couple of minutes, you can get a profile up for $0. Free membership includes unlimited photos, browsing, and reading chats. NaughtyCharm also has an anti-fraud system to ensure your personal information stays private while you flirt online.
- Browse Free: View Photos Now
Complete these seven steps (at no charge), and you’ll become a new member of NaughtyCharm: 1) Select your gender. 2) Choose the gender you’re interested in. 3) Pick your age. 4) Provide a username. 5) Specify your location. 6) Input an email address. 7) Type in a password.
13. Adult Friend Finder
Adult Friend Finder is a global dating network for sexually active singles, couples, and groups. The adult dating site performs a variety of services for horny people and ensures they have a lively time exploring the local sex scene.
Singles and couples are equally welcome in the AFF community, where you can freely express your fetishes and desires while seeking various play partners. Whether you’re after a local hookup or an international sexting buddy, Adult Friend Finder offers plenty of filters, forums, and friends to get you started.
14. Pure
Pure is “the hookup for awesome people,” and it works like this: You’ll sign up and add a photo. This will then become a meeting request. It’ll appear on the app for one hour, and then it will be deleted. If you have any correspondence with anyone during that time, it will also be deleted. Pure strives to get people meeting in person ASAP.
- Relationships: Casual Dating, Sexting, Hookups, Friends with Benefits
- Match System: Search filters, Suggested matches
- Our Experts Say: Pure is a straightforward hookup app designed to make immediate connections. Profiles are only live as long as the person is actively on the app looking for dates. So, basically, everyone you see is available.
- Browse Free: View Photos Now
Pure isn’t your typical hookup app. Once you connect with someone, you have one day to set up a meeting, or your messages disappear.
The same goes for if you reply to someone else’s request. They first have to show that they like you back, and then you two have an hour to set up a meeting before your connection is deleted.
Meet People Nearby Without Having to Leave Your House!
After you graduate high school and/or college, don’t think that your people-meeting well has run dry. You’re not going to be stuck dating co-workers or getting set up by friends and family. With any of the apps above, meeting new people in your area is as easy as whipping out your phone. And you still get to cuddle with your doggo and catch up on that new Netflix or Hulu show.
