Best Dating Sites
Looking for a dating site you can trust? Search no more.
When you’re trying to choose a dating site and are looking around the web for the right one, you’re bound to come across many lists of the top options. On those lists, you’re bound to see eharmony and Match.com, and then you may find yourself asking, “Is eharmony or Match better?”
Ultimately, you’re the one who has to make the final decision between the two, but we can help you along the way. From pricing and success rates to demographics and matching processes, below is all the information you need to decide if Match or eharmony is right for you. We’ve matched these two heavy hitters up and declared one the victor. Let’s get to it!
Overall | Cost | User Base | Matching | Success Rates
eharmony vs. Match: Overall Reviews
We have spent hundreds of hours testing dating sites, reviewing dating sites, writing about dating sites, reading about dating sites, and recommending dating sites to our readers, our friends, our family members, and our acquaintances. Basically, we live and breathe online dating. We’ve spent years covering this industry, and that means we’ve become intimately familiar with Match and eharmony.
We can understand why you might be having trouble deciding between Match and eharmony — they’re the best of the best! However, eharmony and Match do have their differences, and we’ve broken down those differences below.
Match: 4.9/5.0
With 4.9 out of 5 stars, Match is damn near perfect. The site has been around the longest (since 1995), and it has millions of members (30 million and 13.5 million visitors a month). The site has a free standard membership and affordable subscription options with helpful online features (e.g., Reverse Matching) and offline features (e.g., singles mixers). As if that weren’t enough, Match.com has dating experts on hand to offer online daters guidance every step of the way.
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...”
Full Review »
Browse Free:
View Photos Now
★★★★★
User Base
Gender Ratio
Popularity (Visits/Mo.)
Today's Deal
All Singles*
49%*
51%*
39.7 Million*
Try Match FREE
Match is one of the most popular dating sites for relationship seekers, and you probably know one or two people who have tried it and maybe even found a long-term partner through it. Match.com has the distinction of being the first online dating site for the general market, and it’s been a pioneer and household name ever since. Basically, Match is here to stay.
eharmony: 4.5/5.0
We’d compare eharmony and Match to burgers and pizza. Both are extremely good — they’re just different. It all depends on what your mood is. While Match has a lot of great search filters and match parameters, eharmony takes a more hands-on approach to matchmaking and uses a questionnaire to power its compatibility ratings and match suggestions. That means singles on eharmony don’t have to do as much legwork to find compatible dates.
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...”
Full Review »
Browse Free:
View Photos Now
★★★★★
User Base
Gender Ratio
Popularity (Visits/Mo.)
Today's Deal
All Singles*
48%*
52%*
4.1 Million*
View Profiles FREE
You’ll notice we gave eharmony 4.5 out of 5 stars, and there are a couple of components that play a role in that. First, if you want to search for your own dates, you won’t be able to do that here. However, if you want most of the work taken off your shoulders, then eharmony is a good fit.
Another reservation we have about eharmony is how few gay-friendly and queer-friendly options it has. If you’re a straight single, you should be just fine here. But LGBTQ+ singles are better off on gay dating apps or LGBT dating sites.
Who Has It All? Match!
We have to give our overall round to Match, and it’s easy to see why. It’s hard to find something wrong with the site. This isn’t to say you shouldn’t consider eharmony — you’d really be happy with either. But you should weigh the pros and cons based on your needs before jumping in.
eharmony vs. Match: Cost Comparison
The bells and whistles a dating site offers is one thing, but if the price is out of your range, it’s a moot point. Match and eharmony have some of the most competitive costs in the market. Here are the numbers you’ll be looking at:
Match: Memberships Range From $0 to $26.99
It doesn’t matter if you want a free online dating experience or don’t mind spending some money on it — Match has both routes. The site’s free membership never expires. With it, you’ll be able to fill out your profile, add numerous photos, browse singles, and receive matches.
Free members can send messages to select members in their Top Picks list, but they cannot send and read messages from everyone on the dating platform.
If you’re on the fence about Match, your best option is to sign up for the free membership and look around the database. If you already know you want to go with Match, you can get 74% off on any premium membership by clicking the link below. Or you can click the trial link.
A Match premium membership includes instant messaging and video chat options (with no limits!), Email Read Notification, Highlighted Profile (appear at the top of the site’s search results), and Match Phonebook (talk with matches on a private line). The highest price Match offers as of right now is $26.99 a month for three months. But, with the discount above, you’ll end up spending way less.
eharmony: Memberships Range From $0 to $29.95
eharmony is also a budget-friendly dating site, with a free lifelong subscription. You can create an account, take the Compatibility Matching Questionnaire, get a personality assessment, send winks to users who catch your eye, and receive highly compatible matches.
You won’t be able to communicate with your matches, but several times a year (usually around the holidays), eharmony has free communication weekends. This is the time to go crazy with your messages and try to meet your matches in person to see if the chemistry is really there.
For 73% off, use the promo code DATINGADVICEBBB, and for 60% off, use the promo code DATINGADVICEAAA.
Another thing you could do is go ahead and register for a full subscription, which will give you access to Guide Communication and Secure Call, among other features. The highest price on eharmony as of right now is $29.95 a month for three months, but you’ll save a ton with the deals we have. Plus, you can always cancel if you don’t like it, and you won’t have invested too much.
Who’s Got Price on Their Side? At $3 Cheaper, Match Does
eharmony and Match are very comparable in terms of price, but Match has the slight edge — thanks to the $26.99 a month membership (vs. $29.95) and 74% off discount (vs. 73%). Hey, saving every penny adds up, right?
eharmony vs. Match: User Base Comparison
This seems like an obvious thing to say, but when you’re on a dating site, you want to be around people you’re going to like, date, and, eventually, fall in love with if that’s your end goal. It doesn’t matter if the site has 1 trillion members — if they aren’t your type, you’re probably not going to have success. In this section, we’ll take you through the demographic breakdown of Match and eharmony.
Match: 30 Million Straight & Gay Users in 50 Countries
A recent article in the New York Times says Match is at 30 million users, and we expect that number is only going to increase.
Match is one of the largest and most inclusive online dating sites, with 30 million members.
These users are located in more than 50 countries and vary widely in age, sexual orientation, ethnicity, appearance, and lifestyle.
When you’re filling out your profile, you can select all of the characteristics and traits that are most important to you and sort users using those filters. Match will also use this criteria to handpick potential dates for you.
While Match is inclusive in some aspects, the dating site could do a better job in regards to bisexual and transgender singles, but that should be on the horizon soon.
eharmony: 33 Million Heterosexual Users in 150 Countries
With 33 million users in over 150 countries, eharmony beats Match by a hair in this category. However, as we mentioned earlier, eharmony has a strong bias toward heterosexual daters. Lesbian and gay daters are allowed in the eharmony membership base — they just don’t have as many match options.
In addition to the differences in the sexual orientation of its member base, eharmony’s users also tend to lean slightly older and female (52% vs. 48%) than Match’s, and a significant number are Christian.
The Winner: Match for More Inclusiveness
Even though eharmony does have the numbers on their side, Match is our go-to for having a more inclusive environment where singles of different sexual orientations don’t have to use separate sites.
eharmony vs. Match: Matching Comparison
Now let’s get into how eharmony and Match actually find you your future dates and/or partner. Both sites are leaders in the technology department and are constantly adapting their process to improve the user experience.
Match: Browse On Your Own & Receive 5+ Daily Matches
There are two main ways to find matches on Match: search on your own based on your preferences and check out the potential match recommendations sent to your inbox by the Match algorithm. These matches should meet your stated dating preferences regarding age, religion, appearance, and lifestyle.
The Match dating platform also provides Reverse Matching, where you can see users who are looking for a date with the qualities or characteristics you possess. As Match puts it, “So no matter how they fit into your preferences, you’ll know you fit their preferences very well.”
Match also has dating experts who are on hand to provide advice to online users. The first consultation is completely free with no strings attached.
eharmony: 32 Dimensions® of Compatibility Matching System Does the Work
Perhaps the thing eharmony is most known for is their unique questionnaire, which was founded by Dr. Neil Clark Warren (a clinical psychologist, Christian theologian, and seminary professor), consists of 150 questions (answer as many or as few as you want), and could take about an hour (if you’re feeling talkative that day).
eharmony has a questionnaire — consisting of 80 questions — that digs deep into what singles truly want in a match.
This site uses this test to compare 32 dimensions of compatibility, such as values and beliefs, between yourself and the other members to give you the most accurate matches. It goes beyond surface-level stuff like what your favorite movie is and what types of food you love. And, according to Men’s Health, more than 15,000 people fill out eharmony’s questionnaire every day. The relationship questionnaire is optional, but it can make a huge difference in the eharmony matching process.
Our Pick: Match Offers the Best of Both Worlds
Even though eharmony’s matching system is definitely impressive, Match takes the cake for us, particularly because you’ll have a happy medium between getting help from the site and being able to take matters into your own hands.
eharmony vs. Match: Success Rates Comparison
Online dating is meant to get you offline as soon as possible, so if you’re on a site day after day, week after week, month after month, or even year after year without going on a date with a match in real life, you might be wasting your time. Neither Match or eharmony will leave you hanging like that because they both have high success rates. These are the kinds of statistics we’re talking about:
Match: More Romantic Connections Than Any Dating Site
Match launched in 1995, and with such as established history, they’ve been able to create billions of connections, millions of dates, relationships, marriages, and even babies. That’s more than every other dating site on the web.
Barrett and Shauna’s love story is just one of thousands that have happened because of Match.
And the site keeps stacking up the numbers as dozens of success stories come in on a regular basis, including Barrett and Shauna.
As a pilot, Barrett was always on the go and had trouble meeting someone special, so his friend told him to try Match. Shauna messaged him two days later, and, as fate would have, she was a flight attendant who understood his busy schedule.
Their first date lasted for six hours, their courtship lasted for about nine months, and we’re sure their marriage is going to make it all the way.
eharmony: Responsible for 4% of U.S. Marriages
eharmony was founded in 2000 and since then has been the reason behind 4% of marriages in the United States. Some other stats worth mentioning are that eharmony’s divorce rate is 3.86% (the national average is 50%) and over 542 people get married on a daily basis because they met on the site. You can read more mind-blowing statistics about eharmony here.
Who’s Most Impressive? The Stats Lean Toward Match
This was a difficult decision, but Match does have five years on eharmony and, therefore, has been able to get more success stories under their belt. The odds are in your favor on either site, though.
Match Took Every Round, But eharmony is Still a Top Choice!
We’ve reached the end of our Match vs. eharmony battle royale, and, drumroll, please… Match is our champ! The site has almost everything you could ever think of going for it, but eharmony.com has a lot going for it, too. So back to the initial question. “Is Match better than eharmony?” It honestly all comes down to what price, audience, features, and type of connection you’re looking for. Good luck in your decision-making, but we think you’ll be happy no matter what!
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