12 Best Free Singles Sites (2024)

Online dating has contributed to an increase in interracial relationships and marriages on a global scale, and the BlackPeopleMeet team is proud to be part of that push to broaden people’s horizons and change the dating culture one match at a time.

Zoosk profiles have open-ended sections where singles can share their stories, describe their perfect matches, and brainstorm ideal date ideas. The most popular profiles tell an original story with positivity, confidence, and humor.

Singles who put their faith in ChristianMingle can enjoy wonderfully fulfilling relationships. The dating site attracts Christians from all walks of life, and it also encourages singles from other religions to sign up and convert.

If you’re interested in building a God-centered relationship, then ChristianMingle can be an important guiding force. Powered by the Spark Networks dating company, this niche site connects like-minded singles across the globe.

Over 80% of ChristianMingle members said they would recommend the dating site to a friend or family member, and the dating site has led to more Christian marriages than any other site or app.

“We would encourage other Christian Mingle members to be patient, and to continue to pursue the Lord with your whole heart as you pursue a person to share your life with,” said Katherine and Mark in their ChristianMingle success story.

13. ChristianConnection

Although it began as a small, U.K.-based dating site, ChristianConnection has taken off and become a respected and award-winning leader in the global dating market. Today, the site has over 55,000 active members.

The dating site sets itself apart from its competitors by hosting official Christian-only events on a regular basis. These meetups take place in major cities around the world and can include intimate bowling nights or large backyard parties.

ChristianConnection is a proud member of the Online Dating Association, which sets high standards for how online dating service providers operate. By embracing transparency and accountability in the online world, the ChristianConnection team endeavors to have a positive impact on the overall dating culture. You can read our full review of the site here.

According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, there are over 13.7 million single parents in the U.S., and 82.2% of these parents are women. Some are divorced, separated, or widowed, and some have never been married. They may be single at the moment, but not all of them want to stay single forever.

However, single parents don’t have the time to hunt for a date at bars or clubs. They can have a hard time balancing their family lives and love lives, but a dating site can help them manage their time more efficiently.

As a personality-driven dating site, eharmony appeals to adults who are looking for a true partnership. The site uses psychology principles to create personalized compatibility ratings for couples on the site. If you see someone you like, then click on the profile to learn how you match up with that person in terms of temperament, family values, athleticism, and other lifestyle factors.

By using a 29-dimension questionnaire, eharmony makes matches that have relationship potential. The site takes into account whether singles have children or want children, so you don’t have to play a guessing game.

15. Coffee Meets Bagel

Three single women founded Coffee Meets Bagel in 2012 to change the way online dating works. They wanted to create a space where single women could feel safe and empowered, so they developed a matching system that puts women in the driver’s seat.

The dating site delivers a curated list of no more than 10 matches (aka bagels) every day at noon, and its smart algorithm learns and improves as it goes. Coffee Meets Bagel stimulates lively conversations by prioritizing quality over quantity. This system encourages singles to take their time and consider each match recommendation.

To date, Coffee Meets Bagel has made over 50 million matches that have led to countless dates, relationships, and marriages worldwide.

“It felt like we had known each other forever,” said Tony and Megan in a CMB success story. “We dated for nine months, got engaged, and 10 months later we’re married… and are now expecting our first child.”

A lot of dating sites promote their matching and searching features, but I’d argue that the site’s chat features are actually the most important part of the whole experience. Singles need a dating site that facilitates conversation and flirtation online — while also making sure singles don’t stay chatting forever.

If you’re looking for free chat features, then we recommend checking out the following two dating sites. They have private messaging, sexy chat rooms, and even video chat tools to get people engaged.

17. Badoo

The Badoo dating app is available in over 47 languages and reaches over 190 countries. Over 460 million people have joined the platform since it was founded in 2006. A devoted and innovative team in the U.K. go to great lengths to make Badoo unlike any other platform out there.

You can see your chats, favorites, visits, and likes in the Badoo Connections folder, and you can send a sticker, gift, video call, or tried-and-true message to anyone who stands out to you.

Badoo users send over 350 million messages on an average day, and the site sees over 60 million monthly active users, making it one of the most engaging dating platforms around.

Badoo is available on Google Play and iTunes, but it also has a mobile-friendly dating site accessible to desktop users.

Not everyone is willing to uproot their lives for a romantic relationship. Singles may be reluctant to leave their careers, their families, or their hometowns, so they are on the lookout for dates who already live in the area and aren’t going anywhere.

Anyone dating on a local level should definitely try online dating because many dating apps use GPS-based search tools to identify the closest and most compatible dates. The following dating apps have mastered location-based matching systems that pair up dates with long-term potential.

18. Bumble

In 2014, Bumble made a big splash by empowering women to make the first move on a dating app. Tech entrepreneur Whitney Wolfe left Tinder to launch a dating app that better met women’s needs and represented their interests.

Over 36 million people have joined Bumble to see if this feminist dating app can live up to its lofty promises. About 85% of users say they are looking for a serious relationship or marriage, and less than 1% of women on Bumble say they want a hookup.

In recent years, the Bumble team has run with its billion-dollar idea and expanded beyond romantic connections to create friendships as well as business relationships through Bumble BFF and Bumble Bizz.

Bumble is the ideal dating app for local singles who don’t subscribe to old-fashioned gender roles and want to start a relationship on equal footing.

19. Happn

Happn was founded on the premise that romantic opportunities are everywhere, and all singles need is a little push to say “hello” to that cutie standing in line or waiting for the bus. This European dating app finds singles who have recently crossed your path and gives you a second chance to chat with them.

Many singles use Happn to make local connections that have a real shot at working — because you already live in the same area and have similar schedules or interests. Every profile shows you the number of times you’ve seen this person IRL, and every new encounter will prompt a notification on your phone.

The actual location of a Happn user is invisible on the app. Users see only an approximate location of where you crossed paths. Only users who have liked one another can send messages on the app.

Happn has an active dating network in 40 countries and counting. A majority of its 50 million users are in major cities, including Paris, New York City, London, and Toronto.

Looking for romance abroad? Then you can use an international dating site to expand your horizons. The world’s largest dating platforms have millions of users in hundreds of different countries, and it’d be a shame not to explore all those avenues. Today’s singles no longer have to stay in their corner of the world when seeking love. They can journey far and wide to find that one-in-a-million dream date.

Match got started by a small team in Dallas, Texas, but now it has become an international sensation with offices in San Francisco, Tokyo, Rio de Janeiro, and Beijing. The dating site itself reaches 24 countries and has been translated into 15 languages.

Match hosts events in big cities around the world. If you don’t see an event happening near you, you can always volunteer to host one yourself.

Whether you’re looking for a date around the corner or around the world, Match can meet your needs. Its far-reaching search tools can cross borders to find your ideal match. Just put in your preferences in the Discover section to start browsing dates within any given mile radius of you.

21. OkCupid

OkCupid began as a nerdy challenge to find the formula for love. In 2004, a group of Harvard graduates decided to create a dating site that could collect valuable information about who people are and how they connect with one another. OkCupid built its algorithms by using multiple-choice survey questions ranging from “Do you like the taste of beer” to “Do you prefer to date someone of the same ethnicity you are?”

This treasure trove of dating information allowed many singles to hack the dating scene and identify date prospects who aligned with them on the important things, the silly things, and everything in between.

Today, OkCupid has over 4,000 survey questions that singles can use to highlight aspects of their personalities. Such an information-rich profile can give the site a good idea about the kind of relationship you’re looking for. OkCupid takes all this data and generates a compatibility score for every potential match. The more questions you answer on the dating site, the more accurate your ratings will be.

In the last 16 years, OkCupid has made over 91 million connections and given singles a free dating platform where they can have fun, date around, and find love.

Free dating sites may sound great on the surface. You get to talk to as many people as you want with no restrictions or payment plans? Yeah, that’s a great deal. The problem is that sometimes you get what you pay for, and that’s not a lot. Free dating sites may attract a lot of signups and messaging, but they can also be breeding grounds for scammers, spammers, and unsavory characters.

You should look into a free dating site’s terms of service to see how it handles fake profiles and harassment. Many dating sites will offer online dating safety tips to help free users have a good experience and watch out for suspicious behavior.

Paid sites typically offer more safety and confidence because they don’t just let anyone into people’s inboxes. Everyone who sends you a message on a paid dating site has paid for the privilege, and that means they’re usually more serious about making a connection. They’re invested in the dating process, they want to make something happen, and they’re financially stable enough to spend $20-$100 on a dating site.

Generally speaking, paid dating sites tend to support a more adult, professional, and relationship-minded crowd.

“I’ve always assumed that putting anything behind a paywall makes it more attractive and weeds out the casual users and trolls,” said Joseph Lynn, an online dater from Chicago.

Fake profiles are like snakes — they all look different, but they share a few common traits that give them away. Spotting a fake dating profile is pretty easy once you learn the signs. The number one giveaway that the profile is fake: No profile picture. Pretty much everyone has smartphones and social media accounts these days, so there’s no excuse for not even having a blurry selfie on a dating profile.

It should be a huge red flag if you see a dating profile with a stock photo or no photo at all. Ideally, the dating profile should have four or more pictures that show the person’s true colors, but one clear head shot is the bare minimum.

Another sign that the profile is fake is extremely poor grammar and broken English. Many fake profiles are created by scammers based in Nigeria, the Ukraine, or in the Philippines, so beware of profiles or messages that can’t string a coherent sentence together. Do not respond to any message that seems off to you. You’ve got to trust your gut, and it’s better to be safe than sorry.

One good way to avoid scammers online is by sticking to quality sites where people have to pay or match to send messages. You should also always get your date’s full name and do an at-home background check on Google, Facebook, and Instagram before you meet someone in person.

I didn’t exactly go into the online dating world with an open mind, but the guys I met quickly changed my perspective on the whole process. Sure, I’ve run into some creeps, jerks, and duds along the way, but the vast majority of online daters in my inbox proved to be genuine, funny, and kind people. Free singles sites can yield huge dividends for singles, but you have to accept the hidden costs of chatting in such a popular, competitive, and general space.

No single dating site can wave a magic wand and deliver the perfect date to your door. It’s going to take some effort on your side of the screen to make something happen.

If you’re looking for a particular type of person on a free dating site, you may have to spend as much as 10 hours a week swiping and matching until you find the right one. Some of the sites on this list are totally free, while others are only free to join, but they all have valuable features worth investing your time and money in. All you have to do is choose the one that speaks to your values and goals, and then it’s off to the races.