Best Dating Sites
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Online Dating
was founded in 1994 and quickly became an incredibly popular website directory, search engine, web portal, and email and instant messaging service. The internet company has since entered several other markets, including news, sports, finance, and online dating personals.
Yahoo! Personals was the company’s paid dating service, and at its peak it had more than 10 million members and 13 different international subdomains. Unfortunately, Yahoo! Personals no longer exists.
In 2010, Yahoo! Personals merged with Match (more on that below) and became no more, but many people still reach out to us asking about Yahoo! Personals. Our dating experts thought we’d fill in the missing pieces today and recommend five online dating sites that are even better than Yahoo! Personals was.
There’s a reason Yahoo! Personals merged with Match — it’s the world’s premier dating site. Launched in 1995, Match was the first online dating service to ever exist, and it has remained at the top of the heap ever since. Match has 30 million+ members and has led to more first dates, second dates, long-term relationships, and marriages than any of its competitors. Plus, it’s totally free to register, upload pictures, search through members’ profiles, receive daily matches, and communicate via likes and limited messages.
User Base | Gender Ratio | Popularity (Visits/Mo.) |
Today's Deal
|
All Singles* |
49%*
51%*
|
39.7 Million* | Get 3 Days FREE |
Elite Singles caters to college-educated, commitment-minded singles who want to meet someone special and fall in love. More than 80% of its users have at least a bachelor’s degree, and 90% of them are looking for a long-term relationship. A majority of Elite Singles users are also at least 30 years old, so you definitely won’t be around the hookup crowd here. The dating site has a good reputation and success rate on its side as well — over 2,500 people find love on Elite Singles every month.
User Base | Gender Ratio | Popularity (Visits/Mo.) |
Today's Deal
|
All Singles* |
44%*
56%*
|
2 Million* | Sign Up Free |
Created in 2007, Zoosk was among the first online dating sites to integrate with social media networks, like Facebook and Google+, allowing for an even faster registration process and a more personality-driven dating profile. More than 40 million singles have joined Zoosk, and more than 30 million have downloaded it via the App Store and Google Play. This is an active bunch as well — Zoosk members exchange more than 3 million messages a day on the site. Unlike with Yahoo+ Personals, you can leave your wallet right where it is because Zoosk doesn’t charge for any of the basic features, including the Carousel, SmartPick, and Insights, and you also get free greetings to certain members.
User Base | Gender Ratio | Popularity (Visits/Mo.) |
Today's Deal
|
All Singles* |
48%*
52%*
|
28.9 Million* | Start Zoosk for FREE |
Dr. Neil Clark Warren, a clinical psychologist, Christian theologian, and seminary professor, co-founded eharmony in 2000, and now it’s responsible for over 2 million happy relationships in the United States. It is quite a success story for singles seeking marriage! Drawing from psychology, eharmony offers a smart matchmaking algorithm and personality test (with over 80 questions total) to pair its users with the perfect match. The matchmaking formula makes it easy to navigate the membership base. The eharmony platform effortlessly assesses personal information and calculates your relationship compatibility, thus bringing the most compatible matches to your inbox. All you have to do is upgrade your account and say hi.
User Base | Gender Ratio | Popularity (Visits/Mo.) |
Today's Deal
|
All Singles* |
48%*
52%*
|
4.1 Million* | Join eharmony FREE |
For those looking for a casual hookup rather than a serious relationship, BeNaughty is a great alternative to the adult section of Yahoo! Personals. The hookup site takes your location, age, and interests into consideration when pairing you with frisky singles. BeNaughty also uses SSL encryption technology and a profile verification system to ensure your information is protected and every member is authentic and zero fake profiles slip through the cracks.
User Base | Gender Ratio | Popularity (Visits/Mo.) |
Today's Deal
|
All Singles* |
48%*
52%*
|
13.3 Million* | Browse Profiles Free |
Technically, singles can still meet new people via the Yahoo! Inc network — you’ll just have to get chummy in the comments section or pick up a pen pal’s email address. Yahoo has a full library of news and entertainment articles as well as an electronic mail system in place, so singles can explore their interests in related articles and communicate with others. Meeting new people is just more of a challenge now that Yahoo! Personals is gone.
Our resident dating expert deems OneNightFriend to be the best personal ad service for singles who want a casual hookup. It’s completely free to create a dating profile and explore matches on the platform.
Relationships: Hookups, Casual Dating, Chats
Match System: Search by location, age, and appearance.
Our Experts Say: “OneNightFriend is a dating website that provides a fast track to a one-night stand with a flirty partner. The network has chat rooms, search filters, and safety features to help spark real connections...” Full Review »
Browse Free: View Photos Now
User Base | Gender Ratio | Popularity (Visits/Mo.) |
Today's Deal
|
All Singles* |
60%*
40%*
|
500,000* | Browse Profiles FREE |
OneNightFriend is an internet site designed for casual dating. That means a single person doesn’t have to beat around the bush if they’re interested in casual sex.
A person can peruse potential matches in the same way they used to scroll through the Yahoo! personals review section, and they can swipe yes, no, or maybe to spark a new connection or move on to the next personal ad.
It’s really hard to pick the overall best dating app because many of them work well for certain types of people, but not for others. For instance, HER is probably the best lesbian dating app, but it won’t do anything for a straight woman, and it’ll actually boot any man who tries to sign up.
Many online dating apps can help singles expand their social circle and find promising potential dates. Tinder, Bumble, and Hinge are some of the most well-known dating applications on the market right now. Quite a few long-time free dating websites like OkCupid and Plenty of Fish have added mobile app versions with free features to match singles on the go.
A single person can find a dating app for just about any niche interest, and many new dating apps like Snack and The Sauce crop up to add even more features into the mix. These two apps cater to young adults, so a senior single would be better off on a dating app like Stitch or OurTime.
If you’re a Black person who wants to date within the same race, then RealBlackLove or BlackPeopleMeet could be right for you.
Look through expert reviews and user ratings to find the most reliable sources for online dating. We’ve named a few of our favorites for online daters, but that honestly just scratches the surface of the online dating list available.
Yahoo! Personals did a lot of wonderful things for a lot of singles online, but it wasn’t really able to keep up with the dating sites and apps of today, especially Match. The dating industry may have lost a personals dating service in 2010, but you’re still in good hands and can meet people online through a number of ways.
You’ve got plenty of awesome online dating sites to turn to, including the five alternatives to Yahoo! Personals we just told you about. Good luck out there!
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