Best Online Dating Sites in 2023
Are you looking for a dating site that will be a good fit for you personally and your budget? You’ve come to the right place! Here at BestDatingSites.net, we review and recommend the best dating sites the market currently offers.
You might be looking for a serious relationship, or you might be looking to experience casual dating and romance. You could be someone of faith, perhaps Christian or Jewish, and you want to find like-minded singles who share your faith and beliefs. You may be a professional who wants to find singles who share your ideas of success. Or you could be a senior looking to find true love again at this stage of your life. No matter who you are, we have the best dating site recommendations for you!
If you like what you’ve seen so far, the next steps are to create a free trial account at a dating site that strikes your fancy or read our reviews below for a closer look and more detailed information on these dating platforms.
Reviews of the Best Dating Sites
Are you curious to learn more about our best dating site recommendations? We’ve included some condensed reviews in the section below. These are a great way to get more insight into these sites and if they could fit your needs.
eHarmony: Best Overall
Fast Facts
- Read Review: eHarmony Review
- Best For: serious relationships rooted in compatibility
- Active Members: 16+ million
- Gender Ratio: 48% men and 52% women
- Membership Cost: $35.90-65.90/month
- Get Started: Start an eHarmony Free Trial
Just about everyone has heard of eHarmony and its unmatched success when it comes to creating compatible matches between singles online! eHarmony is adept at creating and fostering compatible connections mainly due to its patented 32 Dimensions of Compatibility testing. It’s led to over 600,000 married couples joining since 2000, roughly around 4% of all marriages in the US! An active dating pool of over 16 million singles also helps!
Not only is eHarmony skilled at bringing singles together in marriage, but the platform is also skilled at establishing profound, lasting connections between their matches (long-term commitments, soulmates, etc.), all rooted in compatibility. eHarmony even goes the extra step of providing its users with detailed reports of why they match with certain site members.
Elite Singles: Best for Professionals
Fast Facts
- Best For: serious relationships with highly educated singles
- Active Members: 2+ million
- Gender Ratio: 44% men and 56% women
- Membership Cost: $19.95-37.95/month
- Get Started: Start an Elite Singles Free Trial
Elite Singles is an excellent go-to if you’re looking for serious relationships with professional, well-educated singles. These elite singles, as it were, work in high-paying career fields for the most part, and around 85% of them hold a certificate in some form of higher education. Singles who join this dating site are usually well-paid and well-read and looking for singles who share their taste for success, status, and wealth.
As for success regarding the effectiveness of Elite Singles, this dating site joins around 2,000 couples each month and admits approximately 380,000 new members monthly. Its matchmaking process employs a science-backed personality test combined with the users dating preferences and personal information to generate quality matches for serious dating and relationships.
Match.com: Best for Serious Relationships
Fast Facts
- Read Review: Match.Match.com Review
- Best For: finding suitable, compatible matches
- Active Members: 8+ million (3 million daily logins)
- Gender Ratio: 49% men and 51% women
- Membership Cost: $18.99-34.99/month
- Get Started: Start a Match.com Free Trial
As its name implies, Match.com is the best dating site when you’re looking for quality connections and matches with other online singles. They’ve been doing it since 1995! Match.com uses a simple personality and compatibility test to gauge its connections upon sign-up and profile creation. Of its 8+ million members, 4 million reside in the US alone, and the site boasts 3 million daily logins! This busy and robust dating site is skilled at generating quality matches for future relationships.
Match.com is also a great dating site that doesn’t go light on membership features! Discover provides advanced search filters. Vibe Check is a handy video chat feature to vet singles you meet at the site. MatchPhone allows users access to a private phone line for calling and texting singles of their choice for a more intimate conversation. And that’s just a tiny taste of what you can expect at Match.com!
Zoosk: Best for a Mix of Casual and Serious
Fast Facts
- Best For: serious OR casual dating or romance
- Active Members: 500,000+ (50+ million worldwide)
- Gender Ratio: 48% men and 52% women
- Membership Cost: $10-29.95/month
- Get Started: Start a Zoosk Free Trial
We’ve really been talking up the serious relationship dating sites something fierce. Time to pivot our focus to dating sites more geared toward casual dating or romance and give them their day in the limelight. Our first stop is Zoosk, which is the best overall casual dating site out there in 2022. Founded in 2007, Zoosk has done a great job keeping relevant with ever-changing online dating trends and providing an exciting, appealing platform with a large base of active users (50+ million)!
Zoosk uses a Tinder-Esque swipe-style dating mechanism called the Carousel that allows users to browse through catalogs of potential singles, clicking on “yes,” “no,” or “maybe” to gauge interest and establish the user’s type. Results of the user’s Carousel preference combined with their personal dating preferences and search filter settings to generate SmartPicks, the well-curated daily matches that Zooks is known for!
Christian Mingle: Best for Christian Singles
Fast Facts
- Read Review: Christian Mingle Review
- Best For: serious relationships with like-minded Christian singles
- Active Members: 16+ million (154,000 paid subscribers)
- Gender Ratio: 44% men to 56% women
- Membership Cost: $24.99-49.99/month
- Get Started: Start a Christian Mingle Free Trial
Now, let’s cover a niche dating site, this one being geared toward Christian singles. Yes, you guessed right. It’s Christian Mingle (I mean, who did you expect it to be?). Yes, Christian Mingle and its member base of over 16 million active users have really had the corner on the Christian online dating market for many years now, at least since 2001. With this platform, you’re guaranteed to meet someone with Christian faith and values, as 71% of users attend church on Sunday, and 90% have made it clear they want to marry a Christian.
Christian Mingle is a bit simplistic in the site design and the number of features it offers its customers. Still, it has not made it any less successful. In fact, that might be to its advantage as the average member age at the site is between 35 and 50 years of age. Members can enjoy unlimited messaging, top-rated privacy controls, and Spotlight (profile highlights), making your profile more competitive in the site’s overall search results!
SilverSingles: Best for Over 50
Fast Facts
- Best For: serious relationships with singles over the age of 50
- Active Members: 100,000 (800,000 visitors per month)
- Gender Ratio: 53% men to 47% women
- Membership Cost: $27.95-54.95/month
- Get Started: Start a SilverSingles Free Trial
Another niche dating site, SilverSingles, deals with singles over the age of 50 and helps them find true love, romance, and serious relationships with singles their age. SilverSingles has a straightforward design that allows for excellent ease of use for anyone who visits or becomes a premium member. The average member at SilverSingles is between 48 and 52 years of age, with around 100,000 active, committed members calling the site home.
Everything is a win with SilverSingles (except the number of regular, active users). There are roughly 800,000 visits each month to the site, and its pricing ranges from $27.95-$54.94 per month for a premium membership plan. It takes less than 15 minutes to sign up for an account and create a profile. All around, it’s a really easy site to use, and call yours!
FriendFinder: Best for Casual Relationships
Fast Facts
- Best For: casual dating and romance
- Active Members: 20,000+ (10,000 active weekly)
- Gender Ratio: 75% men to 25% women
- Membership Cost: $10.82-34.94/month
- Get Started: Start a FriendFinder Free Trial
Even more casual than Zoosk, FriendFinder is much like a social networking site offering dating. And the dates you’ll find at FriendFinder will be extremely casual. It’s less “dates” and more just flings and arrangements. But believe it or not (despite our description just now), there’s also the chance to grow a serious relationship here. It All depends on what you’re looking for. Friend Finder facilitates, and you make the experience for yourself!
Power searches are FriendFinder advanced search filtering system that breaks down searches according to factors like education, appearance, age, location, and last login. Members of FriendFinder can even post full-length videos of themselves to their personal profiles! It’s like the Vibe Check on Match.com, except you don’t have to request a video chat!
BlackPeopleMeet: Best for Black Singles
Fast Facts
- Best For: casual relationships with black singles
- Active Members: 900,000 (30,000 active weekly)
- Gender Ratio: 60% men to 40% women
- Membership Cost: $16.75-65.94/month
- Get Started: Start a BlackPeopleMeet Free Trial
Perhaps you’re a black single and want to find casual dating and romance with other black singles. BlackPeopleMeet is definitely your best option and our top recommendation for meeting and dating black singles online! This best dating site comes with great features like ConnectMe (private phone line), ProfilePro (for a quick and seamless profile setup), and PromoteMe (profile highlights).
BlackPeopleMeet claims to be the largest online platform for finding black singles, with 900,00 total members and 30,000 active each week. It’s also relatively even in its balance of men to women (60% to 40%, respectively).
Jdate: Best for Jewish Singles
Fast Facts
- Best For: serious relationships with Jewish singles
- Active Members: 240,000
- Gender Ratio: 53% men to 47% women
- Membership Cost: $29.99-59.99/month
- Get Started: Start a Jdate Free Trial
Jdate is the best dating site for meeting Jewish singles in 2022. It’s a niche platform with a smaller user base. Still, it has a robust and active community of 240,000 looking for serious relationships that will hopefully lead toward marriage. Jdate is responsible for over half of all Jewish marriages that started online! There might be a few casual daters who might have some luck here, but by and large, this is a dating site that’s all about commitment and the long term.
OkCupid: Best Free Dating Site
Fast Facts
- Read Review: insert review link here.
- Best For: dates that might lead to serious relationships
- Active Members: 10 million
- Gender Ratio: 67% men to 33% women
- Membership Cost: $34.99-104.94/month
- Get Started: Start an OkCupid Free Trial
Now we’ve come to OkCupid, the online dating site in this review that can be used entirely for free! And who would have thought that a free dating site would have so many people using it? OkCupid boasts 10 million active users and s considered one of the more popular dating sites in the world.
OkCupid is particularly popular with singles in their 30s and 40s, with the breakdown of men to women being 67% to 33%. Speaking of gender, OkCupid offers its users 12 gender identities and 20+ sexual orientations. And in a similar vein to Match.com or Zoosk, OkCupid is adept at putting together matches where the likelihood of something serious or casual is about even!
What Should I Look For in an Online Dating Site?
Everybody will want something different in an online dating site when it comes to finding specific types of relationships or a certain kind of single. But there are definitely some good universal aspects that most online singles agree make for a good dating site.
These are five of the most important aspects we feel. In fact, we have structured our entire reviewing process on these five principles!
Affordable Membership Pricing
Look for dating sites that come at an affordable price or offer a variety of membership plans that allow you the flexibility of choice. Choose a dating site that will work for your personal budget.
Dynamic Features
Features help to make the search fun and gratifying for the user. They also help to make the process of finding that special someone less complicated than it could be. We’re talking about unlimited communications, profile highlights, and good privacy settings.
Large Dating Pool
It’s always a plus to use a dating site that has a high volume of members. After all, more people using the site means more opportunities and possibilities. Using a platform with hundreds of thousands or millions of users, you’ll be cooking with gas!
Good Daily Matches
Look for dating sites that offer good compatibility or personality testing, advanced search filters, and robust profiles where you can include all your personal information and dating preferences in one convenient place. Combine all three of these elements and you’re bound to get some relevant daily matches!
Ease of Use
Modern design and exciting features are vital to finding the right dating site. Still, you’ll also want a platform that is easy to use and pick up as a new user. You don’t want all the bells and whistles to complicate things. Look for intuitive design, easy navigation, and platforms largely free of glitches, errors, or lagging.
If you’re still unsure where to begin searching for the best dating site, we’ve put together a list of dating sites by category to make things a little easier. Enjoy!
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Top Tips to Stay Safe While Online Dating
Check out some of our rough guidelines for staying safe while using our top dating site recommendations. We’re not offering anything super sophisticated here, just general principles to maximize your chances of staying out of trouble.
Best Safety Tips | Details |
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Use Video Chat to Verify Identity | If you’re unsure of someone you’re talking with online, request a video chat to confirm the photos and information you saw in their online profile. |
Beware of Scammers | Fake profiles do make their way past vetting and onto these platforms. Beware of users who ask you for money or are quick to flatter you with praise or gifts. |
Never Share Your Personal Information | It’s never a good idea to share your personal information with someone you just met online, no matter how trustworthy they seem. Keep your personal information and finances private. |
Check Your Date on Social Media | It’s good to get into the practice of checking anyone you talk with online against a possible social media profile. You can then confirm if they are, indeed, legitimate. |
Use Free Trial Offers If You’re in Doubt | Stay safe from uncertainty or the fear of missing out. Create a free trial account before committing to a paid, premium membership. It’s like test-driving a car to see if you’d like it and if it’d be a good fit. |
Online Blog and Dating Advice
Need some advice for your first date?
Looking to get better daily matches from your dating site?
You may want to know who’s dating who in Hollywood.
What are some of the best ways to impress someone I work with and get them interested in me?
Check out our online blog and dating advice section at BestDatingSites.com for the answers to these questions! Our writers share some of their insights or experiences with the online or real-world dating scene. They’re also diligent in posting any news in the online dating industry or relevant happenings in the real-world dating realm.
For your convenience, we’ve broken down our blogs and dating advice section by audience:
- For Women
- For Men
- For Seniors
- For Online
FAQ: What You Need to Know About Online Dating Sites
If there’s anything else you need to know about our best online dating sites, you’ll find it here in our FAQ section. We’ve included many common questions (along with answers) that we’ve gotten over time from our customers and readers.
What Are the Best Dating Sites in 2023?
This is a tricky question to answer. The best dating site is going to look different to different people. Overall, eHarmony is the best dating site, especially if you’re in the market for a serious relationship. If that’s not the case for you, Zoosk would be your best bet for finding casual dating and romance. And, of course, there are plenty of niche dating site recommendations that are a better fit for niche markets.
Why Do People Use Online Dating Sites?
Many people use dating sites because they might not be meeting enough people in their day-to-day life to provide an adequate dating pool. Some people live in isolated or rural areas, so using a dating site is an improvement. Dating sites are also really good at capturing singles who might live near you that you’d never run into IRL otherwise.
Can I Use Any of These Top Dating Sites for Free?
We recommend a few dating sites that can be used entirely for free (see OkCupid). Still, many offer a free trial opportunity that allows new users to use the site for free but in a limited way. Free trials are perfect for registering an account, creating a profile, adjusting your personal dating preferences and search settings, and seeing what kind of singles are using the site.
How Much Do Premium Membership Plans Cost?
The membership cost will differ between each and every dating site in our review. Read our reviews near the top of the page, and you’ll find a range of pricing for each platform we recommend to our readers.
How Do the Best Dating Websites Make Their Matches?
This is another factor that will differ from dating site to site. Many dating sites use personality or compatibility to help form connections between online singles. The user plays a part as well, much of the time. The user can use personal dating preferences and search filters to summarize the kind of singles they desire to meet. It’s a combination of these things that allows these sites to make matches.
Are These Dating Sites Safe?
Yes, these are dating sites that are well-known in the online dating industry and, for the most part, are trusted by the public because they have delivered results! These sites also use encrypted connections to keep their customers’ personal or financial information completely safeguarded and private.
Which Dating Sites Are Best for Serious Dating?
There are several: eHarmony (compatible connections), Match.com (quality matches), Christian Mingle (Christian dating), Elite Singles (professional dating), SilverSingles (senior dating), and Jdate (Jewish dating). Overall, we appreciate eHarmony’s approach to serious dating with its 32 Dimensions of Compatibility testing bringing together nearly 600,000 married couples over the past 20 or more years.
Which Dating Sites Are Best for Casual Relationships?
We recommend using Zoosk, Friend Finder, BlackPeopleMeet, or OkCupid for a more casual approach to online dating. Even Match.com can be used for casual dates or romance just as quickly as it can be used for serious relationships or commitments. Zoosk is definitely the best dating site for casual dating, with its total user base of over 50 million worldwide and its approach to swipe-style dating via the Carousel feature.
What’s the Best Way to Choose the Right Dating Site?
We provide links to dating sites based on categories like “best for Christians” or “best for seniors.” You can use these links to get a general idea of what to look for. It’s also imperative to read reviews online from firsthand users and check membership price points to find something that will fit your budgetary needs. Even give one of the free trials a whirl to see if the dating site will be a good fit for your personal needs.
Are There Risks to Using These Dating Sites?
Many of these dating sites have great vetting systems for new users, but fake profiles and scam accounts do make their way through the system. When using any dating site, be vigilant when dealing with other singles. There are systems in place where you can report any suspicious activity or harassment to the dating site itself.