This is a partial, non-exhaustive list of notable online dating websites and mobile apps.
Name | Description | Owner | Registered users | Free | All features free | Heterosexual connections | Polyamorous connections | Free Messaging | STD-notification |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Adam4Adam | Connects gay men "for friendship, romance, or a hot hookup". | Yes | No | No | ? | Yes | Yes [1] | ||
Adult FriendFinder | Members can connect with other adult members based on profiles. | 30,000,000 as of 2006 [2] | No | No, free users cannot respond to contact and cannot initiate contact. Paid users have added benefits. | Yes | Yes | No | ||
AnastasiaDate | Connects Western men with women from Russia and former Soviet Republics – CIS | 4,000,000 as of 2013 [3] | No | No | Yes | ? | No | ||
Ashley Madison | Members are matched up with other married adult members based on their profiles. | 60,000,000 as of February 2013 [4] | Yes | No; Free users can view profiles and respond to contact but cannot initiate contact. Paid users have added benefits. | Yes | Yes | No | ||
Badoo | Available in 44 languages on the web and on 12 different mobile platforms. | Bumble, Inc. | 500,000,000 as of February 2021 [5] | Yes | No; Charge for higher prominence, higher limits, invisibility, etc. | Yes | ? | Partial | |
BeautifulPeople | Dating website where membership is based on a vote in which existing members rate how attractive they perceive prospective members to be. | 800,000 as of 2015 [6] | No | No; free profile but subscription required for most features including messaging. | Yes | ? | No | ||
Bumble | Dating app where women send the first message (for heterosexual matches) | Bumble, Inc. | 22,000,000 as of 2017 [7] | Yes | No | Yes | ? | After match; only woman can initiate | |
Christian Connection | For Christian singles from the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, USA, Canada and Singapore | No | No; Free trial. Free basic profile members can still see photos, edit profiles, search, use discussion boards. Paid members can freely message, start discussion thread, no daily limit of discussion board entries. Basic profile members can only message other users with pre-set replies. | Yes | Partial | ||||
ChristianMingle | Dating site that caters to Christian singles. Members may choose whether to specify the Christian denomination to which they belong. | Spark Networks Services GmbH | 12,000,000 as of 2019 [8] | No | No | Yes | ? | No | |
Coffee Meets Bagel | App providing daily curated matches based on Facebook connections | Yes | No, "Beans" (in-app currency) unlock extra features, such as matching with users who aren't in your curated list. Premium membership enables activity reports, read receipts, extra beans. [9] | Yes | Yes | ||||
Cupid | Dating website | NSI Holdings Ltd. | No | No; Free: registration, profile, search, pictures uploading, send and receive winks, chat rooms, promo activities. VIP users can send and reply to mails, view full-size personal photos | Yes | No | No | ||
DateMySchool | Dedicated to verified college students and alumni (via education database). Can block by departments and schools. | 179,000 as of 2013 [10] | No; All users can view profiles. Free messaging and status posting for undergraduates (5 messages/day limit). Alumni cannot initiate or respond to contact or post status updates. All Paid users can message and post and they also have added benefits. | Yes | ? | Partial | |||
DOWN (app) | Online dating application for users looking for casual relationships and hookups. Users can swipe up for more serious dating, swipe down for casual hookups. | Yes | No; More features such as finding out who liked you. | Yes | After match. | ||||
EHarmony | Dating site based upon pre-screening using personality tests. | ParshipMeet Holding GmbH | No | No; free profile but subscription required for most features including messaging. | Yes | ? | No | ||
Facebook Dating | Digital dating product at Facebook | Meta Platforms | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | |
Gaydar | Profile-based dating website for gay and bisexual men, women, and couples. | Yes | No; Chat and search is free. | No | ? | Yes | |||
GayRomeo/ PlanetRomeo | Worldwide social network, instant messaging and dating community for gay, bisexual and transgender men. | 6,740,000 registered and 1,107,000 active (last 6 weeks[ when? ]) [11] | Yes | No: Communication, profile and picture views, search engine are free. Video downloads, higher database limits, deactivation of advertising are not. | No | ? | Yes | ||
Gleeden | Social network, instant messaging and dating community for extra-marital relationships. | No | No: Costs credits to send and read messages unlimited number of times to one user and premium gives higher database limits, deactivation of advertising | Yes | ? | No | |||
Grindr | Geosocial networking application based on Android and iOS for LGBT people. | San Vicente Acquisition LLC | 3,600,000 daily active users as of 2018 [12] | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes [1] |
Her | Geosocial networking application based on Android and iOS with Facebook integration. Men are not allowed to create profiles on the platform. | Yes | Yes | No | ? | ||||
Happn | Mobile single dating site | 50,000,000 registered users as of 2019 [13] [14] | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
Hily | Mobile dating site | 15,000,000 as of 2020 [15] | Yes | No | Yes | Yes (but preliminary heterosexual) | After match. | ||
Hinge | Match Group | 20,000,000 people use Hinge (800,000 pay for premium services) [16] | Yes | No; Free users are able to filter by age location, gender, ethnicity, and religion, and have limited swipes. Premium users can filter by more, including children, politics and drug use. Hinge Premium users are also able to see everyone who has liked them already. | Yes | ? | ? | ||
JDate | Dating site that serves people of a Jewish background as well as those interested in them. | Spark Networks Services GmbH | No | Yes | ? | No | |||
JSwipe | Online dating app targeted at millennial Jewish singles. | Spark Networks Services GmbH | 800,000 as of September 2016 [17] | Yes | No; messaging without match | Yes | Implicitly discouraged [17] | After match | |
Lovestruck | Online dating for single professionals in UK, Hong Kong and Singapore | 300,000 registered as of 2012 [18] | No | No | Yes | ? | No | ||
Mamba | Social-network-like dating site, primarily CIS/former Soviet Union, but some international presence. Primary language is Russian, but all languages welcome (and searchable). Caters to all audiences. | 40,000,000 as of 2019 [19] | Yes | No: Communication, profile and picture views, simpler engine, blogs are free. Additional search criteria and double appearances in others' relevant searches for "VIP membership". Single payments for regional advertising of profile (one-time appearance in scrolling banner for $1 – user picture, link, short text for mouseover; bidding war for stationary second banner + cost of $1/minute). | Yes | ? | Yes | ||
Manhunt | Profile-based dating website for gay men | Yes | No. Messaging, search, 20 profile views per day, video chat is free. Manhunt VIP includes unlimited profile views, view full-sized profile photos, unlimited buddies, unlimited blocks, saved searches | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
Match.com | Match Group | 96,000,000 registered as of 2010 [20] 1,377,000 active (2009) [21] | No | No | Yes | ? | No | ||
Meetic | European online dating service | Match Group | No | No | Yes | No | |||
OkCupid (OkC) | Uses answers from user-generated questions to find matches that conform to a user's stated preferences. | Match Group | 30,000,000+ active as of 2013 | Yes | No; Free to join, search, messaging, and chat. Phone verification needed in order to register an account or access a pre-existing account. Non-essential features like sponsored profile promotion available for paid "A-List" members. [22] [23] | Yes | Yes | After match | |
Parship | Dating site for people looking for a long-term relationship, using a personality test. Available in Europe and Mexico. | ParshipMeet Holding GmbH | No | No; free profile but subscription required for most features including messaging. | Yes | No | |||
Perfectmatch | This dating website is using heuristic algorithms to find matches. | No | No | Yes | No | ||||
POF (PlentyofFish) | Dating site mostly active in United States, Canada, United Kingdom and Brazil | Match Group, Inc. | 100,000,000 registered as of 2015 [24] | Yes | No; Features such as seeing the date and time a user viewed your profile and allowing you to see whether a user read and/or deleted your message. [25] [26] | Yes | Yes | ||
Pure (app) | Dating site mostly active in United States, Canada and United Kingdom, average user between 25 and 40 | Misterico Limited | 500,000 registered as of 2021 [27] | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes time-limited | |
Right Stuff | Dating site for graduates and faculty of Ivy League, Seven Sisters, and about 50 similar colleges and universities and medical schools | 4,900 | No | No; $50 fee for 6 month membership, plus $3 for profile of members of interest | Yes | ? | Yes | ||
Scruff | Dating app for gay and bisexual men | 15,000,000 registered users (2019) [28] | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
Sniffies | Browser based dating and hookup app for gay and bisexual men | Yes | No | No | ? | Yes | |||
SpeedDate | Former online speed dating site where users meet via text, audio, and video chat - Domain now owned by Match.com - No longer a Speed Dating site | Match Group | 9,000,000 registered as of 2010 [29] | Yes | No, Premium users can continue communicating after unlimited free speed dates | Yes | |||
Squirt.org | Cruising and hookup site for men seeking men | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
Taimi | Geosocial networking application based on Android and iOS for LGBTQI+ community. | 2,000,000+ as of 2019 [30] | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
Tastebuds.fm | Utilizes tastes in music | No | No; Subscription required to send or receive messages. | Yes | No | ||||
Tinder | Mobile single dating site | Match Group | 75,000,000 active users as of 2021 [31] | Yes | No – premium users get unlimited swipes, can undo a no-swipe, can browse in other locations, in addition to some other preferences and features | Yes | ? | After match | |
Zoosk | Has integration with a Facebook community. [32] | Spark Networks Services GmbH | 50,000,000 as of 2011 [33] | Yes | No; Searching and viewing partial profiles is included with free account like most dating sites, fee or monthly subscription for full communication with other members. [34] | Yes | No |
São Paulo LGBTQ Pride Parade is an annual gay pride parade that has taken place in Avenida Paulista, in the city of São Paulo, Brazil, since 1997. It is South America's largest Pride parade, and is listed by Guinness World Records as the biggest pride parade in the world starting in 2006 with 2.5 million people. They broke the Guinness record in 2009 with four million attendees. They have kept the title from 2006 to at least 2016. They had five million attendants in 2017. As of 2019 it has three to five million attendants each year. In 2019, it was also the second larger event of the city of São Paulo in terms of total revenue and the first in terms of daily revenue. In 2010, the city hall of São Paulo invested 1 million reais in the parade. According to the LGBT app Grindr, the gay parade of the city was elected the best in the world.
OkCupid is a U.S.-based, internationally operating online dating, friendship, and formerly also a social networking website and application. It features multiple-choice questions to match members. Registration is free. OkCupid is owned by Match Group, which also owns Tinder, Hinge, Plenty of Fish, and many other popular dating apps and sites.
Match is an online dating service with headquarters are in Dallas, Texas. The company has offices in Dallas, West Hollywood, San Francisco, Tokyo, Rio de Janeiro, and Beijing. Match is owned by Match Group, which owns several online dating services.
Mobile social networking is social networking where individuals with similar interests converse and connect with one another through their mobile phone and/or tablet. Much like web-based social networking, mobile social networking occurs in virtual communities.
Dating is a stage of romantic relationships in which two individuals regularly engage in activity together, most often with the intention of evaluating each other's suitability as a partner in a future intimate relationship. It falls into the category of courtship, consisting of social events carried out by the couple either alone or with others.
Spark Networks GmbH is an American-German dating company with a portfolio of brands designed for singles seeking serious relationships. These online dating brands include Zoosk, SilverSingles, EliteSingles, Jdate, ChristianMingle, eDarling, JSwipe, AdventistSingles, LDSSingles, and Attractive World. Formed in 2017 through the merger of Affinitas GmbH and Spark Networks, Inc., the company has a presence in 29 countries worldwide.
Grindr is a location-based social networking and online dating application targeted towards gay and bisexual men, and transgender people.
HipChat was a web service for internal private online chat and instant messaging. As well as one-on-one and group/topic chat, it also featured cloud-based file storage, video calling, searchable message-history and inline-image viewing. The software was available to download onto computers running Windows, Mac or Linux, as well as Android and iOS smartphones and tablets. Since 2014, HipChat used a freemium model, as much of the service was free with some additional features requiring organizations to pay per month. HipChat was launched in 2010 and acquired by Atlassian in 2012. In September 2017, Atlassian replaced the cloud-based HipChat with a new cloud product called Stride, with HipChat continuing on as the client-hosted HipChat Data Center.
Zoosk is an online dating service available in 25 languages and in more than 80 countries. The founders of the company are Shayan Zadeh and Alex Mehr, who ran the company until December 2014. After struggles that year, Kelly Steckelberg became the company's new CEO. In July 2019, Zoosk became part of Spark Networks SE.
Tinder is an online dating and geosocial networking application launched in 2012. On Tinder, users "swipe right" to like or "swipe left" to dislike other users' profiles, which include their photos, a short bio, and some of their interests. Tinder uses a "double opt-in" system, also called "matching", where two users must like each other before they can exchange messages.
Curse was a gaming company that managed the video game mod host CurseForge, wiki host Gamepedia, and the Curse Network of gaming community websites.
Scruff is an international social application for men seeking men that runs on iOS and Android devices. The app allows users to upload profiles and photos, and search for other members by location and shared interests. Users can directly message other users or they can use the app's "Woof" feature, which allows users to express interest in another user's profile.
This timeline of online dating also includes broader events related to technology-assisted dating. Where there are similar services, only major ones or the first of its kind are listed.
An online dating application, commonly known as a dating app, is an online dating service presented through a mobile phone application. These apps often take advantage of a smartphone's GPS location capabilities, always on-hand presence, and access to mobile wallets. These apps aim to speed up the online dating process of sifting through potential dating partners, chatting, flirting, and potentially meeting or becoming romantically involved.
Keybase is a key directory that maps social media identities to encryption keys in a publicly auditable manner. Additionally it offers an end-to-end encrypted chat and cloud storage system, called Keybase Chat and the Keybase Filesystem respectively. Files placed in the public portion of the filesystem are served from a public endpoint, as well as locally from a filesystem union-mounted by the Keybase client.
Hinge is an online dating application. The app displays potential matches one at a time and allows the user to dismiss or attempt to match by responding to a specific piece of content on their profile. The service emphasizes uploading user-generated content in a variety of formats, such as photos, videos, voice recordings, and "prompts" as a way to express personality and appearance. The app is fully owned by Match Group as of February 2019.
Squirt.org, launched by Pink Triangle Press in 1999, is a Canadian website which describes itself as a place "where men meet other men for sex, cruising, hookups, dating, fun and friendship". The website, based in Toronto, is available worldwide. It includes user-generated listings of parks, saunas, public toilets and popular sexual locations for men who have sex with men (MSM). It was called "unique and ideal for cruising world-wide" by the 2006 Spartacus International Gay Guide.
GuySpy is a location based online social network, gay dating app. It is available on Android, iOS and via web browser. The app uses location based services like GPS to connect gay, bi and curious men. Through their platform users are able to create profiles with detailed descriptions and with multiple photos. They are able to chat with guys around them and send additional photos, have video messaging and provide their exact location. There is a voice option within the app as well. The app is similar to Grindr, GuySpy also has a map feature that allows the users to search for other guys in other towns and cities. The app was officially launched in 2011 for GayWhistler's WinterPride festival. In 2013 GuySpy launched The PEARL Pride Party app, which was helping users to keep up to date, build and maintain a personal schedule, share information via social networks related to global LGBT pride events and circuit parties.
Recon is a location-based online dating application and service specifically for gay men interested in fetish and kink. It launched as a website in 1999, and as an iOS app in 2010. It has 189,000 active users as of 2018.
Fitlads was a social networking, dating/hookup website and app for gay and bisexual men in the United Kingdom. It was launched in April 2003, and introduced video to the app in 2008.