The online dating market in 2023 is chockful of so many dating sites and matchmaking services that it is bound to make your head spin! With so many choices out there, it can be downright difficult at times to find the best dating site for your needs and your personal budget. And every site claims to be the best at what they do, but which ones are really worth your time, money, energy, and effort?
This is where DatingSites.com comes in!
Check out our personal recommendations for the best dating sites the market currently has to offer! We have included rankings and reviews of our favorite sites and services, as well as membership pricing and free trial opportunities! Our hope is that DatingSites.com can streamline the entire process of finding the right dating website for your needs and budget so you can go full throttle in meeting some awesome singles online as soon as possible!
| Dating Site | Best For | Free Trial |
|---|---|---|
eHarmony
|
Serious Relationships and Compatibility |
Start Your Free Trial |
Zoosk
|
Finding Casual Dates and Friendships |
Start Your Free Trial |
Elite Singles
|
Finding Professional Singles |
Start Your Free Trial |
Christian Mingle
|
Faith-Based Relationships |
Start Your Free Trial |
- Top Dating Sites
- DatingSites.com Blog
- Dating Sites by Category
- How to Choose a Dating Site
- Why Trust Us
- FAQ About Online Dating Sites
Reviews of the Top Dating Sites
#1: eHarmony: Best for Serious Relationships and Compatibility
There are no better dating websites out there when it comes to finding compatibility with other singles than eHarmony! Serving over 60 million customers worldwide, eHarmony has been responsible for creating millions of serious relationships and long-term commitments over the last 20 years or so! There are also plenty of users that have found great casual dating experiences or have developed friendships as well.
eHarmony’s success is largely due to its extensive matchmaking system that goes into 32 dimensions of compatibility. They study the psychological principles behind what makes serious relationships work and stand the test of time! Combine this with one of the all-time largest dating pools online and their nearly-even breakdown of men to women, and you have all the ingredients for the best dating site for 2023!
| Key Information | Details |
|---|---|
Best For | Singles who are looking for compatibility, commitments, and serious relationships |
Year Started | 2000 |
Active Members | 66 million |
Monthly Traffic | 4 million |
Gender Ratio | 48% men and 52% women |
Membership Price | Begins at $35.90/month |
#2: Zoosk: Best for Finding Casual Dates and Friendships
Perhaps you are not looking for a serious relationship, but you just want to go on some dates or make some friends. Zoosk is at the top of our list for singles who want to simply do the casual dating thing! And they have an amazing reach in the online dating world with over 35 million active members and about 12 million visitors to the site each month! You are bound to meet a diverse assortment of singles as you use this site!
Zoosk is a great dating site when it comes to casual dating scenarios and catering to a younger user base. They feature a swipe-style mechanism called the Carousel that allows customers to find other singles by swiping right or left, making the online dating experience fun and convenient. In fact, fun and convenient are two perfect words for summing up Zoosk!
| Key Information | Details |
|---|---|
Best For | Singles who are looking for casual dating or relationships |
Year Started | 2007 |
Active Members | 40 million |
Monthly Traffic | 12 million |
Gender Ratio | 48% men and 52% women |
Membership Price | Begins at $12.50/month |
#3: Elite Singles: Best for Finding Professional Singles
Elite Singles is an online dating site that allows professional users to find serious relationships or true love with other professional singles. This is the most niche dating website we recommend in our top 4, and that is because it caters primarily to singles who are highly educated and career-oriented! Over 85% of users in the US report having an above-average education.
Available in over 20 countries around the world, Elite Singles has a solid user base of 13 million and successfully matches around 2,000 couples each month. Elite Singles only take around 300,000 new members each month so there might be a bit of a wait to begin using the site. You might not get the variety of singles you would find at eHarmony, but you will certainly find singles who are successful, highly educated, and up for serious commitments.
| Key Information | Details |
|---|---|
Best For | Professional and successful singles who are looking for serious relationships with other like-minded singles |
Year Started | 2013 |
Active Members | 13 million |
Monthly Traffic | 2 million |
Gender Ratio | 43% men and 57% women |
Membership Price | Begins at $27.95/month |
#4: Christian Mingle – Best for Faith-Based Relationships
If you are a Christian single and you are looking for a serious relationship or long-term commitment with another Christian, Christian Mingle should be the perfect dating app for you! This is a place where there is no shortage of compatible matches for Christian singles as Christian Mingle has over 15 million active members and a weekly visitor count of right around 3.5 million! You are definitely going to have a decent-sized dating pool for finding eligible singles who desire a God-centered relationship just as you do!
Christian Mingle takes a page from eHarmony’s book and uses top-notch compatibility testing and advanced search filters to help singles find the right people and relationships that are built to last the test of time! This is not a dating app where you are going to find singles who are interested in doing the casual dating thing. Christian Mingle is also putting its best foot forward to keep up with the trends in the online dating world, adding on a swipe-style feature called LookBook and expanding its reach to other countries across the world to offer a better range of international singles for their users!
| Key Information | Details |
|---|---|
Best For | Singles searching for religous and God-centered relationships. |
Year Started | 2001 |
Active Members | 15 million |
Monthly Traffic | 3.5 million |
Gender Ratio | 44% men and 56% women |
Membership Price | Begins at $24.99/month |
Best Dating Sites by Category
Because there are so many different types of people who use online dating websites, there’s a wide variety of sites, each catering to a specific kind of clientele. The dating site that works wonders for a young, city-dwelling single in their 20s might not work the same way for someone who is in their 50s and looking to find true love again or someone who lives out in the middle of rural America or someone who is looking for serious relationships with someone who shares their religious or political beliefs.
That’s why we’ve broken up our top dating site recommendations into major categories. This way you can choose a dating site that will work best for your personal needs and desires. It will also help you narrow your search and save time.
Why People Trust Our Recommendations
At DatingSites.com, one of our goals is to earn your trust and become one of your go-to sources for great dating site recommendations, online dating advice, and any new developments or products that come to market. Online dating can be quite a journey, and we would love to partner with you or support you in any way that we can!
Here are a few of the reasons that you can trust our recommendations and what we have to say about products in the current online dating market:
New Developments and Product Updates
At DatingSites.com, we are committed to providing you with the best dating site recommendations and any sort of new developments or products that come to market that we feel you should know about! Our recommendations can be trusted because we present you with the absolute best the market currently has to offer!
Testing Out Our Products
We want to give you the best take on these dating sites that is possible. So our team actually takes the time to start any free trial accounts that are offered, goes through the process of signing up and taking the compatibility testing, and enjoys the site features firsthand! One of the best things about doing this is that our team can report to readers and customers exactly what they experienced and provide instructions on what to do or tips on how to best use the features or functions.
Accurate Reviews and Rankings
Our team has reviewed each dating site in an unbiased and transparent way, taking into consideration all the pros AND cons they have found in the process. Ultimately, we come up with an official ranking and overall score for each site based on the results of where the site performed well and the areas where the site needs improvement. We give praise where it is due and constructive criticism where needed, and our rankings and reviews reflect this!
Updated Price Points
We will always provide you with up-to-date pricing on any dating sites online that we recommend! We make sure to address all price points in our reviews. We include price lists that point out any differences due to additional features or the length of the membership plans. With DatingSites.com, you will never be in the dark on membership pricing! We will always steer you toward something that works well for your personal budget.
Links to Free Trials
Our goal is for you to find the best online dating sites for your needs and budget. We will never pressure you into choosing any certain online dating websites. Instead, we will provide you with free trial links that we find along the way! Although these are not technically free dating sites, you can still take any of our dating sites out for a test drive, see the features, and find out how everything functions. There is no better way to discover which online dating websites are the best for you than to test them out free of charge!
How to Choose the Best Dating Sites for You
Choosing the best dating sites for yourself does not have to be a difficult or daunting task! If you are having a rough time deciding what you want, follow some of our tips below, and you should be able to find exactly what you need in no time!
Read Online Reviews
Not only do we have our own DatingSites.com reviews for the best online dating sites, but there are also plenty of other reviews worth checking out! Read up as much as you can on the sites we recommend. The more you know, the better the idea you will have of what is offered and how that can benefit you. If you want to save yourself some time and effort, we definitely encourage you to check out the dating site reviews we have provided. All the research and vetting have been done for your convenience!
Use the Free Trials
Our best dating sites all have free trial opportunities! Take advantage of this! If you have any doubt about any dating site, try it out for free and see what features and benefits are offered! You can always do more than one free trial at a time too! If you find something you like, consider signing up for a membership at one of our recommended top dating websites.
Budget for the Right Membership Plan
Always choose a membership plan that works with your personal budget. Luckily, we have all the price point information included in our reviews! Something to keep in mind is that there are a lot of memberships where the monthly price is cheaper with a longer plan versus a shorter plan. Take a close look at pricing, look for those discounts, and find a membership that works best for you!
Online Dating Blog
At DatingSites.com, we have also dedicated an entire section to the success stories and personal experiences of our customers and readers who have used the online dating sites and matchmaking services we have recommended over the years!
If you are unsure that online dating is for you or if you want to begin but are feeling discouraged, we recommend you check out some of the content here in our DatingSites.com blog! You can also find some online dating advice and tips for using the sites we recommend in this section as well!
- 8 Disturbing Relationship Problems That are Quite Normal
Great news! Even though your hubby gets on your last nerve sometimes, it’s completely normal. You may be thinking, “Why is this normal?” One of the most significant parts of a couple’s therapist’s job is that they get to give good news. Couples go into … Read more - Long-Distance Relationships | Analyzing the Success Rates of Couples Who Met Online
If you’re in the online dating game, you might be wondering how likely it is that you’ll find love. Do couples you meet online really last? Aren’t they primarily long-distance relationships, and what exactly does that mean for the success rates of these relationships? With … Read more - The Stigma of Online Dating | Why It’s Time to Let It Go
Human beings have been searching for love for centuries, and it’s fascinating how we look for it has changed with society, technology, and culture. Dating has certainly come a long way, hasn’t it? It used to be all about fate and chance encounters, but now … Read more
FAQ About Online Dating Sites
If you’re still wondering if online dating is right for you or if you just have more questions, be sure to check out the answers we have below. This is a list of the questions that we most often get from real people just like you, so more than likely; these will apply to you as well.
What Are the Best Dating Sites To Use in 2023?
This is going to depend on what you are looking for in the online dating experience. Overall, we would say your best bet is to go with a dating site like eHarmony, which has millions of users as well as longevity in the market, and an excellent track record in successfully matching up singles for serious relationships and long-term commitments. They have also been known to set up casual dates as well, so this is a great dating site all around!
If you are looking for casual relationships or friendships with other singles, we highly recommend dating websites like Zoosk, which cater to more casual dating scenarios. And, of course, there is Elite Singles which is great if you are a professional looking for serious relationships with other professionals!
How Much Does It Cost To Use These Online Dating Sites?
The starting prices are all going to be different depending on what dating site you end up using. eHarmony begins at $35.90 a month and goes up from there. Zoosk begins at $12.50, and Elite Singles begins at $27.95. Some of these dating sites are more pricey than others, but customers feel it’s worth it because of the great features and benefits that they get along the way, like unlimited messaging and top-rated compatibility testing!
What Are the Best Free Dating Sites?
Each of the dating sites that we recommend at DatingSites.com comes with free trial opportunities. These allow the customer to test out the app before they commit to paying for a membership. Keep in mind that these free trials are technically not free dating sites, as they are not going to include all the features and functions that you would normally find with a paid membership. So you can technically use these dating sites for free, but things like unlimited messaging and viewing photos on other users’ profiles might be excluded.
Are These Top Dating Sites Safe for Me To Use?
Yes, our team researched each of these online dating sites and found that they are all outfitted with some great safety and security features, including SSL encryption for their operating and messaging systems. Customers can share their personal information to set up their account or their banking information to get their membership going, and the site is guaranteed to keep all this completely confidential and discrete. We looked back into these sites’ history, and there are no instances that we could see of the sites misusing or mishandling the information their customers shared with them.
Why Do People Use Online Dating Apps?
People use dating apps in order to meet other singles who are interested in casual dating, casual relationships, friendships, serious relationships, or long-term commitments. As you can tell by that list, there are a lot of different endgames when it comes to online dating sites. It’s important to consider what it is you want out of the experience and to choose an online dating app that best caters to that need!
Are Memberships Worth the Money?
We highly recommend to our readers that they get a membership when joining one of our favorite sites. While free trials are a great way to test-drive a dating site, they simply do not cut it when it comes to meeting other singles online. Many free trials do not even offer users the chance to message other singles or look at their photos. We feel these are two pretty important things when it comes to online dating, so we strongly suggest that users pay for a membership to get the most out of the experience. Memberships are well worth the money in our minds!
How Do Dating Sites Do Their Matchmaking?
This is another one of those cases where the process is going to differ from site to site. eHarmony is perhaps the best-known in the matchmaking department. They have some in-depth compatibility testing that goes into the psychological principles behind the success of long-term relationships. Their testing also covers 32 levels of compatibility! Then you have sites like Zoosk, where they have advanced search filters that allow the user to customize their search by getting specific with factors like appearance, age, beliefs, behavior, interests, etc.
Are There Fake Profiles or Scammers on the Top Dating Sites You Recommend?
Our best dating sites are not 100% free of fake profiles or scammers. Although there are some great vetting systems in place for these sites, there are still unsavory characters that make their way through and attempt to prey on other users. As a customer, you are responsible for your own personal safety at any dating site you use, so it is best to know the signs of a fake profile or be able to detect suspicious activity when it comes up. The best course of action is to block any fake accounts and report any fraudulent accounts to the site.
What Are the Best Online Dating Sites for Casual Dating?
One of the top dating sites for finding casual dates has to be Zoosk. They have the potential for a huge dating pool, mostly due to their 35 million active members worldwide! The majority of their users are not looking for serious relationships or long-term commitments. Finding casual dates or friendships with Zoosk is easy too! They have a really cool swipe-style method of finding singles called the Carousel feature. Users can find singles they like by either swiping left or right, just like Tinder!
Which Sites Would Round Out Your Recommendations for Top 10 Dating Sites?
In addition to the dating sites online that are featured in our top 4, we would also include Christian Mingle (best for Christian singles), SilverSingles (best for singles over 50), Seeking.com (best for finding sugar arrangements), JDate (best for finding Jewish singles), Catholic Match (best for finding Catholic singles), and SingleParentMeet (best for single parents or divorcees). As you can see, we cover a wide spectrum of customers with the top dating sites we recommend!