Dating apps are everywhere. Well, mostly on your phone technically, but references to dating apps and online dating, ads for dating apps and online dating, friends who met their beloved partners online telling you that you just have to try whatever app they used… those are everywhere.
Whether you’re new to dating online, just returning to dating after a break (or you know, a breakup), or a seasoned pro who wants to switch things up but is suddenly overwhelmed by all the choices, I’m here to help with my guide to the best dating apps for men, specifically men who are looking to date women.
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What Makes A Good Dating App For Men?
In my opinion, a couple of things. Firstly, it has to be at least a reasonably serious app. And by that I don’t mean it exclusively caters to serious relationships, that’s not realistic, and every app differs in terms of what users are looking for.
I have made sure, however, that all the apps I included in this list are for a slightly more grownup crowd, and allow space for everyone to make real connections whether those are long or short-term.
Basically, I’m promoting emotional honesty, even online. I know it’s exhausting, isn’t it? If you’re not ready for it, you can stick to trawling Tinder, this list will still be here when you finally want to take the plunge!
Secondly, the gender ratio is important when choosing the best dating apps for men. Some apps (yeah, I’m bashing Tinder again. Love you Tinder! You served us all so well for so long!) have horrible gender ratios, with up to a shocking 100% more women than men.
All the dating apps on my list of the best dating apps for men offer a mature, open environment and a close to 50/50 gender ratio.
Eharmony
Click here to sign up for eharmony for free
Best For: Guys who are ready to find the one and settle down. Or find the one and continue having adventures, of course.
Not For: Anyone still looking to play the field.
The Lowdown
Eharmony has made some serious changes over the last few years. It was popular back in the early when it was founded back in 2000, aka the stone age of online dating, and continued to thrive until around 2010.
Eharmony lost its way a little after that, as flashy new dating sites took over its real estate. But don’t write eharmony off! It wouldn’t be top of my list if it wasn’t excellent.
The site has repositioned itself in the last few years and is now the place to find a real, serious connection online.
With matching technology based on psychology and a dating pool of older users (older in internet dating terms anyway) in their 30s and 40s, eharmony is uniquely designed to help millennials who want to stop faffing about on swiping-based apps and find love do just that.
In 2018, a survey found that eharmony has the highest quality dating pool of any app in the US, and internal data shows that someone on the site finds love every 14 minutes. I mean, after years of swiping and liking and mediocre dates, that sounds pretty good, right?
If you want to find out more about eharmony, I’ve written a full guide to the site.
Pricing
Pricing | Total Cost | Monthly Cost |
---|---|---|
Free | ||
6 Months | $395.40 | $65.90 |
12 Months | $550.80 | $45.90 |
24 Months | $861.60 | $35.90 |
What You Get For Your Cash
Although you can make an account for free on eharmony, you can’t message or in any way interact with matches without paying for full membership. But once you have paid, things get pretty bespoke!
You will be sent ten specially selected members per day, with the option of viewing thirty more using eharmony’s ‘What If’ game.
You can send unlimited messages as a paid eharmony member.
The site is on the more expensive side because the matching service is really more like a matchmaker than a dating app.
Eharmony’s algorithm is really specific and uses a ton of data points relating to your psychology, your matches’ psychology, and how you guys will get along in a relationship.
If you are interested in eharmony, you can use the free version as sort of a taster for the real thing.
It’s a big investment, so don’t be afraid to take your time with it.
Busy? Here Are The Key Points
- Eharmony offers a bespoke matching service for a monthly fee.
- This is a site for serious daters.
- Matches are based on psychology.
- Amazingly, Eharmony accounts for 4% of marriages a year in the US!
- Although a free version of the site does exist, you can’t do a lot with it.
Elite Singles
Click here to sign up for eHarmony for free
Best For: Serious daters looking for an impressive partner
Not For: Slackers, layabouts, or anyone looking for only very casual hookups
The Lowdown
Elite Singles is another dating site based more on the old-fashioned matchmaking model than the modern swipe-until-you-get-dizzy model. Mostly for serious relationships, Elite Singles boasts an unusually qualified user base with around 80% of daters on the site holding at least an undergraduate degree.
You don’t have to be qualified to date here, but it helps! Other users are distinguished in a variety of other palpable ways, like snazzy job titles and high salaries (you can include your salary on your elite singles profile, though many daters apparently find revealing what they make rather a gouache).
Basically, this is a dating site for the cream of the crop. Users are mostly between 30 and 50, so again, a little more mature, and matches are suggested largely based on a psychological questionnaire that you fill out upon signup, as well as a list of preferences that every user fills out.
Pricing
Pricing | Total Cost | Monthly Cost |
---|---|---|
Free | ||
3 Months | $173.85 | $57.95 |
6 Months | $269.70 | $44.95 |
12 Months | $383.40 | $31.95 |
What You Get For Your Cash
Elite Singles is another site you can join gratis, but with a free membership that doesn’t allow you to do much. The free membership is a great taster, and you can get a feel with the sort of matches you’ll be getting though unfortunately not what they look like as photos are blurred out!
Paying for membership to Elite Singles will, of course, get those photos unblurred. You can also match with premium members, send and receive unlimited messages, leave comments, and see the detailed results of your personality test (don’t worry, it never just says ‘you’re a jackass’… at least it hasn’t done that to anyone yet) and see who visited your profile.
Busy? Here Are The Key Points
- Elite Singles is a dating site for educated, successful people.
- There are no criteria to join, but most users have a degree.
- The site holds IRL events in major cities internationally, so you can mix and mingle with potential dates if that’s your thing.
- Elite Singles’ algorithm is based on psychological matching and uses the big five psychological model first popularised in matchmaking in the 1990s.
Zoosk
Click here to sign up for eharmony for free
Best For: Daters who are starting to get serious about finding someone, but still want to have fun while they look
Not For: Guys looking for completely meaningless hookups – the algorithm won’t allow it!
The Lowdown
Zoosk has been around for thirteen years, and it was kind of ahead of its time when it started up in 2007! The app and desktop site are both mostly location-based, showing you other users in your area.
But Zoosk was one of the first dating sites with an intelligent algorithm, so for years, it has been matching users based on desires they didn’t even know they had!
Maybe that sounds a little scary – it actually just means that Zoosk tracks who you look longest at, who you message and like, and combines that with your stated preferences to deliver sometimes surprising matches.
All this means that there’s plenty of adventure involved in finding a partner on Zoosk. It’s got that dating app adrenaline rush built-in, but it’s geared towards slightly more serious dating than most apps.
Most Zoosk users are between 25 and 44, and they’re looking for a whole variety of relationship types from hookups to serious dating. It’s a fantastic app to ease yourself into ‘grownup’ dating without too much pressure!
Pricing
Pricing | Upfront Cost | Monthly Cost |
---|---|---|
Free | $0.00 | $0.00 |
1 Month | $29.99 | $29.99 |
3 Months | $59.99 | $19.99 |
6 Months | $74.99 | $12.49 |
What You Get For Your Cash
Zoosk maybe trips up with the younger end of its user base because the free version of the app doesn’t allow you to message, so it is essentially a trial and nothing more. If you sign up for three months, though, a paid membership is great value so why not treat yourself?
You can send and receive unlimited messages as a paid Zoosk member, chatting to any of the daily SmartPicks delivered by Zoosk’s award-winning algorithm. You can also play around on Zoosk’s swipe game, Carousel.
I have to admit Zoosk may have a few too many features, some a little gimmicky, including ‘Super Send’, a flirty mass message you can send out every fifteen hours.
My advice is just to ignore those though, someone working on the back end clearly got over-excited! Read more about how Zoosk works here.
Busy? Here Are The Key Points
- Zoosk is a fun dating site, somewhere between serious sites and swipe-based apps.
- Matches are based on the Zoosk algorithm, which was designed by NASA scientists.
- You do have to pay for Zoosk to use it properly, but it’s good value if you sign up for 3+ months.
- Zoosk has a modern, usable interface fitting for its young-ish 25-44-year-old key userbase.
Hinge
Best For: Keeping the swipe life going when you grow up a bit
Not For: Anyone on the either far end of the dating spectrum – if you are 100% casual or 100% looking for commitment, there are better options
The Lowdown
Hinge, the app that’s designed to be deleted, was created with the intention of giving millennials and gen z an opportunity to date a bit more seriously without moving onto an embarrassing old people dating site!
Of course, that’s a joke, the 25-year-olds will end up on eharmony eventually too, but Hinge is the shallow end to get them acclimated!
Utilizing your social media networks to work out who you might click with, Hinge tries to show you users that you’ll be interested in rather than just who happens to be close.
The long-form profiles and prompts on Hinge are supposed to inspire proper conversation, and several additional features like ‘Your Turn’ which allows you to equitably share the burden of keeping a conversation going are clearly an attempt to keep things mature and real.
Hinge is a really decent app, and if you want to keep swiping definitely give it a go, but it has fallen short of its stated aims in some ways. To an extent, it can sometimes just seem like Tinder for the 24-35 crowd!
If you want to know a bit more about Hinge before you download it, check out my full rundown on the app.
Pricing
Pricing | Upfront Cost | Monthly Cost |
---|---|---|
Free | ||
1 Month | $19.99 | $19.99 |
3 Months | $39.99 | $13.33 |
6 Months | $59.99 | $9.99 |
What You Get For Your Cash
With Hinge Preferred, you get unlimited likes vs the 8 you get as a free user. You also gain access to a gallery of everyone who liked you without having to swipe through them to find out, and you can set advanced preferences to narrow down your search.
Busy? Here Are The Key Points
- Basically Tinder’s big brother
- For daters who still want to swipe, but slightly more seriously
- Totally usable for free, so a great choice if you’re cash strapped
- Hinge has a lot of and useful additional features, well-designed and regularly updated
AdultFriendFinder
Click here to sign up for eharmony for free
Best For: People looking for a bit of good old-fashioned fun
Not For: Anyone looking for a serious long-term relationship ASAP
The Lowdown
AdultFriendFinder has been one of the best hookup sites on the internet since 1996. I know, there are people on the site that are younger than the site. Wild.
This sex-positive, location-based dating service has something for everyone. You can find a partner (or partners) for anything from fun on camera to discreet meet-ups and not-so-vanilla play!
Basically, AdultFriendFinder cuts out the nonsense. You don’t have to feel out matches to work out whether they’re on the same page as you hook up-wise, you can just ask.
And with 2 million users logging in every day, you can be pretty sure of finding someone nearby whose tastes align with yours.
On top of that, AdultFriendFinder is a community. With NSFW pictures, forums, and even stories posted on the site you can also get your fill of adult fun from the comfort of your own home! You wouldn’t find that on most dating apps, would you?
Pricing
Pricing | Total Cost | Monthly Cost |
---|---|---|
Free | ||
1 Month | $39.95 | $39.95 |
3 Months | $80.85 | $26.95 |
12 Months | $239.40 | $19.95 |
What You Get For Your Cash
You do need to pay for membership to AdultFriendFinder to send and receive messages, as well as to view full profiles.
With free membership, you can do a few things, like see basic profiles and take part in the various groups and blogs the site offers, but for anything like a full experience signing up as a full member is necessary.
You’ll be pleased to know, though, that full membership offers so many features I genuinely can’t list them all here. You can send and receive unlimited messages, of course, view full profiles, use chat, add friends, watch live streams, and much more.
Basically, with a premium AdultFriendFinder membership the world’s your (sexy?) oyster!
Busy? Here Are The Key Points
- AdultFriendFinder is basically the ultimate hookup site.
- It’s sex-positive, built for all kinds of fun, and has an impressive pedigree after 25 years in the game.
- You do need to pay for membership to use the site fully, but it’s decent value with longer memberships.
- There’s a lot of online content on AdultFriendFinder, so even when you can’t get out to date (or can’t be bothered doing so) you’re still getting bang for your buck (I know there’s a ‘bang’ joke just sitting there, but I’m not going to stoop to it. I’m not!).
Bumble
Best For: Showing what a great feminist you are of course! Also, daters who are a bit sick of Tinder, but still want a similar look and feel from their dating app
Not For Raging sexists, I guess. It is a swipe-based app, so if those aren’t your bag then don’t bother with Bumble.
The Lowdown
Bumble was built by an ex-Tinder employee who felt that modern dating apps were an unpleasant or even unsafe place for women to be. The app’s CEO, Whitney Wolfe Herd, constantly aims to improve Bumble and the experience of its users, particularly women.
If making sure your dates feel comfortable is important to you, then Bumble may provide part of the answer to your problem. Of course, it’s still a swiping app and somewhat like all the others there are plenty of users just looking for something casual.
But in this case, something casual and respectful! Sounds pretty good actually, doesn’t it?
On Bumble, women make the first move. Men can’t send the initial message after matching, and matches disappear after 24 or 48 hours (you have the option of extending match time to show a woman you like her).
That was the premise initially at least – now the app also offers instant photo verification, Snooze features, and a bunch more interesting additions to make app-based dating a little more civilized than it often is!
It’s a good step up from Tinder or even Hinge, but as I said it does still feel very much like a sibling of Tinder.
Pricing
Bumble Boost
Pricing | Upfront Cost | Monthly Cost |
---|---|---|
1 Week | $9.99 | $39.99 |
1 Month | $14.99 | $14.99 |
3 Months | $39.99 | $9.99 |
6 Months | $47.99 | $15.99 |
Bumble Premium
Pricing | Upfront Cost | Monthly Cost |
---|---|---|
1 Week | $19.99 | $79.96 |
1 Month | $32.99 | $32.99 |
3 Months | $66.99 | $22.33 |
Lifetime | $199.99 |
What you get for your cash
Bumble’s two paid packages are Boost and Premium. Boost, the cheaper of the two gets you the following: Backtrack, a feature that lets you rewind your swipes if you accidentally went left instead of right, the ability to extend time on matches, unlimited swipes versus the standard 25, one Spotlight, a kind of profile boost, and, 5 SuperSwipes per week which are essentially super likes.
The more expensive Premium gets you all that, plus Travel Mode, Beeline, which is a feed of everyone who likes you, and access to additional filters to narrow down your matches.
Bumble is supremely usable for free with its relatively high number of free right swipes, but if you have the cash the extra features are all practical. Except for SuperSwipes – who sends those?
Busy? Here are The Key Points
- Another Tinder sibling, but this one is the confident big sister
- Women have the power on Bumble, as it’s on them to send the first message
- With a relatively high number of free right swipes – 25 – on Bumble you really can get everything you need out of it for free. If you want more, though, both premium options have a lot to offer.
- Bumble has two non-dating areas. You can look for friends in Bumble BFF and for work opportunities on Bumble Bizz.
- For an app based on a gimmick (women messaging first), Bumble is shockingly un-gimmicky! It’s a really solid dating app for millennials moving on from Tinder.