Best Online Dating Apps?

[BeanCounter]

I'm new, so I'm sure this has been talked to death, but I have heard a bunch of people talking about being on the "right" app...So what are the best, and why??

Here's what I'm on or have used in the past:

Hinge: probably my favorite. Nice layout and design. Free. Met plenty of decent humans here.

Plenty of Fish: Don't really log into it anymore. Lots of bots, or scammers looking for money.

Match: Haven't used it a ton. Never ended up paying for it, so you can't really communicate unless you pay

E-Harmony: Haven't used forever. Met a few decent humans here way back in the day, but seems to have fallen out of favor?

Bumble: Don't use it anymore. Met one or two nice people here, but seems like no one uses it anymore

Facebook Dating: Met literally no one from it...Lots of great women, but literally barely ever get any responses here

[Alpacalia]

A family member met his spouse on Tinder through a common interest of skiing. 

Another friend met her husband on POF (but that was when POF first came out).

And I think one other person I know met their spouse through Match.

Back when Myspace was around (lol) my friend from high school met her now husband.

 

 

 

[cleverusername]

Have an OK cupid I don't use with like 80 pending matches, haven't really been using the apps anymore now that stuff is opening up again

[d0nnivain]

Like anything else, "best" is subjective.  What might be the best for one person won't work for another.  An atheist is unlikely to find love on Christian Mingle or J-Date.  A city dweller isn't going to be happy on Farmers Only.  A guy who prefers to make the 1st move will be frustrated on Bumble.  

I thought e-harmony delivered what it promised even if I didn't find love.  My husband was on Match at the time so we never would have met through OLD alone. 

If you like it & it's working for you, that's your platform.  Do mix it up & do some in real life searching too, once the world re-opens.  

[Miss Peach]

I did OK Cupid and liked it for awhile but they took away the search functionality and now it's unusable to me. The algorithm is having a hard time guessing what I'm looking for so their recommendations are useless.

 

I've had a lot of luck joining meetup and meeting people organically through different groups. Worst case is I usually enjoy the activity anyway even if I don't meet anyone for dating.

[babybrowns]

From a female point of view who uses all of them, except Hinge which I have yet to discover, Bumble is the place I have met the most decent guys. I put this down to women being the first-move makers on there; helps weed out the creeps a little more.
On Tinder, even if you specifically state on your profile you are not looking for casual, this goes mostly unacknowledged and guys who are blatantly looking for casual get in touch. I even got a recent message “what about something in the middle of dating and casual? Like FWBs?’ 😑

Edited May 27, 2021 by babybrowns

[BeanCounter]

35 minutes ago, Miss Peach said:

I did OK Cupid and liked it for awhile but they took away the search functionality and now it's unusable to me. The algorithm is having a hard time guessing what I'm looking for so their recommendations are useless.

 

I've had a lot of luck joining meetup and meeting people organically through different groups. Worst case is I usually enjoy the activity anyway even if I don't meet anyone for dating.

Do you just go alone? I've got Meetup, but never attended anything. I feel like going in completely cold knowing absolutely no one in a group setting is daunting

[BeanCounter]

24 minutes ago, babybrowns said:

From a female point of view who uses all of them, except Hinge which I have yet to discover, Bumble is the place I have met the most decent guys. I put this down to women being the first-move makers on there; helps weed out the creeps a little more.
On Tinder, even if you specifically state on your profile you are not looking for casual, this goes mostly unacknowledged and guys who are blatantly looking for casual get in touch. I even got a recent message “what about something in the middle of dating and casual? Like FWBs?’ 😑

Yeah, I think overall, men kinda just suck? You should give Hinge a try! There's a lot of quality out there. I felt it was fairly similar to Bumble in the quality of people I found. Maybe I just ran through all my options in Bumble 😆

[d0nnivain]

3 minutes ago, Tim05 said:

Do you just go alone? I've got Meetup, but never attended anything. I feel like going in completely cold knowing absolutely no one in a group setting is daunting

It can be daunting but like anything else in life it's a learned skill.  The good thing about meetups is that there will be a few people there who are good at this & they are able to spot the newbies, like you, who are terrified.  In a good group, they will come over & say hi. 

I used to think I could never do this & I did a lot by myself. Years ago I got sent to some networking thing for work by myself.  I had never been to a business thing without a boss.  I new my ticket was being paid for with the expectation that I would come back with some leads.   I got there & there were over 200 people.  The only person I knew was the lady at the door who was obviously busy.    I was in my early 30s & fairly attractive.  I had no idea how I was supposed to talk to anybody so I started doing laps through this ballroom, silently praying I'd find anybody I'd ever met before. I was terrified; how could I just start talking to a guy without him thinking I was hitting on him & thinking I wanted to sleep with him?  Now remember this was a business thing, not a singles thing  Unbeknownst to me two champion networkers who were long time buddies who had been doing this for years were watching me do my laps & not talk to anybody.  (most people don't pay that much attention but my movements were odd  in that setting if you were paying attention & I was attractive enough to catch people's eye).  Eventually for some reason I settled on them to work up the courage & squeak out a hello.  They were both significantly older than me so I figured (egotistically) they couldn't possibly think I was hitting on them.  Being really good people they seized on the opportunity to take me under their wings, introduce me to everybody & I mean everybody -- I probably met 150 of the 200 people there that night -- and teach me how to work a room.   They were awesome. 

I always remembered that so now I try to greet the shy folks on the fringe when I'm in a group.   I promise there will be somebody like them & me at your Meet-up.  But if there isn't, if you can just manage a simple hello most people will be so grateful that you opened your mouth first it will all work out.  

Another tip for breaking into an on-going conversation, look at how the people are standing relative to each other.  If they are square to each other face to face ➡️ ⬅️ it's a closed conversation & they do not wish to be disturbed.  But if they are in a V shape, so they are closer on one side & even slightly farther away on the other they are open to having somebody else enter.  

Give it a try but don't give up if the 1st group isn't a home run. It takes practice

[BeanCounter]

2 hours ago, d0nnivain said:

It can be daunting but like anything else in life it's a learned skill.  The good thing about meetups is that there will be a few people there who are good at this & they are able to spot the newbies, like you, who are terrified.  In a good group, they will come over & say hi. 

I used to think I could never do this & I did a lot by myself. Years ago I got sent to some networking thing for work by myself.  I had never been to a business thing without a boss.  I new my ticket was being paid for with the expectation that I would come back with some leads.   I got there & there were over 200 people.  The only person I knew was the lady at the door who was obviously busy.    I was in my early 30s & fairly attractive.  I had no idea how I was supposed to talk to anybody so I started doing laps through this ballroom, silently praying I'd find anybody I'd ever met before. I was terrified; how could I just start talking to a guy without him thinking I was hitting on him & thinking I wanted to sleep with him?  Now remember this was a business thing, not a singles thing  Unbeknownst to me two champion networkers who were long time buddies who had been doing this for years were watching me do my laps & not talk to anybody.  (most people don't pay that much attention but my movements were odd  in that setting if you were paying attention & I was attractive enough to catch people's eye).  Eventually for some reason I settled on them to work up the courage & squeak out a hello.  They were both significantly older than me so I figured (egotistically) they couldn't possibly think I was hitting on them.  Being really good people they seized on the opportunity to take me under their wings, introduce me to everybody & I mean everybody -- I probably met 150 of the 200 people there that night -- and teach me how to work a room.   They were awesome. 

I always remembered that so now I try to greet the shy folks on the fringe when I'm in a group.   I promise there will be somebody like them & me at your Meet-up.  But if there isn't, if you can just manage a simple hello most people will be so grateful that you opened your mouth first it will all work out.  

Another tip for breaking into an on-going conversation, look at how the people are standing relative to each other.  If they are square to each other face to face ➡️ ⬅️ it's a closed conversation & they do not wish to be disturbed.  But if they are in a V shape, so they are closer on one side & even slightly farther away on the other they are open to having somebody else enter.  

Give it a try but don't give up if the 1st group isn't a home run. It takes practice

This is all excellent advice, thank you so much. And cool story that you're paying it forward

[ClearEyes-FullHeart]

Definitely give MeetUp a try just for making more connections. There are so many fun options.  I am not one who likes crowds or trying to strike up convos with a group of strangers but after my marriage ended I needed more new connections. I found a cool urban photography/stair climbing group and joined. 

I liked this particular group as it was outdoors, and explored “secret staircases” that had been the subject of various books. I missed the San Francisco walks but got to do many of the great ones in Berkeley and Oakland, saw some really sweet neighborhoods I never knew existed.

The group had been ongoing for five years by the time I joined but there were always new people joining, and new people showing up solo. It was super fun but of course covid put a stop to it! Hopefully it resumes soon. 
 

[Maldives]

On 5/28/2021 at 2:19 AM, BeanCounter said:

I'm new, so I'm sure this has been talked to death, but I have heard a bunch of people talking about being on the "right" app...So what are the best, and why??

Here's what I'm on or have used in the past:

Hinge: probably my favorite. Nice layout and design. Free. Met plenty of decent humans here.

Plenty of Fish: Don't really log into it anymore. Lots of bots, or scammers looking for money.

Match: Haven't used it a ton. Never ended up paying for it, so you can't really communicate unless you pay

E-Harmony: Haven't used forever. Met a few decent humans here way back in the day, but seems to have fallen out of favor?

Bumble: Don't use it anymore. Met one or two nice people here, but seems like no one uses it anymore

Facebook Dating: Met literally no one from it...Lots of great women, but literally barely ever get any responses here

Zoosk probably for me it's a paid subscription but it eliminates the scammers and seems like there are more genuine real people on there looking for a relationship. Increases your chances of having responses and messages from woman because it's a paid subscription. 

[Miss Peach]

On 5/27/2021 at 2:33 PM, BeanCounter said:

Do you just go alone? I've got Meetup, but never attended anything. I feel like going in completely cold knowing absolutely no one in a group setting is daunting

Yes, I go alone. I live in a larger city but after awhile I see a lot of the same people around so there's usually someone I know at most events now. I always manage to meet a few new people too. Even if I don't know anyone just be friendly and you should be able to find people to talk to in most groups.

 

FWIW I've met 4 boyfriends, countless dates, and made many friends from meetup.

Edited May 29, 2021 by Miss Peach

[Weezy1973]

I’m all for covering all your bases. Why only choose one site? I was on 5 at the same time. Tinder, Bumble, POF, OKcupidd and eHarmony. OLD is a numbers game, multiple sites increases your numbers. And getting all those numbers eventually led to meeting my wife. It was a bit of work of course, but anything in life worth doing is going to take some work. 

[BeanCounter]

10 minutes ago, Weezy1973 said:

I’m all for covering all your bases. Why only choose one site? I was on 5 at the same time. Tinder, Bumble, POF, OKcupidd and eHarmony. OLD is a numbers game, multiple sites increases your numbers. And getting all those numbers eventually led to meeting my wife. It was a bit of work of course, but anything in life worth doing is going to take some work. 

Congratulations on your success ❤️

[IntBrowser]

BUMBLE

TINDER

COFFEE MEETS BAGEL.....New

 

 

[LoopyLoop99]

Tinder is for trash.