Best dating sites 2023 top online dating services for men and women of all ages expert reviews
Best dating sites 2023: Top online dating services for men and women of all ages
On the downside, a niche site limits your choices. You may assume you will want to date someone who shares a specific interest, but attraction doesn’t work like that in real life. Your ideal match may not fit the formula. And remember, mainstream sites do let you narrow your search, then expand it gradually to widen the net.Best dating sites 2023: Top online dating services for men and women of all ages
Want to find your perfect match? We've picked the best dating sites whatever your age, sexuality, interests… and budget
Online dating can seriously improve your love life – but to really boost your odds, you need to start with the best dating site.
With more than 1,400 online dating services in the UK alone, choosing the best site for you can feel as intimidating as finding the right person. Should you join a specialist site where you’re guaranteed to meet like-minded singles? Or should you throw the net as wide as possible? To make it even harder, most dating sites hide their subscription prices until you’ve created a profile.
To help you choose, we created temporary profiles on more than a dozen dating sites. Here we expose the prices they would rather keep secret and reveal which sites are best for user experience, clever features, and chances of finding love.
Best dating sites: at a glance
- Best for quick replies and wide choice: Match
- Best for LGBT relationships: UK GayParship
- Best with a completely free plan: OkCupid
- Best for finding long-term love: eHarmony
- Best for disabled people: EnableDating
How to choose the right dating site for you
Should I use a niche dating site, such as dating for dog lovers?
There are pros and cons to narrowing down your search from the get-go. Niche dating sites tend to be cheaper than mainstream sites, for starters, but the biggest advantage of a specialist site is the feeling of being among friends. If you’re new to the online dating jungle, a niche site can help you feel more at ease than a huge mainstream site, where you can easily feel overwhelmed.
See RelatedYou may be surprised by the number of specialist dating sites out there. More than half the UK’s 1,400 dating sites cater for a specific group such as over 50s, gay daters, and disabled daters. There are matchmaking sites for wine connoisseurs, people who share your music taste, and – yes – dating for dog lovers.
On the downside, a niche site limits your choices. You may assume you will want to date someone who shares a specific interest, but attraction doesn’t work like that in real life. Your ideal match may not fit the formula. And remember, mainstream sites do let you narrow your search, then expand it gradually to widen the net.
The other big advantage of mainstream sites is that they tend to offer more innovative features, such as live chat, rich profile tools, and incognito modes. We will mention the best tools in our reviews below.
Why don’t I just use a free app like Tinder?
Free dating apps such as Tinder, Badoo, and Facebook Dating are great for finding hook-ups, but they’re not designed to find you a match for life.
In this review we’re focusing on services that aim to find you a compatible partner. They charge subscription fees and make you wade through epic questionnaires because they want to filter out casual browsers. So be prepared to spend an afternoon spilling your heart out as part of the sign-up process before you can get anywhere near other members’ profiles.
Top tips for safe online dating
Guard your personal information carefully. The thrill of connecting with someone online can easily make you drop your guard. You want to tell them everything. Well, don’t. Information like your mum’s maiden name, your street, and even your pets’ names are gold dust for scammers.
Don’t swap numbers until you’ve met. Many sites, including eHarmony and EnableDating, have secure online calling features that let you chat without having to give away your phone number.
Be cautious of file downloads. If a stranger emails you a ZIP file of songs or photos, it may be perfectly innocent – but it could also be dodgy malware. Don’t open files until you know the person better.
Meet up quickly. Chemistry is almost impossible to assess through emails alone. Meet up soon, so you can be sure there really is a spark. If the person you’re chatting to keeps putting off the chance to meet, ask yourself why.
Report suspicious behaviour. If someone makes you feel uncomfortable or gets abusive, don’t hesitate to report them to the website.
Check the site has signed up to the ODA. If you’re in the UK, make sure your chosen dating site follows the Online Dating Association code of practice. Enter the site’s name into the ODA’s free ‘Check a site‘ tool to find out if it’s registered.
Don’t pay for the same service twice! Many dating sites are owned by the same company and/or share a database of members. For instance, Classic FM Romance, The Telegraph Dating, and Smooth Radio Singles all use the same database as each other. We’ve made sure all the services we mention below are separate from each other.
The best dating sites for 2023
1. eHarmony: Best dating site for finding long-term love
Price: Free to join, then from £8.95/month | Join eHarmony
eHarmony is a right old pain to join. Before posting a profile, you have to wade through dozens of soul-searching multi-choice questions about yourself and your approach to life. After that, you can’t see people’s photos until you’re a paid-up member, and even then you can only see pics of people you’ve been ‘matched’ with.
It’s hard work, but that’s the point. eHarmony is committed to filtering out time-wasters and matching you with genuine potential partners. If you’re a woman who’s fed up with the torrent of “winks” you get on other sites, eHarmony will come as a big relief. And if you’re a man on eHarmony, women will know you’re serious.
All adults are welcome here, but you may prefer one of its sister sites for a more focused search. eHarmony Gay Dating focuses on same-sex relationships; eHarmony Lifestyle Dating focuses on cultural background; and eHarmony Single Parents matches lone mums and dads.
Premium plans, which let you send unlimited messages and see who’s viewed your profile, are priced roughly in line with eHarmony’s rivals. As with most of these sites, the pricing isn’t an exact science – there are generous discounts if you return after months away, even if you didn’t pay for premium membership before.
eHarmony price per month
| Contract length | 24 months | 12 months | 6 months |
| Premium plan | £8.95 | £11.95 | £29.90 |