By 2017, 39 per cent of heterosexual couples in the United States had met online, making the internet the most common way for American couples to get together. That is the headline finding of a nationally representative study by the sociologists Michael Rosenfeld, Reuben Thomas and Sonia Hausen, published in PNAS in 2019. The detail underneath is more interesting. Phone apps accounted for at least half the growth in online meeting between 2010 and 2017, the authors found. The other half of the story belongs to the older, slower web, where the paper’s examples are sites such as Match.com, eharmony and Plenty of Fish.
Those sites are still here, and they still work differently. They ask for longer profiles, they let you search rather than simply swipe, and several of them want you to answer questions before they introduce you to anyone. This guide ranks the best dating sites for people who want something serious: services you can use as comfortably on a laptop at the kitchen table as on a phone on the bus. If you want the swipe-led apps, our best dating apps pillar ranks the top ten.
Quick picks: the top dating sites at a glance
- Best overall dating site: Match (8.7), for its search filters, stated intentions and in-person events
- Best for a long-term relationship: eharmony (8.6), which matches you through a compatibility questionnaire
- Best for values and identity: OkCupid (8.4), with about 500 match questions
- Best for faith-led marriage: Muzz (8.2), for Muslim singles
- Best big free site: Plenty of Fish (7.9), with the strongest published safety kit here
- Best site only for over-50s: Ourtime (7.6)
Dating websites compared: scores, ratings and prices
| Site | Best for | Our score | Store rating (store, country, date) | Free version | Paid from |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Match | Search, filters, events | 8.7 | 3.8 (App Store, UK, 19 Oct 2026) | Yes | £19.99/week |
| eharmony | Long-term compatibility | 8.6 | 2.9 (Google Play, UK, 19 Oct 2026) | Yes (Basic) | Shown after sign-up |
| OkCupid | Values-led matching | 8.4 | 4.2 (App Store, UK, 19 Oct 2026) | Yes | Premium from £5.99 |
| Muzz | Muslim marriage | 8.2 | 4.3 (Google Play, UK, 19 Oct 2026) | Yes | Not published |
| Plenty of Fish | Large free pool | 7.9 | 4.1 (App Store, UK, 19 Oct 2026) | Yes | £19.99/week |
| Ourtime | Over-50s only | 7.6 | 3.9 (App Store, UK, 19 Oct 2026) | Yes | £19.99/week |
| Dating.com | Overseas video chat | 6.8 | 3.3 (App Store, UK, 19 Oct 2026) | Registration only | £8.49 |
| SilverSingles | Over-50s personality test | 6.8 | Not verified | Yes | Not published |
Prices are those listed on the UK App Store on 19 October 2026. The store rarely says which price belongs to which plan length, so check the subscription screen before paying.
Match: the best dating site for people who like to search
Match says it has been operating since 1995 and “pioneered online dating nearly 30 years ago”, and its US homepage still pitches itself at “intentional daters”. The tools follow from that: a Dating Intention filter, Core Values you add to your profile, and Highlights, a daily set of curated profiles. In the US, Match says members can message their matches for free.
Match in the UK is a slightly different product, part of Match Group’s Meetic network and a member of the Online Dating Association. It says every profile picture and description is moderated, and offers Zen Mode, which lets only members who meet your criteria contact you, and Incognito Mode for browsing unseen.
The UK App Store listing describes Speak-easy evenings at venues in select UK locations, with conversation guides provided. On 19 October 2026 it listed a one-week Pass at £19.99, one month at £39.99 and six months at £79.99, and Match held 3.8 from about 41,000 UK ratings. The Essential Pass lets you see who liked you; Premium adds unlimited messages and advanced filters; Prestige adds a daily Boost. Our Match review covers the 2025 FTC settlement over its past cancellation practices, which is reason enough to read the renewal terms.
eharmony: compatibility matching for a lasting relationship
eharmony has asked people to fill in a questionnaire before meeting anyone since it was founded in 2000. The UK site describes a Compatibility Quiz covering personality, interests and communication style, which builds a Personality Profile. Its Android app, according to Google Play, gives every suggested single a matching score and requires profiles to be at least half complete.
The pitch is that someone else does the sifting, which appeals to people who find endless browsing dispiriting. Free Basic members can take the quiz, view profiles and send likes and first messages. Premium adds all members’ photos, the full Personality Profile and adjustable search settings. The claim that it has helped more than two million people find love is the company’s own.
The weak points are practical. eharmony does not publish prices on its site; you see them after signing up. On 19 October 2026 the Android app held 2.9 from about 66,900 reviews on Google Play in the UK, the lowest rating of any major service here. The company was bought in 2018 by NuCom Group and Parship Elite Group, both part of the German broadcaster ProSiebenSat.1, according to the parent company. Our eharmony review has the detail.
OkCupid: the questionnaire site for values-led dating
OkCupid wants your opinions before your photos. Its help centre says the system holds about 500 match questions and suggests new members answer 50 to 100 to begin. Each answer feeds a match percentage you can unpick question by question, which makes compatibility visible rather than mysterious. The same page admits that many questions are American, because most users are, so British members will do some skipping.
Its identity options are among the broadest of any mainstream service: 22 gender options and 20 orientation options, plus additional LGBTQ+ identity tags, according to its identity tags guide.
The free tier still lets you like, match and message. Premium shows you who has liked you and lets you set dealbreakers. On the UK App Store on 19 October 2026, OkCupid Premium items were listed between £5.99 and £44.99, without plan lengths, and the app held 4.2 from about 17,000 ratings. It is owned by Match Group. Our OkCupid review explains Premium Plus and the privacy questions identity data raises.
Plenty of Fish: a big, free dating site with serious safety tools
Plenty of Fish has scale on its side. On 19 October 2026 it held 4.1 from about 275,000 ratings on the UK App Store, and Ofcom counted 170,000 UK adults visiting it on Valentine’s Day 2024, the fifth most of any dating service. It is part of Match Group.
For a site at this size, safety matters more than usual, and POF publishes more about it than most rivals. Its Safety Toolbox, available in the app and on the web, gathers Selfie Verification (which adds a badge, and lets you ask a match to verify from a chat), Share My Date for sending a trusted contact the time and place of a meeting, reporting and blocking. The app also limits how many opening messages a member can send, which the company says discourages one-word intros.
The downsides are cost and noise. A large free pool means more filtering, and the UK App Store listed a one-week subscription at £19.99 and one month at £29.99. Our Plenty of Fish review sets out what each tier buys.
Muzz: the marriage-minded site for Muslim singles
Muzz is built for one community and one goal. The Muzz website claims more than 20 million Muslim members, over a million success stories and “more than 950 happy Muslim couples every day”, all company figures. It is mainly a phone app, but sign-up and log-in also run in a browser at app.muzz.com.
What sets it apart is privacy. Members can hide their photos, use a nickname and invite a chaperone, or wali, into conversations, and Muzz says it blocks screenshots and screen recordings of photos. Profiles are checked with a selfie, SMS confirmation and location checks, according to the website, while the Google Play listing adds ID verification. Video calls are free and do not require sharing a phone number.
Seeing profiles, matching and chatting are free; Muzz Gold adds more detailed searching, though the company does not publish its price. On 19 October 2026 the app held 4.3 from about 336,000 Google Play reviews in the UK. It is designed for people seeking marriage within the faith, and serves that aim closely.
Ourtime: a dating website exclusively for the over-50s
Ourtime answers the commonest complaint older daters make about mainstream services: too many people half their age. The UK site describes itself as for “like-minded singles over 50”, runs its age filters from 50 to 100 and covers gay and lesbian dating as well as straight. It is a Meetic network website, which puts it in the same Match Group family as Match UK.
According to the UK App Store listing, you pick three core values, chat free once two members have liked each other, and can use a private mode to stay out of search results. Ourtime says it moderates every profile picture and description, and the site mentions video conversations and local activities for members.
On 19 October 2026 the UK App Store listed one week at £19.99, a month at £39.99, three months at £74.99 and six months at £119.99, with Ourtime holding 3.9 from about 9,200 ratings. It loses marks for a smaller pool and vague member numbers (“thousands”). Our over-50s guide compares it with the alternatives.
Dating.com: an international site where conversation costs credits
Dating.com says it has members in more than 150 countries and has been connecting people for 26 years; its Google Play listing says over 70. It is built for long-distance contact, with video chat, voice messages, virtual gifts and translation tools, and members marked as verified have confirmed their identity with government ID. It is one of the best-known international sites, but read the small print.
Registration is free; most contact is not. According to its terms and conditions, basic chat costs 1 credit a minute, video chat up to 12 credits a minute and an email 10 credits, and unused credits expire 90 days after purchase. On the UK App Store a Premium Membership with 70 credits a month was listed at £19.99 on 19 October 2026. By our arithmetic, that is about 29p a credit, so ten minutes of video chat at the top rate would cost roughly £34.
The terms also say third-party suppliers providing translation can access members’ correspondence, and that the company “can’t guarantee” each member is using their profile personally. Store ratings are split: 4.4 from about 165,000 reviews on Google Play in the UK, but 3.3 from about 2,100 UK App Store ratings. The international dating guide has cheaper cross-border alternatives.
SilverSingles: a familiar over-50s name with an unclear future
SilverSingles remains one of the best-known brands in mature dating, and its website is live, aimed at “discerning singles over 50” and promising that every profile is verified. Its footer says it “does not conduct background checks”,. Australia’s eSafety Commissioner, in its guide to the service, says free members get a personality test and limited messaging, with unlimited messaging and read receipts behind a subscription.
The caveat is ownership. SilverSingles was one of the brands of Spark Networks, whose German subsidiary was placed under preliminary insolvency administration by a Berlin court in January 2026, Global Dating Insights reported. Sister site EliteSingles shut down on 30 April 2026. The SilverSingles footer now credits “SilverSingles.com / SuccessfulMatch.com, Inc.” Until its future is clearer, we would avoid long subscriptions.
Dating sites vs dating apps: which suits you
The distinction has blurred: most of the sites here also have apps, and several apps can be used in a browser. The real difference is design. Sites built around search, long profiles and questionnaires ask more of you up front; swipe-led apps ask for a few photos and a thumb.
Different people gravitate to each. Pew Research Center’s 2022 survey of 6,034 American adults found that among online daters aged 50 and over, half had used Match and only 11 per cent Tinder, according to its key findings. Among users under 30, 79 per cent had used Tinder. Ofcom found something similar in time spent: only 6 per cent of Britons aged 55 to 64 visited a dating service in 2024, but those who did spent 5 hours 43 minutes on them, longer than any other age group, the regulator reported.
Intentions vary too. In Pew’s full report, 44 per cent of recent users said finding a long-term partner was a major reason for using a site or app, against 40 per cent who wanted to date casually. Pew also found that users who had paid were more likely to describe their experience as positive (58 per cent) than those who had not (about half), which may say as much about commitment as about the product.
If you want volume and speed, an app will suit you. If you want to set criteria, read before replying and meet people who have stated their intentions, a dating site usually serves you better. Ofcom found that most users try more than one service anyway.
How we ranked these dating websites
Our scores are consistent across the site, so Match keeps its 8.7 here as it does in our overall ranking. Every score weighs match quality (35 per cent), features (25 per cent), safety and verification (25 per cent) and value (15 per cent), built on published features, prices, store ratings and official data rather than invented testing. The full method is on our how we review page.
Explore our specialist lists
- Best dating apps: our top ten across every kind of dating, from Hinge to HER.
- Best free dating apps: what you can actually do without paying a penny.
- Best dating apps in the UK: UK prices, UK ratings and the services Britons use most.
- Best dating apps in the USA: US prices and ratings for American daters.
- Best LGBTQ+ dating apps: queer-first apps and the mainstream ones that get inclusion right.
- Best dating sites for over-50s: later-life dating, companionship and how to avoid fraud.
- Best international dating sites: travel modes, diaspora apps and long-distance safety.
- Best AI companion apps: the 18+ chatbots people talk to, ranked with their privacy trade-offs.
Staying safe on dating sites: scams and how to report them
Long conversations are exactly what a romance scam needs. Victims in the UK lost more than £102 million to romance fraud in 2025, with 10,784 reports and an average loss of £9,500, City of London Police reported in May 2026. People aged 55 to 74 accounted for close to half of the losses. In the US, the FBI’s 2025 Internet Crime Report recorded $929 million lost to confidence and romance fraud across 23,159 complaints.
The patterns are well documented. The FTC says scammers often claim to live abroad, work on an oil rig or serve in the military so they never have to meet, then ask for money for medical bills, travel or visa fees, usually by wire transfer, gift card, payment app or cryptocurrency, according to its guidance. The basics:
- Never send money, crypto or gift cards to someone you have not met face to face.
- Ask for a live video call early. Repeated excuses are a warning sign.
- Reverse-search their photos, and search their job title with the word “scammer”.
- Be wary of strong feelings that arrive fast, or pressure to move off the site.
- Use the site’s tools: verification badges, Share My Date on POF, Zen Mode on Match UK.
- Tell a friend. Scammers depend on secrecy.
If you think you are being targeted, stop contact and call your bank immediately if money has gone. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, report it to Report Fraud, which replaced Action Fraud in December 2025, at reportfraud.police.uk or on 0300 123 2040; in Scotland, call Police Scotland on 101. In the US, report to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov and the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov. Always report the profile to the site too. Our romance scam statistics have the fuller picture.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best dating site for a serious relationship?
For most people, Match: it combines stated intentions, Core Values and proper search filters with in-person events. If you would rather be matched than search, eharmony’s compatibility questionnaire is the more structured choice.
Are dating sites better than dating apps?
Neither is better in general. Sites built on search and long profiles tend to suit people who know what they want and are happy to put time in; Pew found Match far more popular than Tinder among online daters over 50. Swipe apps suit volume and speed.
Is there a good free dating site?
Plenty of Fish, OkCupid and Muzz all let you match and message without paying, and Match says US members can message matches free. Expect the most useful extras, such as seeing who liked you, to sit behind a subscription.
How much do dating sites cost in the UK?
On the UK App Store in October 2026, Match, Ourtime and Plenty of Fish all listed one-week plans at £19.99, with Match’s six-month Pass at £79.99. eharmony shows prices only after sign-up, and Dating.com charges credits for most contact.
Is SilverSingles still running?
Its website was live in October 2026. Its former parent, Spark Networks, entered insolvency proceedings in Germany in January 2026 and sister site EliteSingles closed in April, so check who operates it before committing to a long plan.