Looking for a date can be as frustrating as looking for a job, and single professionals don’t always have the time and energy to seek opportunities to meet new people. When you’re not interested in dating your friends, going on blind dates, or getting involved with coworkers, online dating can be your only alternative for romance.
The problem is that young people can spend as much as 10 hours a week swiping on dating apps. That sounds exhausting after the end of a long day. Adding one more thing to your to-do list may not be a viable option.
Fortunately, some professional dating sites do the heavy lifting for you and streamline the dating process so it’s more efficient. We’ve reviewed some of the best dating sites in the market to help busy singles find a partner who supports their ambitions. Let’s get to work!
1. Match
Match.com has come a long way since it launched in April 1995. This well-reputed dating site has honed its match algorithm to identify long-term compatibility and facilitate countless first dates, serious relationships, and successful marriages. Match’s esteemed dating experts go to great lengths to guide singles to a seriously good match.
- Match is the world’s longest running dating site
- The Discover section has search filters by interests, looks, lifestyle, and more
- Match is available in 50 countries and 15 languages
- Browse Match profiles 100% free »
Without a doubt, Match is the most respected dating site in the industry. This online dating platform launched in 1995 and has grown to 30 million users, of which 13.5 million are monthly visitors. About 75% of Match users are over 30 years old, which makes it the perfect dating pool for single professionals who want to find serious relationships.
Since its launch, Match has appealed to individuals with thriving lives who are seeking a loving partner to share their lives with. These professional singles rely on Match’s advanced filters (e.g., occupation, education, and salary range), Daily Matches, and matchPhone to narrow down their choices to find someone special.
Even better, you can join Match Events to meet new people on the spot. At these events, you don’t need to think about the icebreaker and how to make things interesting as the Match team does that for you. If that sounds perfect, then create a free dating profile to start your quest for love.
EliteSingles.com maintains a sophisticated network of young professionals seeking a relationship. Over 80% of its members hold a bachelor’s, master’s, or doctorate degree, and over 90% are over the age of 30. Elite Singles uses an intelligent matchmaking system to introduce daters to someone on their level.
- Over 2 million monthly users
- Premium members receive 20 wildcard matches a day
- Search features include age, height, education, ethnicity, and lifestyle habits
- Browse Elite Singles profiles 100% free »
Elite Singles was founded around 2002 and targets highly educated singles with promising careers. Today, over 82% of its members are 30 or older and have a bachelor’s, master’s, or doctorate degree. Almost all of them are financially stable and ready to start a family. If you’re tired of casual hookups and flaky people, this app is worth trying out.
EliteSingles inspires an average of over 2,000 love matches every month. This is no surprise as the app includes personalized match recommendations and prewritten icebreaker messages to help you spark a connection. Professional daters can join this elite dating community without paying anything, but only premium members can view photos and send private messages.
3. eharmony
Since its launch in 2000, eharmony has endeavored to find the formula for love. Its 32-dimension personality test uses psychological truths to identify areas of compatibility between two individuals. The dating site’s mission is to foster relationships that last, and every potential match has a reason behind it.
- Over 2 million people have found love here
- Users can filter their match recommendations by age or city
- Compatibility Quiz identifies common interests, lifestyles, and goals
- Browse eharmony profiles 100% free »
The year 2000 was the beginning of a new millennium, and it was also the year eharmony debuted in the online dating industry. Created by Dr. Neil Clark Warren, it set its mission to strengthen the institution of marriage by helping serious online daters find compatible partners. This was a new approach at the time, as online dating was predominantly known for facilitating casual hookups.
So far, thanks to eharmony’s Compatibility Matching Quiz, over 2 million couples in the U.S. have said “I do.” The algorithm sends the most compatible matches to the user’s inbox based on the criteria on the personality test. This suits the lifestyle of single professionals who are busy juggling work and their personal life and have little time to spare for dating drama.
4. OurTime
OurTime is an over-50 dating site with a lot of helpful features to facilitate friendships and relationships. Senior singles can look for dates themselves using the search tools, or they can view a curated list of matches to find compatible folks. Singles can send likes, flirts, and faves for free, but they have to subscribe to send messages to their online crushes.
- Open to straight, gay, and lesbian singles over 50
- Free match recommendations and conversation starters
- Use Tokens to promote your profile and send virtual gifts
- Browse OurTime profiles 100% free »
Are you over 40, busy, and worried about running out of time to date? Rest easy. You can always find new people by playing the swiping game on OurTime. After a mutual swipe right, singles can chat to get to know each other. This premier dating site is a dating pool for singles in their 50s, 60s, 70s, and up, and can offer a fresh start to ignite your love life.
This app is a sister site of Match, so you can count on its reliability. The app claims that every profile photo and description is reviewed by a moderator to ensure the best-quality matches for the users. Unfortunately, OurTime gets only 3.4 stars in Google Play and 3.9 stars in the Apple Store. When it comes to this app, people seem to either love their experience or hate it. Therefore, you might need first-hand experience to decide for yourself.
Ashley Madison is an extramarital dating site with over 80 million profiles in its private database, and it is full of temptation. The site and app offer a judgment-free zone where married people can consider their options and chat with singles who are willing to get together on the down-low.
- A uniquely open-minded dating network
- Privacy-conscious features
- Over 1.4 million matches per month
- Browse Ashley Madison profiles 100% free »
If your day job keeps you busy and you’re seeking some fun, Ashley Madison might be your top pick. You don’t need to be single to pick up a hot date in this app, whose motto is “Life is short. Have an affair.”
Given the nature of the site, safety is a hot topic. But you don’t have to worry for several reasons: 1) Ashley Madison allows you to blur or mask your profile picture. 2) You can use a nickname for your dating profile, and 3) You’re given a panic button, which quickly shifts away from Ashley Madison to an innocent website.
This affair dating site gives a free ride to all women while making men pay to engage with potential dates. To get what you want, you can use a filter to sort your matches by age, location, encounter type, appearance, or ethnicity, among other cases. Once you connect with someone interesting, you can chat online and see where it takes you.
SilverSingles is serious about helping singles over 50 meet one another, and its network stretches across the U.S., Canada, and Europe. The secure signup process includes profile verification and fraud detection, so new members must portray themselves accurately to gain access to the platform. By fostering a safe environment, SilverSingles helps men and women meet mature dates in their area.
- An exclusively senior membership base
- Over 800,000 monthly users worldwide
- App available for free on Google Play
- Browse SilverSingles profiles 100% free »
If you’re a senior single who is too busy to play the swiping game and who wants to get recommendations for a compatible match, Silver Singles may be your best bet. This platform adopts the layout and matchmaking system of its sister site, Elite Singles, but caters exclusively to singles over 50.
To narrow the dating pool, you can set match preferences regarding age, religion, income, and education. If you need to cast a wider net, you can use the Have You Met section. To show your interest in someone, you can send smiles or likes for free. Messaging is reserved for premium members to avoid wishy-washy individuals.
Christian Mingle is a faith-based dating website for singles who want a relationship grounded in Christian values. People of all religions and backgrounds turn to this site in hopes of meeting a good Christian man or a good Christian woman. Christian Mingle’s claim to fame is that it has the highest percentage of Christian members of any dating site or app in the world.
- For singles interested in God-centered relationships
- Over 3.5 million monthly users around the world
- Available as an app on Google Play and the App Store
- Browse Christian Mingle profiles 100% free »
In the Christian dating niche, Christian Mingle is the first name that comes to mind. This dating site caters to those who want to build a Christian household or non-Christians seeking an interfaith relationship. With over 15 million people in its database and 2.4 million monthly visitors, this app helps professional singles find a relationship based on faith.
You can start using Christian Mingle for free to upload profile photos, browse the database, and enjoy interest-based chatting. Christian Mingle will give you curated match suggestions from the app, or you can browse on your own. You can disclose how often you go to church and what faith means to you in your dating profile. This detailed information helps Christian singles talk about what matters and form meaningful connections.
Facebook launched a dating service, cleverly dubbed Facebook Dating, on a mission to expand its ability to connect people in meaningful relationships. The dating app is completely free to use and provides unique matchmaking features, including the Secret Crush option that taps into your Friends list to find mutual matches. Facebook Dating is only accessible through the Facebook app, and it has yet to gain as much traction as the more established names in the industry.
- Totally free communication for all users
- Dating activity is separate from the mainstream FB newsfeed
- Detailed profile information includes Facebook events and interest groups
- Browse Facebook Dating profiles 100% free »
Facebook Dating was created when the social media giant Facebook decided to join the matchmaking game. Free membership includes instant messaging, potential match recommendations, and a Secret Crush feature through which a single professional can (secretly) show interest in someone in their Facebook friends list.
Regarding safety, you don’t need to worry because: 1) Your activity on Facebook Dating will not appear in your Facebook profile, and 2) You can’t take screenshots in the app, which means your love life will remain private.
As a dating site, Facebook Dating just isn’t as popular as some of the other big players in the online dating scene. It is free to use and has interesting features for meeting people, but single professionals should realize that matches may not be so plentiful here.
9. OkCupid
In 2004, OkCupid’s founders decided to create a fool-proof formula for love, and they launched a free dating site to delve into what personal attributes made relationships work. OkCupid members can send unlimited messages for free. It’s easy to discover mutual interests and compatibility on the platform’s information-rich dating profiles.
- Free, unlimited communication for everyone
- Singles can swipe or search for a compatible date
- Over 91 million connections every year
- Browse OkCupid profiles 100% free »
If professional singles want to approach love through science, they must try OkCupid. It’s a data-driven dating service that is 100% free and open to everyone. The app says that it facilitates about 50,000 first dates every week and 91 million connections every year.
You can create a profile, answer personal questions, and send a first message to anyone on the platform. OkCupid users match based on common interests and have fun conversations. Whether you’re looking for friendship or romance, OkCupid is here for it. However, some users complain about the app’s membership quality, bringing its average rating down to 4.3 on the Apple Store and 3.5 on Google Play.
FAQs: Do Premium Membership Options Really Work?
Although you can use most of the features on a dating app without paying a dime, becoming a paid member has definite benefits. Paid plans can offer more search filters, messaging options, and swipe lists. Some even boost your profile’s visibility. If you want a better chance of getting your happily ever after, an online dating paid membership is worth the investment.
On the other hand, you must realize there is no guarantee you’ll meet someone special. All dating is a gamble, and you need to play the game to reap the result. If you don’t put in any effort, the possibility of meeting the right person will drop to zero. Approach online dating as a chance to roll the dice and tip the odds in your favor. Enjoy the ride and see where it takes you!
Is There a Dating Service With Video Chat?
If you’re a professional single tired of dating people who don’t meet your standards, you need to give The League a shot. The dating app encourages users to set high standards and not settle for underachievers and flakes. You may need to be patient as you wait for your perfect match, but many users say it’s worth the time and investment.
Kevin praised The League in his review on Google Play. “It took me several months to get off the waitlist (just download and forget it’s there), but after that, everything was flawless,” Kevin wrote. “My matches were career-oriented, literally had 0 spam (a first time for me), and went on some great (and one not-so-great) dates. There were no mismatching issues, such as distance, for me personally.”
New members applying to The League must verify their education, job title, and background through LinkedIn or Facebook. This selection process ensures that the dating pool consists of top-notch individuals.
The League curates new matches for users, and those top picks expire after 21 days, so don’t procrastinate on sending messages. Members can also use the League Live feature to go on three-minute video dates and see if there’s a spark. These mini-dates can save professional singles a lot of time and energy.
Download The League on your phone to get started for free. This app has been downloaded more than 500,000 times, resulting in 4.1 stars with 37,800 ratings in the Apple Store and 3.5 stars with 5,110 reviews on Google Play.
Do Any Dating Apps Offer Speed Dating Features?
Professional men and women typically have specific attributes they want in a partner. An ideal partner should have qualities like respect, kindness, loyalty, independence, and empathy. The problem is those characteristics are difficult to judge through profiles and pictures on mainstream dating platforms. Only a conversation can help daters truly vet their potential matches, and that’s why video dating and virtual speed dating have become more popular over the years.
The newly launched Filter Off app sets up users on a series of 90-second video dates each week to see if they have chemistry. After that quick chat, you can decide whether you’re interested in meeting in real life.
The app is currently available in the New York City region, and Zach plans to expand it soon. The app’s Google Play reviews are a mixed bag. Nicholas Stamboulellis wrote in his review that he wished the app had more members and could give him more local options. After expanding his search radius to over 50 miles, he said he still only found two people he considered worth messaging. “Slow start but has so much potential,” he said. “This is a really unique, fresh idea.”
What Are the Best Dating Sites for Hookups?
If you’re not a fan of a classic relationship trajectory, you’re not alone. Some dating sites are made just right for you. Here are three dating apps for those who want to enjoy the encounter without the bells and whistles of committing to a relationship.
Registering for an account on Adult Friend Finder (AFF) is like speeding into the fast lane of the online dating world. This hookup site puts you in the center of action and encourages sexy singles and swingers to satisfy their secret fantasies. Anyone over 18 can join AFF and browse millions of profiles for free, but only full-fledged members have access to the revealing content in the community forums and chat rooms.
- One of the largest adults-only sex communities
- Free and fast registration process
- Dating forums and live chats foster live flirtation
- Browse Adult Friend Finder profiles 100% free »
After a long day at work, you may want to seek sex online. If that’s the case, Adult Friend Finder will suit you best. This app welcomes everything, including one-night stands, swinging, threesomes, and anything in between. With over 100 million people in the database and 25.5 million monthly visitors, you have an almost unlimited number of people to connect with. Free members can browse the site, enjoy erotic content, and post in group chat rooms. But if you want to send private messages and view videos you must be a paid member.
As a professional, you should also be aware of the 2016 Adult Friend Finder hack that jeopardized about 340 million accounts, with 15 million of them supposedly having been deleted. Despite all of that, AFF says it has upped its security since then. If you hang out in this app, you have to be cautious about the information you share. The last thing you need is for your online dating adventure to threaten your career.
2. Flirt.com
If casual sex is your goal, then Flirt.com can be your wingman. This sex site offers anonymous browsing, advanced searches, and private communication, all for free, to help single men and women find a potential partner and arrange sexual encounters that satisfy their secret fantasies.
- A massive user base of over 70 million dating profiles
- Send a free private message or Flirtcast to get something going
- Exchange nude pics or adult videos with a Flirt member you trust
- Browse Flirt.com profiles 100% free »
If your job isn’t stable enough to build a serious relationship, you may want to flirt and have fun with no expectations. As a casual dating site, Flirt.com may be worth your while. On this platform, you can forget about a matchmaking system or questions about your interests, values, or background. What matters here are your looks and your charm. Currently, Flirt.com operates in 45 countries and in over 20 languages, boasting a user base of over 1 million registered members.
Signing up is quick and simple. You can narrow your dating pool by using filters for age, activity, distance, and even photo quality. If you’re too lazy to start one-on-one conversations, use Flirtcast to broadcast your opening line to anyone on the platform and see what pops up. Unfortunately, member photos are reserved for paid members. Also, as a heads-up, the website has several shady users and fake profiles.
3. BeNaughty
When it comes to arranging hookups, BeNaughty is fast, easy, fun, and safe. This dating site has built a global network of sexy men and women who want to skip the small talk and cut right to the chase. If you’re interested in short-term romance, BeNaughty is the place to go and get your flirt on.
- A global network of naughty singles over 18
- Ability to blur nude and explicit content, if desired
- Advanced search filters and one-on-one messaging
- Browse BeNaughty profiles 100% free »
BeNaughty is another platform for those who are tired of their demanding jobs and who want to have fun online. The app places no limits on your sexual explorations.You can find your play partner among 13.3 million BeNaughty monthly users of various ages, genders, sexual orientations, relationship statuses, etc.
To start, simply download BeNaughty and get a free account. You don’t need to worry about safety, as all members are verified, and the site uses SSL encryption to keep your information safe. Plus, you can block and report any members who make you feel uneasy.
Is It Possible to Find a Serious Love Interest Online?
Absolutely! Finding a serious love interest online is not just a shot in the dark — it’s actually pretty likely. This is backed by online dating marriage statistics as well as success love stories from ordinary people like you and me.
Take the story of Amber and Benjamin who met on an online dating app in 2019 and tied the knot in 2022. He messaged her that she had a “smidge of cute on her face,” and they sparked a connection based on similar interests in Disney movies and progressive values. A casual conversation on an app became so much more once they met in person at a coffee shop. The married couple are now expecting their first son.
If you’re in it for something serious, online dating love stories should inspire you to take action. Whether it’s through shared interests, common values, or just a stroke of luck, you have a chance of finding your special person online.
Online Dating Can Save Singles Valuable Time
For single professionals, time is precious. Nobody wants to spend their evening on a dating site without results after working eight hours at the office. Luckily, some dating apps designed for professionals have made the online dating journey smoother and faster.
It’s free to create a dating profile, start swiping, or wait for a recommendation from the algorithm. Once someone grabs your attention, you can build a connection online and see where it goes. Think of it like job scouting — but for love!
