As online and mobile dating gain popularity, it’s no surprise that free lesbian dating apps have become more common. In fact, lesbians (in addition to other members of the LGBTQ+ community) reported using dating apps and online dating platforms much more often than straight singles in 2020. 

While more dating choices can seem like a good problem to have, it does make it more difficult to know what the best gay dating app is. Our experts have reviewed the top options for lesbian singles, and here’s what we’ve found.

Free Lesbian Dating Apps for Sex

If all you’re looking for is a casual hookup, it can be tricky to sort through matches on all-purpose dating apps. These lesbian hookup app and site options put the emphasis on finding someone for a casual encounter, so there’s no miscommunication. 

Category Rating
★★★★ 4.2/5.0
  • Sexually active women in the U.S., Canada, and Europe
  • Advanced search parameters include orientation and body type
  • Lesbian, bisexual, and queer women connect in private messages

While BeNaughty isn’t strictly for lesbian singles, the online dating site is very direct about its purpose: finding a good hookup. Another BeNaughty advantage that any lesbian woman will  appreciate is that, while men have to upgrade to premium membership to send unlimited messages, women only have to upload a profile picture to get the same benefit.

Premium membership, which comes in several options, still provides several perks. The Security Package provides HTTP encryption, automatic history clearing, and incognito browsing. Other paid membership perks include things like premium messaging options and more information on the profiles you view, along with increased visibility. 

Category Rating
★★★★ 4.1/5.0

Just like the name says, LesbianPersonals is a site strictly for gay women. Straight women and single men are barred from the site, though couples are allowed — provided one of the people in the couple is a queer woman. The lesbian dating site is more of a community, with both public and private conversations.

Discretion is one of the things that LesbianPersonals does best. You can browse anonymously for free, and you can choose how much of yourself to reveal, and who to reveal it to. Premium membership grants access to perks like unlimited messaging, access to full photos and video content by other users, and on-site contest participation, among other benefits. LesbianPersonals isn’t just a gay hookup site, but a community of women who love women.

Category Rating
★★★★ 4.1/5.0

One of the oldest players in the online dating game, AdultFriendFinder has been around since the ‘90s, and it remains one of the biggest hookup sites in the world. Like LesbianPersonals, AdultFriendFinder (also known as AFF) is more of a community than a matchmaking service, at least at first glance. The platform hosts adult chat rooms that anyone can join and participate in for free.

Private chats require premium membership, but this helps to weed out fake profiles and bots. AFF has steadily built its reputation as a sexy platform for people of any sexual orientation, and LGBTQ women can feel safe and comfortable on the site while seeking out a hookup or casual encounter. 

Category Rating
★★★★ 4.0/5.0

Ashley Madison is all about the discreet hookup. The dating site specializes in married people, but singles are welcome on the platform as well. There are more than a few queer women on the site who want to explore things with another woman, but who happen to be married. 

While bisexual women have to create two profiles to be able to go after both men and women, lesbian site members benefit from the affair platform’s policy of free access for women. As a lesbian woman on the site, you get access to all of the dating platform’s features for free: messaging, matching, all of it is available without paying a penny. You can boost your visibility and give yourself better odds, however, by paying for specific premium features through Ashley Madison’s pay-as-you-go system. 

Free Lesbian Dating Apps for Chatting

For something a little less serious, chatting apps take the pressure off. You can meet other queer ladies and talk, but without as many expectations. Many of the choices in these apps and sites are community-oriented rather than specifically dating sites, so if you just want to talk in chat rooms and see where things go, these are the best choices.

5. HER

Category Rating
★★★★ 4.2/5.0
  • Free private messaging to all mutual matches
  • Post comments or send likes to connect with local lesbians
  • A safe, friendly, and one-of-a-kind dating app

One of the earliest lesbian dating app options built specifically for queer ladies, HER focuses more on community and conversation than on either hookups or romantic connections. In fact, about 30% of HER users label themselves as “in a relationship.” 

The gay dating app welcomes women-loving-women, whether lesbian, bisexual, pansexual, or transgender. The inclusive app is also a safe space for any nonbinary person who prefers a femme-centric community. Community is a major priority on HER: the platform isn’t just about matchmaking, but instead focuses on helping women get to know each other more deeply and fostering an open, judgment-free atmosphere. There are even member-driven in-person events that help bring the conversation into the real world. Free members get access to basic functions, but paid membership gives you an ad-free experience, read receipts, incognito mode and other benefits.

6. OkCupid

Category Rating
★★★★ 4.0/5.0
  • A wide range of sexual orientation options available
  • Use the search filters to find nearby lesbians
  • A savvy system leads to meaningful relationships

While not specifically a lesbian dating site, OkCupid has consistently garnered attention for its inclusive approach to the LGBTQ+ community. The site started opening up its gender identity and sexual orientation identifiers early on, and a robust content moderation team and filtering system makes it easy to avoid anyone you don’t want to deal with.

Best of all: if you’re only interested in talking to people, OkCupid pioneered free, unlimited messaging as a dating website and app. The site has always emphasized that its goal is to make it easy to “stay free forever.” Premium membership (called A-List) grants access to increased visibility, a chance to see who’s viewing your profile, and other perks, but you can easily find people to talk to and meet without ever paying for anything.

Category Rating
★★★★ 4.0/5.0
  • Supports single lesbians seeking love and relationships
  • A popular dating site for meaningful conversations
  • Ability to report and block any unsavory characters

Plenty of Fish stands tall as one of the most popular dating sites in the world, with over 150 million users from multiple different countries. While straight people make up a majority of site users on the site and dating app, Plenty of Fish (also known as POF) makes it easy to talk to people; so if you’re looking to talk, it’s a great option.

The dating site has had issues in the past with bots and fake profile scammers, but the huge user base means that you stand a good chance of finding genuine people to talk to on any given day. The dating app and site are completely free, but premium access gets rid of ads and gives your dating profile priority, in addition to other perks that make it easier to vet potential matches. 

8. Tinder

Category Rating
★★★★ 3.9/5.0
  • A growing network of lesbian, bisexual, and queer women
  • Set gender preferences to “women” or “men and women”
  • Responsible for over 97 billion matches worldwide

Regardless of whether Tinder is the best dating app, it definitely holds a strong reputation as one of the most popular, for the queer and straight communities alike. With over 340 million users, the app revolutionized the dating site game by combining location-based matching, swiping, and other features that are now common.

As with some of the other dating platforms on this list, Tinder isn’t strictly a lesbian dating app, but there are a lot of queer women on Tinder looking for friends, hookups, relationships, or just to chat. It’s free to join and find matches, and, in fact, you don’t have to spend any money at all to chat. But premium membership comes with real perks: Super Likes, swipe rewind, no ads, and the ability to swipe in different locations from the one you’re in. 

Category Rating
★★★★ 3.7/5.0
  • Open to single women of all religious backgrounds and orientations
  • Values-driven search and matching tools
  • Messaging+ Badges lend greater authenticity to lesbian profiles

If you’re not into the snap judgments and superficiality that comes with swiping apps, Christian Mingle presents a solid, values-driven alternative to swiping. This longstanding social platform features personal ads and dating profiles that represent a rainbow of faiths, orientations, and gender identities. A queer person is welcome to explore new matches and start conversations about similar interests without being hampered by bathroom selfies or any of the usual dating site drama.

Christian Mingle focuses on providing a safe atmosphere, free of harassment and fear. The team behind the dating site and app moderates content strongly, and interacts with app users to find out more of what the members want to see on the app. Hundreds of users have rated it the best lesbian dating app they’ve used, and that’s saying something.

Free Lesbian Dating Apps for Relationships

If you want something more serious, the following queer-friendly dating apps and sites tend to attract more relationship-minded queer people. You may still occasionally have to screen for people looking for no-strings-attached action, but more of the membership on these dating platforms want to date, rather than just find a hookup.

10. Match

Category Rating
★★★★★ 4.8/5.0
  • Women enjoy an expert-led online dating experience
  • Can set specific date preferences for age, education, pets, etc.
  • Premium messaging and video chat features keep the riff-raff out

Match has been around for decades, launching in the mid-1990s and still going strong. The site and app was one of the first in the industry to make itself more welcoming to a love-driven gay woman or gay man – and now it is open to every LGBTQ+ person interested in finding love, with filtering options that help bisexual women and lesbian singles alike find what they’re looking for.

While it’s free to build a profile and send likes, you do need a premium membership to really act on your interest. Match members with premium subscriptions don’t just get the ability to send messages, they also get perks like higher visibility, and notifications when their messages are read. Premium membership on Match comes at a reasonable price, so if you’re really serious about finding love, most paid subscribers will tell you it’s well worth the investment.

Category Rating
★★★★★ 4.7/5.0

For highly educated, high-achieving professionals looking for love, Elite Singles makes a lot of sense. Lesbian singles get a particular boost from the demographics on the dating platform: More than half of the members are women. The dating site saw major gains in 2020 in terms of both membership growth and success stories, and continues to succeed at pairing professionals who want something more serious.

You can sign up for free, but it’s worth noting that the process can take some time. Elite Singles takes security seriously, and verifies information on its members, in addition to boasting an intense personality profile quiz. You can browse, like, and receive matches for free, but only premium members get unlimited messaging and other perks. 

12. eharmony

Category Rating
★★★★ 4.1/5.0
  • Profile vetting to get LGBTQ+ singles safe
  • Compatibility ratings based on shared interests and values
  • Binary gender options in the dating profile

The eharmony dating platform was built for serious daters. The brand hasn’t always been popular with the LGBTQ+ community, and that’s no secret. But ever since new owners took over eharmony, it has becomes more welcoming of queer folks every year. For lesbian women seeking long-term love, it’s an easy choice.

Each eharmony member gets basic access for free, with no need to pay for profile creation, view profiles, take quizzes, or browse potential matches. The free membership level caps the number of messages you can send, however, so if you’re invested in contacting your ideal woman you’ll have to pay for premium. The premium membership also comes with other perks, and eharmony says that its premium members are more serious about finding someone to settle down with; so if you want something serious, it’s a solid choice.

13. Hinge

Category Rating
★★★★ 4.1/5.0
  • Download the app and chat with matches for free
  • Profile prompts help individual personalities shine
  • Set parameters to keep incompatible partners off your list

Hinge is the dating app with the tagline “designed to be deleted.” Hinge CEO Justin McLeod built the app to solve his own dating problems and created a sensation. The key way that Hinge sets itself apart from the dating app market is its focus on conversations: You have to comment on or interact with specific sections of another member’s profile to break the ice.

While many people have no problems getting everything they want on Hinge without paying for premium access, the Preferred Member program gives you a boost when it comes to meeting and interacting with other members. You get increased visibility in searches, the ability to see who’s viewed your profile, and more perks that lead to Preferred members going on twice as many dates as free members. 

14. Bumble

Category Rating
★★★★ 3.8/5.0
  • A global network of strong, confident women
  • Conversations expire within 24 hours of a match
  • Less than 1% of Bumble women are looking for hookups

Bumble has only been around since 2014, but the dating app made the effort to distance itself from hookup culture right away. By women, for women, the app is particularly lesbian-friendly since either woman can make the first move by sending a message. Less than 1% of the women on the app report looking for hookups, so for lesbian singles looking for something lasting, Bumble is a very good place to look.

Signup and basic features are free, but Bumble premium membership does have lots to offer: Beeline lets you see users that have already swiped right on your profile, Rematch lets you keep matches that should have expired, and Busybee provides unlimited extensions to your potential match. The dating service’s premium membership rate is competitive, and the features really make it easier to find Ms. Right

Frequently Asked Question: Is Online Dating Safe for Women?

Meeting new people through online dating is actually a little safer than meeting new people in person — because you have a screen between you and that stranger. Single women can explore new connections and conversations without putting themselves physically out there. That can be a good way to create a level of comfort with a potential match and ensuring things are on the up and up.

Video dates have become more popular for online daters because they offer a quick and easy way to ensure the person at the other end of the chat is the real deal and not a fake profile or romance scammer.

Our experts advise lesbian, bisexual, and queer women to vet matches online and arrange a video chat before meeting in person. Such a screening process is a good safety rule to have in place.

Most dating services will provide a way to sever communication with an undesirable match, so a woman always has a quick out if she’s feeling sketchy or nervous about anything.

LGBTQ+ singles tend to encounter more harassment in online dating than straight people do. Sometimes it’s a creep making crude statements about lesbian sex, and sometimes it’s a transphobic troll bringing hate to a space meant for love. That means legit dating platforms have had to be proactive about enforcing security measures and community guidelines. Gay dating sites and apps like HER, SCRUFF, and Grindr show up as an ally for queer people by adding filters, blocks, and reporting tools that nip issues in the bud.

The Best Lesbian Dating Apps Can Support Queer Women

There are many free lesbian dating apps out there, and the number of specific dating platforms for lesbian singles increases every year. Lesbian dating websites and apps create a safe space for queer womxn to meet each other, explore their sexuality, and exist without having to worry about harassment. 

Online dating is a great way to meet new people, and plenty of niche dating sites and apps can support lesbian, bisexual, and queer singles. Get out there and find the woman of your dreams!

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