Best Dating Sites for Women 2022
Once upon a time, dating was strictly an in-person endeavor with people making recommendations about friends or relatives to someone thinking they might like them. However, with the advent of the widespread use of the internet in the States (over 85 percent of people now have access to it), dating has gone completely online.
Dating sites for women aren’t a new thing. Sites like Match.com have been around since 1995 at a time when you wanted to hide that you met your partner online. Nowadays, no one is hiding it because meeting them at work isn’t happening much any longer, so when wanting anything from a casual hook-up to a serious relationship with the prospect of marriage, online is where it’s at.
Here are the best online dating sites to consider helping you find the perfect man or woman for you.
Top 10 Dating Sites For Women
-
Match
Match.com has been around seemingly since forever. It’s had time to grow and evolve to the needs of an increasingly internet-savvy user base.
The site is free to sign up initially, but it’ll require a paid account to access the best features. The mix of genders is almost exactly 50/50, so it’s a good split too. Women feel safe using this site because of its longstanding record and safety built into the service too.
Match aims to please. They encourage new members that they can usually find a partner in half a year. This may be overly optimistic, but it does depend on the effort that you put in. Especially if you’re male because most women still are reluctant to make the first move. The reality for men is that they’re up against many competitors for the females’ attention, so it’s an uphill battle to make a strong impression. This also explains why it takes a few months to find the type of woman that you like and make enough of a connection to talk and eventually meet in real life.
Personality traits are a useful way to match people together. You can create a profile that, in part, categorizes you, so that your traits are match-able with other suitors. The idea here is to put people together who are likely to approve of each other and hit it off. While it’s true that opposites do sometimes attract, that’s rarely a prescription for a long-term relationship. As such, look for someone with similar personality cues is especially useful indeed.
Profiles can be flagged for inappropriate content like bad language or questionable statements. It’s also possible to hide profiles that you disagree with, which is a nice feature to have if the same person keeps showing up in searches for a mate.
Match.com has a lot to recommend it. It’s been around for 20 years and knows what it’s doing. What it doesn’t try to do is aim at a narrow part of the dating market such as Muslims, Jewish people, single parents with young children, etc. It aims broadly, was started earlier, and has the most members now.
-
Elite Singles
EliteSingles takes a completely different approach to Match.com. Very aptly named, the Elite Single service is aimed at people who are in the top 20 percent or higher. For instance, around 80 percent of their membership is comprised of people with a degree including some with a master’s or a Ph.D.
The idea here is to avoid the culture or educational class where someone who works in a manual labor job who barely got out of high school intact is paired with a highly educated man with a master’s degree who’s going places. Instead, matching two like-minded, similarly educated people (at least to a similar level, not necessarily on the same subject matter) can meet up in a safe environment online.
The matching service uses a smart algorithm to match the right people together. Here, there are slightly more women in the service than men. The membership is dearer than other sites but it’s aiming at people who earn more and should be able to afford it. Beyond the basic membership, there’s also a premium service for people who wish to send more messages and be more active in general.
The personality traits matched up are Extraversion, Neuroticism, Openness, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness. An interesting list indeed!
For women looking to meet “high-value men,” this site is the real deal.
For men, it’s important to separate the women with nonsense degrees in subjects guaranteed to not lead to sustainable employment due to the lack of applicability or usefulness, i.e. Sociology or Women’s Studies, to name two. However, when choosing a woman with a practical degree where she can make a meaningful contribution to the world, this is going to be a better match for the men on this service with serious degrees and a similar outlook.
-
Zoosk
Zoosk is a dating site that’s prided itself on being connected to technological advances. They do this presently using machine learning to help you find a more suitable partner. Also, they’re connected up socially via Facebook and other services with the sign-up process to smooth the way to using the service sooner too.
The site is focused more around straight couples, rather than bi or gay couple meetups. There’s also a strong social nature to the site, so women often prefer it for making conversation and getting to know men they might like before showing serious interest. There’s also a pretty even split between the genders too.
Membership is free but the paid subscription is affordable and gets you more options, greater messaging allowances, and so forth. There are over 30 million people across 80+ countries talking about dating and looking to find the right partner for them, so there’s something for everyone here.
The initial information in the profile includes ethnicity, height, being a smoker (or not), and other personal habits clarify points that will either rule you in (or out) of the running. You can receive a list of profile recommendations based on what your likely matches are.
One distinction with the service is if you date both men and women, then you’ll need to use two different accounts for this. However, a single paid account works on both, so there’s no need to pay twice if you’re a premium member. The service has plenty of smart features, machine learning, and recommendations that make it a great place to meet someone new.
-
eHarmony
eHarmony has also been around for many years (hence the ‘e’ in the name which was all the rage over a decade ago). This is evident in its record as being the place to sign up if you’re looking for marriage. At one stage, it claimed to be responsible for two percent of all U.S. marriages and more than any other dating site including Match.com.
It’s still the place to be signed up if you’re looking for a long-term relationship. Some people do casually date using eHarmony to meet people but that’s still usually their being cautious in the beginning. But eventually, they’ll come around as the women on eHarmony as looking for something serious or they’d have signed up elsewhere.
The personality assessment is particularly good here. It goes deep enough to be reasonably meaningful which helps to match people better. There are over 4 million people on the service but it’s again an even split most of the time.
For people wanting to find Mr. and Miss. Right, eHarmony is the place to be. Casual observers should probably look elsewhere as it’ll be an immediate mismatch from the start. Also, a long, drawn-out engagement is probably stretching it too.
-
Our Time
For singletons who are 50+, it’s difficult to find a partner. Many at that age have just given up looking altogether. Others are tied up in a relationship already. This thinning of the herd makes it difficult to find someone. Also, people at that age are quite set in their ways, making it especially hard for them to adapt to the needs of a new partner.
It stands to reason that a site aimed at fifty-somethings is going to have good things going for it. It gets past the men who are only looking for a younger woman. Only the men who want a woman nearer to their age will sign up. This puts to rest a fear that many older women have that all men near their age won’t date them. That’s not true otherwise OurTime wouldn’t have over 8 million members split well between both genders. That’s excellent news!
Signing up is fast and simple. The profile isn’t overly complex, so it doesn’t take long until you’re able to search for a potential partner who’s more your age group. This skips all the profiles of younger people who you’ll have nothing in common with and gets right to the target group of potential partners.
As you niche down to your age group or other characteristics that you qualify for, you move away from a broad site like Match.com or one targeting people looking to marry soon such as eHarmony. At this point, you’re niching down in the dating space to find a site that suits you better. Doing so puts your profile in front of like-minded people making the searching process much less time-consuming and fun.
-
Adult Friend Finder
Adult Friend Finder. Let us not beat around the bush here. This is an adult-oriented dating service. What we mean by this is mostly men and women looking for the fun hook-up or in some cases, the extramarital affair. There. We said it. You can get past your shock now and read on…
The site doesn’t shy away from its early beginnings – it’s been around many years too. There’s plenty of salacious advertising shown on the site which appeals to an adult nature and isn’t for the meek either. So, don’t say that we did not warn you, because we did!
Now, if you’re someone who’s not looking for a long-term thing but a short-term bit of excitement, then the good news is that there’s a site that caters to that.
In terms of profiles, it’s a rare thing if you can put anything in your dating profile that will offend anyone. The guidelines are much broader here. Only something illegal is going to be removed and get an account banned. Otherwise, it’s fair game. Therefore, some profiles will have explicit photos contained therein, so don’t be shocked. This applies to both sides too.
It’s even more important with an adult-oriented site that both people find each other attractive. As such, it makes sense that more revealing photographs and videos may be shown without creating a reason to close your account.
The mix of members is heavily skewed towards men with two-thirds of members being men. However, one third is women looking for a bit of nighttime fun and so there’s something for everyone here.
The membership fee isn’t the highest price by any means. It’s also not the cheapest either. With that said, this is the site to sign up for if you’re wanting some fun with few questions asked. There are over 25 million people on the site at the last count. It’s an old-fashioned design, but it’s busy at all hours to cater to people who work night shifts, late shifts, and so on – so it’s not just for office workers doing the traditional 9-5 either.
-
Black People Meet
Now if you’re black or biracial and single, then the Black People Meet site is intended for you.
While you don’t need to be black to sign up, it at least probably helps if you’re into dating black folks even if you’re not that race yourself. Being black and preferring to date white or Latino men or women isn’t going to work well on this site. It’s just not it’s target market. It’s important to know that going in and before paying for a membership.
While some other dating sites boast a larger membership, if you only want to date people of your race, then the membership figures don’t matter. What you want to know is how many of their members are your race and that’s impossible to discover even as a member. That’s not the case with a race-specific dating site because everyone knows what they’re looking for going in.
There are no major cultural clashes or differences of opinions borne out of being perceived as someone who doesn’t understand the challenges of being a black person in society. This makes dating that much easier because it removes at least one unnecessary hurdle from the equation.
The site is for people who may want a date for the night or are looking to create a deep and meaningful relationship with someone. So, it’s flexible. With that said, it’s a good idea, to be honest, and upfront about what you’re looking for both in your profile and when first talking to someone. That way, you both know that you’re after the same thing and they’ll be no disappointment or hurt feelings.
Searches are possible by age and location. This avoids finding people too far away from where you are living. There are also other ways to search for people such as picking up what’s been entered into their profile to find someone who’s going to be more suitable to your personality.
There is a good mix of men and women on the site. It’s not overly focused on either gender. New users get a free trial but need to get a paid membership after a while. Profiles can include audio messages and a video clip too, which helps to see what they’re like and if they might be a good match for you.
-
Christian Mingle
For single people who feel that their Christian faith is important to them and it should be in a partner too, then there’s the ChristianMingle site. It’s been the place to be since 2001 for people of the Christian faith who are finding it challenging to find like-minded partners or who have tried dating people who aren’t of the same beliefs and found that it doesn’t work for them.
The site allows you to make a profile search by narrowing it down by age range, gender, educational background, and other features. Finding someone with a similar lifestyle and value system is important and this site makes this possible for people of the Christian faith.
ChristianMingle is likely to be a much better choice than a broader site when faith is the key determinant for partner selection. If you know this to be the case for you, it’s best to listen to this inner voice and choose a dating site that’s most appropriate for you. You’re far more likely to meet like-minded men or women there which match your beliefs. Then it’s a matter of picking one where you have a few other similar interests like traveling, children, movies, or music.
There’s excellent customer service here supporting over 3 million members on the site. It’s also fairly evenly mixed between the genders too.
-
Be Naughty
The BeNaughty site is a little like AdultFriendFinder (AFF) in that it’s targeting the adult sector. If you’re wanting a quick hook-up or some no-strings fun, then this might just be the site for you.
The site is designed more like a regular dating service, so it doesn’t come off as something illicit or overly naughty. This puts it a step or two above AFF which has a basic website that is adult in some respects.
The system is carefully setup letting you control who you see and those people who have permission to contact you. This prevents receiving unwanted messages from people with profiles that they never would have approved of or want to hear from in the first place. There is a multi-level system in place which assures contact levels.
There is profile search features but also a forum and group chat system to meet people in a group cyber setting. When you know that you only want to meet people above a certain height or with certain belief systems, then this is possible to narrow down who is suitable for you.
Communication can be done a variety of ways including winking at someone, asking to add them as a friend, or sending a chat message. There’s also a Flirtcast feature to send bulk messages out every few hours if that’s your preference. However, that’s easy to spot and less likely to receive a reply because the messages aren’t tailored well to a particular person and profile.
-
Single Parent Match
As a parent, finding someone else who’s willing to date you is difficult. Because of this, single parents often find that they need to look for someone who has children (and usually ones that are around the same age) to overcome the usual hurdles of finding a partner.
For single parents dating, the Single Parent Match site is the longest one. It doesn’t have a huge database of people signed up but they’re likely to be single parents which cut out a lot of wasted time and frustration for people.
For men dating, they should quickly accept that the women will proudly announce that “my children are my world.”. As such, you’ll always play second fiddle to her kids and her to yours too. Because of this, dating will be a merry dance of trying to find free time between two parents and their schedules which includes their kids too.
Free accounts have many limitations. The membership is a little on the pricy side for single parents to afford but it at least removes the timewasters who won’t pay for this service. That makes it completely worth it.
Conclusion
With women dating sites, it’s useful to decide whether you’re wanting a broad site like Match.com, one that’s aimed at the marriage in the not too distant future or has another specialty interest connect to religion, parenting, race, or something else.
Once this is decided, narrowing down your final choice of dating site becomes much easier to do.