Dating sites and apps are one of the most common ways to meet a romantic partner in 2024. Sadly, real life has less of a place when it comes to finding love, and even those hopeful of locking eyes with their perfect match on a morning commute are giving into the idea of online dating sites and dating apps.
Thanks to in-depth compatibility matching systems and questionnaires, today’s best online dating services allow you to view profiles you will be interested in – even if you think your extensive dating experience has led you to view them all. In fact, recent data by Zen shows that 31% of people in the UK know a success story of a couple who have met online, and over a third of Brits are confident that online dating will continue to rise in popularity. Keep. On. Persisting.
Tempted? You bet. But there are over 1,400 dating platforms in the UK, so how can you possibly know which free dating sites are, well... not a scam? Match.com, eHarmony, Coffee Meets Bagel, Bumble, Tinder and SilverSingles all promote staggeringly good stats, so you’d be forgiven for being unsure which paid subscription will be home to the most appropriate dating pool for you. That’s where we come in. GLAMOUR editors made it their mission to meet people through all the monthly subscriptions – for queer women, heterosexual daters and LGBTQ+ singles. And we can now reveal the very best.
SKIP TO: What is the best dating site for a serious relationship in 2024? | How did we test these dating sites? | Our full dating site reviews.
Meet the expert:
Which is the most successful dating site in the UK? GLAMOUR’s top picks at a glance:
What is the best dating site for a serious relationship?
“Contrary to popular opinion, when I was single, I found Hinge to be the best free dating app and perfectly suited to serious relationships,” GLAMOUR's Senior European Commerce Editor Sophie Cockett said. "Many of my friends have met fantastic partners on Hinge, too. It has countless people who don’t want to mess around – way more than Tinder did – and you can send an unlimited amount of first messages. As well as prompts, voice notes and videos. It helps you to get an insight into a dater’s personality before you meet them.”
Elsewhere, eHarmony is the best dating site for serious relationships, since it's exclusively designed to match people find long-lasting love. You'll be paired based on compatibility scores, dealbreakers, personalities, habits and interests after taking a lengthy but worthwhile quiz, so countless new subscribers report it being more successful than making a go of things through social media.
How we chose the best dating apps and sites:
Members of the GLAMOUR team – some of which are married, some are single, some met their partners during lockdown and some of whom are embarking on sparkly new love stories – have shared their dating experiences to help curate this edit of the best dating sites. We tested as many of the dating sites in this edit over a course of at least a month, sometimes up to a year, meeting potential dates IRL and scoring apps based on factors like whether they offered unlimited messages, how safe they made us feel, the quality of the icebreakers and how appropriate our matches felt. For those we've not yet had the chance to test, we've referred to experts and user reviews.
Ahead, the best dating sites and apps to give your love life a boost in 2024.
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