Best Dating App For Over 35
When looked upon with the rose-colored glasses of nostalgia, the dating we did in our 20s was the stuff of romantic comedies, especially when compared with what it’s like a decade later. While it’s actually easier to date in your 30s in the sense that you know yourself better, by the time you reach a certain age you’re just, well, SATC’s Charlotte said it best: “I’ve been dating since I was 15. I’m exhausted. Where is he?” Sheer exhaustion is the reason going to bars is a no-go most nights—especially given the inevitable epic hangovers and a lack of single girlfriends with whom to wing-woman—but luckily, this is the digital age, so we can meet lots of men without ever leaving our Netflix accounts unattended. Here, 12 apps to try if you find yourself single—and ready to mingle—in your 30s (plus, how to take a perfect selfie for your profile).
Homepage Image: Adam Katz Sinding
Jun 11, 2021 Available to download from the App Store and Google Play, the Thursday app had over 110,000 users signed up in London and New York prior to its launch due to simple yet effective dating ethos. EliteSingles is excellent for over 35 datings because it provides a list of potential romantic partners every day and saves your time. There are three main sections, where new dates can be found.
Coffee Meets Bagel
In a recent study, analytics company Applause ranked apps based on their user reviews, and this one came in third, which is promising. While the app once sent daters only one match per day, which was helpful for those who feel the 'shopping' element is a little icky, it recently switched things up so that men receive 21 matches per day whereas women receive just five. Before you delete it based on this inequity, know that the well-intentioned people at Coffee Meets Bagel made these changes based on user feedback—apparently, men like quantity and women like quality. Shocking!
If you don't want to lose the serendipitous aspect of real-life dating, you should probably sign up for Happn. This app promises to match you to people with whom you've crossed paths in the non-virtual world, somehow making things feel a little more organic. If you, like us, live in a sprawling city like Los Angeles, you know how important convenient geography can be in terms of making a relationship last.
Sparkology requires that men be graduates of top-tier universities in order to join, which feels a bit gross considering it doesn't have the same standards for women. Men are also subjected to a points system, which is purported to help ladies know which ones are serious (a feature we can definitely get behind). In order to join, technically you must be invited by a current member or the Sparkology team, but if you click on the 'Join' button, you're asked to link your Facebook profile for evaluation.
We don't think anyone should be ashamed to be 'caught' online dating; however, some of us may not so much appreciate our colleagues or future colleagues knowing what's up in our romantic lives, so the fact that The League hides your profile from LinkedIn and Facebook contacts is a big plus in our book. Another thing we like about The League? The platform kicks people off if they're not actively dating: No looky-loos allowed. The League has recently shifted its strategy somewhat to become events-focused, as it's hoping to transition into something akin to a members-only club like The Soho House rather than just a dating app. The League is only available in San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles, and its waiting list is allegedly 100,000 people long. Good luck!
Most of the women we know who frequent dating apps at present are on Bumble and report good experiences—it ranked fourth on that aforementioned list based on user reviews. This app is known for tasking women with the first move (once a match has been made)—which is great if you'd like to reduce the number of obscene things total strangers feel justified in using as pickup lines on some apps. On another note, Bumble's just announced the launch of BumbleBizz this fall, which is basically swipe-based networking. We're intrigued.
If you're one of the 'old people' who has gotten on board with Snapchat in a big way, you might want to try Lively, the newest app on the market. We have a feeling its demo will skew 20s, so if you're looking for a slightly younger man, this could be the perfect platform for you. Your Lively profile will pull videos and images from various apps on your phone and edit them together to tell a complete story about you. The app comes to us from the creators of dating website Zoosk.
If you think your life is a rom-com, or should be, Tindog might be the app for you. It matches your dog with another dog, which is definitely the perfect setup for a meet-cute if ever we've heard one. Something to consider before joining, however, is how hard it is to be rejected in online dating. Now imagine how hard it will be for you when your beloved, perfect pet is rejected, as happened here. We just don't want you to get hurt....
If you're into astrology, Align is pretty fun, and it'll save you the trouble of finding out your signs are incompatible down the line. We don't know how serious the contenders are on this platform—we don't use it as, to be honest, we barely even know our own sign—but if nothing else it will provide a welcome distraction from the tedium of scouring the digital universe to find your cosmic match.
OkCupid has a patented Compatibility Matching System, which uses complicated algorithms to pick your matches. Given that all we've been doing thus far to pick our men is saying, 'He's hot,' we can't help but think this would be an improvement. Though you can choose to select less commitment-focused options in terms of your dating goals, OkCupid tends to feel more adult and therefore more serious in nature than other apps. This can be a good thing if you're looking for someone who will step off the dating carousel with you at long last. It was also ranked number one by Applause in terms of user reviews.
According to Time Magazine, 82% of Match users were over the age of 30 as of 2014. This has likely changed somewhat given that in the same year, Match redid its mobile app to include features more akin to Tinder than OG Match. Still, Match tends to draw a more serious crowd than many other apps, in part because elements of the platform require payment.
Some of us have personal feelings about this one—which we won't share because, diplomacy—but suffice it to say that you will definitely meet a specific type of person on this platform. Raya is exclusive and basically requires that you have a cool job, know cool people and have a lot of those cool people following you on Instagram. If that sounds like your kind of filtration system, we say go for it. Just be warned in advance that it's unlikely that the attractive celebrity with whom you're matched will be dating only you anytime in the near future.
We recently added Canada to our list of countries worth moving to. Maple Match hilariously promises to enable your move north by partnering you with a Canadian. We're pretty sure this app is a joke—you can only join the wait list for now—but we're hoping someone invents it for real, stat.
By our 30s, ideally we've broken bad habits and patterns and are now only dating people who would make appropriate partners. If you, however, laughed out loud at that statement (we did), you might want to consider signing up for Wingman. This app leaves the fate of your dating life in the hands of your friends, who are the sole deciders when it comes to who you will or will not go out with. We're guessing the results of such an experiment would be vastly different than anything we've experienced while steering our own ship, and we're so down to find out.
People have a lot of opinions about dating in your 30s. Even though the whole idea of dating is much simpler when you are in your 30s, the actual process is tougher than you think. When you are over 30, you know that you aren’t as feather-brained and free-spirited as you were a decade ago, which makes it easier for you to understand your requirements from a potential partner. However, the exhaustion that comes with going out and rejecting losers and not having a bunch of single ladies to party with also limits your possibilities of finding said perfect date. This is why there exists some of the best dating apps for 30 somethings.
Suggested read: Does Online Dating Work? 13 Compelling Reasons Why It Might NOT
If I were writing this 10 years ago, I wouldn’t know what to tell you to increase your chances of meeting someone special. However, we have arrived at the thriving digital age, and there is nothing that you cannot accomplish online. There are a number of apps made just for people over 30 and some inclusive apps which aren’t brimming with immature and youthful energy that you could use to accelerate your dating life.
Here are some of the best dating apps for 30 somethings, which could save you an exhausting night out and a bad hangover, looking for potential baes.
- Coffee Meets Bagel
Image source: coffeeandbagels.com
This is one of the most sought after dating apps for people who are tired of the whole swiping culture. After all, swiping through people is like shopping for dates, which is a concept we can get on board with when we are in our 20s, but not when we are in our 30s. After a while, you tend to get picky and choosy about who you are dating.
Best Dating App For Over 50
Coffee Meets Bagel is an app that allows women and men to match with a limited number of people every day, which allows you to be more careful and specific about who you are dating. Because of this, the rate of success stories from this app is also higher than others, and is the perfect mature platform for 30 somethings to find love on.
- Match
Image source: match.com
Match is one of the most sought after dating sites and apps for 30 somethings. It is like Tinder, only more dynamic and much better, because the chances of you meeting someone you might actually vibe with is much more.
The thing about young people dating sites like Tinder and Ok Cupid is that people on there are mostly looking for flings and hookups and short term dating. Match.com only guarantees potential dating candidates how are looking for something more serious, and I am assuming that you are tired of casual flings and one night stands when you are in your thirties. Even though this is paid platform, one cool feature about this is, you get the next 6 months of your subscription free if you don’t find someone special within the first 6 months of you using this app.
Best Dating App For Over 35 Women
- Bumble
Image source: bumble.com
Bumble is in the same league as Tinder and Ok Cupid when it comes to popularity. However, just like it is highly sought after by the youth, it is also a great place for people over 30 to find love. The pool of people that you will have access to on Bumble is so large that it takes away some of the exclusivity of the app. However, one good thing about it is that once you match with someone, you have to message them within 24 hours, or they have to do the same in order to keep up the conversation.
This ensures that you don’t have to deal with a lot of the time wasting elements that you find on other dating apps.
Suggested read: These Words In Your Online Dating Profile Will Find You Love
- Happn
Image source: happn.com
This one ranks high on our list of some of the best dating apps that you can use if you are 30 and above. Apps like Tinder and OkC have a lot of problems and clauses that you just don’t have time to deal with when you are 30 and above. Happn fixes most of those problems, which is why you should totally check this one out if you are getting into the world of online dating.
It connects you to people that you have interacted with in some way or the other in the virtual world. In big cities, where you have a lot of online connections, it feels somewhat real and organic to talk to someone you might have interacted with before. So even if you are meeting online, you get the feeling of dating in real life.
- Elite Singles
Image source: elitesingles.com
In your 20s, you are still figuring life out. You are completing your education, trying out different jobs and testing the waters of life to see where you fit. By the time you are 30, hopefully you have figured out most of these things and are at a relatively stable place in your life.
You don’t want to deal with ambiguity and experimentation when you are dating, which is where dating sites like Elite Singles comes in. This is a site which connects you with professionals in the same field as you, and those who have the same level of education as you do, if that is an important factor in your dating agenda. It is also a wonderful place for the LGBTQ community to meet people in the same professional sphere as them.
- First Met
Image source: firstmet.com
Even though this is a platform that can be accessed by people belonging to any age bracket, a survey by the company showed that less than 3% of its users belonged to the 18-29 age bracket, while most of their users were 30 and above.
This is perhaps because of the way this site is designed- to be simple, straightforward and effective, things which might not be very exciting for the youth, who are looking for casual but exciting encounters with strangers. First Met helps you match with people who have similar tastes and likes and hobbies as you do, which seems like a string premise to meet someone over and vibe with them and start a conversation with them.
Best Dating App For 35-45
- Sparkology
Image source: sparkology.com
People in their 30s and above are usually looking for something serious, this is something we have amply established. Most dating sites and apps don’t have a way to determine whether the people who are on their site are genuine or not, or whether they are serious or not. This problem is solved when you use Sparkology, which only allows highly qualified and educated men on their website.
It is a little weird because women are not asked about their professional or educational qualification on here. Men are also assigned points, according to how serious they are, and unless you have an active dating profile on Sparkology, you get kicked off. This is a good thing, and we can see a number of serious single 30 years olds getting on board with this.
- eHarmony
Image source: eHarmony.com
eHarmony is another very popular dating site which is accessed mostly by people who are above the age of 30. This is because it is more of a matrimonial site, where people are either looking for a very serious relationship, or a person they can actually get married to. This is the perfect site for those people who are tired of getting played, stood up, not taken seriously, taken too seriously, etc.
The only con of this site is the sheer number of people who are on here. Getting access to this many options can be slightly overwhelming if you are trying to be subtle and quiet about the whole online dating thing. Other than that however, there are no major cons that may put you off this site.
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Suggested read: 12 Common Misconceptions About Online Dating That Are Far From True
- The League
Image source: theleague.com
As you grow older, your workplace becomes a more serious and formal place where you have to function on a daily basis. However, you also have to be on dating sites and online dating apps, which will allow you to meet people. You don’t want these two worlds to collide, and when you make yourself available on public platforms like this, your world are bound to overlap.
Best Dating App For Over 35 Male
If you are very uncomfortable with your peers and co-workers finding out about your personal life and especially your love life, then you can check out The League, which is considered a premium dating site for people who are 30 and above. The best thing about it is that it blocks all your contacts from Facebook and LinkedIn, so that your goings on, remain private.
As you can see, there is no dearth of options when it comes to dating in your 30s. We have listed for you’re the best dating apps for 30 somethings, so you shouldn’t have trouble finding someone who is not only special, but also legit!
Best Dating App For Over 35 Years
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