7 Best Dating Apps of 2021

Tinder may bot be the oldest dating app, but it sure is the most famous dating app out there. Tinder has often been accused of changing dating into some form of a hookup game. But, there are several cases in which Tinder dates actually lead in forming long-distance relationships and successful marriages.

The simple explanation of how Tinder works is that the app displays singles in your area. If you like a profile, you swipe the photo to the right; otherwise, you swipe left. If both of you swipe right, you match and can chat in the app’s messenger.

Tinder’s settings allow you to set preferences for who can find your profile, from distance and proximity to age range. Tinder’s interface is concise and superficial. It shows you only a photo, name, and age of the other party.

The free option of the Tinder app comes with limited swipes, but if you sign up to Tinder Plus or Tinder Gold, you get more features and unlimited swipes.

Bumble may seem eerily similar to Tinder, but there is a big difference that makes Bumble a lot safer for the female population of the app. On Bumble, women are in control — the ladies are the ones who get to initiate communication.

So, the guys on Bumble app don’t have the power to make the first contact with their match. If both of the people match then, the woman must message the guy first — and she has 24 hours to do so.

For same-gender matches on Bumble, either person can initiate the conversation. Let’s say that you are just looking to widen your circle of friends, as opposed to finding a relationship? The Bumble app has a BFF feature and a Biz feature for people who are looking for just friendship or making business contacts.

The free features of Bumble app are limited but with the Bumble Boost upgrade, costing around $2.99 to $8.99, makes it easier and faster to meet or date people.

One could say that Hinge is somewhat like the Instagram of dating apps. It’s probably the perfect dating app for millennials. Tinder is for casual hookups, while Hinge is a better dating app if you wish to find a real, meaningful connection with similar personalities.

According to the latest survey, Hinge revealed that they are setting up a date every four seconds. And the best thing is that this app doesn’t just offer pictures and a small bio, but a more in-depth profile with questions, preferences, and quotes.

Hinge believes that you can learn a lot about someone from their answers, and that is why their working goes according to this. Questions like what are their pet peeves or their favorite book, etc. The only catch here is that several people take a lot of pressure to come across effortlessly funny with all the answers.

Best of all, the matches are curated based on the questions you answer. Just like any other dating app, with Hinge, people can message you only if you’ve matched.

OkCupid is an emerging dating app that is steadily growing in the userbase. Just like Hinge, it’s the algorithm uses a series of questions to determine the user’s personality. But instead of a Yes/No answers, the app takes in percentages.

Based on your percentage answers, it will be decided what “percentage” you’ll match with all the other users of the app. The app is very open in culture and offers 12 gender identities and 20 sexual orientations giving its users the freedom to define themselves and match; however, they feel right.

Just like any ideal app, OkCupid keeps refining it’s UI and adding new app features to stay ahead of its competitors and attracting more and more users. OkCupid features a good number of userbase, 1.8 million and rising.

A new approach that OkCupid brought to the online dating scene is “Flavors.” So, the users can take a “flavor” of potential profiles with choices like Kinky Nerds, Beard Lovers, World Travelers, etc.

The Happn app is a unique approach when it comes to online dating. How many times have you crossed path with someone and thought that guy/girl looks nice. If only I could meet him/her again. Well, Happn actually makes it happen.

Happn is the app that connects you to the people you cross paths with every day, whether it's that one guy you see daily in the gym or a girl you brushed hands with at your local pub. The matches in Happn are the ones who are already a part of your routine without you realizing it!

Happn shows the profiles of other singles using Happn app and pinpoints the last place and time when you were near each other. The app considers only those people who have been within 800 meters from you. It also calculates how many times you and your potential match cross paths, so you know the frequency of your crossing paths.

Just like any other dating app, people can’t contact you unless both of you tap the Heart on each other’s profile and match. The app never displays your real-time position with other users, minimizing the chance of people stalking each other, and you can also block users if you have stalking concerns from anyone.

The League is just as it sounds, an elite dating app just like a high-class club that you need the authorization to enter. You may think that It’s like Tinder for celebrities, but that description isn’t accurate.

The League is not just for movies stars and millionaires; it is also for common people but with some degree of pizzazz. The app narrates that it’s a dating service for the ambitious and well-educated crowd.

So. If you’re the type of person who places a lot of weight on a potential partner’s career and educational background, The League is the right dating app for you. Joining The League can be a bit difficult compared to other dating apps you’ve seen so far.

You need to set up a profile and also integrate Facebook and LinkedIn accounts. The League app uses these platforms to verify your information and make sure your colleagues don’t stumble upon your dating profile.

The League will verify your eligibility, and either accept you on the spot, reject you (most common result, or keep you on a waiting list. Getting from waiting list to confirmation can take hours, days, or even months.

The League app offers a free option, but by this time you must have known that to succeed in such an elite dating app paid memberships are the best way to go. The paid membership option at $99 a month or $350 a year.

Coffee Meets Bagel (CMB) tries to offer its users a better quality matches by not bombarding them with options, instead of sending curated matches, or "Bagels," as they like to call it, every afternoon. So, the users can look at their potential matches every day at lunchtime.

CMB offers a more detailed profile than Tinder and also suggests some icebreakers to initiate conversation. But there have been several complaints about the app being overly complicated with a lot of unnecessary app features and gimmicks.

Contrary to the Bumble app where women have all the power to make the first contact. With Coffee Meets Bagel, the app will send the male users a small selection of potential matches, “Bagels,” based on their profile and preferences. The women are then sent a list of male matches who've shown interest in them, leaving the ladies the option of responding back or not.

The app is not the best in the list when it comes to design or usage, but if going slow and taking time is what you prefer, you can give Coffee Meets Bagel a try.