Dating guide: where to start

Why there is no ranking table here

Almost every "ten best dating sites" page you will find is ordered by who pays a commission. It is not a secret and nobody hides it especially hard, they just do not put it in the headline.

We cannot rank the market because we are part of it, and any ranking we published would rightly be suspect. What we can do is explain the criteria and let you judge.

The four criteria that recur across every page here are: who can approach you, what exactly you are paying for, what is revealed from your location, and what blocking actually does. Most of the rest is noise.

Where to start

If you are not yet sure this is for you, start with the page on whether it actually works and for whom.

If you already know it is and you are simply choosing, start with the checklist of seven questions.

And if what interests you is the money, there is a page explaining exactly what is free, what costs, and why a credit model differs from a subscription.