Finding Love Online: Our Picks for the Best Pay Dating Sites

Finding Love Online: Our Picks for the Best Pay Dating Sites

Sometimes even after you hit it off with someone, it can dwindle and you’re back to square one—so why not try pay dating sites? I was skeptical about paid dating sites at first. But after giving them a shot, I’m a believer.  The top pay dating sites online are the perfect tool for finding love […]

Sometimes even after you hit it off with someone, it can dwindle and you’re back to square one—so why not try pay dating sites?

I was skeptical about paid dating sites at first. But after giving them a shot, I’m a believer. 

The top pay dating sites online are the perfect tool for finding love on the web.

Whether you’re a busy career person who can’t spare the time for bars, or you just want to try something different, paid dating sites can be a great option for finding romance. 

Here are our picks for top pay dating sites online.

First Look at the Top Paid Dating Sites

  • Zoosk – Best pay dating site overall
  • Elite Singles – Full of intellectually curious dates
  • eHarmony – Popular online pay dating site for marriages
  • Silver Singles – Best paid dating sites for people over 50
  • Seeking – Be among successful singles
  • Friend finder – Meet friends and find love online
  • Hinge – Dedicated paid dating app for serious relationships
  • Tinder – One of the biggest user pools
  • Plenty of Fish – Grandaddy of pay dating sites for romance
  • HER – Dating alternative with no straight cis men

Top 12 Best Pay Dating Sites for Romance in 2023

1. Zoosk—Best Pay Dating Site for Finding Love Overall

Pros

  • SmartPick matchmaker engine
  • Preference-based matching
  • Available in 80 countries
  • Use Facebook or Google sign up
  • Over 40 million monthly visitors

Cons

  • Casual relation seekers present
  • Limited free interactions

Making its debut on the internet back in 2007, Zoosk is one of the leading pay dating sites for users 18-40 years old. It’s one of the biggest paid dating sites available, with a turnover of over 40 million monthly visitors.

Zoosk is our top pick of top paid dating sites online because it offers several approaches to finding love online.

 

First, is the signature algorithm called the SmartPick. It learns your preferences and notices the profiles you engage with. Then you’re given daily potential matches.

 

The initial suggestions might be off, but they get better the more you use Zoosk.

 

Next, you can set your location and choose a profile based on their distance. With this, you can also use search filters.

 

Lastly, there’s the swipe-style carousel—where you swipe right if you like someone and left if you want to skip their profile.

Free users are limited to only one message per day, but you can upgrade to a premium option to unlock unlimited messaging.

Zoosk has a functional smartphone app, which offers new interests and the Zoosk Live feature (90-second daily live stream).

Zoosk Pricing

For unlimited messaging and advanced search filters, consider a premium membership on the pay dating site.

  • 1 month—$29.99
  • 3 months offer—$59.99
  • 6 months offer—$74.99

Join the best pay dating site online today—Zoosk

2. Elite Singles—Top Pay Dating Site for Intellectuals and Professionals

Pros

  • For highly-educated professionals 
  • Detailed personality survey
  • Daily match suggestions 
  • Active members
  • Testimonials from couples

Cons

  • No education verification
  • Membership needed for messaging

Another matchmaker service among the best pay dating sites online is the intellectual-friendly Elite Singles. 

It’s an exclusive paid dating site that markets itself to highly-educated professionals and sapiosexuals. More importantly, it’s home to over 12 million mature (aged 30-50) career people worldwide.

Elite Singles stands out from other pay dating sites and matchmaker services, thanks to its detailed personality survey which analyzes five aspects of your persona. 

Specifically, your levels of extraversion, agreeableness, openness, conscientiousness, and neuroticism. The results are used to provide you with three-seven daily match suggestions.

I found there is no verification on the site, which begs the question: how can we believe these users are legit?

But I guess the lack of scam reports concerning the site and its users is testimony enough.

For free, you can create an account and take the quiz, and browse suggestions. For messaging and additional matches, you’ll need a premium membership.

EliteSingles Pricing

The pricing is steeper than other pay dating sites, but you get what you pay for—quality matches and a guarantee of love.

  • Premium Light (3 months)—$37.95 per month
  • Premium Classic (6 months)—$21.95 per month
  • Premium Comfort (12 months)—$19.95 per month

Sapiosexuals click here for one of the best pay dating sites online

3. eHarmony—Top Pay Dating Sites for Marriages

Pros

  • Scientific matchmaker engine 
  • Personality quiz available
  • Responsible for 4 percent of U.S. marriages
  • Helpful icebreaker phases

Cons

  • Limited free messaging
  • Customer service can be slow

Mentioned in movies and TV show gags, eHarmony is among the best paid dating sites established 23 years ago. 

It was founded by a clinical psychologist, who decided to bring a more empirical approach to matchmaking.

But don’t think that with science, that romance gets lost. 

As one of the matchmaking paid dating sites responsible for over 4 percent of US marriages alone, there’s no doubt that eHarmony’s compatibility matching system works for finding love online. 

This matchmaker program works by comparing people’s personality profiles. You can create your profile by taking a compatibility test.

The questions uncover your likes and dislikes, the way you express yourself, and the things that drive and inspire you.

If the one free message doesn’t get the results you want, a premium plan is your ticket to unlimited messaging.

What I found that makes this one of the top online pay dating sites is the virtual date feature. It comes with the premium membership and it can only be used after you chat with your match.

So no unsolicited randos calling you willy-nilly.

eHarmony Pricing

Access video dates, find members near you, and see who has visited your profile with the pay dating sites’ premium membership.

  • Premium Light (6 months)—$65.90 per month
  • Premium Plus (12 months)—$45.90 per month
  • Premium Extra (24 months)—$35.90 per month

Marriage is one step away with one of the best paid dating sites—eHarmony

4. Silver Singles—Best Pay Dating Sites for Singles Over 50

Pros

  • For users over 50 
  • Blog of advice
  • Take personality tests
  • Friendly customer service
  • Match suggestions

Cons

  • No people under 50
  • No search bar
  • Messaging requires premium

One of the best paid dating sites online for people over 50 years, Silver Singles can help you get back into dating.

To make users comfortable, unlike other top pay dating sites—SilverSingles emphasized creating an easy-to-use site that streamlines the dating process.

Even if you’re not tech-savvy, you’ll find your way around this site.

After you create an account, you are given a personality test that won’t take more than 20 minutes to complete. 

Specifically, you’ll answer questions about communication, relationship and partner preferences, and the type of relationship you want. 

Your answers then get compared with other members’ answers to provide up to seven daily suggestions compatible with your personality.

Alas, there aren’t any search filters and you’re only limited to the suggestions provided by this best pay dating sites contender.

To message your suggestion you will need a premium account that provides additional features like sending icebreaking “smiles”.

Silver Singles Pricing

Compared to other top paid dating sites like Zoosk, there is no free version here and you need a premium for direct messages.

  • 3 months—$22.95 per month
  • 6 months—$13.95 per month
  • 12 months—$11.95 per month

Check out one of the best online pay dating sites for people over 50

5. Seeking—Upgraded Paid Dating Site for Luxury Dating

Pros

  • Pay dating site for luxury lifestyle
  • Wealthy and attractive singles
  • Women message without premium
  • Free search filters
  • Profile verification

Cons

  • Male chatting requires membership
  • Covert escorts and fakes

After rebranding into a luxury site for finding love online, Seeking is now among the best paid dating sites on the web.

There’s nothing wrong with wanting a partner who appreciates the finer things in life, and on this paid dating site, you won’t be judged for seeking one.

(Get it? Seeking?)

With the available search filters, you can look for members of any age over 18 and any gender, who deem themselves “wealthy” or “attractive”.

Making a detailed profile full of preferences, physical details, interests, and even your annual income, will help you stand out from the crowd.

Women can message for free on this top paid dating site, men need a premium to use the messaging. All users can upgrade, which will unlock messaging (for men), also hiding your profile, and advanced filters. 

If you want to go legit, unlike other pay dating sites, for a small fee Seeking will run a background check

You’ll get an ID verification badge—which always pulls in matches.

Seeking Pricing

While this is one of the top paid dating sites online, it has a steeper fee but it works for luxury serious relationships.

  • Premium membership—$109.99 per month
  • 3-month membership—$289.99 total ($96.66 per month)
  • Diamond membership—$274.99 per month

Luxury is only a match away with one of the top pay dating sites online

6. Friend Finder—Top Paid Dating Sites for Local Love

Pros

  • Find love in your area
  • Most users of all paid dating sites
  • Search filters to find matches
  • Free to join
  • Paid dating app available

Cons

  • Messaging requires subscription
  • Some fakes and bots

Established almost 30 years ago, Friend Finder is one of the pay dating sites to use to find love online, but in your area

It has an outdated interface, but where it lacks in aesthetics, it makes up for it with the huge amount of users online.

To be specific, 98 million people are looking for love on the pay dating site.

You won’t see numbers like this on other of the top pay dating sites, and in my opinion the more registered users, the bigger the chances you’ll find love online quickly.

Input your location, and preferred distance radius and you’ll be met with profiles galore. You can tweak the results using search filters.

Browsing profiles and reading FF’s educational blogs is free—but if you want to message you need to cough up the moolah.

With a premium upgrade on this paid dating site, you get unlimited messaging as well as more access to member-generated media like photos and videos.

Friend Finder Pricing

Apart from unlimited messages, as with most pay dating sites you also get priority positioning on the search results.

  • 1 month—$34.94
  • 3 months—$19.98 per month
  • 6 months—$15.82 per month

Make friends or find love online with one of the top paid dating sites 

7. Hinge—Find Love Online With This Paid Dating App

Pros

  • Paid dating app “meant to be deleted”
  • Conversations are the norm
  • Swipe in your location
  • Emphasis on detailed profiles
  • Robust free version

Cons

  • No active profile moderation
  • Some bogus accounts

Meant to inspire meaningful conversations, Hinge is a paid dating app designed for finding long-term love online.

 

It’s relatively new and full of young people, i.e millennials and Gen-Z members aged 20-40, but it’s established itself as a go-to serious dating app that is also LGBTQ+ friendly.

 

Just like most pay dating sites and apps, it has location-based matching so you can swipe in your area.

 

Moreover, it helps create a bond between you and your potential match—fostering serious relationships along the way.

 

More specifically, you can populate your profile with answers to fun questions and prompts. Your answers appear on your profile and other users can use them to strike up some chit-chat.

 

The prompts can be anything from divulging your aspirations and goals, interests, stuff like favorite food, and what your ideal first date looks like.

 

The app has a robust free version, which comes with unlimited messaging. 

 

With a premium, you’ll show up first in the profile deck, and get filtering options like education, political views, kids, etc.

Hinge Pricing

Along with more filters and unlimited likes, the paid dating app’s premium allows you to see which profiles have liked you. 

  • 1 month: $34.99
  • 3 months: $64.99—$21.66/month
  • 6 months: $99.99—$16.66/month

Join the paid dating app ‘meant to be deleted’ Hinge

8. Tinder—Well-known Pay Dating Sites and Apps for Free

Pros

  • Free version will suffice
  • Active users globally
  • All types of relationships
  • Facebook, email, or phone sign up
  • Set preferred distance

Cons

  • Superficial profiles
  • Bots and ads

Setting the standard for location-based swipe-style paid dating sites, apps, and platforms, Tinder is the most popular one.

 

On Tinder, you’ll find love online regardless of your gender and sexual preference. That said, keep in mind that there is a majority of members looking for some “Netflix and chill”. 

 

This doesn’t mean you won’t find users who want “nesting and resting”. 

 

In my opinion, this paid dating app stands out thanks to its simplicity. You upload a couple of stunning photos and start swiping.

 

Sure it might seem vain, but ultimately it’s the looks we notice first in a person, right?

 

Along with messaging, everything else is completely free to use. If you want to swipe in other cities, see who’s liked you, and get a profile boost, consider a premium version.

Tinder Pricing

While this is one of the few pay dating sites that have a free version, the premiums make the experience smoother.

  • Platinum—$19.99 per month
  • Gold—$14.99 per month
  • Plus—$4.99 per month

Have a go on one of the most popular pay dating sites and apps Tinder 

9. Plenty of Fish—Among the Oldest Online Paid Dating Sites

Pros

  • 20 years experience
  • Find love online
  • Have more conversations
  • Video date

Cons

  • Ads are annoying
  • Fakes with stock photos 

The grand-pappy of pay dating sites online, Plenty of Fish has been in the business for 20 years.

Mainly, it’s one of the first and best paid dating sites, where you can find quick dates and your area. To find users you can use their intuitive search filters, which let you specify the age, gender, body details, and type of relationship you want.

Furthermore, to engage with other users and start conversations you can use the premium feature Live! 

POF allows members from other top pay dating sites like Zoosk to join in on your live sessions, meaning there’s a bigger chance of finding love.

 

Pro tip: you can also use Live! for verifying if the match you’ve been chatting with is who they say they are.

 

Other than Live, all of the other features like messaging, advanced search filters, and personality quizzes can be used completely free.

Plenty Of Fish Pricing

POF is among the few pay dating sites that offer a robust free version AND an affordable premium.

 

Along with Live! you get ad-free browsing, a profile boost and you can see who has viewed your profile.

  • 3-month deal—$19.99 per month
  • 6-month plan—$14.99 per month
  • Annual plan—$9.99 per month

Reel in a partner with the help of one of the oldest pay dating sites POF

10. HER—Top Pay Dating App for Lesbian, Bi, Trans, and Queer Women

Pros

  • Exclusive app for FLINTA
  • Paid dating app with swiping
  • No men on the app
  • Communities and groups
  • Date locally

Cons

  • No desktop version
  • Limited filters

Out of all the pay dating sites and apps, HER is the most popular (and only) one for the FLINTA community.

The acronym stands for Female, Lesbian, Intersex, Non-binary, Trans, and Agender. In other words, it stands for anyone who is not a cis man.

So, you won’t be finding any men on the paid dating app. You’ll find, however, a community of five million women across 55 countries.

What I like about HER, in comparison to other pay dating sites and apps, is the virtual themed speed dating events where for a small participation fee you can meet other queer women.

 

To make sure no fakes come a-creepin’, HER offers ID verification or social media sign-up

 

Although all of the core features are 100 percent free, you’d need to pay for a premium if you want to remain incognito. This is a huge plus if you’re not yet out, and want to keep your privacy intact.

HER Pricing

As with most online pay dating sites and apps, the premium ads get removed, and you get additional filters.

  • 1 month—$14.99
  • 6 months package—$10 per month
  • 12 months package—$7.50 per month

Check out the only online pay dating sites for the FLINTA community HER

11. Reddit R4R—Best Non Paid Dating Sites for Redditors

Pros

  • Completely free to use
  • Easy sign-up
  • Moderators ban creeps
  • Platonic and serious relationships
  • Huge community

Cons

  • Reports of low activity
  • No way to verify posters
  • Women get more attention

 

You’ve probably heard of Reddit, and you might be wondering why it’s on this pay dating sites list.

 

It’s a platform where people can share interests via subreddits, like in the olden forum days of yore (just kidding).

 

So, you can also use it as one of the top pay dating sites to meet people interested in finding love and serious relationships online.

 

You need to create an account to post and comment on this subreddit.

 

To start, you can create a post similar to a personal ad, to showcase what exactly you’re looking for. This can include a personal description, what you’re looking for, where you are located, and other information you think is relevant.

 

Then, the post has to be approved by the moderators, which is a nice way for users to stay safe, but other than that it’s pretty straightforward to use.

Reddit R4R Pricing

  • No premium

 

Check out Reddit R4R one of the non-pay dating sites online

12. Match.com—Well-Reputed Top Pay Dating Sites

Pros

  • Big user base
  • Simple dating process
  • Desktop and smartphone
  • Established paid dating site
  • Find love online and casual flings

Cons

  • Self-proclaimed leaders
  • Lots of ads
  • Limited free features

Launched in 1995 and going on almost 30 years, Match.com stands as one of the several pay dating sites with so much experience.

 

It’s among the few pay dating websites that offer several methods of searching for a match. You can input interests like traveling or classical poetry on your profile, to find other users that match these preferences.

 

The more details about yourself you input, the better the pay dating site can match those keywords with other profiles. There are also search filters if you need them.


It’s one of the catalog-style paid dating sites that allow you to message your top picks only, and browse users for free. But other than that there’s not much going on in the free version.

 

If you want to skip the ads and are eager about messaging everyone and seeing who’s viewed your profile you should consider a premium account.

Match.com Pricing

As one of the top pay dating sites online, Match.com guarantees finding love within six months. 

 

If not, you get six months of premium for free.

 

  • Standard—3 Months—$31.99 per month—$95.97 total
  • Standard—6 Months—$22.99 per month—$137.94 total

 

  • Premium—3 Months—$34.99/month—$104.97 total
  • Premium—6 Months—$24.99/month—$149.94 total

 

Match is among the oldest best paid dating sites online-Join now

Tips for Finding Love on Pay Dating Sites Online

Choose the Right Site

Find paid dating sites that cater to your specific needs. When comparing the best pay dating sites, if you want to marry, consider Zoosk or eHarmony, if you’re a queer woman there’s HER, and for luxury dating, there’s Seeking.

Be Honest in Your Online Pay Dating Site Profile

Being honest and having a complete profile paves the way to success. Sites like Hinge emphasize the importance of a detailed profile.

Be Proactive and Patient

Don’t just sit back and wait for messages to come in on the best adult dating sites, regardless of which of the top pay dating sites online you choose. 

Reach out to people you are interested in with thoughtful messages that show you have read their profile and that you’re genuinely interested in getting to know the other person. 

Also, keep in mind that finding love online takes time so patience is a virtue regardless of which pay dating site you use.

FAQs About the Best Pay Dating Sites

Which Paid Dating Site Is Best?

The best paid dating site is Zoosk. It has a huge user pool, and it’s one of the few pay dating sites that offer multiple approaches to meeting people.

How Do the Pay Dating Sites Work?

The pay datings sites like Zoosk and eHarmony work by offering a matchmaking algorithm, while paid dating apps like Tinder and Hinge rely on photo uploads and swipe-style matching (both users swipe right on each other to match).

What Are Red Flags for Online Dating?

Here are some red flags for online dating on the top pay dating sites and apps. 

 

  • Incomplete profiles, and information inconsistent with their messages
  • Refusing to communicate off the dating site
  • Asking for personal information such as your address or phone number, too soon
  • Being too pushy, overly sexual, or not respectful of your boundaries
  • Refusing to meet in person or to video chat—they might not be who they claim to be

When using pay dating sites, always get to know someone before you meet in person and trust your gut if something feels off. A few tips from the dating app safety guide wouldn’t hurt, either.

Our Picks for the Best Dating Sites for Finding Love in 2023

After all is said and done, it’s up to you to choose the best paid dating sites online to find a serious relationship this year.

 

While we like Zoosk, because it offers multiple ways to connect and chat, including video chat—your needs determine the site you will use.

 

Regardless of which site you choose, make sure to stay safe and always avoid going on dates with people you don’t know that well.

Good luck!

 

Related reading: Best hookup sites

About the Author Aeron