What is an Online Matchmaking Site?

People looking for a lasting relationship generally can’t go wrong choosing a matchmaking agency. It is the most commonly used and the most promising way to find a partner to form a serious relationship. Chances are, you have friends or family who met their significant other via eHarmony or EliteSingles.

Online matchmakers are evolutions of the classic matchmakers that used to be found in newspaper advertisements. But today their database is much larger (market leaders count 100.000 active singles every week) and the prices are affordable.

The core of these online matchmakers are so called matching algorithms. These are computer programs developed by scientists and will suggest partners for you. If you eventually wish to contact someone you will be provided with a safe environment to do so.

What are the merits of using an online matchmaker?

6 reasons why looking for a partner via a matchmaking site is so successful:

1. The largest benefit is the large number of singles willing to engage in a long-term relationship, in contrast to most matchmaking sites or even offline at the 30+ party in town.

2. Online dating platforms have millions of members, whom often are looking for flirts or some fun, but not commitment. Matchmaking sites are much more serious and will help you on your path of finding a new long-term relationship.

3. One more problem with large dating services is the amount of competition you will have to face. Without a great picture and an outstanding “about me” section, online dating may turn out to be more of a struggle, not so much an enjoyment – which it shouldn’t be! With online matchmakers, having more members directly correlates with more precise matching results, since there are more variables for the algorithms to pick from. No competition, because everyone only sees their own proposals.

4. You will remain completely anonymous and may even decide at what point you wish to reveal your photo to your chat partner.

5. Save time. You will only have to look at the hand full of proposals you are presented. You don’t have to sift through an entire database yourself.

6. The self-improving computational algorithms are responsible for more and more successful matches by the agencies. Due to sociopsychological analytics you are often presented with suggestions that don’t quite match your general dating habits but may be spot on exactly for that reason.

To sum things up, with a matchmaking site you may act anonymously and save a lot of time before you start dating people that may potentially be with you for the rest of your life.

Whoever is looking for a Partner for life and is able to afford a premium membership at eHarmony and the likes, will have the best chances of finding a partner signing up with a renowned matchmaker.

What are the downsides?

The safe environment of the online agencies does not revolve about profile pictures. If you enjoy browsing profile pictures and chatting for hours over, an online matchmaker is not for you.

Also, your matchmaker cannot simply calculate the perfect partner for you. That would be scary! You will receive an assortment of potential whose life goals, character and background converge with yours. The computer cannot calculate chemistry, love or attraction. That is your job to figure out.

And that’s where things get exciting and romantic!

Whom are matchmaking sites best suited for?

Whether or not you should try out a matchmaking site you may find out by the checklist below:

1) Am I serious about finding a partner?

• Dating agencies are used by singles that are looking for commitment.
• Quick and superficial flirts are for online dating sites and dating apps.

2) Am I too old or too young?

• Singles just above 30 (or 25 for that matter) are definitely the predominant age group.
• Older than 70? The database fades to mere emptiness.

3) Am I suited for this type of dating?

• There are more sophisticated singles and academics

Was “Yes” your answer to all of these questions? View our test winners!

Which matchmaking site is the best one in 2018?

Like with everything, there are multiple smaller providers when a new trend gains traction. Now, after 10 years, our three test winners have prevailed.

Over 75% of all those in search of “the one” populate those websites, so the matching will be very precise. Which matchmaker is “the best” is hard to tell. It would be better to ask:

which one works best for ME?

And only you can answer that question! Though our tests might be of value when it comes to which ones you would like to give a try.

You should definitely try out two agencies free trials, before deciding on a premium membership: which one feels better? Which suggestions have you preferred? Where did you receive more messages?

How safe are online matchmakers?

The ones that we have tested and approved of, show exemplary efforts to keep their users safe:

• All data transfers are SSL encoded
• Certified runtimes and exceptional data protection
• The servers are located in Australia
• Employees review newly registered accounts to prevent fake profiles

Many dating sites have been hacked and compromised a lot of personal information – yet none of the premium agencies at the top of our list.

Your anonymity remains untouched. With our test winners, others will only see your alias and you have 100% control over who may see your profile picture.

Matchmaking sites: pricing

Compared to most flirt sites and dating apps the pricing for online dating agencies is much higher: a couple hundred Dollars for half a year.

Which is why most agencies increase your chances of finding a relationship drastically. Why? Read the next section!

The current prices for premium memberships of the market leaders as well as specials and vouchers for the top matchmaking agencies can be found here:

• How much does Eharmony cost?
• How expensive is EliteSingles?
• What does Academic Singles cost per month?

Why are matchmaking sites comparatively more expensive?

On a side note, is finding the love of your life with more than 30% probability not worth more than a couple hundred Dollars?

With a premium-membership you generally support the reputation of your platform since 75% of the membership revenue immediately flows back into marketing!

This guarantees that thousands of new singles register for the database which is bread and butter for a functioning online matchmaker!

The elevated price segment is also what guarantees success and has led to more than one million singles finding their significant other: a recent study of datingsitesaustralia.com found that:

The higher the price of a dating platform is, the higher the interest of the paying customer to find a new relationship!

And this is how it works:

• Trolls, testers and creeps of all sorts find cheap/free flirt websites more appealing.
• Whoever is willing to pay, is serious about finding a partner and will reply to mails. Also, they will not stand up blind dates.

All in all there is a really enjoyable and respectful social construct on these website that makes spending time there a pleasure, which is the backbone of a renowned and successful matchmaker.

The study also shows that when singles are looking for a life partner, a matchmaking site is the right place to search at.

“people that make random dates via flirt apps, will notice on the first date, that they are not meant for each other, while the socio and psychologically computed matches of dating agencies result in much more promising dates.”

Of course, there are plenty of matchmakers that are no good but expensive none the less. Few members, many fakes and nontransparent pricing…. Which is why we sorted those out for you.

Do decent free matchmaking agencies exist?

NO, there aren’t any.

With a free dating offer you are always at a disadvantage, because it attracts clients that are not serious about finding a lasting relationship. At the latest when she receives thoughtless message #286, she will leave the site to never return.

We do however expect that new members are able to experience a website extensively through a trial membership of any decent online matchmaker, before they have to sign up and pay for the premium features.

Experiences with matchmaking agencies online

Our dating experts had varying experiences when testing different agencies online. Many were positive, but there also were some negative ones. Oftentimes users of these agencies will send us VERY detailed reviews of their experiences with the different websites, which we study thoroughly and work into our own evaluation of each website. We have included reviews of the three best agencies that reflect the opinions of the users and our own:

• Experiences with eHarmony
• Experiences with EliteSingles
• Academic Singles – Experiences and opinions

You would like to learn more about a certain matchmaker? In our FAQ on matchmaking sites our experts share their extensive knowledge about different websites.

Particular matchmaker needed?

1. International matchmaking agencies

More and more often Australia’s men and women are looking for love in different countries and ask us for a fitting international matchmaking sites.

An overview can be found in our guide “International Dating Agencies”

With many dating websites you are able to search for people from particular areas such as eastern Europe and Asia for example, that already live in the UK and are looking for a partner. Which is much easier logistically that experimenting around abroad…

2. Agencies for seniors

These play by the same rules as the international matchmakers: have a look at the three largest online agencies. Usually there are more 50+ members than even many dedicated websites may account for!

If you haven’t found anything so far you may have a look at over 100 matchmaking topics, whether it is religious, esoteric or disabled singles.

How did online matchmakers develop?

The serious way of matching WITHOUT PICTURES(!) between 2001 up to approximately 2005 lead to most singles getting bored quite fast: looking at pictures and browsing what’s available at the online market is just not how online agencies work. The trick is to only present a handful, yet very promising candidates.

From 2006 to 2010 many partner agencies caught up by a lot and thrilled their clients with more interaction and curiosity features. Photos are no longer taboo. 2011 to 2023 the main focus with the top agencies was on developing even better algorithms to preset even more refined pools of potential partners to their clients, to enhance the support and also to connect the websites to mobile app.