The best dating sites for men

If you're a single man and you're continuously striking out on Tinder, then maybe you should consider levelling up to the gold standard in online dating.

Since 1995, Match has been one of the leading names in online dating, with millions upon millions of users in 25 countries speaking more than eight languages. It’s designed for older men and women who are looking for serious relationships instead of something casual or random hookups. The dating site is also responsible for thousands of lifelong matches and marriages over the last 20 years or so.

Since Match was one of the first in the online dating market, it works pretty similarly to most others that came after it, like eharmony and OkCupid. You complete a pretty extensive questionnaire about your personality and what you’re looking for in an ideal match.

Afterwards, Match has a 24-hour waiting period for verification before you can start using the service. This is so the dating site isn’t bombarded with fake profiles. But once you’re in you can message, favorite, wink, and talk with other users until you match and start going on dates in the real world.

Most men on Match know what kind of relationship they want, so users are generally more serious about something long-term than users on Tinder or AdultFriendFinder. 

Since it’s a premium site, there shouldn't be any fake profiles that might discourage you from this whole online dating business. Match has to approve all new users before using the dating site. After verification, you can use it for free during a seven-day trial period. After that, you can decide to continue for a monthly or yearly fee.

Dating over 60 means that, more than likely, this is your second or third attempt at love. SilverSingles is here to let you know you're not alone, and that putting yourself back out there doesn't have to be scary. 

If you read about EliteSingles and were psyched about the level of specificity and safety, but were looking for a dating site tailored specifically to older individuals, SilverSingles is the sweet spot that combines both. 

A sister site to EliteSingles, SilverSingles uses the same intense compatibility system that EliteSingles does, bringing in the popular big five personality traits to assess five levels of your being: openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. If you've heard of Senior Singles Meet in the past, SilverSingles is that same site with a rebrand — so they've actually been working on mastering the five factor model in tandem with senior dating for about two decades. 

SilverSingles wants to ensure that your next relationship lasts, so the sign-up process and questionnaires will take some time. But hey, if having every tiny part of your personality assessed is what it takes to find the happily ever after you've been waiting for, an hour of your time is totally worth it.  

SilverSingles will only send you five matches a day, and you can't search through a pool of people — but this will force you to seriously consider if you can see yourself with these people. If you were worried about online dating because of the possible creeps out there, don't worry: You can hide or block any member you want from seeing your profile, and can report any user who's acting suspicious or inappropriate. Like EliteSingles, SilverSingles wants their users to know that safety is the number one concern.  

Guys, this is not the place for younger millennials: EliteSingles loves to brag that 82% of their members are university grads, and with most members also being 33-50 years old, we can say with some certainty that the main targets are mature, working professionals rather than the Tinder-using generation. Sorry students.

Rather than being thrown into an endless pool of profiles, EliteSingles lets you pick out exactly what you're looking for. After you answer a detailed questionnaire based on the popular Five Factor Personality Test, professional-level algorithms will curate you a limited number of matches. They'll even compare your own results to those of potential matches to see how you stack up. Like eharmony, the stuff you need to fill out is pretty lengthy – but that's what you need to do if you're looking for a lasting relationship, and this helps ensure that you aren't swiping through tons of people who aren't your type. Slow and steady wins the race, right?

EliteSingles is one of Europe’s leading online matchmaking providers, and boasts 13 million singles in over 20 countries. You can filter people based on location, religion, ethnicity, age, and sexual orientation. You can even break it down by profession. Profiles are even verified manually with an upscale Fraud Detection System, as you would expect from the fancy-sounding name.

Read our full review of AdultFriendFinder.

Lumen is an app-only dating platform aimed at the millions of single, divorced, or widowed men and women aged over 50. The site launched in September 2018, and puts an emphasis on quality conversation, with zero tolerance for ageism.   

The site distances itself from other senior dating sites and aims to be more fun, engaging, and representative of real over 50s. It's especially appealing to seniors because it's specifically designed with them in mind.

There is a free version of Lumen, on which you can chat with up to six singles everyday. A paid membership costs £24.99 a month, and grants you access to 200,000 registered users in the UK. 

Lumen claim to verify 100 percent of the photos on every single profile, so you know what you are seeing is legitimate. It's a site that is all about real connections and security, and takes measures to achieve both of these things.

The site is only available through the app, which isn't necessarily a positive thing, but it is unique. There's also a Lumen Blog, providing dating tips, relationship advice, over 50s fashion guides, and social commentary.   

Founded in 2000, eharmony is the direct rival of Match. Although they have similar features, eharmony is a more focused experience. In addition, this dating site is considered one of the best sites for men who are looking to get married. So if you're a man who wants to commit to a great partner, then you should consider eharmony to find your special someone.

eharmony’s sign-up process is more in depth and time consuming to get through than the questionnaire on Match. The questions asked during sign-up are designed to weed out 'players' and 'serial daters' because eharmony is interested in matching men with compatible partners for long-term relationships. 

So if you get frustrated during the sign-up process, just remember that you're looking for a life partner and not just a random fling. But once it’s complete, the dating site has a better idea of who you are and who is your ideal match. 

In addition, users on eharmony are a bit older than the ones you’d find on Tinder because it’s a premium site. In other words, if you’re paying to use a dating site, then you’re super serious about meeting your soulmate.

The dating platform uses their own scientific method called '29 Dimensions of Compatibility.' Its sole purpose is to find you the best possible matches that are more suitable to you, as it tries to 'match couples based on features of compatibility found in thousands of successful relationships.'

GayFriendFinder is a great option if you are looking for something casual, something serious, or just the opportunity to have a conversation with other gay men. So pretty much everything is covered with GayFriendFinder.

Once you've made it through the sign-up process, you can browse the profiles from all around the globe. You can still create hot-lists and send ice-breakers to guys that take your fancy if you are a standard member, but you'll need to upgrade to initiate contact via email or chat.

GayFriendFinder will encourage you to upload photos to make your profile more attractive but you are under no obligation to do so, which is nice if you aren't completely comfortable with having your photo shared around the site.

There's a free version which is great, but most communication as well as viewing full profiles requires a paid membership, so you can't really progress things with anyone until you pay up, but that seems like a fair deal.

The main reason this site makes this list is the fantastic social features that help you get to know your potential connection before you opt in or out of meeting them. This site is all about the social interaction, and the chat and forum features help members to interact much more than a lot of the competition.