Online Dating is a phenomenon, which has finally started to make space in the Indian arena. For a long, the idea of casual dating has been shunned by Indians, owing to the prevalent culture wherein it is only the long-term relationships that receive validation from society.
However, the youth now seems to be well prepared to break these shackles and explore a whole new world of better, vaster possibilities.
That being said, considering the basic mindset of tier 2 and tier 3 audiences, many dating apps in the nation have chosen to be called relationships apps, wherein their ulterior motive is to help people find the love of their lives, rather than just a casual date!
The collection of these apps is based on data such as testimonials, public reviews, user ratings, and information about the apps/websites collected from multiple sources.
Here’s a list of 25 dating apps and dating sites that are currently available in India without paying any money. The list below is in a particular order of importance (ascending or descending).
So let’s take a look at a specially compiled list that encompasses the top 15 dating apps & sites in India.
Tinder
Known to be one of the most famous dating apps across the world, Tinder has only recently entered the Indian arena. Its algorithm, which can also be inarguably called its unique selling proposition is that the app has the ability to connect you with a person in less than a minute. As a curiosity, since it launched in 2012, the Tinder app has been downloaded over 530 million times.
With some stunning features like mutual friends, the super-like option, etc. the platform of Tinder seems to be rather social. On the other hand, the varied options that the app offers in a bid to give you a perfectly personalized dating experience are what sets it apart.
Just in case you’d want to, you can conveniently choose to let your profile be discovered by new people, and simply remain in touch with the people you’ve already liked. Moreover, you can manage your search results based on factors such as age, or distance.
With tinder, one can easily choose to view men and women, an option that can be edited from the settings menu.
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Badoo
Badoo is a name you might be aware of if you’ve ever gotten around to using online dating apps and dating sites. Currently, Badoo alone has the largest user base in all the world, with operations in over 190 countries – the app is available in 47 different languages.
The brainchild of a Russian entrepreneur, Andrey Andreev, the app was launched as back as 2006 and if the numbers suggest anything (most downloaded app and amongst the most visited dating sites in over 21 countries) it is not the new kid around the block.
In 2017, Badoo received a new facelift when it underwent a few changes to its UI and design elements. Its logo was also changed to a more contemporary orange and purple. If you’ve used Facebook, you’d probably have seen advertisements for this dating app as it is also rated the 17th most used app on Facebook. They try to make themselves as distinct from other online dating apps and dating sites as much as possible.
DoULike
Are you bored of being single? Do you want to dry out online dating for the first time? If so, DoULike is a great start, it is entirely free! This online dating site for singles is all you really need to start your online dating adventure and meet some truly outstanding individuals along the way.
In case you had no idea, DoULike is one of the tops paid online dating sites that also features an amazing application that will allow you to find your matches no matter your location. Create your profile in just a few minutes and start browsing through thousands of profiles of singles in your area.
The user community is very diverse and because of that, it has been attracting an insane amount of people worldwide. Look for your future wife, or perhaps have an interesting casual encounter with the man of your dreams, anything is possible – all you have to do is browse and click on a ‘’Heart’’ icon whenever you see a profile that strikes your interest!
If you decide to purchase a subscription, you will be granted a few truly interesting features that will make your online dating experience even better!”
Azar
Azar is an online dating app that takes the idea of face-to-face and makes it a part of the service. A dating app that is oriented towards video chatting with your matches, it optimizes its video chatting parts quite well. The people at Azar believe that most people are too shy and try to avoid showing their physical selves to others, they come up with a solution. You swipe and video chat.
The App has over 100 million downloads worldwide and has made over 30 billion matches to date. Other online dating apps try and keep people comfortable with the same old dating lobbies and chats. Not Azar. It is getting bigger and bigger each day.
Elite Singles
Startups are all about innovative and brilliant new ideas, EliteSingles takes that point a bit too seriously. A dating website and app for all the geniuses out there, where more than 80% of the user base is claimed to have bachelor’s or master’s degrees in one thing or the other.
It might be newer compared to its competition but the user base is growing fast, with 165K users being added each month. Everyone needs dates, especially geniuses. It is growing faster than other online dating apps due to its exclusivity.
Most career-oriented people across the world are either too busy to go on dates regularly or are too shy to do it all together. Apps like this one are aimed towards such people who look towards something more serious, no offense to apps like Tinder. The demographics of other online dating apps like Tinder or Badoo are mostly young people in their early 20s or teens. So, they might not seem like a promising option to people who are slightly older than them. It tries to keep itself away from dating sites that promise thirsty singles in your area.
Woo
Woo is a dating and matchmaking app, which focuses only on well educated professionals. With some unique features such as Voice Intro, Tag Search, Question Cast and Direct Messaging, this app proves to be rather engaging for the user.
The algorithm of this app, helps find matches based on your interest tags and for what it’s worth, you can actually search for probable matches, just on the basis of a single tag that you feel interests you the most.
Truly Madly
Essentially India’s own dating app, Truly Madly has managed to create quite some wave, thanks to its outstanding advertising campaign and its best tinder alternative for Indians, its almost the app like tinder. This app goes beyond the parameters of distance and age, and helps one find matches on the basis of interests and other preferences.
Thanks to its unique Not only can you keep your images safe with a unique feature of this app, you can also ask your friends to endorse you for a better trust score, which will eventually lead to a higher number of conversations with your matches.
The app encourages users to play certain interesting games with their matches, such as Styletastic, Foodie Funda, Hocus Pocus etc. in order to help them get to know each other in a better and more interesting manner.
Bumble
Bumble is yet another dating app, which will help you find matches, more or less in the same way as Tinder. In order for two people to be connected through the app, both of them need to swipe right. That being done, the power of kick-starting a conversation lies in the hands of the female.
Once matched, she’s required to start the conversation within 24 hours, failing which the match will disappear forever. This holds true for same-sex matches, as well as for those who are on the lookout for friendships.
And just in case you’re too worried of running out on time, the app allows you to extend the ticking clock for another 24 hours for a maximum of one connection per day.
In India, Bumble is only available for the iOS, making it one of the top 10 dating apps for iPhone in the nation.
Moco
An astounding dating app, Moco seems to have made its mark, not just in the field of dating but also in helping people meet new friends and socializing in a way that stands unmatched.
With features that let you add to your profile, the images, videos, music, etc., you can rest assured of meeting some rather exhilarating people, who appreciate your fields of interest.
Along with the option of chatting with your match, Moco also allows you to join chat rooms, o a group chat. With a plethora of games embedded within the app, you are sure to have a lot of fun around here.
OKCupid
OkCupid is not just another dating app. It is, in fact an app, which allows you to find your probable matches based on your preferences of sexual orientation. The algorithm used by the app, is essentially based on the distance between two people.
While that might not sound impressing enough, you can surely create an interesting enough profile summary to attract better matches.
The paid version of the app is known as A-List, which offers some commendable features such as viewing your profile visitors, and the people who liked you.
A-list also helps you filter results on the basis of attractiveness, body type, etc, along with letting you browse in the incognito mode.
Kama
Essentially a smart dating app, Kama is not just focussed on Indians, but the entire South-Asian community as a whole. The app boasts of boosting the relevance of the matches as they aren’t simply based on factors like distance and age.
As a matter of fact, the app relies upon superior social discovery and believes in giving the complete control to the user.
Highly personalised to suit one’s likes and preferences, the app can also be adjusted as per the lifestyle that one chooses to follow.
Bloomy
Bloomy is one of the very few android dating apps in India, which gives preference to the safety of its user and their personal information over everything else. The app promises the protection of the user data, an aspect which is taken care of by one of the most top-notch Security Systems & Technology Company.
The app ensues that all members maintain a quick and rather regular response rate. For the safety of its users, it is ensured that every members’ identity is personally verified by the app’s staff.
One can feel free to send direct messages to contact and simply discover their way through to tat perfect date.
Hinge
Unlike Tinder, Hinge is an app, which offers a high level of discretion to the user.
Moreover, for you to find a match on this app, it is almost essential that you have a mutual friend on Facebook with your probable match.
While this may seem to be a little disappointing for some people, as per the makers of the app, this is what makes it more reliable and in fact, helps the users find a more meaningful relationship rather than just a casual date.
Aisle
Aisle is an app which completely stands out of the crowd. Foe what it’s worth, the app requires the user to pay in order to connect with a probable match. That being said, a user who receive an invite from another user can connect for free.
This feature possibly helps the app to make sure that it is only the people looking for serious relationships who use the app.
Creating a profile on this otherwise user-friendly app, can sometimes be a daunting task, and even a detrimental one, given the fact that its ask for partner preferences in a rather definitive way such as your partner should be ‘Passive or Aggressive’, which may not always fit the bill, not in the case of human beings anyway!
Frivil
Here’s a dating app that keeps you on your toes in a fun and interesting way! After signing up, you’ll be shown pictures of random people in order for you to rank them on the basis of their attractiveness, in what is called a picture match.
The more attractive people you pick, the better is your popularity score. You get a notification, whenever you lose or win a match. After the day’s competition, you’re eligible to participate in the league, which is played every night at 9.
In the league, you get the opportunity to see other people, and if they seem interesting enough you can pick a chat with them.
All in all, a fun experience leading to what can probably be a date or even a relationship! Who knows!
Zoosk
In terms of its pedigree, Zoosk doesn’t pull any punches to oldies in online dating apps and dating sites like Badoo. Started in 2007 by two Iranian immigrants – Alex Mehr and Shayan Zadeh. Zoosk is available in 25 different languages across 80 different countries. The company boasts about its large 40 million user base on its website. In its public reception, Zoosk was described as “Easy to use and well designed” and while it might have a bigger bot issue as compared to other online dating apps like Tinder or Badoo, it won’t be an issue as bots are generally quite easy to spot.
Like Badoo, Tinder, and various other dating services, Zoosk follows a freemium model. You can use their basic tools of social interaction free of any costs but the more premium features – chat galleries, social groups, exclusive search option, etc will be locked behind a paywall. Just like many other dating sites.
Match
A dating website and now an app as old as time itself. If you were around in the early 2000s and had a computer, there is a chance you’ve had your brush with it a few times. Started in 1995 (even before films like “You’ve got mail” got people into the whole online dating scene) the dating website has kept itself intact with a few design changes to make it fit better into the 21st century. It is the big daddy of the online dating apps we now know and see.
The Match.com parent company keeps under its wing several other sister dating sites and apps which all compete in the online dating business (amongst which are OkCupid and Tinder itself). If you’re a millennial, this was a website your parents might’ve met on. Or not, in any case, there’s a reason its lived through all these years despite all the other companies failing where it succeeded.
eHarmony
Want to learn how to play harp? Well, eHarmony is the website for you. Jokes aside, another oldie from before most of the online gen was born. eHarmony was founded in 2000 – before Cast Away was released and displaying tender affection towards footballs was considered weird. The last statement might still be up for debate, this website isn’t. The online questionnaire format for getting a percentage match was the running brainchild of Dr. Neil Clark Warren, a clinical psychologist and also the founder of this website.
How eHarmony found you your soulmate was through a series of questions that you answered. The individual who have a higher match in percentage to your questionnaire was a perfect match. While the spontaneity of meeting someone who you knew nothing about was gone, the idea worked. This was not something dating sites in the past had even thought of. People use the website and its form of matchmaking is still being replicated to this day. Now, it is borrowing from other online dating apps – it has an app of its own.
Wingman
There’s nothing more American than having a wingman when you decide to go out for a social outing. It’s pretty much their culture and thanks to the spread of western culture via pop-culture, it is ours now. What if an app was your wingman? Seems like a bad idea. But, it works. The app gives your friends the power to make the choices for you. Each interaction for you in unique and spontaneous. It’s not like other dating sites because it’s solely an app.
Online dating apps usually try to keep things quite procedural and under control but not Wingman. On surface, this might seem like a pretty bad idea. It probably is. So, is dating but we do it anyways. Cupid aims to bring back the unpredictability of finding someone and making a match not based on numbers or algorithms. Some might be good, some bad. It is up to you to find out.
Hater
Here’s another weird one right out of the shark tank, quite literally. The popular ABC network TV show Shark Tank, a show where entrepreneurs pitch their start-up ideas to a group of investors. This survived that show. Hater matches you to people based on a system of likes and dislikes that you put into their app. Then it flips them and matches you with someone who is exactly the opposite (cause opposites attract) of you in your life choices.
This segment of the list of online dating apps and dating sites just seems to be about really bad dating advice. It is a trial and error process and that’s what is missing from giants like Tinder, who seek to project the idea of the perfect self on social media. Enough with the jargon, this app seeks to give you the age-old get-to-know-each-other and then respect oneself for who they are. This list is getting pretty weird, I know.
Cuddli
You know when an app uses the words ‘nerd’ and ‘geek’ as if they’re one in the same thing, it’s a bad news. Nerdism, is something which seems to be a badge of approval in today’s day and age. (OH! I know what a Star Wars is…OMG! I’m such a nerd.) Yep, this is an app for you if you THINK you’re a nerd. Because if you were really a nerd, you wouldn’t be dating (check out Revenge of the Nerds). A bag full of hurtful feelings aside, this app hopes to connect all the nerd of the world with (you guessed it!) the other nerds of the world.
So everyone can talk about Star Wars and their love of Mattel action figures. A perfect world, vibrating at the most resonant harmony. How this app fails is in its marketing, where not even a single nerd is to be seen. Just a group of the usually attractive teens with glasses on (that’s a hipster, not a nerd). Maybe it can bring together all the nerd of the world. Here’s to hoping.
The League
Another elitist dating app that hopes to put one genius with the other. The League is pretty much EliteSingles on with a face lift. It is a premium dating service which is catered to the more elite and tasteful creatures that roam the earth, at least according to its creators. It is exclusive, members-only design selected people based on their data collected from their social media profiles via Facebook and LinkedIn. Sounds exciting, doesn’t it? Yup.
If you don’t have the time or the patience to go through a number of dates – as all us mortals do, you can simply flip one to the system by becoming a member of this service, that is if you are suitable. It knows who it is catering to, the people who are suitable for it eventually find out about it and are satisfied by the service. Online dating apps don’t usually go for exclusivity but that’s what makes The League unique.
Thrill
Essentially an Indian Dating App, which is created taking into consideration the people who might not be as tech-savvy. With an intuitive user-interface, making things easy for one and all, the app ensures that the women get to stay in power.
For men to join the community, they need to be voted for by a group of women. It is the complete filling up of a profile on this app that will offer you a brighter chance of getting matched quickly and rather efficiently.
The profiles on the app, are all locked up in beginning but can be unlocked by simply shaking your phone initially and eventually by filling in more details about yourself.
With the impressive feature of audio as well as video verification, the chatting within the app is what sets it apart from its contemporaries.
ekCoffee
For what can be called a unique app in the world of Dating, ekCoffee, let’s you have conversation with a probable match, however only one at a time. Unlike Tinder and other dating platforms, the app doesn’t encourage endless chat but that one real conversation which might lead you to a serious date.
If you and your match agree for a date, that app also suggest a good place in the city for you to meet up! For what it’s worth, the app wouldn’t make you feel rushes, and even wouldn’t let you lose focus by keeping your chat to the minimum possible in terms of the number of people.
Moreover it is not as overwhelming and dare we say, something near perfect for those on the lookout for a relationship rather than yet another hook-up.
Matchify
Matchify, is another app in the dating and relationship spaces, which matches you up with probable partners on the basis of a dynamic understanding of your interests.
What can be called a great blend of human skills and technology, is the basis of the matching algorithm used by the app. The more you use the app, the beet matches it can find you, at least that is what the founders claim.
Like some of the other players in the Indian Market, even this one places greater emphasis on the security of women, offering a plethora of features supporting the same. Some of these features include, secure chat, wherein only the women can initiate a conversation, verified profiles, and settings related to who exactly can browse through one’s profile and pictures.
The app also lets you report or block a person in case you are facing any troubles.
25. HookedUp
HookedUp is another reliable app in the arena, which helps you stay secure, while being on the look-out for that special someone. While we say secure, it means all the profiles on the app are duly verified, which helps increase their credibility.
The matching algorithm is again based on your interests. However, it also takes into account the filters that you prefer. In case both of these factors don’t help you much, it jumps back to the distance criteria in a bid to help you find someone you may like.
You can however only slide a profile left, which means it will come back after sometime. Right sliding is not an option here. In order to initiate a conversation with someone you seem to like, all you have to do is to tap the ‘connect’ tab and you’ll be good to go!
Conclusion
As you can see, the Indian arena is now teeming with a plethora of apps that offer online dating, however, the nation’s consumer base hasn’t been tapped further in the world of dating, As a result, no significant dating apps in India for married people have been introduced just yet. Only a website that goes by the name of gleeden.com is currently available to the users.
And if you want to check out marriage apps, then these are the best matrimonial sites.
However, it wouldn’t be surprising if some apps on these lines are released soon enough as being a land of arranged marriages, one can only imagine the potential that India holds as a market for online dating for married people!
That being said, let us know, which dating apps have you already tried and loved! In fact, we’d be also glad to hear from you if you’ve had some not so good experiences with any of these apps.
Also let us know, if you agree with our list, or would like some more apps to be features as the best dating apps in India!