Australian Model – Laura Dundovic (Source: Wikimedia Commons)
Thank god for your site. First, I’m a 54 year old woman seeking a man. Second, I’ve been on dating sites for only 10 days and already want to cry and cry due to meager, pitiful profiles and some frankly scary pictures. Then, yesterday, I read this really great profile. Cute guy and everything.
I signed up for every dating site and app that I could find in Australia. There are some really good ones (and some not so good ones). Here is my quick list of the top 3 that I would focus my time on if I had to do it all over again (with #1 being my favorite). I’ll go into more detail in my reviews below.
- On our site, we hand-pick the top dating sites by reviewing the best features, pricing, and service available. You may have noticed a few well-known names that we didn’t include in this table such as Match.com, FarmersOnly, Plenty Of Fish (POF), OKCupid, Tinder, Dating Agency, Tender and DateHookup.
- Free Online Dating in Australia Loveawake is a top-performing online dating site with members present in Australia and many other countries. Loveawake has over a million registered singles and over 1000 new men and women are joining daily.
I’ll preface this post by saying that your best success with any of the sites below will be found in a major city like Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, or Adelaide. The problem with smaller towns is that there just aren’t enough members to make it worth your time to sign up. You’ve got to be in cities that have a large population of singles because dating is really a numbers game. The more people you contact, the better your chance of success.
Also, one more piece of advice…if you are looking for a short term hookup, Tinder is definitely your best option. However, if you are looking for something more longer term (like I was), check out a real dating site like the ones I will mention below.
Another Photo of Australian model Laura Dundovic (Source: Wikimedia Commons)
Founded on Valentines Day 1997, RSVP is the site that I would definitely sign up for whether you are an expat in Australia or a local looking for love. It is user friendly and has really improved since I first entered the site way back in 2013.
RSVP is the giant of online dating in Australia. It has lots of members (2 million+), and the rate of response is surprisingly high for such a large site with so many members.
The stats only get more impressive: 40,000 conversations a day, 1 in 3 Australian couples that met online met on RSVP, and 1 out of every 5 Australians who used RSVP ended up married or with a life-partner.
Sign up Process
After entering your basic info, RSVP asks you to upload a photo, and then asks a few questions about yourself and your ideal partner. After these questions, you can continue filling out your profile, or start browsing for matches.
Your profile consists of a headline (a personal tagline of sorts), your personal information, physical traits, career and education, and lifestyle, and whether or not you have children or pets. You can also enter your favorite music, books, etc. and join some RSVP groups.
How to Locate Potential Matches
Finding compatible matches through the basic search feature is made easy with a ton of different refinement options. RSVP also picks matches for you based on 2-way compatibility between selected ideal match criteria.
RSVP has a couple features that you won’t see at many other dating sites:
- Why Not Consider – Profiles that may not fit within your specified criteria of an ideal match, but are looking for people like you! RSVP thinks these profiles are worth checking out, and I must say, I agree.
- Top 100 – Here you can check out the 100 most popular users on RSVP by age category. Although I enjoyed looking through these profiles, I imagine any women in the top 100 get even more messages than normal, which sure didn’t help my chances at all.
How to Communicate with Other Members
Free members can send “kisses”, but to actually message anyone, you’ll have to either upgrade to premium or buy “stamps”, which give you unlimited contact with a member for 30 days. This was a unique system for sure, but to me it felt cheap and unnecessarily limiting. They advertise as an upside the fact that you get your stamp back if your message isn’t read, but this is only if your stamp isn’t read in 30 days. Some may like this feature, but I personally prefer paying a flat rate to message as many people as I like.
I wish they would get rid of the whole stamp pricing thing. It gets expensive fast. If you are like me who does the “cast the net wide” approach but loves being on a budget, you will see that your wallet will be drained quicker than you can imagine. I am a much bigger fan of subscriptions where I pay a fixed fee and know exactly what I am getting.
Unique Site Features
One feature I did enjoy was the 15-minute personality test. Not only do you receive an in-depth personality report after completion, but RSVP uses your results to find even more compatible matches for you.
I also like the cool messaging and chat features and how the site allows you to upload more pictures than a lot of other dating sites of its kind.
Pictures are key on online dating because people tend to be lazy and often don’t read profiles. And if you have done any online dating, you know how cookie cutter profiles can seem. You know, the old “I like walks on the beach, I’m easy-going, etc.”
RSVP also provides a regularly-updated blog, where relationship expert John Aiken lays down some high-quality relationship advice. After soaking up the wisdom here, you can head to one of the live singles events organized by the site, or join discussions online about traveling, hobbies, dating and relationships and more.
As much as I like RSVP, I wish the site would take a page out of eharmony’s playbook and have a more thorough questionnaire to weed out some of the timewasters on the site.
What is Included in Each Membership Level
- Free – Upload 15 photos, exchange photos, fill out a personality report, hide members, stamp guarantee
- Standout – All of the above, plus: Personality compatibility reports, priority customer service, ad free mobile browsing, extended stamp expiry, “message read” receipts, highlighted profile in searches, appear at the top of searches
- Premium – All of the above, plus: Kiss filter and visibility control
In many ways, RSVP is just like the real world. There will be men or women who you will not click with or who don’t respond to your messages (or just disappear). There are women or men who might only be interested in helping you to part with your money. That is life.
My Advice: Just keep sending out messages and reach out until you find the person you are looking for and get success.
eharmony
With approximately 33 million members across the globe, eharmony has established itself as a worldwide leader in the online matchmaking industry.
Founded by accomplished author and psychologist Neil Warren, eharmony offers an array of sophisticated matching elements that enable it to stand out from competing sites. While the price of membership is more costly than many competitors, eharmony members benefit from an unprecedented level of web design and features.
Sign up Process
If you are interested in signing up for eharmony, you should set aside approximately one hour to complete the process. The process begins with your submission of general information, including location, gender, name and preferred match gender.
The next phase of the sign up process is the completion of a personality test. This test takes approximately 30-40 minutes to finish and includes questions regarding values sought in a relationship, the frequency of various emotional sentiments experienced within the past month, and the degree of passion or skill that you have for a particular activity.
Most questions are answered by using a rating scale that ranges from 1 to 7.
After completing the personality test, you will be asked to provide written responses to some open-ended questions related to partner preferences, activities that you are passionate about, and general background details. You are also invited to provide a photo, though this is not mandatory.
Registration is activated at this point, though members are invited to provide answers to many optional sections related to key interests and special skills.
How to Locate Potential Matches
eharmony has a platform that is similar to other sites that match members based upon the results of personality tests and questions. Accordingly, you are not able to search or browse member profiles.
Instead, eharmony will evaluate your test results in conjunction with responses provided by other members to assess the potential for compatibility. Matches are then filtered by location, age, and preferred gender. You will receive the profiles of match candidates but are not able to view their photos during this phase of the process.
How to Communicate with Other Members
You can send smiles or engage in basic messaging by text. You can also access eharmony’s Guided Communication protocol, which functions as an ice breaker by providing a systematic set of steps to establish rapport with another member.
Premium membership is an upgrade that is available to all eharmony members at additional charge. It includes more advanced communication features such as Secure Call, which allows you to contact other eharmony members by phone without revealing your own telephone numbers.
Unique Site Features
The most distinct feature of eharmony is their Guided Communication system. This system involves four easy steps to help you build a connection with another member.
The steps are as follows:
- Five Questions: This first step involves two members asking each other 5 questions selected from 55 options provided by eharmony. Members select one of several pre-written answers provided for each question. Questions focus on a variety of topics, ranging from travel philosophy to gender roles.
- Make or Break Sharing: In this step, members share details on match characteristics that make or break relationships for them. For instance, if you love to laugh, you may cite a sense of humor as a “make” for you.
- Deeper Probing: In this phase, you ask open-ended questions to another member. You can choose from a collection of questions provided by eharmony or craft your own questions.
- eharmony Mail: This is the final phase in eharmony’s messaging program. You may opt to skip directly to this step if desired.
OKCupid is a popular site worldwide that I’ve used in both South Africa and Brazil. It resulted in almost no results for me. Looking back on my history with this site, I think I’ve only had 1 date max despite hundreds of messages sent. Man is it super frustrating. I wish they would add some more barriers to make it harder for pretenders to be active on the website.
OKCupid is really a last resort site if you are in Australia. They have a decent Australian-based user base, the sign up process is easy, and they have a match locator tool. However, the ground is definitely more fertile in the other sites I mentioned above.
OkCupid.com is free to use. It incorporates several algorithms based on expansive question matching to choose the best matches for those who sign up.
The main drawback of this site is that, due to free signup, there are a high number of spammers and fake profiles, making it difficult to find a true and genuine match.
Aside from that, OkCupid.com offers you the ability to find your match based on your interest, if you are looking for a serious commitment or a casual hookup.
How to Signup?
Signing up for OkCupid.com is easy and can be done using your Facebook account or by filling in your details on your own. You will then be asked to choose a username and password. Then, there are questions that ask you about yourself and your personality.
Next, you have to Like three profiles so that OkCupid.com gets to know more about you. Then, you are good to go, and OkCupid.com will display the best matches for you.
You can just have a basic profile or can also upload your photos. Although there are only eight questions that need to be answered when you sign up, there are other columns that ask you to fill in more about yourself. You can share more about yourself, but make sure that you keep it short so that your profile looks attractive.
How to Look for Matches
There are a variety of filters that can be applied on OkCupid.com. When you browse for profiles on OkCupid.com, the display picture, username, location, age and the ‘%Match’ indicator and ‘%Enemy’ indicator will be shown so that you get to know about the compatibility, and this calculation is done based on the questions you answer initially.
You can either ‘Like’ or ‘Dismiss’ users while using Quickmatch. However, only mutual likes will be shown as matches.
Contacting Other Members on OkCupid.com
In order to communicate with other users, you can use two options: either by liking or by messaging.
Liking is not a preferred option as users will have to purchase the premium membership to know who liked them. If you choose to message, it is free and easy. Alternatively, when you visit a profile on OkCupid.com, the user will get a notification about your profile visit.
What Makes OkCupid.com Unique?
The complex matching system in OkCupid.com is itself unique, and it matches based on the answers you provide to their set of questions, which include your sexual desires, your opinion on interracial marriages and a few weird questions such as what you think about nuclear wars etc.
There are thousands of questions, and the more questions you answer, the more accurate your matches (at least in theory).
Membership Fees and What is Included in Each Membership Level
- Free – Create a profile, browse, Like, and message other users
- A-List – Advanced search options, invisible browsing, message filtering, extra message storage, ad-free browsing, username changes, see who has liked you, and see when someone has read your message
- Incognito Mode – Lets you Like and visit profiles invisibly, hides your profile from searches.
- Profile Boosts – Appear more often in searches and at the top of the list in Quickmatch.
How to Get Started
If you need tips on how to set up a profile, what I recommend writing for your initial and follow up messages, when to ask the woman/man you’re interested in to go offline for a date, buy my e-book, Online Dating Success: How to Find Love Anywhere in the World.
Top 10 Free Dating Site
Good luck and happy dating!
Further Reading
Worldwide Online Dating Site Reviews: Be sure to check out my country-by-country reviews of the best online dating sites in the world.
Worldwide Moving Guide: Everything you need to know in order to plan your move to 65+ countries around the world.
Worldwide Jobs Guide: If you are interested in working in this country, be sure to check out my posts on how to find jobs in this country and other countries around the world.
Worldwide Apartments Guide: If you are interested in renting an apartment in another country, take a look at my articles on how to find an apartment in various countries around the world.
Visahunter.com accepts no responsibility or liability whatsoever with regard to the accuracy of the information contained on this site. Please read the Visitor Agreement and Disclaimer. If you think there is an error in the information, please bring it to our attention so that we can correct it. Also, some of the links above could be affiliate links, which means that I will earn a commission (at no additional cost to you) should you decide to click on the links and make a purchase. I recommend sites from time to time, not because I get a tiny commission if you click on the links and make a purchase, but because, I want you to focus on the places that will deliver you the most value and the best results. Good luck!
If you're new to online dating, we've got your back, we've collated 5 of the safest, most successful and best Australian dating sites.
Online dating has recently burst onto the dating scene, as the new and improved way to meet other single people from the comfort and safety of your own home.
No longer will you have to rely on blind dates, awkward set ups or putting yourself in uncomfortable situations just to meet someone, these sites match you with your 'best fit'.
You can get to know the person through your chosen device, before choosing whether or not you would like to take it further.
So start your journey in finding love with one of these fantastic online dating sites for Australians.
Related: Best Dating Apps
The Best Australian Dating Sites
eHarmony is an online dating website created by Clinical Psychologist Dr. Neil Clark Warren in 2000. Dr. Warren spent his career counselling married couples and the premise of eHarmony was born from his experiences where couples who were compatible on multiple levels were more likely to have more satisfying relationships.
It led to him determining that there must be a better way to meet potential partners where compatibility is a key feature in the match.
This is what eHarmony does: it uses 29 unique dimensions of compatibility to match clients with people whose characteristics match their own, leading to more satisfying, long-lasting relationships.
Top 10 Dating Site In Australia For Women
This forms the basis of the patented matching system of eHarmony that has the ability of narrowing the field of potential matches to ensure clients have the greatest likelihood of finding meaningful relationships.
It is available in Australia, the United Kingdom, USA and Canada, and since it’s launch has resulted in over 11,000 marriages.
They boast that every 14 minutes, someone finds love on eHarmony. The company is constantly evolving and keeping up-to-date with the latest relationship research that is published on their advice site, eHarmony advice.
As well as meeting people based on location (city or state), customers can use other categories to meet their potential partner such as religion and age.
It is as easy as taking a compatibility quiz on sign up that will use a compatibility wheel to display your matches and how they compare in the areas you care about most.
RSVP is an Australian-owned dating company that is based online. It launched on Valentine’s Day in 1997 and is now one of the largest online dating companies in Australia with over 30,000 new members joining each month.
Members are matched with potential partners based on compatibility and behavioral trends that are assessed by a quiz on sign up.
It is free to join as well as view matches and say hello to those matches. Advanced searches are also available that cover all number of categories including eye colour, ethnicity, religion, education level, etc.
This company is very trusted within Australia and with online dating becoming the leading way to meet new singles, you can see why.
Top 10 Dating Site In Australia 2020
Their matching system has been deemed more successful than standard match algorithms by a recent University study at QUT based on 40,000 member connections.
The company works closely with Australian industry bodies including ACCC and Federal and State police in order to continue their commitment to safe online dating which can give members peace of mind in their dating quests.
The company is based in Sydney and has a support team that is available to provide members with assistance to ensure a smooth and safe online dating process. This support is offered via live website chat or email 24/7.
There is also a DateHub blog available which provides members with advice and tips by experts to navigate the dating world.
Zoosk is an online dating company that is available in over 80 countries. Customers are matched with potential partners using Behavioral Matchmaking technology that uses customer traits and preferences to find the most suitable matches.
This personalities the dating experience to ensure the greatest likelihood of relationship success. The technology is constantly being updated and growing based on customer interactions.
There is also an app available for smartphones that is the number one grossing online dating app available in the Apple App store.
Initial sign up as a member is free and this allows customers to browse the website and understand the gist of Zoosk including viewing other members.
However in order to begin conversations with other members and get to know them better, a subscription is required.
This subscription allows customers to send messages, connect with SmartPick introductions and see who has viewed their profile and then enable them to view those profiles.
The website hosts a variety of dating and relationship advice in order to increase the chances of relationship success for members. There are video tutorials and an extensive collection of articles covering a range of topics to assist customers’ inquiries such as information about subscriptions and payments.
Zoosk is a philanthropically company who gives back by employees donating their time at local art groups and animal shelters. The employees are a diverse bunch from various backgrounds and cultures with differing opinions who value respect and innovation.
Bumble is an online networking platform that began as a dating platform in 2007. It now includes options to create friendships and business connections as well as dates.
It was created to challenge dating norms including those gender rules that typically see men making the first move.
On Bumble, women make the first move; throwing those outdated dating dynamics out the window. It also offers inclusive gender identity options; another display of its ability to keep up with current social developments.
It provides a safe community that priorities kindness and respect in order for customers to create new and meaningful connections.
The travel feature allows customers to make worldwide connections even before they leave home so that they can arrive in a new country feeling comforted that they know someone and won’t be alone.
Bumble is free but has premium features available for a fee. These enhance the user experience and include Bumble Boost, which allows users to see who has swiped right on their profile, the ability to re-match with expired connections and extends matches for an extra 24 hours, and Bumble Coins, which allows users to send Super Swipes to make a strong first impression, or increase profile views by activating a feature called Spotlight.
A section of the website called ‘The Buzz’ provides users with a range of articles on topics to assist their networking journey under categories of love, career, friendship, wellness, how-to and events.
Coffee Meets Bagel is an online dating platform that allows users to develop meaningful connections delivered by a smart algorithm that enhances the chance of compatibility of potential matches. It can be accessed via website or app.
Matches are received every day at noon and the algorithm takes into account specific preferences and user activity such as who you pass on or who you like, as well as who is available in your area, and whether you are someone else’s type.
Profiles can be tailored to display the true you so that others can get to know you authentically and vice versa, with profile information able to spark conversations that skip the small talk.
It is free to join and use the core apps such as liking/passing and messaging with potential matches however there is a paid section that opens features such as read receipts, activity reports on potential matches, 15% more beans on purchases in the bean shop, 8 free takes to like potential matches in the discover section, and unlimited ‘skip the lines’ which allow users to match up to 3x faster by skipping to the front of a potential match’s queue.
The in-app currency is known as beans and can be used to purchase these features or users can subscribe to unlock all features. The app is for anyone seeking genuine connections including LGBTQ+ users but has an age limit of 18+.
Whether you're looking for someone new, a friend or something else, you'll find plenty of potential matches on these five best Australian dating sites.
Each platform offers something different to suit every interest and taste. The question is which one will you try? Let us know in the comments.
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Last Updated: April 28, 2020 by