Intended For : Friendship, dating, serious relationships
Regions : U.S., Global
Membership options : Free to browse, premium.
In Essence :
Match.com is the largest mainstream dating site. If you are a 50+ something who wants a large range of choice including younger dates, then Match offers solid, sensible choice.
Intended For : Senior dating, friendship, dating and serious relationships
Regions : USA, Global
Membership options : Free browsing, paid subscription for premium features
In Essence :
The most popular senior dating site with over 9m site visits per month giving members a good choice of local dates. OurTime.com provides a safe and user-friendly dating environment for 50+ singles.
Intended For : 50+ seniors, dating, serious relationships
Regions : USA
Membership options : Free to join, premium subscription
In Essence :
SilverSingles used a sophisticated matching system. A well-presented site and ideal choice for seniors who want matched suggestions for their dates.
Intended For : Friendship, dating and serious relationships
Regions : U.S.
Membership options : Free browsing, paid subscription for premium features
In Essence :
A popular site amongst black seniors. Reasonable subscription costs for the 6 month option. One of the People Media sites owned by Match Group.
Intended For : Senior friendship, dating
Regions : U.S., global
Membership options : Free browsing, premium subscription
In Essence :
Established in 1999, SeniorFriendFinder caters for U.S. 50+ singles. With fewer members then the other featured sites, it’s only in the larger cities that you’ll get a reasonable number of local matches.
Dating is something that most people tend to associate with young adults or those who are looking to settle down permanently with a life partner. However, senior dating is a concept which has become increasingly popular.
More and more men and women who are over the age of 50 years are seeking out companionship and love. Fortunately, there are various dating websites which have been designed especially for seniors. These websites have several special features which cater to their senior subscribers such as ease of use, an exclusive database of only senior subscribers and much more.
Here we are listing down the 10 things that you should look for in a senior dating website:
1. Does the website encourage senior dating?
You should ensure that the website that you choose to subscribe to should be one that encourages senior dating. You wouldn’t want to waste your time browsing through hundreds of profiles of much younger people which would be irrelevant for you.
2. Does it have a mobile app?
Make sure that the website has a mobile app along with a desktop version. An app which is synced with your profile would make it much easier for you to browse the database of users wherever and whenever you want.
3. Is it easy to use?
We know that it can get difficult for the less tech-savvy seniors to understand the nitty-gritties of browsing a new website and making use of its features. You should test out the website to check whether its interface is easy to understand and use before subscribing to it.
4. Are there enough seniors?
There are many senior dating websites but there are only a choicest few which have a good database of users. You should join a website which has enough number of subscribers so that you can get a lot of choices when picking out your dating partner.
5. Is it safe and secure enough?
Safety and security are some of the most important considerations in online dating which cannot be compromised with. Go for a website which scrutinizes all user profiles so that fake ones can be eliminated. There should also be an option of blocking or blacklisting other users who give you unwanted attention.
6. Can you filter the right people?
If you are looking for a dating partner in a specific age range, you should select a website which allows you to filter profiles on the basis for age. For example, if you want to look at only 70+ users, you should be able to filter the results accordingly.
7. Do the website support chatting and messaging?
Online dating is fun but it has some drawbacks too. For one, you do not know who the actual person behind a profile is like. Make sure that there are some options on the website itself for interacting with other users through chats or messages before you actually decide to meet them.
8. Is it a free or a paid service?
Most online dating websites require a subscription amount to be paid on a monthly basis for using their platform. However, there are various other websites which offer a free trial plan for a limited number of days. You can shortlist several senior dating websites and try out their free plans before choosing the one which looks best to you.
9. Does it provide value for money?
The subscription amount itself can vary greatly from one website to the next. You must compare different websites and the subscription amount required by them before selecting the one which gives you the most value for money.
10. Do they provide effective customer service?
Effective customer service is another quality which is indispensable in any dating website. If you run into trouble while using the website, there should be a number you can call or an e-mail you can send to contact the customer service team for a quick solution to your problem.
When a person crosses 50 years of age, they might start thinking that their youth is almost at an end, which must also mean that they will now have to stay alone, and without love for the rest of his life.
Well, they could not be more wrong. The 50 plus age groups are often called the golden years of a person’s life because this is the time when they have seen all the ups and downs that life has dealt with them and have emerged wiser and stronger. They must have experienced both good and bad relationships in their youth because of which they will be more experienced and sure of what they want now.
Senior dating websites take these factor into consideration in a senior-friendly way and focus specifically on different age groups after 50. The first age group is, of course, of those people falling between 50 to 60 years of age.
This is the age group where more than 50% of the users of a senior dating website fall as these are the ones who have not yet really crossed the threshold into feeling or looking quite old yet. This is the age group which is bound to get excited with the prospect of the first date and would also be more willing to take chances. The second age group would consist of users falling between 60 to 70 years of age. This is a time when people start getting mellower and prefer to be laid back and conservative.
However, this is also the age when many may start thinking that it is a now or never chance to finding true love which prompts them to join the dating sites. The final age group is the 70 plus age which is considered to be the senior most users of any dating site. People at this age are more likely to be looking for companionship rather than a love interest. They would probably prefer to have someone with whom they can share the last few years of their lives and so that they do not have to be lonely day in and out.
There are a few senior dating websites which stand out from the crowd due to their unique features, ease of use and a huge database of age-appropriate users. SilverSingles and OurTime are two of the leading websites in the field of senior online dating.
Both the websites are meant only for 50 plus users and they pay special focus to include only those users in their database who are looking for serious relationships and not just casual flings. These are the two best websites for senior online dating and are therefore often compared with each other. It is important to mention that both Silver Singles and Our Time have a hoard of features which have made them as popular as they are today.
Both the websites have several common features such as setting up a basic profile, provision of various filters to search the database, ways of interacting with other users etc.
However, there are many unique features in both of these websites that may appeal to different users. For example, at Silver Singles, there is a very unique concept of color-coded personality test which increases the scope of matchmaking as well as makes it easier to find a compatible match. Silver Singles also has multiple ways of ice-breaking between users ranging from a ‘Think You’d Click’ feature to just express interest in sending smiles, flirts, e-cards or even instant messages. Silver Singles is also popular for its fast and reliable customer service as also its focus on safety of its users that it ensures by manually checking every user’s profile.
When we talk about Our Time, the first thing that comes to mind is ease of use. Expert reviewers and users alike have agreed that Our Time’s user interface is very friendly and easy to understand. Our Time is especially recommended for those users who are not very comfortable with new technology. It is also great for those users who want stronger features regarding privacy and security while using the site. With Our Time, users have the option of regulating the kind of people who view their profile and they can even disable their profile at a moment’s notice. Some of the other unique features of Our Time include a Live Chat feature which promotes communication between members, video and audio greetings which users can customize and add to their profiles for greeting their profile visitors and a wide array of additional interactive and search options which are easy to understand and use. As compared to Silver Singles, Our Time does offer a greater number of features for a lesser price. While a subscription to Silver Singles costs $173.99 for three months, the same subscription costs less than $100 at Our Time. Moreover, Silver Singles is also a bit conservative in its approach as it does not allow lesbian or gay relationships. The user base of Our Time is also much bigger than that of Silver Singles and has a better gender ratio as well as a good mix of singles from different age groups above 50.
There are many other websites too that you can consider for senior dating. EHarmony is one such website which has more than 30 million users worldwide which allows it to have a diverse membership with users from many different countries. It is especially popular because of its guided dating system where the website itself uses a complex algorithm to generate compatible matches for you. This eliminates the need to spend many hours browsing hundreds of profiles on your own.
EHarmony, also, has many different kinds of subscription plans right from a monthly subscription to a yearly one. However, one thing to keep in mind is that a paid subscription is mandatory for viewing any user’s profile or picture on EHarmony and there is no free trial version.
On the other hand, if you want to take a chance at finding love online without making a monetary commitment, you can also check out Elite Singles which is also one of the popular senior dating sites. The good thing about Elite Singles is that it has a basic membership plan which is free of cost and a Premium membership plan which requires a subscription.
Even the basic membership plan is good to get an idea of what the site is all about and whether it is worthwhile to subscribe to its premium plan for getting additional features. The detailed matching system based on 25 personality traits as well as daily wild-card matches are some of the features which attract users to Elite Singles. However, the complicated sign-up procedure and lack of an efficient mobile app are some areas where Elite Singles falls behind its competitors.
Though there are a lot of choices for online senior dating websites, our top pick for the American users would definitely be OurTime.com. Not only is it easy to understand and use, it has so many unique features that you would not find on other websites.
All the basic features that you would expect from a senior dating website such as ease of use, safety, and security etc. are present along with many more additional features which make using Our Time fun and rewarding experience. The presence of comprehensive customer support, focus on eliminating fraudsters and giving complete privacy to the users make Our Time a great bet for finding your ideal partner.
Moreover, the popularity of Our Time is such that it has managed to build a very varied database of users so that no matter what kind of person you are looking for, you are sure to find what you want at Our Time.
The only drawback for Our Time is that it has concentrated its focus on American users so that it may not be as useful for British users who would want to find dates within their own country and city. But fear not! For British users, an equally excellent website is Match.com that is known for its strict security measures and customizable features which let users interact and build relationships online itself. Though Match.com is a website meant for all age groups, young and old alike, it is still a good option to try out for senior dating.