Which Catholic, Or Other Dating Website Is Right for Me?

Over 40 million people in the United States have signed up for over 1,500 online dating sites. These figures can be daunting, so it’s a good idea to look over some of the sources that can be most valuable to Catholics. There are two primary sorts of dating sites: general dating sites with a huge number of members and Catholic dating sites.

General Dating Sites

Match.com

This is typical of a general dating site. You start by creating a profile. Match.com asks you a number of questions about yourself, your hobbies, your lifestyle, your background, and your values. Match.com urges you to submit a photo of yourself at the end of the questions to increase interest in your profile. You can search by age, interests, zip code, gender, or even key words after your profile is complete. Because Match.com has over 20 million users, this capability is required. (Its already large user base was boosted in 2010 when Yahoo! Personals was absorbed.)

eHarmony

eHarmony is another huge dating service with about 20 million users that caters to people looking for long-term relationships. You must complete a personality questionnaire with over 400 questions in order to create an eHarmony profile. Your responses are examined by eHarmony’s “patented Compatibility Matching System,” which matches people based on personality factors. This method weeds out those looking for casual hookups and attracts those hoping for long-term relationships. Some speculate that this is why eHarmony is one of the few online dating sites where women outnumber males. The cost of eHarmony is around $50 per month, which reflects its distinctiveness and popularity.

Other general dating sites exist, but Match.com and eHarmony are the most well-known. Other general websites work in a similar way, although they usually have specific elements that set them apart from these two behemoths. Coffee Meets Bagel is one of the better examples, as it searches your Facebook profile for matches and allows women to contact guys who have indicated interest in them. Zoosk also has a presence on Facebook and other social media platforms. Each of these sites has a user base of around ten million people.

For a variety of reasons, these websites can be beneficial to Catholics. For starters, they give a vast pool of potential partners, and they all have a sizable Catholic population. Second, they all have means of determining how important your faith is to you and matching you with people who share that value. The limitation is that you must express how important your faith is to you and what ideals are most essential to you. You must take the lead in helping those whose beliefs and values appear to be compatible. In short, these services have a lot of people and a lot of great tools for matching, but it’s up to you to make your faith a big part of it.

Catholic Dating Sites

Catholic dating sites offer strengths and weaknesses that are diametrically opposed. On the one hand, they place faith and values at the center of the matching process. They make it easier to talk about and learn about the faith. Their disadvantage is that they have a smaller user base.

With profiles, search options, and message systems, Catholic dating sites are similar to conventional dating sites. They provide articles and advice columns on the Catholic faith in addition to assisting people in finding mates. Finally, they all cost roughly $20 per month, with discounts available if you sign up for six months. Two of the most popular sites are CatholicMatch and CatholicSingles.

• CatholicMatch

CatholicMatch is one of the major dating sites for Catholics, and it is maintained by Acolyte, LLC (whose creator is a Catholic). Its viewpoint is represented in the seven “Do you agree with the Catholic Church’s teaching on…” questions that all users must answer when creating their profile. (The Eucharist, premarital sex, contraception, life concerns, papal infallibility, Mary, and Holy Orders are all addressed in these questions.) The answers to these questions can be agreed, slightly agreed, or disagreed, and the results are utilized to find matches. The CatholicMatch Institute, which offers success stories from CatholicMatch couples as well as dating and marriage advice, is also run by CatholicMatch.

• CatholicSingles

Another large dating service, CatholicSingles, tries to connect devout Catholics by focusing on their activities and interests rather than their appearance. Users are questioned about their personality, family history, financial habits, and how frequently they pray and attend mass. Users on CatholicSingles can add comments to questions like “How religion plays a role in my everyday life” and “What being Catholic means to me” to their profiles in addition to answering standard questions like “What my dream first date might be.” Singles can search for mates based on their age and location. They do not, unlike CatholicMatch, ask if you agree or disagree with Church doctrines.