The Most Popular Online Dating Sites That Are Free

The entertainment industry has long preached that dating is supposed to be a fun way to find someone you truly vibe with. Sometimes, it is. But the end of most dates would disagree: You've realized you're funnier, that they don't laugh at your jokes and that the drinks are overpriced. A Pew Research Center Study found that about 47% of all Americans find dating harder today than it was a decade ago. But mathematicians like Hannah Fry stipulate you finding your match only after you've rejected 37% of the people you've seen (via TED).

Basically, you can't win. While the reward is an ideal rom-com situation, the path to get there is challenging. Paying toll fare along the way can make dating feel like a whole ordeal, but there are some dating websites and apps that will cost you nothing (other than the dates you're going on). Take your pick, or try them all, from the list below.

Despite getting a bad rap for being a "hookup app," Tinder has over 66 average monthly million users willing to swipe through pictures (and not much else), making it a free app that throws its net wide in the sea of fish (via Reuters). Tinder was acquired by Match in 2017 as a free counterpart to match.com, a dating website that lets you access all its features through subscriptions (via Business Insider). Match also owns OkCupid, a free app with 64% of its 50 monthly million users preferring "coffee and chit chat" over "drinks and making out" according to a survey in 2017 (via Ok Cupid).

Bumble, whose co-founder Whitney Wolfe Herd was featured in Forbes' "30 Under 30," asks women to make the first move. The app has 42 million monthly users (via Business of Apps) and comes with prompts and tools for virtual dating (as a response to the pandemic), including question games and audio notes (via Bumble). Other dating apps like Hinge and Plenty of Fish are also free, with premium subscription options. If you're paying attention to the math, get on all the apps you can to reject that unlucky 37%. The "one" (or the many) is just a swipe away.