AskMen Dating Awards Best Dating Apps and Services
Amp Up Your Love Life With Our Picks for the Top Dating Apps & Services
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It’s no secret that dating is digital now. But what’s maybe a little less clear is which app, exactly, to download. Or apps, plural? Having accounts in all the right places is no guarantee that you’ll finally meet your, uh, match, but it certainly couldn’t hurt. And while we’re at it, dating apps aren’t the only high-tech solutions catering to the lonely and thirsty among us.
To help ensure that you find your happily ever after (or at least have a really nice night) here are our picks for the best dating apps, the best date-night services, and the best sexy apps and services we know of. Welcome to the 2022 AskMen Dating Awards, dating apps and services edition:
Best Dating Apps
Best Overall Dating App
Hinge
Hinge
Hinge, which was founded as an app that lets you date your Facebook friends’ Facebook friends, has become so much more than that. After ditching the friends-of-friends concept, the app rebranded as something that’s designed to be deleted, and it’s not hard to see why. It actually puts work into showing you people you might get along with, as the app’s construction is much more personality-oriented than the looks-forward Tinder. The buzz around its usability and thoughtful features has been growing, and it now boasts a user base that’s full of people looking for dates, hookups, relationships and everything in between. It’s not to be missed.
Check out Hinge
Best Dating App for Queer Guys
Scruff
Scruff
Scruff may not be the most famous app for gay guys, but for overall dating it’s hard to beat, as it caters more to a broader swath of dating desires than its hookup-oriented competition. With a modern look and feel, a sizeable user base and fewer empty profiles or headless torsos than Grindr, Scruff is a great option if you’d rather go the route of an app dedicated specifically for gay, bi, trans and queer guys rather than downloading a mainstream dating app.
Check out Scruff
Best Dating App for Finding Relationships
Zoosk
Zoosk
Zoosk might not be able to boast the sheer user numbers of some of its online dating competitors, but for those seeking something a little more serious, it more than makes up for that with a learning algorithm that prioritizes showing you people you’ll click with over people other users have deemed attractive. Its SmartPick feature will notice if you consistently pass on people with a specific hobby or political leaning and stop showing you those people, so your time isn’t wasted as you try to track down your next significant other.
Check out Zoosk
Best Exclusive Dating App
Raya
Raya
Let’s just say there’s a reason you keep hearing about celebrities using Raya as an online dating option, and it’s not because it’s the second or third best exclusive dating app. With a signup process that involves sharing your Instagram, being vetted by existing users and vouched for by your contacts who are on the app already, Raya is not for everyone. But that’s exactly the point, as the app says it’s looking for the most interesting people out there.
Check out Raya
Best Elite Dating App
Luxy
Luxy
Perhaps the most straightforward form of exclusivity is financial exclusivity. Luxy is all about attracting the wealthy. While it is possible to sign up without actual wealth, Luxy does require new users to be vetted by existing ones to ensure not just anyone can create an account. And while it doesn’t feature as many accounts as more popular apps, when you’re rich, the whole world is your playground, so what’s to stop you from falling for someone a country (or an ocean) away?
Check out Luxy
Best Free Dating App
Badoo
Badoo
Badoo might not be super well-known in North America just yet, but it has been a hyper-popular app on other continents for years now and it offers a surprisingly good online dating experience for first-time users. Unlike many apps that gatekeep features for paid users only, Badoo offers a surprising number for free, and with a significant user base and a modern, accessible feel, it’s a great option if you’re hesitant (or unable) to spend on your online dating experience.
Check out Badoo
Best Dating App for Students
Tinder
Tinder
Tinder boasts an unbelievably large user base, and while it’s not oriented towards personality-matching, if you’re a student, finding the love of your life may not be your immediate goal. If you’re in your late teens or early 20s, you’re sure to find droves of other people your age on Tinder, and college campuses bursting with users so you don’t have to travel far to meet someone.
Check out Tinder
Best Dating App for Introverts
OkCupid
OkCupid
Do the picture- and location-based swipe apps make you cringe a little? Looking for something more text-based that shows you people you’re more likely to actually get along with? OkCupid might be the app for you. Its lengthier sign-up process might be daunting to some, but the payoff is the algorithm sending you people you’re much more likely to actually connect with. Maybe old-school online dating actually had it figured out?
Check out OkCupid
Best Dating App for Professionals
Bumble
Bumble
Though it’s a swipe-based app, Bumble’s core functionality — women message first — filters out a lot of the chaff of online dating. What you get is a platform full of more thoughtful, intentional daters, and between the user base and the high-end design, it gives off a distinctly professional air. This fits in neatly with the app’s Bumble Bizz section, where you can seek out career-minded connections like mentorships via strictly platonic networking.
Check out Bumble
Best Mature Dating App
OurTime
OurTime
When you think online dating, many people picture those in their 20s. But their parents’ generation is also looking for love. Dating is just a bit different when you’re in your 50s. Thankfully, there’s options dedicated to those who were alive before the internet. The top option is OurTime, which boasts millions of monthly users and low membership fees. What are you waiting for?
Check out OurTime
Best Video Dating App
La Vette
La Vette
Lots of dating apps have some kind of video-based functionality now, but La Vette was built around video from the ground up, and it’s a paradigm shift in the online dating world. Your profile is a series of videos where you explain what you’re about and what you’re looking for to help give other people a comprehensive idea of what to expect. La Vette also provides you with a host of examples and tips to help ensure your videos are up to snuff, since not everyone is a born cinematographer.
Check out La Vette
Best Dating App Paid Upgrade
Tinder Platinum
Tinder Platinum
Tinder has a secret weapon up its sleeve, and that’s Tinder Platinum. With unlimited likes, five super-likes a day and unlimited rewinds, plus one free boost per month, you’re sitting pretty and in control of your dating destiny. Platinum helps you unlock the benefits of Tinder’s deep user pool advantage, and it’s simply a cut above the paid upgrades from other popular apps.
Check out Tinder Platinum
Best Matchmaking Service
Selective Search
Selective Search
If you’ve reached a point in your life where you have more money than time but are looking for something meaningful, you could hire someone to swipe for you on the apps — or you could cut to the chase and get a real matchmaker. Matchmaking is an ancient art that has been growing in popularity in recent years as people find themselves dissatisfied with the online dating world, and meshing the care and attentiveness of a professional matchmaker with modern access to data and tech is a fascinating concept. Operating in nearly 30 cities across the continent, Selective Search boasts the highest success rate in the industry as it caters to elite clientele looking for love.
Check out Selective Search
Date-Night Services
Best Dating-Themed Subscription Box
D8te Box
D8te Box
It’s easy to let routine and comfort dull the romantic edges in a relationship over time. Subscribing to D8te Box could be the shot in the arm that you and your partner need, as it’ll send you a box of date-oriented products — ”everything you need for the perfect date night” — to help you plan a romantic evening together once a month.
Check out D8te Box
Best Suit Rental Service
9tofive
9tofive
Need to look fancy for your date but don’t own a suit — or have the budget for buying your own? No idea where you’d even buy a suit? No worries — 9tofive has got you covered. Take their simple fit quiz and boom — a nice, uncomplicated suit that fits you to a T will arrive in the mail. Then you return it and pat yourself on the back for not buying a whole suit just for one night of looking fancy.
Check out 9tofive
Best Wine Subscription Service
SommSelect
SommSelect
Sure, when you have someone back to your place, you can drink beer or craft them a cocktail. But wine might be the go-to drink of the classy gentleman host. And there are few better ways to guarantee you’ll have a bottle that your guest will actually enjoy than signing up for a wine subscription service. We like SommSelect, which aims to bring delicious wines from all over the world to your doorstep thanks to a variety of monthly clubs, as well as the option to build a case of the wine you really want.
Check out SommSelect
Best Date-Night Food Delivery
GrubHub
GrubHub
Date-night food when you’ve just met and you’re trying to impress someone is traditionally something that you make yourself, but if you’re doing a date night with a long-term partner, you’re allowed to switch it up by ordering in something fancy. (Or you can order something non-fancy after getting home from drinks, if you’re both craving a late-night snack.) With operations in over 4,000 American cities, a mix of local restaurants and chains, low delivery fees and a hassle-free app, GrubHub is the perfect choice.
Check out GrubHub
Best Rideshare Service
Lyft
Lyft
Date night and you need to get to the date quickly? Going from a restaurant to a bar? Going from a bar to your place, or your date’s? Sending your date home in style after a hot hookup? The real recommendation here is to use your local taxi company, but not everyone lives in a city where there exists or remains a robust taxi union, so let’s say Lyft is the next best solution.
Check out Lyft
Best Flower Delivery Service
The Bouqs
The Bouqs
Need a quick bouquet to wow your partner on a special date night? (Don’t bring flowers on a date with someone you just met… unless you’re 50 years old or more, and even then it’s dicey.) The Bouqs prioritizes working with farm-fresh flowers and using transparent pricing, meaning their gorgeous bouquet options are a cut above the competition.
Check out The Bouqs
Sexy Apps & Services
Best Overall Hookup App
Tinder
Tinder
It might not be the No. 1 place to find the love of your life, but who are we kidding? When it comes to sheer numbers of people looking for some kind of connection, Tinder has still got it. It’s the go-to app for people who are just stopping by a city for a short period and want a fling. It’s bursting with horny randos looking for a good time, and a new feature that lets people categorize what they’re looking for means you can find the people who also want “short-term fun” more easily. Win-win!
Check out Tinder
Best Hookup App for Queer Guys
Grindr
Grindr
Looking for a gay hookup? Grindr has been the app to know for as long as the concept of a gay hookup app has existed. Though recent years have seen challengers to the throne, like Tinder, it boasts the biggest user-base in its category and its features and look have kept pace with the competition. It might be home to a million-and-one cringey screenshots, but if you need to have hot sex tonight — or just hot sexting — Grindr’s still the go-to.
Check out Grindr
Best Kink-Forward App
AdultFriendFinder
AdultFriendFinder
Not all hookup needs are the same, because not everyone’s looking for the same thing in bed. If your tastes run a little bit more kinky than the average person’s, trying to find someone who’ll sate your deepest desires on a normal hookup app can feel like you’re sifting through a haystack looking for a very sexy needle. You’ll never feel like that using AdultFriendFinder, though. While it’s a little old-school in its name and functionality, it’s a genuinely thrumming hub of activity when it comes to kinksters looking to explore.
Check out AdultFriendFinder
Best Non-Monogamy-Friendly App
Feeld
Feeld
It began its life as 3nder, a threesome-oriented version of Tinder, but today Feeld is at the forefront of non-monogamous dating. Though many users are still explicitly (or exclusively) looking for threesomes, you’ll find a host of people of all different genders and sexualities looking for all kinds of non-monogamous and kink-friendly arrangements.
Check out Feeld
Pornhub
Pornhub
Perhaps you’ve heard of this site? It’s become an absolute juggernaut in the adult content world in the past half-decade, and for good reason. It’s got absolutely mind-boggling amounts of XXX-rated content. You can find anything you’re looking for and more, and because the revenue model is advertising-funded, you can watch untold amounts of porn for free. Of course, the paid version, Pornhub Premium, is no slouch either if you’re interested in upgrading.
Check out Pornhub
Best Paid Adult Site
Vixen
Vixen
With all due respect to the other porn producers out there, nobody is doing it quite like Vixen. Though they don’t have the same breadth of different theme options as their competitors, they make up for it with unimpeachably high production value. Every scene feels like you’re being welcomed into a star-studded Hollywood affair by gorgeous people in classy locations. Want to watch a little porn together? Vixen’s the place to do it.
Check out Vixen
Best Female-Friendly Adult Site
Bellessa
Bellessa
Let’s face it — most porn is made for men. Which, if you’re a guy, is great! But if you’re a guy who wants to watch porn with a woman, it’s maybe less great. Thankfully, recent years have introduced a spate of female-created, feminist-friendly porn sites that bring all the hotness of mainstream porn without some of the unpleasant aspects, like face-fucking and hyper-unrealistic plots. In their place, Bellessa brings high production value and storyline-focused action. You might be surprised by how much you like it, too.
Check out Bellessa
Best Cam Site
Jerkmate
Jerkmate
Want to chat with a cam star? Jerkmate’s the place to do it. With thousands and thousands of X-rated streamers catering to just about every imaginable taste, the site really does live up to its “never jerk off alone again” slogan, and getting to watch someone’s Bluetooth-enabled sex toy pleasure them in real time in response to your tips is a thrill that everyone should get to experience.
Check out Jerkmate
Best Chat Site
Arousr
Arousr
Want the connection that comes with a cam session but a little camera-shy? Or maybe you’re simply a words person who prefers chatting over text? Enter Arousr, where you can exchange sexy messages with a host of gorgeous women willing to explore your fantasies with you. Though the site is decidedly text-first, many of the models offer voice chat and in some cases video chat options, too.
Check out Arousr
Best Sex Ed Service
Lover
Lover
Unfortunately, far too many people reach adulthood knowing little to nothing about sex — or worse yet, believing myths instead of facts. There’s just not a lot of good sex ed out there for young people, for a complex tangle of reasons we won’t get into here. Suffice to say that if you want to be a great lover, a little knowledge base is a good place to start.
Check out Lover
Best Sex-Themed Subscription Box
Love Drop
Love Drop
Who doesn’t love getting packages in the mail? Well, if you want a new set of sexy goodies every two months, then you want Love Drop, a subscription box that promises to send you sexual health products and information every two months.
Check out Love Drop
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