Dating Awards 2024: Dating Apps & Services

After an incredibly long tradition of romantic relationships beginning with in-person interactions, digital is the new normal when it comes to dating. Within a few years, meeting through an app went from being an embarrassing secret to simply a fact of life. But which apps are we meeting on? There are a seemingly endless number of them out there, with new ones being introduced all the time, and discerning the real from the fake, and the good from the bad, can be tricky. Plus, given how different app’s algorithms work differently, two people who might seriously hit it off on one app might never even encounter each other on another app. You could be missing out on meeting your future spouse right now and not even know it. That’s why we take seriously the job of recommending the very best dating apps around. So, without further ado, here are our picks for the 2024 AskMen Dating Awards, Dating Apps & Services edition: Best Dating Apps Best Overall Dating App Hinge Look, we didn’t want to award this to Hinge for a third year in a row. At a certain point, it starts to feel uninspiring to trot out the same pick and a similar explanation again. But we’re committed to recommending the actual best products and services, and we’ll be damned if Hinge isn’t still the best overall dating app out there these days. It boasts tons of clever features for helping you narrow down your search and actually find people you like, and doesn’t suffer from the problem that so many dating apps do, where their goal is to keep you spending money rather than help you find people you’ll genuinely click with. All this paired with a sizable user base, a clean look and very little glitchiness? The king stays the king. Check out Hinge  Best Dating App for Queer Guys OkCupid Unfortunately for male members of the LGBTQ+ community, the primary dating apps out there these days are more about hot hookups than cute dates. While there’s nothing wrong with hot hookups, that’s not what everyone’s looking for, and sometimes it’s just nice to have an app that prioritizes your own needs. While it wasn’t created with the queer community front of mind, OKCupid‘s been a haven for progressive daters for more than a decade, and if you’re looking for something a little more serious than a zero-night stand, it’s got a sizable user base and tons of useful features for finding someone you click with. Check out OkCupid  Best Dating App for Finding Relationships eharmony Looking for an app that’s very intentionally not promoting hookup-based behavior? If you’re on the hunt for something a little more long-term and emotionally invested, eharmony might be for you. By foregrounding a lengthier signup process than most other apps, which want to onboard users as fast as possible before they change their minds, eharmony gains more info about you and what you’re looking for, which better enables them to find viable matches for you. It makes you wonder why more apps don’t do this… Check out eHarmony  Best Dating App for Travel Tinder Tinder’s undeniable advantage over every other app out there is the sheer size of its user-base. There’s a reason the phrases “swipe right” and “swipe left” have entered the cultural lexicon: Tinder is the most popular dating app of all time. And while some of its peers outdo it in terms of user experience, when you’re on the road and looking to make connections, having a lot of users counts for, well, a lot. Wherever you go on the planet, you’re likely to find some people to swipe through in your area, making it the clear pick for people seeking a vacation fling (or two). Check out Tinder  Best Dating App for Professionals Coffee Meets Bagel If you’re a working stiff looking for a serious relationship but don’t have the time for (or inclination to) swipe through thousands of random profiles, Coffee Meets Bagel is just what you’re looking for. Each day, it offers you a curated selection of singles to check out, and refines its suggestions over time based on your previous in-app decisions. (Plus, if you’re looking for women, there are more of them on CMB than guys.) Check out Coffee Meets Bagel  Best Dating App for Students Friendsy University students can (and do) sign up for every other dating app — but why not sign up for one that was created and designed just for you? That’s what Friendsy has done, and they manage it by requiring a valid university email account to sign up. It also recognizes that young people are often looking for a host of different things, offering users the possibility of matching as friends, hookups or regular dates. If you went to school to avoid having to think about the real world for a few more years, well, you’re in luck here. Check out Friendsy  Best Exclusive Dating App The League Look, being able to swipe on anyone and everyone is all well and good, but sometimes you want to see what the cream of the crop looks like, right? Well, if you, too, count as among them, you should be checking out The League — if you haven’t already. Owned by Match Group, which also owns Tinder, Hinge and OkCupid, among others, it’s an invite-only dating app with a lengthy waiting list that occasionally does real-life events in major cities. It’s also full of like-minded, ambitious people, so what are you waiting for? Check out The League  Best Mature Dating App Silver Singles When you think of online dating, you’re probably thinking of people in their 20s. But, surprise, surprise, people are looking for love at pretty much every age, and the apps that are home to young people are often not ideal online dating destinations for those in older generations. There are plenty of options for folks on the wiser side of their 40s, but at the moment, we think SilverSingles is the top pick, in particular because of its sizeable user base and up-to-date, easy-to-use design and feel. Check out SilverSingles  Best Non-Monogamy-Friendly App Feeld In a world where it’s easier than ever to make connections, and where traditional ideas about relationships have less and less of a hold on us, non-monogamy makes a lot of sense for a lot of people. And if you’re one of those people, the dating app for you is Feeld. Built from the ground up to accommodate people looking for more than just one partner, it’s packed with features that make things easier and more fun for those looking for things outside the mainstream, whether that’s a second serious partner, a series of hot flings, a threesome, or one more cutie to add to the polycule. Check out Feeld  Best New Dating App Concept Collage Connections It’s an unspoken truth — like the fact that every Hollywood movie is packed with the most gorgeous people you’ve ever seen — that online dating overwhelmingly favors conventionally attractive people. If you’re one of the many (most?) people who fall outside that grouping, you might wish for an app that focuses on personality first and foremost. Well, Collage Connections is a new app that does just that — letting you put together a ‘collage’ of your interests to show off to other users before they see your face. It’s designed specifically for neurodivergent people, but we’re big fans of the idea for daters regardless of their neurotypicality. Check out Collage Connections  Best New Dating App Feature Bumble Opening Moves Bumble built its brand on a simple concept: Women message first. And while that approach helped distinguish the app from its competitors for years, in 2024, it realized something had to give. Not only because more and more people were living outside the heterosexual gender binary, but also because, frankly, women didn’t always want to start the convo. Enter Opening Moves, a feature that allows women on Bumble to let a male match message first — as a reply to a specific question. It’s a genius update that got everyone talking, while staying true to the app’s core dating vision. Smart thinking, Bumble. Check out Opening Moves on Bumble  Best Dating App Paid Upgrade Tinder Platinum Tinder’s attributes shine brightest when you cough up the money to pay for its Platinum level premium membership. In addition to its vast and varied user base, Platinum means you see no ads, have no like limits, and can specify specific traits that you’re looking for. Tinder will still show you people whose profiles don’t match up with what you’re looking for, but now you can see at a glance which boxes of yours a person ticks, and easily swipe left or right depending, which means you can much more easily find people you’re actually interested in. Check out Tinder Platinum  Best Digital Dating Assistant Rizz For most of the past decade and a half, the average woman on a dating app has been able to crowdsource responses to dating messages from her friends. Unfortunately, guys don’t exactly do this. Now, they don’t have to — they can simply upload screenshots of online dating or text message exchanges and get Rizz to write responses for them. Say goodbye to feeling tongue tied! However, it should be noted that, at least at this juncture, the app may still serve deeply inappropriate jokes under the guise of being smooth. So, proceed at your own risk. Check out Rizz  Best Sexy Apps Best Hookup App Grindr Look, it may be known as an app for gay guys, but it’s time we stopped messing around and recognized it for what it really is: the best hookup app out there, period. First of all because it’s unparalleled when it comes to finding no-strings-attached M4M hookups, but second of all because these days you can easily find genderqueer and trans people on Grindr as well, meaning that your tastes can be satisfied no matter which gender(s) you’re seeking. The best part? People know that if you’re on Grindr, you’re DTF, unlike nearly every other mainstream dating app. Check out Grindr  Best Hookup App for Kinky People Feeld Majestic Feeld may be the best non-monogamy app out there, but it’s not to be overlooked as a place to find kinky people, either. The app really shines when you spring for the Majestic upgrade, which enables you to filter people by the kinks they’re into in addition to things like gender, age and distance. Only want to see people who are seeking threesomes? Boom, done. Looking for someone to dominate you? Here’s all the dominant people. It’s a little buggy, and the user base can’t compete with major mainstream dating apps for size, but it’s absolutely a better way to find the people you sexually click with than wading through hundreds or thousands of profiles elsewhere. Check out Feeld Majestic  Best Free Adult Site Pornhub Is there a single online destination with more porn than PornHub? If so, we’re not aware of it. The site is much more than just a giant repository of smut, however, offering free users oodles of useful features for finding and watching the content that they find most tantalizing. Recent years have also seen them make efforts to curtail the way porn can have deleterious effects, from rejecting certain searches to adding a parental advisory landing page. Check out Pornhub  Best Paid Adult Site Vixen Plus Vixen remains at the top in this category thanks to not only their bevy of high-quality porn made with many of today’s top adult performers, but the introduction of Vixen Plus, a site that gives you access to all of their sub-brands, including Blacked, Tushy, Deeper, Milfy and more. If you’re down to pay for your porn — which we support — there’s no one doing it quite as classily as Vixen is right now. Check out Vixen Plus  Best Female-Friendly Adult Site Bellesa It’s no secret that most mainstream straight porn is made for men — which is fine if you’re a guy watching solo, but maybe a bit less fine if you want to watch something with a female partner. Luckily, there’s lots of porn made by and for women out there, and none better than what’s on offer at Bellesa. It’s got great production values, hot stars, and storylines that are a little (sometimes a lot) less focused on male pleasure. And even if you’re single, watching a few of these could be a seriously fun experience with a slightly different kind of porn. Check out Bellesa  Best Audio Erotica App Quinn It’s not a traditionally ‘manly’ pursuit, but listening to your porn rather than watching it is a seriously under-appreciated way to explore your fantasies. Without being tethered to what’s filmable (or how people look in real life) audio erotica artists can bring your hottest wet dreams to life using the power of their words, their moans, and your unbridled imagination. Quinn is destination No. 1 for this kind of stuff at the moment, with reams and reams of seriously hot audio content for all kinds of listeners. Check out Quinn  Best Literary Erotica Site Literotica If erotica is your jam but you’d rather read some words than hear them spoken aloud, you’re not alone. If erotica is your jam but you’re not yet using Literotica, well, you might be alone on that front. It’s got a distinctly old-school interface, but that’s part of the charm of reading sexy words rather than watching videos of sex scenes, and it’s jam-packed to the brim and spilling over with every possible kind of sexual story you could imagine (and then many more that you couldn’t). Check out Literotica  Best AI Chat Site SoulDeep Sexting is a lot of fun. However, it can be hard, at times, to find someone to do it with. That may be less of an issue going forward, however. The advent of tech using large language models to produce text that feels indistinguishable from real human communication means that AI chatbots can be your sexting partners. Curious about the possibilities? You could check out SoulDeep, which lets you create custom chat partners with specific physical and personality attributes, and then talk naughty to them — for a fee. Is it weird to sext with a robot? Yes. Is it still kind of hot? Unfortunately, also yes. Check out SoulDeep  Best Cam Site LiveJasmin For the somewhat less technologically oriented, you may prefer dirty talking with a human to sexting with a robot. If that’s the case, you’re looking for a cam site where you can watch live models — and go private with them. There are lots of great options on the market today, but right now, we’re really feeling LiveJasmin. It’s not cheap, but it boasts a wealth of absolutely gorgeous models with a high standard of professionalism — they’re really there to make your dreams come true. Check out LiveJasmin  Best Sexual Health Options Best Sex Ed App Beducated Preventing STIs and unwanted pregnancies is deeply important, but those risks are only a portion of the sexual picture. Beducated is a great app that’s working to help restore the balance by providing a pleasure-driven sex ed experience, so you can learn how to truly get the most out of sex rather than just avoiding its pitfalls. It offers over 100 different online courses on everything from fingering to feeling confident in your body to how non-monogamy works. It’s a truly great resource that most guys could benefit from checking out. Check out Beducated  Best STI Testing Service TBD Health Nobody wants to get an STI, but the reality of catching one is made worse by the fact that many people don’t get tested as often as they should — in part, perhaps, because they find the prospect stressful. Here to help simplify matters is TBD Health, a great online service that mails you a home test kit. Once you’ve mailed it back to their labs, you get walked through your results by a medical professional via video call. It’s a great step forward that we hope will help people be more diligent about their testing. Check out TBD Health  Best STI Prevention Service MISTR Men who have sex with men — listen up. If you live in the U.S., MISTR is an absolute must-use service (if you haven’t already started using it, that is). Offering free PrEP and PEP treatments to help protect you from HIV/AIDS as well as bacterial STIs like gonorrhea and chlamydia, respectively, it’s an incredible STI prevention concept. Telemedicine has never felt so much like the future of healthcare — just sign up, get a prescription via a video call, and receive your pills in the mail. It’s that simple! Check out MISTR  You Might Also Dig: AskMen Dating Awards 2024: Best Dating and Relationship ProductsAskMen Dating Awards 2024: Best Bedroom ProductsThe Best Dating Apps for Hooking Up, Revealed