Dating apps like Bumble, Hinge, and Tinder are great but they are not for everyone.
Not only they are crowded which has set unrealistic standards but you will often run into people who are using these dating apps casually just to kill time.
The kinds of people you'll find on Tinder belong to different education levels. At least 44% of members use the app merely for a boost of confidence. Definitely not the ideal space where your ideal partner is.
But, some of us are very serious when it comes to the dating business which means we need online dating apps that are specifically designed based on your criteria.
As a professional, you'd want to talk with people who match your standards and appreciate genuine conversations.
Fortunately, some online dating apps host such people with rich backgrounds and clear intentions that resemble yours. We can't deny the facts that say that over 54% of US online daters believe this approach is as successful as in-person encounters.
Our list for today includes the best dating apps where professional singles like you hang out.
Think of these dating apps as decent events hosted only for people with established careers, instead of jam-packed bars with loud music. Without further ado, let's slide into this list.
The 8 Dating Apps for Professionals
1. Elite Singles: Best Dating Site For Professional Singles
The name speaks for itself. If there's a dating app where well-educated professional lawyers, doctors, and businessmen hang out, this is the one. Claiming to be helping at least 2,500 singles find love each month, the site has, on average, over 90% of its members hold at least an above-average education, with most searching for a long-term relationship.
The login process is quite straightforward as with most dating sites and apps. You'll have to pass through an in-depth personality test (questionnaire) that can be completed within 20 minutes. That's 20 well-spent minutes while sipping your morning coffee.
After creating your profile, on the other days, you'll spend this time slot checking the matches that are sent to you by Elite Singles.
EliteSingles sends each person up to seven matches on a daily basis. And, selecting between these single professionals to take things further becomes even easier because of the scoring system provided by Elite Singles.
After filling out your profile, the app shows your potential compatibility with other profiles on a scale of 0-100.
Each profile has data about a person's education, beliefs, spoken languages, and other personality traits. Creating the ideal profile is without a doubt challenging but the platform offers dating advice to help you build an irresistible profile. The average members are between 30 to 55 years old which is the ideal age at which professionals focused on their careers prefer to take their search for a long-term relationship seriously.
Pros
- Has a wide international audience from 25+ countries (including the US).
- A CitySwoon partner allows them to offer speed dating events both offline and online.
- A large user base of 15+ million members (around 300k new members join each month).
Cons
- Unable to see profile pictures without a membership.
- It doesn't verify the users' income and careers.
- The app focuses on pairing up well-educated people but having a degree often doesn't equal being successful or remarkable.
2. eHarmony: Best For Marriage & Relationships
It's fair to say that eHarmony is as equally good as Elite Singles but the only thing that puts it slightly down into the second spot of our listing is the userbase which is mixed and professionals are not its main focus. However, every 14 minutes two users on the app start a love story.
The app has led to many love stories so far, and it wouldn't be fair to deny its success. Recently the platform launched an advertising campaign with the slogan: “Get who gets you” to inspire its users to be fully themselves. The app has made advancements since its launch over two decades ago.
Their efforts to promote the quality of their services continue because they help people find their soulmates. Similar to Elite Singles, the app sends personalized recommendations daily but to get there you have to first complete its 20 minutes quiz. eHarmony was one of the first dating sites to introduce a detailed compatibility quiz to simplify matching.
When using eHarmony, you have to drop your shyness. As a professional, you know the importance of seeing someone face-to-face to ensure the person in those messages matches their looks – the video chatting feature makes this possible. Throw yourself in the large user base of over 10 million members and open yourself to meeting potential partners who match your education and ambition levels.
Pros
- It offers free communication weekends, where even non-paying subscribers can message other users.
- A diverse but balanced user base (51% of members are women while 49% are men).
- A proven history of successfully matching compatible partners (eHarmony accounts for 4% of U.S. marriages).
Cons
- Long sign-up process (even though you can save your progress at any point of the process).
- For busy professionals who belong to non-binary genders (the app offers only male and female as gender identification options), it can be challenging to find a partner.
3. Luxy: Tinder For Professionals
Things now get a bit more lustrous and full of luxury. If the two dating apps above included well-established singles, Luxy raises the bar higher. It's an exlusive dating app for celebs. On Luxy, you'll find single professionals ranging from doctors and lawyers to celebrities and CEOs.
However, to gain access to such an exclusive community, you have to go through a 24-hours long sign-up process. No worries, that doesn't mean that the application will take you that long. But after you fill out the necessary details, you'll have to wait for your application to get approved. You'll be allowed to enter if your income, occupation, and status match the community standards, as vetted by its experts and community members.
We've named Luxy the “Tinder for professionals” because the site tends to sway into the casual dating site type for professionals. The sign-up process is detailed and it requires you to upload an identity verification document (passport, driver's license, etc.) and a tax returns paper. However, these steps can be skipped if you purchase their premium memberships starting from $99 per month.
Luxy allows users to insert self-describing tags such as “outgoing” or “independent” to facilitate matching. Furthermore, each user has a bio of 300-characters-long to introduce themselves, a similar character limit to describe their ideal match, and the option to enrich their gallery with crisp pictures. The app is worth the money for those who can afford it.
Pros
- High-quality members (both men and women).
- Low (and nearly inexistent) presence of scams.
- It includes a FaceMe feature that allows you to exchange What's App or Instagram and jump into a video chat with matches.
Cons
- Counterintuitive interface design can be puzzling.
- Premium pricing that's not affordable by most.
4. Raya: Best to Meet Influencers, Celebs, and Professionals
Raya keeps the bar high when it comes to qualifying for the platform but they expand into much more than rich people. This professional dating site is known for hosting famous celebrities like Joe Jonas, Diplo, and Patrick Schwarzenegger. Dating your favorite celebrity isn't a dream anymore!
Raya was brought to life on February 2015, stepping slowly into the ladder of the dating space by winning nicknames such as the SoHo House of dating apps. Securing your profile on the platform is challenging, though. Firstly, the best way to join Raya is through a referral by another member.
Then, your application passes into the hands of over 500 professionals, part of a committee built for this purpose. If you don't have a reputation on social media, your chances of getting accepted are pretty slim. This is important because the platform focuses on bringing together creatives with talent and an established reputation in their industry.
An amazing feature of the Raya dating app is the integration with Instagram. After signing up, the app extracts your Instagram pictures and creates a slideshow with background music selected by you. Users aren't allowed to take screenshots of other members. Raya focuses on protecting the confidentiality and privacy of other users.
Pros
- Access to a high-end dating pool of single professionals from around the world.
- Raya dating app is fantastic not only for dating but also for networking with creators and building relationships.
Cons
- It can be impossible to join without a high social media presence (at least 5,000 Instagram followers).
- You can't join Raya unless you have an iOS device.
- The acceptance rate is quite low (<8%).
5. Bumble Bizz: Best For Networking With Young Professionals
You've probably heard of Bumble before. It's one of the leading dating apps where only women can message first. What you might not have heard is the unique section that exists solely for professionals interested in making new business connections: Bumble Biz.
Think of LinkedIn but much sweeter. Similarly to the Date section that exists in Bumble, you get to introduce yourself and women are the ones who take the first step to send a message. A noticeable difference is that here professionals have the option to share their professional aspirations and their work experience. (Now it's your time to flex about that promotion.)
Along with the regular Bumble dating mode and the Bumble Bizz mode also comes the Bumble BFF mode which aims to help users find new friends on the platform. This said, the platform has more than one mode which diversifies the audience that uses it.
Bumble Bizz resembles LinkedIn quite a lot: you create a profile, add your profession and future intentions and connect with other members. What makes it different is the Tinder-like feed in which you make connections. The interface makes it more enjoyable to make new connections. There's also an added sense of urgency to communicate since once you're matched with someone, the match disappears if you don't communicate in one week.
Pros
- It's a game-changer for women who are tired of only responding to men's requests and want to make the first step.
- The platform has an intuitive interface, and it's available for both iOS and Android.
- There's less pressure in making connections, and profiles are served in a swipeable format.
Cons
- Not a good option for impatient men used to make the first step.
- It doesn't have a large user base of users interested in networking so you can't expect to get many matches.
6. The League: Best For Highly Ambitious People
We've made a general overview of 5 of the most exclusive apps used for dating and business relationships. However, you've not yet seen any app that slaps $299/mo as a starting package. The League does this and it's an exclusive app for people with a lot of ambition (and surely money).
On 22 July 2022, the Match Group, which is the umbrella company behind Hinge, Tinder, OkCupid, etc, acquired The League which means that changes can be expected. Currently, the app has four different levels of membership: Member, Owner, Investor, and Guest (Free).
The immediate question that arises is whether that price tag is worth it or not. We'll leave the judgment to you but first, let's examine what it offers. The platform prioritizes authenticity and its features help validate this.
Features like the ability to add a short 10-second video in your dating profile, and 3-minute video call dates, make it super easy to date without wasting time searching for real users with similar intentions as you. Uniquely from other dating apps, the platform requires you to link your LinkedIn (besides your Facebook profile) to verify your profile.
Pros
- Allows you to block other professionals and coworkers in the platform based on specific filters (industry, type of LinkedIn connections, etc.).
- You can skip the waitlist if you purchase special tickets.
- You get to join a community of exclusive members.
Cons
- Available only in 30+ well-known cities (not countries).
- More expensive than the average industry standards.
- The waitlists make it time-consuming to get a response.
7. Inner Circle: Best For European Professionals
Back in 2012, David Vermeulen, a man in his mid-thirties was struggling to meet someone new. Logging in and out of the current dating platforms none of them worked for him, so he decided to create one. The entrepreneurial pursuit led to the birth of Inner Circle, an exclusive dating app with main offices in Amsterdam, quickly expanding outside of Europe.
Available in more than 66 cities around the world, the platform has amassed nearly 5 million users. For instance, one of the company's standout features is its ability to organize offline events where people can meet and talk face-to-face.
The factors that influence an applicant's chances to get accepted into the platform include interests, age, profession, and education among others. The applications are vetted manually by staff members of Inner Circle, and memberships start from $39.99 per month, which is close to the industry average. With around 150,000 introductions made weekly, your chances of finding your ideal partner on the platform are quite high.
Recently, Inner Circle launched a few options to combat what online daters dread the most: ghosting. Now users have access to new features such as pinned conversations, anti-ghost reminders, decision prompts, and more.
Pros
- Women members dominate the user base.
- Its user base includes many UK professionals, as that's where it gained initial momentum.
- You can send comments on users' photos without having matched with them which can act as a conversation starter.
- Messages can be viewed without a paid subscription.
Cons
- The dating app's availability includes only a few of the major cities around the world.
- Memberships are priced on a weekly basis and you'll have to wait sometimes for weeks until you get a response.
8. Millionaire Match: Best To Meet Millionaires
The name of the millionaire's dating app raises some eyebrows at first. “Are these people real millionaires?”. Knowing how easy is to build a fake profile online, this is a fair question and the company has developed a system of verification for its users. Everyone claiming to be a millionaire must provide income checks that prove their net worth is over 1$ million.
However, this doesn't imply that you need to be a millionaire to join the platform. You need to be a millionaire only to claim the millionaire status on the platform. And real millionairess can easily afford memberships which start at a monthly price of $70 for monthly purchases (discounts apply for bulk purchases).
With around five million members and still growing, the platform is quite promising. Even though there are gold diggers on the platform, most of the users are genuinely seeking to connect with like-minded people with high standards. On 23 Sept 2022, the company announced that they would request from that moment on for identity verification to be made mandatory.
This update will massively reduce the number of scammers on the platform and it can be executed quite easily. Users can either send a picture of their documents containing an ID or opt for live video verification. A few days later, another update followed, announcing the launch of a Developers Program where application developers could present their ideas to the community of millionaires on the platform and collaborate with them.
Pros
- The customer care service is responsive and the platform offers dating counselors who can advise you if you have relationship issues.
- For millionaires short on time, the platform offers premium matchmaking services, including the option to keep your profiles private.
- Has strict verification procedures that can keep scammers away.
Cons
- The free membership is nearly useless since you can't send messages.
- Without a paid membership, you can't message anyone.
- Chances are that you'll find plenty of gold diggers on the platform.
Summary:
This concludes our list of best dating sites for professionals. If you're trying to save time and find compatible matches then these dating apps are your best bet. Based on our personal experience, Elite Singles, and eHarmony are going to be the most useful for you because the other apps like Raya and Luxy have high “get-inside” time. You'll need to upgrade to premium membership to use these dating sites.
