TeeBeeDee's Online Dating Guide

Online dating can be overwhelming. There are so many choices and, until now, no primer on which sites best serve what you want. Now there is: TeeBeeDee's Online Dating Guide. The sites below are "general" dating sites; for specialty dating sites (those catering to religious or age-specific groups) click here. We know there are many more sites, so if you have one you love, let us know. Also see our notes about fees, membership numbers, background checks, etc. following the table.

	Chemistry	eHarmony	Match	Perfect Match	True.com	Yahoo Personals
One-Month Fee	$49.95	$59.95	$34.99	$59.95	$49.95	$24.95
# of Members	undisclosed, smaller than match	14 million registered users	20 million worldwide	"millions and growing"	"more than 10 million members"	more than 4 million
Background Checks	no	no	no	no	yes	no
% members 45+	undisclosed	35%	40%	50%	46%	49%
Male/Female Ratio	undisclosed	37/63	51/49	45/55	55/45	56/44
Relationship Types	casual to marriage	serious to marriage	casual to marriage	serious to marriage	casual to marriage	casual to marriage
"Scientific" Testing	yes	yes	no	yes	yes	yes
Special Features	Chemistry is a Match.com-owned site. The Chemistry Profile™ personality assessment, which identifies the key factors that lead to truly successful relationships.	Answering a 436-question test gets you a free "Personality Profile" and "Compatibility Profile." Matches you on 29 dimensions of compatibility.	Probably the largest community of singles. Match offers additional services like the Mind Find Bind program with Dr. Phil.	Duet® Total Compatibility System takes into account the "whole" you – your personality, lifestyle, values and preferences – providing you with highly compatible matches on more dimensions than any other online site.	Conducts criminal background checks on all subscribers, including you.	One of the larger online dating sites, they also offer a premier service with "Relationship Fit Testing."

Have you used a site that we haven't listed? Tell us about it.

One-Month Fee

We listed the one-month subscription fee to make it easier to compare prices, but most sites offer a discount if you purchase a multi-month package. You can generally purchase a 3-month or 6-month membership, and on some sites a one-year membership.

Number of Members

This can get confusing. Some sites will tell you their membership number, but not their subscriber number (which is much lower). What's the difference? Members can post profiles, which means you will find them in search results, or they may be recommended as matches for you, but they often can't contact you unless they pay the subscription fee. Match.com has the largest publicly stated subscriber count at around one million, which includes their international sites. Most other sites don't discloser subscriber numbers, but are probably significantly smaller than Match.

Background Checks

If you join a site that requires subscribers to submit to a background check, remember that you must also submit to one. Some people feel that a background check can be misleading, as it certainly doesn't guarantee that someone is safe, but only shows (if it is completely accurate) whether or not someone has been convicted of a crime.

Percentage of Members Age 45+

Some niche sites only cater to older singles, so all, or most, of their members will be over 45. But some of the larger sites that cater to all ages may actually have more boomer members than the niche sites.

Male/Female Ratio

Sites that cater to the marriage seeking crowd, tend to have more women than men.

Relationship Types

This is a generalization to give you a sense of the type of dater you are likely to meet on a particular site.

"Scientific" Testing

There isn't a lot of evidence that any of the "science" backing up the compatibility algorithms these sites run really work. Users seem to enjoy relying on "science" to at least narrow the field of possible romantic partners.

Special Features

We can't list all the features a site offers on this grid. Visit the sites you find interesting and read their FAQ's, or look through their site map to learn more about what they offer.

Want a copy of this plus some great tips for online dating? Download TeeBeeDee's free guide to online dating.