Around one in four relationships start online now, and among the millennial generation, the number is likely to be even higher.

But as our smartphones become increasingly powerful, fewer of us are dating from behind our desktops, rather turning to the digital devices in our pockets.

The stigma that was once attached to online dating has well and truly disappeared – in fact, you’re more likely to raise eyebrows if you’re single and not on any dating apps.

Recent years have seen an explosion of dating apps, and there seem to be incredibly niche ones launching every day. If you wear glasses or are into people who do, try Spex, for example. Have a particular passion for men with beards? Bristlr could be the one for you.

For some people, swiping through fellow singles and potential romantic partners is merely a bit of fun and a way to entertain themselves during TV ad breaks. But whether you’re after a meaningful relationship or just some casual dates, there’s an almost overwhelming number of dating apps and sites from which to choose nowadays.

We set ourselves the challenge of trying as many as possible, leading to many dates and even more phone notifications.

All the apps allow you to search for men, women or both, with all of them available on iOS devices, most on Android and some for Windows Phone, too.

Tinder: Free

Possibly the best-known dating app of them all, Tinder is most people’s first port-of-call when entering the world of dating apps. It’s super quick to join – you simply upload some photos and an optional bio, set your age and distance preferences, and away you go, swiping left or right on potential suitors. As one of the most popular apps aroud the world, your pool is likely to be huge and people do actually have conversations on Tinder – in our experience, it’s the app that leads to the most actual dates too.

However there are also plenty of people using Tinder just for hook-ups. You can pay money for premium features including Tinder Passport (the ability to swipe through matches elsewhere in the world, say, before a trip) and Rewind, for those times when you swipe left too hastily and immediately regret it. There’s also Tinder Feed, which is a part of the app where you can see when your matches add new pictures to their profiles, often leading to rekindling of old conversations. Tinder is not only perhaps the best-known dating app in the world, but also one of the most inclusive, allowing users to identify as one of nearly 40 genders.

Download for iOS or Android

Bumble: Free

Bumble is much like Tinder but with one key difference: only women can start the conversations after a match is made. The idea behind it is to save women from receiving leering advances or cringey chat-up lines from men, and it also takes the pressure off guys to start conversations. The app says its core values are “empowerment, equality and confidence.”

There’s a twist though: after you match, you only have 24 hours to start the conversation, otherwise he’ll disappear forever. Similarly, your match only has 24 hours to reply – if he does though, the time limit disappears for future messages. The trouble with this is that sometimes you just don’t have time to go on Bumble for over 24 hours, thus potentially missing out on your soulmate. You can also switch to Bumble Bizz and Bumble BFF if you’re more interested in finding professional contacts and friends respectively.

Download for iOS or Android

Happn: Free

Happn shows you singles with whom you’ve crossed paths. You create your profile through Facebook and can also link your Instagram and Spotify accounts if you like, set your preferences, then scroll down through your options. The people you’ve crossed paths with most recently will be at the top, meaning if you go on during your lunch-break you’ll inevitably happen upon your colleagues. The app currently has 50 million users around the world and operates in 50 major cities spread across 40 countries.

The app also tells you how many times you’ve crossed paths with each person, meaning you quickly learn who your neighbours are (I have in the past recognised a man in my street and been unable to place him before realising I’d seen him on Happn and we’d crossed paths 167 times). Unfortunately there’s no way of searching by time or location so if you don’t go on the app straight away you may never be able to find that cute girl from Pret – in a big city you cross paths with so many people every day, so Happn can be a bit overwhelming.

Download for iOS, Android or Windows Phone

Once: Free

The idea behind Once is to move away from today’s dating app culture and back towards traditional match-making – after a computer does the initial whittling down, real human match-makers pick a personalised match for each user every day. It’s meant to save time and free singles from hours of swiping (although to be fair that is half the fun for many of us), hence the name Once.

Despite this, every day at noon, our phone pings with a message saying “Wow! You got four matches today!” Every day. Extra dedicated users can spend money and even exchange messages with a match-maker too. Despite supposedly learning our tastes, we didn’t find our matches particularly great and because you get so few a day, it can be a rather long journey to finding someone you actually want to talk to, let alone go out with.

Download for iOS or Android

Hinge: Free

Hinge has a slick design and is meant to be for people who are over games and being treated like a “playing card”. You’re asked to put in lots of details (including your height, which is rare) in order to create your “story” – for example, what you’re watching, what you spend most of your money on or how you’d describe yourself in three emoji.

You can then “like” different aspects of someone’s story, be that a picture or one of their answers – you only get a handful of likes a day though. It made a nice change to have lots of information about people including little quirky details, and you can actually specify details such as the height range of the people you’re shown – which may be a plus for the pickier amongst us. The app claims to learn your tastes too, but as is often the case, many matches don’t lead to conversations.

Download for iOS or Android

Huggle: Free

Like most apps, signing in with Facebook makes it very easy and quick to set up a profile. Huggle can be used to find dates or friends, and the main thinking behind the app is that having common ground is essential in order to establish meaningful connection. The unique thing about Huggle is that you pick (initially five of) your favourite places – be they shops, restaurants or parks – and then find people who go there too. You can either swipe through people who you have places in common with or tap on one of your locations to reveal who goes there. It’s all about location, but you can’t add more places to your list until you’ve visited them.

However, if your potential suitors have previously checked-in on Facebook to the same places as you, that will appear on their profiles. When signing up, you have to verify your profile in one of various ways, for example by sending a selfie mimicking a certain pose, which hopefully limits scammers too. When someone is checked into the same place as you, you can view their profile. The profile’s bio includes name, age, work, education, photos, a short description, as well as the places you have in common.

Download for iOS, Android or Windows Phone

Badoo: Free

Founded in 2006 and with over 380 million users, six million matches a day and 300,000 daily sign-ups, Badoo is one of the biggest dating sites in the world. It’s available in 190 countries and in 47 languages. As well as discovering people nearby you can also find people in any location (just select a city and you can meet people anywhere).

Badoo has more recently launched a new feature called Badoo Live, which allows users to livestream in a bid to “encourage real life interactions and more genuine connections.”

Download for iOS or Android 

The League: Free

Launched three years ago, The League is an exclusive dating app that vets all users who apply to join, and you have to apply with your LinkedIn page. It’s designed to appeal to “successful and ambitious” singletons, but it has faced criticism for being elitist.

But because every user is vetted, you know you won’t come across any fake profiles. What’s more, you can set specific preferences and will then only be proposed users who tick all your boxes. However, you’re only given three profiles to like or leave each day, so the pool is slim. Matches on The League expire after 21 days too, so if you don’t get chatting, your potential suitor will disappear.

Download for iOS

Chappy: Free

Founded by Made In Chelsea‘s Ollie Locke and Jack Rogers, Chappy is a gay dating app which offers users the choice between relationships or a casual hook-up, thus clarifying what your match is after from the get-go. Interestingly, Chappy has revealed that only 18 per cent of the app’s users are currently facilitating the ‘Mr. Right Now’ setting, whilst a whopping 82 per cent are looking for ‘Mr Right’.

The app considers itself an alternative to the many that seem to promote the posting of headless, mirror-selfie, torso shots, the sending of unsolicited intimate pictures and hook-up culture.

Download for iOS or Android

Plenty of Fish: Free

Owned by Match, Plenty of Fish is one of the biggest online dating sites in the world, with over 150 million registered users. It’s available in 11 languages and more than 20 countries, and claims it has more conversations than any other dating app – 2.5 million every day.

Like Match, Plenty of Fish feels more serious than some apps, with users undergoing a chemistry test upon signing up, which is meant to increase their chances of matching with personalities who will “meet your emotional needs.”

Download for iOS, Android or Windows Phone

Lesly: Free

Lesly is a new dating app for lesbian, queer and bisexual women. Using the classic swipe-to-match format, women are able to chat, date and hook-up with other LGBTQ singles in their area or around the world. The app considers itself to be a trusted and secure place for women to connect, get to know and even fall in love with each other.

Download for iOS or Android

OkCupid: Free

OkCupid uses an algorithm in a bid to provide users with suitable matches: “we do a lot of crazy math stuff to help people connect faster,” they say. While the basic version off the app is free, you can pay for extra features.

The site feels more serious than other dating apps, and users have the option to search profiles by keyword – for example, if you’re obsessed with a particular author, you can search for other singles who mention her or him in their profile.

Download for iOS or Android

The Verdict: Dating apps

It’s the biggest player on the dating app scene for a reason, and purely for likelihood of actually going out on dates, Tinder has to be the winner. It’s easy to use, people actually have conversations and considering so many of us are on it, the chances of finding someone you like are actually pretty high. However another favourite is Bumble, because we love its focus on equality and empowerment.

 

Dating websites

If you live in one of the bigger cities in Belgium like, Antwerp, Bruges, Brussel or Ghent you shouldn’t have a problem with finding a potential partner that fits to your needs. If you live outside these cities or in a rural area it can become difficult to find a single-minded partner, but no worries. There are multiple big internet dating platforms in Belgium where you can easily connect, and find the right partner for you. You can filter out the things that you find important in a person. In that way you can make sure that you have common interests. So, what is the best dating site in Belgium at the moment? This question is difficult to answer since everybody is looking for different things when it comes to dating. We have listed the most trustworthy and reliable dating websites in Belgium below.

Overview dating sites in Belgium

	Free	Quality	English speaking singles
Match4Me.be	✓	✘	✘
Happypancake	✓	✓	✓
Match4Me.be	✓	✘	✘
EliteDating.be	✓	✓	✓
Parship.be	✓	✓	✓
Victoria Milan.be	✓	✓	✘

All of these dating sites listed above are free of charge when you sign-up. You will have to pay an additional amount if you want to make use of the special features of the websites. You need to take into consideration that it is quite normal to pay a small amount for their service because you want to be dealing with a quality website. There are also websites that offer the whole service for free, but they often use your data for advertising purposes and not for your own good. Most quality websites ensure that there are no fake profiles and that your personal data is safe. Therefore, we would urge you to only apply at quality websites.

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The best dating site in Belgium

All of these websites offer special deals and different extras. Comparing all dating sites in Belgium can be time-consuming. Are you curious what the best dating site is in Belgium? We have listed the most reliable dating sites in Belgium below. Belgium dating is from now on possible for everybody!

Elitedating.be

EliteDating.be is one of the biggest online dating platforms in Belgium. It primarily focusses on academic singles and singles above 30 years of age. They are well-known within Belgium and have a reliable reputation. Their main advantage point above other sites is that they use an own encryption and therefore guarantee the privacy of their customers. With around 2500 new members every week they are one of the fastest growing online dating websites in Belgium. Around 70% of their members graduated with a bachelor’s degree or higher. EliteDating.be focusses on people looking for a relationship. The only disadvantage is that you must pay if you want to write and read unlimited messages. It is however a good platform to start in the Belgian dating world. The sign-up is for free, so why not give it a try?

Parship.be

Parship.be is one the best dating sites in Belgium when it comes to singles that are looking for an educated partner 30 years of age or older. Around 76% of the members are well-educated and 85% of their members are 30 +. Parship.be is a fast-growing platform with a lot of international educated singles which makes it easier to find a good partner. When you enroll on their platform a questionnaire has to be filled out. Parship.be will make partner proposals based on the answers that you give. Of course, it is also possible to scroll on your own through the Parship singles database. The main focus of the platform is to connect singles that are looking for a long-term relationship. If you are looking for Tinder-like platform this wouldn’t be the place to start, but this could be the perfect option for you if you are searching for a like-minded single. Are you 30 years or older and looking for a new adventure? Then Parship.be is something for you.

Be2.be

Be2 is one of the largest online dating platforms in Belgium and expanding rapidly. Their strong points are anonymity and security, which is important in the online dating world. They ask you to do a personality test when you enrol because their algorithm will select singles based on your personal criteria. It is important that this will be filled in honestly and therefore it is very important to store this data in a safe place. Their personality test is unique in the online dating world and they have a large database with singles. This enables Be2 to select very specific singles that fit to your personality. Be2 is a platform for everybody. Be2 is used by a huge community and you can read about success stories on their website. Applying at Be2 is for free!

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Belgium dating tips

Once you have chosen a Belgian dating website it is important to be well prepared once you go on a date. There are a lot of profiles on the different dating websites in Belgium and it is therefore important to know which of those profiles would be a good fit. It is important to know beforehand what you want to achieve: do you want a serious relationship, or do you want to date multiple people at the same time? Do you want sex, or do you just want to have a fun time? Be clear about your intentions. However, don’t be too straightforward with Belgian people. Use the internet to meet singles for the first time, but invite them as soon as possible for a first date. The more time you spend on the internet chatting to people, the higher the expectations and the disappointment can be. And, most important of all; be yourself.