Good Catholic Dating Sites. The 6 Best Catholic Dating Sites – Where is the Best Place for Online Catholic Dating?
Dating can be both hard and stressful. Feeling like you have to be in the right place at the right time to meet the man or woman of your dreams is a lot of pressure.
Over the last few years, websites and apps have revolutionized the dating world and thousands of couples have found love this way. Online dating lets you be in the “right place” all the time and takes away some of the fear that you’ve missed an opportunity to meet your perfect match.
For individuals wanting a partner with similar Catholic values and beliefs, specific online dating sites exist to help them find each other. This is a great way to narrow down the pool of dating prospects to find someone who shares your Catholic faith and is looking for commitment.
Rather than relying on school, church, or work to find dating opportunities, individuals can see hundreds of men and women online who fit their criteria and connect right away.
Catholic Dating Site Reviews – Good Catholic Dating Sites
1. Catholic Match
- Cost: From $19.95 to $29.95/month
CatholicMatch has been providing dating services since 1999 and takes them very seriously. Under St. Raphael, patron of singles, CatholicMatch operates to help singles find others who are devoted to their beliefs.
Take it seriously
Membership profiles are closely monitored for vulgar language or people who are not genuinely using the service for its intended purpose. Even before signing up, members are asked a series of questions to gauge their Catholic devotion, assess their personalities, and provide an overview of their lifestyle for their profiles.
Create a full, honest profile
The help desk page on CatholicMatch’s website provides valuable information for members about dating safety, profile tips, and communication suggestions. CatholicMatch suggests that members should be able to find many strong connections if they create a full, honest profile and make consistent efforts to engage in conversations with other members.
Catholic singles near you
To start the signup process, you are asked to enter your location and gender. You’re then shown how many Catholic singles are near you.
It is unclear what “near” means. Are they within 10 miles? 100 miles? This could make a huge difference, and it is unclear how close these other members are. From there you can choose to sign up for services.
How much does it cost?
You aren’t shown the costs of service until after you’ve gone through the account creation process. This is a common marketing tactic, but we wish it weren’t the case. It’s an easy way for them to get our contact information and have us on a list whether or not we choose to use their services.
Subscription plans
You can start with a one-month subscription to CatholicMatch, although it’s more expensive this way. One month of subscription costs you $29.95, but it can be renewed or upgraded to a longer plan.
The 3-month plan comes at a lower price, as you are billed at $19.95 per month instead. For a site with such a large membership base, this is a fair price that should be affordable for most singles.
Match guarantee
A guarantee is in place for members using CatholicMatch’s services. In order to be eligible, members must follow these six steps:
- Sign up for a 6-month subscription
- Be free to marry in the Catholic church
- Complete an accurate profile with at least 5 photos
- Communicate with at least one unique CatholicMatch member of the opposite sex each week
- At the end of your subscription, check your Guarantee Progress Page under your “Account”
- If eligible, you’ll receive an additional six-month subscription (the “Guarantee Extension”)
- Highest rating
CatholicMatch receives an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau. We feel that their services are a great option for singles looking for committed Catholic relationships because of the thousands of members on this site.
With a big population of members, single Catholics are more likely to find a potential love interest that matches what they are looking for in a spouse. Because of their many success stories, and affordable pricing, we suggest considering CatholicMatch as your top choice when looking for dating opportunities within the Catholic church.
2. Catholic Singles
- Cost: $9.99/month for a 6-month membership
Catholic Singles is for dating, fellowship, or community. There are hundreds of success stories from young couples, old couples, and previously divorced couples that can be viewed to bolster confidence in this dating site. An emphasis is put on promoting interests and activities rather than just pictures. Catholic Singles tries to avoid the “swipe left, swipe right” dating culture.
Browse for free
Members can create free profiles and view the profiles of others. However, using features to connect with other members costs $9.99/month for a 6-month subscription. Part of the profile creation process is a compatibility test that takes a few minutes.
In the first section, you will answer partner questions that describe who you are and your unique combination of personality factors. In the second section, you select the type of factors that you are looking for in a partner. From there, Catholic Singles’ matching engine identifies those that have complementary traits with you.
Unique features
Other unique features of Catholic Singles include:
- Prayer Board Connections: Pray for and ask for prayers from others
- Search: Discover Catholic singles all across the country
- Membership Poll Conversations: Discover other members and their interests, see who is currently active on the site, and start easy conversations
- Connections: Like photos, send icebreakers, and message other members
Up to date
A relevant blog is viewable with dating articles – including picking a patron saint for your relationship, dating after a breakup, online dating trends, and more (as in 124 pages of blog posts more!).
Since so many articles are posted frequently, it is obvious that Catholic Singles is an actively-used website and stays up-to-date. We also like that so many articles are focused on the Catholic faith.
Strong choice
Catholic Singles’ modern, easy-to-use dashboard makes this site a good option for online dating. The pricing is affordable and a 6-month subscription should give most members enough time to fully get familiar with the website and get a good idea of if this site will work for them. When trying out Catholic dating sites, we suggest giving Catholic Singles a try!
3. Catholic Chemistry
- Cost: Free, unless you choose to upgrade for $6 – $12/month
Catholic Chemistry is “where faith and chemistry meet.” The service aims to revolutionize dating sites by providing a platform that gives substance to millennials, Gen X, and baby boomers alike. For singles looking for a new kind of modernized dating site, Catholic Chemistry works to help them meet their perfect match without challenging their values.
Describe yourself and your views
When you sign up for Catholic Chemistry, you’ll be asked a series of questions about their acceptance of divine love, the sanctity of life, the sanctity of marriage, priesthood, premarital sex, real presence, and papal infallibility.
You’ll fill out a 600-word maximum description of what your faith means to you, preferred type of worship, ministries you’re involved in, and favorite saints.
Further details for your personal profile will include education, political views, occupation, pets, ethnicity, children, and an “about me” section. From there you’ll fill out even more questions about the specifics of your lifestyle, worship, hobbies, appearance, and more.
Basically, you’ll provide a thorough idea of who you are before creating an account so that you’ll have the best chance of being matched with individuals of similar backgrounds.
Browse for free, pay to connect
Catholic Chemistry advertises that you can start using their services for free. You can make your profile, and see others at no cost. If you want to be able to actually interact with others (the whole point of using a dating site), you will need to upgrade your account.
The cost to upgrade ranges from $6 – $12/month depending on the chosen length of membership. With the upgrade, members can send and receive unlimited messages, and use the advanced search functions that let you filter profiles, search by keywords, and save searches. You’ll be able to see who liked and viewed your profile with the advanced functions as well.
Dating advice
For members interested in some extra help in their journey to find love, a dating advice page is available with different posts about topics like the #MeToo movement, relationship challenges, summer date ideas, tips for staying safe on a date, and more.
They can be organized by discernment, relationship, and Catholic and Single topics specifically. Humorous videos on how to “do dating right” provide a feel of what this dating site is all about and why it is important to match with people of similar tastes.
Modern and affordable
We like that Catholic Chemistry is modern and affordable. You can get a thorough idea of someone’s values, interests, and dedication to the Catholic church on this dating site.
Since they are a new service, they likely don’t have as many members as our highest-rated sites, which might be a deterrent for some. Since their membership fees are affordable, it probably wouldn’t hurt to at least tryout Catholic Chemistry for a few months.
4. Ave Maria Singles
- Cost: $80 for a 6-month membership
- $112 for a lifetime membership
Ave Maria Singles matches individuals who are very devout Catholics. They realize that “finding the right person who believes 100% of what the church teaches is no easy task.” Their goal is to first help members meet online and then connect in person. Ave Maria Singles stresses that you should use the online experience to be able to meet offline.
Cost of service
The cost to use Ave Maria Singles is a one-time fee – kind of. When viewing the membership pricing options, you’ll probably have to read them over a couple of times as we did. You can get an unlimited membership for $97, a 6-month trial membership for $80, or a “special price at sign-up” premium add-on of $15 for the first year.
Premium features
The premium features are designed to enhance your online experience. They include:
- Unlimited Photos (basic membership only allows for 2)
- Drop Your Hanky (for ladies who want a gentleman to know they want to be contacted)
- Make an Exception (ask for an exception to be made if you want to connect, but their profile restrictions prevent you from doing so)
- Not Interested Button (easily reject someone you’re not interested in… you’re gonna need this)
- One-On-One Live Chat (allows you to chat in real-time with members rather than messaging back and forth)
- Saved Searches (set up parameters and do quick searches)
- Are they really optional?
Basically, your dating experience at Ave Maria would be really lame if you chose not to upgrade to the premium features. They seem like necessities rather than optional add-ons. We wish we could see a demo or at least photos of these features in action on the Ave Maria Singles site.
It’s great that they offer them, but whether or not they are easy to use or professionally presented is another thing. Prospective customers should be able to see what they are paying for before dropping $100+ on a membership.
Mixed feedback
You can read about 32 success stories from people who met and married using Ave Maria Singles. Like any dating site, some people will happen to join at the right time and find success, while others find that there are few matches and give up after feeling discouraged.
In addition to a D- rating from Better Business Bureau, Ave Maria Singles receives mixed feedback from past members. Some felt the membership was much too expensive and could not deliver results equal to the cost.
It is not uncommon to read that members signed up only to have four or five individuals within a huge geographical radius that fit their criteria to chat with. This is frustrating since the goal is to meet in person after finding one another online.
Not impressive
Ave Maria Singles is a very basic online dating site for serious Catholic singles. Members using their services are sure to find (and have found) that there are less-than-serious Catholics on this site, which disappoints those hoping to find someone ready to commit to marriage and live their religion.
Their membership numbers are lower than some competitors, so we don’t feel that it provides the best chances for people to find a spouse. We recommend using a higher-rated Catholic dating site to start your search for love.
5. Catholic People Meet
- Cost: From $6.49 to $13.99/month
Catholic People Meet advertises itself as a place where like-minded Catholics are able to find each other. They say it is a “Catholic dating site where online dating is simple for the faithful.”
However, we will say up front that there is little emphasis on Catholicism once you have a profile made and start connecting with others. Nothing on the member profiles shows much about one’s devotion to their faith. Finding someone serious about their Catholic beliefs would be hard with Catholic People Meet.
Old-school dating site
The Catholic People Meet website seems a bit old-school. The images all look like generic stock photos and it gives cheesy vibes. Even the way the profiles look is very basic and doesn’t give a lot of depth to who each person is.
Questions about whether or not someone likes cooking could prove important down the road but is that really a make-or-break piece of information right from the start? Probably not.
Not just for dating
Maybe the surface-level profile information is indicative of the fact that Catholic People Meet is not just for dating. It’s also for making friendships and other casual relationships. This could make it harder to find a love interest when members are on there for so many different reasons.
Browse for free
Like many of their competitors, Catholic People Meet allows you to sign up for free and browse the profiles of others. If you want to use any necessary features to actually connect with members, it will come at a cost.
Three plan options are available to members for either $13.99 for one month, $8.99/month for three months, or $6.49 for a six-month agreement.
The subscription comes with the ability to use enhanced search and match options, chat by instant messenger, see who is interested in you, and send and receive emails.
Lack of matches
One of the biggest bummers for us was the lack of matches nearby that we found. Initially, we had zero matches of people between the ages of 18 and 50 near us. Then we decided to check out the membership pool in a bigger city like Houston, Texas.
Here we found one result. Then we researched the most heavily populated Catholic areas in the United States and the most matches we were able to come up with was four. With such a weak membership base, we don’t feel like paying for this service is worth it.
Misses the mark
Although there are additional resources like dating tips online and in-person available on the Catholic People Meet site, this is not enough for us to want to spend our time here.
We suggest using one of our higher-rated sites to find a higher member base and people who are serious about dating and devoted to their Catholic beliefs.
6. Catholic Mates
- Cost: From $1/day to $24.99/month
From the get-go, Catholic Mates looks like an outdated site. The picture of the couple you see when you land on the website look like they are straight from the 90s. If you’re hoping to find a relatable dating site that appeals to the current generation, you might find yourself skeptical of Catholic Mates.
It is also important to note that there is not much emphasis on the Catholic faith throughout the profiles or site description. If you’re looking for a devout Catholic to date, you might not find them here.
Hand it over
By first giving some demographic information, email address, birthday, and a username, you can view the pricing information and choose a subscription plan. Right away, you’ll be asked to provide credit card information.
Again, the old-school look of the website did not make us anxious to hand over our financial information and put our hopes in Catholic Mates. We can’t imagine a huge membership base using their services when there are less expensive, more modern dating sites available.
3 subscription plans
There are three subscription plans to choose from. You can either pay $1/day (this will add up quickly), subscribe for 1 month and pay $24.99/month, or subscribe for 3 months and be billed $49.98 every 90 days.
The premium features that come with a membership include unlimited emails and flirts, instant messaging, invisible mode, and access to all membership photos. These seem like very basic things when compared to the robust features included with the services of Catholic Mates’ competitors.
Cringeworthy
The profile page of Catholic Mates is text-heavy and overly busy with photos and external links. It gives us serious Deja vu from when MySpace was cool back in the day. A “cams” link redirects to a page called “Webcam Match” where members can instantly connect through a webcam rather than just viewing profiles and messaging back and forth.
The description of the feature reads, “These webcam hotties are searching for anything and you can narrow your results by setting certain criteria as to what you are looking for in a potential companion.” Cringe.
Earned the lowest rating
If you haven’t already figured out that Catholic Mates is a bottom-of-the-barrel option for online dating, then let us clarify. Not only does this dating site seem to have little to do with Catholic-specific dating besides its name, but it is also an expensive, archaic-looking platform with unappealing features.
Choosing any of the other options for online Catholic dating will be a better route than using Catholic Mates. They have earned our lowest rating among Catholic dating sites.
