Valentine's Day: 9 of the Best Dating Apps if You're Looking for Love on February 14

Valentine's Day can be pretty rough if you are single, especially if you struggle to put yourself out there and meet new people.

Luckily, there are many dating apps that have been made with the sole purpose of reducing this stress and helping you find that special someone.

These services are not all on an equal playing field though, with some of them having extra features, unique gimmicks and different pricing tiers. To help you sift through all of these apps (which will themselves help you sift through the February 14 dating scene) Newsweek has identified nine of the very best and explained what makes them worthwhile.

Here are nine of the best dating apps if you are looking for love in the lead up to Valentine's Day.

Tinder

According to Statista, Tinder was 2021's most downloaded dating app in the United States by quite some margin. It therefore stands to reason that, if you are looking for an ideal match, you'll find a wider range of suitors here.

The benefit of Tinder is that you can anonymously reject people without hurting their feelings. If you see a profile that you like while scrolling on your cell phone, then you just have to swipe right. Alternatively, you can swipe left to dislike them, but they won't ever know that you've done that.

Plus, you can only exchange messages with somebody if you've both mutually swiped right, which takes away some of the awkwardness of not knowing if the other person is actually interested in you.

Tinder can be downloaded for free via the App Store or the Google Play Store.

Bumble

Placing second in the Statista rankings is Bumble, an app that is generally seen as Tinder's main competitor.

The interface is largely the same (with similar profile layouts and an identical swipe left/right functionality), but there's one key difference. When it comes to heterosexual networking on Bumble, only women can initiate a direct message chat with their matches.

The idea behind this is to protect female users from harassment (which is sadly a rampant problem on other dating sites) and to empower them to make the first move. In general, Bumble is designed to be a more tolerable experience for women, as it also takes a more severe stance on inappropriate conduct and is proactive about banning members who don't abide by the rules.

With that said, this might be an ideal option for you if you want to put up barriers between yourself and those unsavoury characters that can be found on other dating apps.

Bumble is free to download on the App Store and Google Play store.

Hinge

For those looking for a more meaningful connection, Hinge might be a better option.

While Bumble and Tinder both employ the swiping feature — which incentivizes users to judge each other based on superficial things like their profile picture — Hinge gets you to create an in-depth biography about yourself. Others can then "like" aspects of this profile (be it a story, a personality trait or a photo) and start a conversation with you based on that.

The idea with Hinge is to nurture a long-term relationship and to have more in-depth conversations. It's for this reason that it proudly advertises itself as an app "designed to be deleted", because it's not about casual hookups and there is a romantic end-goal so to speak.

Hinge is free to download on the App Store and Google Play store, but you can pay for more advanced membership and features if you want.

Grindr

Grindr is a dating app created specifically for members of the LGBTQ+ community and is the most popular example of this in the world.

Gay, bisexual, trans and queer men can create fairly minimalist profiles on Grindr, featuring a photo and some details about their personality. The main benefit of Grindr though is its GPS positioning feature, which enables users to find matches who are in relatively close proximity. It doesn't say exactly where they are, but you know that they are within travelling distance and so can arrange a meetup.

However, this has been a source of controversy in the past, as the app's reputation has been tarnished with various data leaks relating to triangulating users locations and account hacks.

Grindr is free to download on the App Store and the Google Play Store. A premium membership is available, which has extra features and zero ads.

Plenty of Fish (POF)

With origins that can be traced back to 2003, Plenty of Fish (POF) was originally conceived as a matchmaking website, but successfully made the transition into being a smartphone app.

With that in mind, it's a bit more traditional than many of the other dating services on this list, as you have to create a thoroughly detailed profile by answering dozens of questions that inform your chemistry tests. Rather than swiping through profile pictures, you will be encouraged to participate in long message chats with people who the site thinks are ideal matches. There will even be icebreaker prompts and conversations starters that are based on your interests.

Given the significant time investment, POF is not the best site for those who are looking for casual hookups but if you are a little more introverted and want to speak with people online before you meet, then it might be the right one for you.

Coffee Meets Bagel

The idea for Coffee Meets Bagel was initially pitched on an episode of Shark Tank, by sisters Arum, Dawoon, and Soo Kang.

The appeal is meant to be that you are not bombarded with as many options as you are on other dating apps, as the algorithm is a little more selective. Instead, men will receive a curated sample of matches each day based on their preferences and can select which ones they are really interested in.

At noon, women will then be notified of six men who have liked their profile and will have the option to reciprocate. Only when they do so can a messaging conversation can begin.

If the idea of swiping through endless profiles on Tinder sounds exhausting to you, then Coffee Meets Bagel will be far less time consuming, as it prioritizes quality over sheer quantity.

Coffee Meets Bagel is completely free but you can spend a little extra to unlock features like read receipts and activity reports.

Match.Com

Like Plenty of Fish, Match.Com began as a dating website but now has an app for smartphones (and even Apple Watch devices).

Given that its lineage stretches all the way back to 1995, it's a well-oiled machine at this point with plenty of useful features. You can send messages, add voice snippets to your profile, join video calls and you even have an option to pay for a dating coach to matchmake on your behalf.

In terms of your profile, you can set preferences for gender, age-range and even political views so that you find somebody you actually click with.

Match.Com is free to join and you will have unlimited browsing on the app. However, as is the case with many of the other entries on this list, some features are paywalled.

Badoo

Although it might not be as big in the U.S., Badoo is one of the most popular dating sites around the world.

Some of its biggest draws include the fact that it has a massive global user base and that it employs certain verification techniques to prevent people from Catfishing. For instance, you can request that another user sends an authenticated selfie to prove that they're not lying about their identity, and it will also check your connected social media accounts and cell phone.

In addition to all of this, Badoo has all the standard dating app functionality, including a video chat service.

Badoo is free to download for your smartphone device, but you can pay extra to increase your profile's visibility.

eHarmony

The gimmick with eHarmony is that its personality questionnaire does a lot of the legwork for you, whittling down incompatible people and finding those that you have a real chance of connecting with.

When you take the survey, you will provide details about yourself, your beliefs, your hobbies, your skills and more. Each day, you will then be sent a sample of potential matches who have a lot in common with you.

It is free to create a profile on eHarmony in the first place and to view certain aspects of a match's profile, but if you want to communicate or see photos then you will need to upgrade your membership.