What Are the Best Dating Apps for Men Over 50?

No app publishes how many women over 50 are using it near you, so the honest way to choose is by what each app says it is for. SilverSingles describes itself as a dating site for singles over 50. eHarmony and Match suit a man who wants something serious. Hinge, Bumble and Tinder are open to every age. Pick two, keep the one where your matches answer, and put your effort into what you bring to it.

None of the cells above is a count of users, because none of these apps publishes one for your age or your town. Look at who you actually see.

SilverSingles describes itself on its own homepage as a dating site for singles over 50, built for that stage of life. A man over 50 is who it says it is for. That tells you the audience it is aiming at. It does not tell you how many women are on it near you, so look before you pay for anything.

eHarmony calls itself a site for people who know they want a meaningful relationship. At sign-up it asks whether you want Casual, Serious or Not sure, and its quiz produces a Compatibility Score for each member you see. If you already know you want a partner, that screening is the point.

Match shows Recommended profiles and Top Picks drawn from preferences such as faith, smoking, drinking, education and whether someone has or wants kids. You tap the heart to Like or the X to move on, and the higher tiers add search. It suits a man with settled priorities who would rather look than be shown. It asks more of you than a swipe does, and many men over 50 like that.

Hinge shows you a woman's prompt answers and personal details, and a match starts with a Like on one picture or prompt. a dating coach says Hinge tends to do better than Tinder in major cities in the US, and that Hinge and Bumble have more of a relationship feel.

Bumble says it wants its members to find meaningful and authentic relationships. After a match, both people get one opening message within a limited time.

Tinder says its minimum age is 18 and that its recommendations lean on age, distance, interests and Likes and Nopes, with activity on the app the biggest factor. coach says Tinder has more of a hookup reputation, though relationships start there too.

None of these three sorts by age for you. You will see women of every age, so set your age range to the women you would honestly like to meet.

My advice is to test several apps, because each app has a different algorithm and a different mix of people. A man can do badly on one and well on another.

A practical way to run the test: choose two that fit what you want, give both the same pictures and the same written lines, use them regularly for a few weeks, and keep the one that answers. Do not run six at once. You will not have the time to write to anyone properly on any of them.

My biggest point about choosing an app is that the app matters less than the page you bring to it. A page written like a man looking for a hookup gets hookups. A page that says you want something lasting gets that.

For a man over 50, that is good news, because it is the part you control. Use recent pictures that show how you look today, including one full-length shot and one of you doing something real. Write two or three plain lines with a detail she could ask about. Say what you want in a single sentence.

Skip the lines every man writes, such as a gentleman who knows how to treat a lady. Women have read it a hundred times, and it tells them nothing about you.

My view is that an online profile is a supplement. It works in the background while you do other things, such as joining a club, a class or a league, or going out with single friends. Men over 50 often meet fewer eligible women in daily life than they did at 30, and the apps are the cheapest way to close part of that gap.

Give the two you chose a few weeks, count how many matches become conversations and how many conversations become plans, and let those numbers pick the winner.