For the sake of simplicity, here is the criteria I’m using to rank the best online dating sites out there.

1. “Apps” are fair game, even though they technically aren’t a website.
2. These are “general” sites, i.e. not targeted at specific tastes, such as Ashley Madison.
3. The dating sites must be targeted towards a young audience. At 23, I obviously haven’t farted around on OurTime.
4. They’re American-based. Your mileage may vary based off of your geographic region.
5. The websites must be free or reasonably priced, less than $20/month. Even that is more than I’m willing to pay when sex is basically free.

First, let’s discuss the worst of the best online dating sites. I’ve used all of these at one point or another, but they just didn’t measure up to the rest of the list. Sure, many “experts” will tell write a post such as this and tell you to find the site that best meets your “needs” – but I’m here to tell you that’s bullshit. Online dating, just like a night in the club, is a numbers game. You should utilize all of the online dating sites available that provide you fresh leads, meetups, and lays. The trick is to use all of these websites efficiently, as I discuss in great detail in my latest book.

5 Online Dating Sites You Shouldn’t Bother With

These are in no particular order. As always, your mileage may vary.

To note, these sites do not include the “scammy” websites, which are easy to recognize by their absurd fees, pop-up ads, and unrealistic (read: women in lingerie) images of all of the “girls” on the website.

eHarmony

It seems like I’ve been seeing eHarmony commercials since I was 7 years old, which was pretty close to the same time as cable and DSL internet became available. However, the last time I took eHarmony for a spin, their website seemed like it was built in the same age as dial-up internet. The interface was clunky, archaic, and there were no decent looking young women – likely due to the price tag.

I tried it out for a month, made no progress, and promptly cancelled my subscription. Unless eHarmony has moved out of the stone age in regards to both technology and women, steer clear.

Zoosk

To be fair, I have heard success stories from guys I respect in regards to Zoosk in other countries. I’ve yet to hear any true success from American girls on Zoosk.

I think online dating sites that charge you a currency to message, unlock, or just simply use basic features of the website are a scam. Put a good product out there, and I’m happy to pay a monthly subscription fee. What I don’t want to do is be hassled with having to keep track of a virtual currency, much like running a tab at a bar. To me, it just screams of a scam, which is why I don’t bother with online dating sites such as Zoosk.

Hot Or Not

The ship has sailed on this one.

Coffee Meets Bagel

A new app that’s considered up and coming, but you can click here to read my extensive thoughts about it.

Any Scam Website

Scam websites are easy to recognize by their absurd fees, pop-up ads, and unrealistic (read: women in lingerie) images of all of the “girls” on the website.

5 Best Online Dating Sites

Hinge

Hinge is supposedly the “Tinder of relationships”, and I’m admittedly ranking this off of the potential I’ve seen from it than first hand experience. It’s a relatively new app, and the extent of my experience with it has been looking at friends phones and doing research about how Hinge works.

It works the same way as Tinder – taking your Facebook friends and giving you the ability to “like” each other. Only if there is a mutual “like” can you talk to the person. You don’t have to have mutual friends to get matches, but the available pool of matches on Hinge will greatly increase if you have a lot of friends in the area, and that are on Hinge.

So why is it on the list? Two words: the talent.

While Tinder is superior in the fact that you have potentially unlimited matches, that also means you have a lot of ugly girls thrown into the mix. On Hinge? The talent is extraordinary. So while you have limited matches, they’re going to be a lot higher quality than spamming swipe right on Tinder (which I fully advocate, by the way). Of course, this means you, as the man, must also bring high quality to the table.

Final Verdict: Inconclusive for me personally, but I see the potential.

Plenty of Fish

Two or so years ago, before I started writing this blog, Plenty of Fish would have come in second, and maybe first place on my list of the best online dating sites. It was incredibly efficient in terms of page loading speed, and the hack where you could “like” thousands of girls in the span of minutes was fantastic. However, over time POF has degraded into Plenty of Rotting Fish – a pond filled with ugly lumpfishes rather than beautiful, exotic looking fish.

In addition to that, the founder of POF, Markus, has had sand in his vagina over men actually using his site to get laid. A while back, he instated a rule that any first message with sexual content would result in an automatic ban, and set an age limit on messages. I believe it was 14 years; i.e. a 40 year old man can’t message a 25 year old female. Seems he really took the “divide by 2 and add 7” rule seriously.

Now, I was okay with all of this, because I’m a man who knows a lot about women, and I realize that in most cases, especially online, explicit sexual offerings don’t get you very far. I also don’t care to be messaging 38 year old women, so Markus was fine by me – until I started getting banned for using copy and paste messages. Upon making a new profile and pasting my old profile back in, I was promptly banned again. And yes, this was on a new computer with a different IP address.

Because I’m a guy who values my time, I didn’t take kindly into Markus making online dating with POF a time-sucking chore. Now, you’re probably wondering why this post is on the list, since I haven’t said a single positive thing about POF at this point. So, here goes.

POF has a ton of girls on it and a ton of sluts. It still loads fast, and if you keep the number of copy and paste messages within reason (I believe I saw Blackdragon recommend 24 a day at most, but I can’t seem to find his exact post), you won’t get banned. On top of that, the mobile app is good. It’s not the powerhouse it used to be, but Plenty of Fish can be used as a compliment to one of the better online dating sites.

Final Verdict: Best days are over, but a worthwhile tool in the arsenal.

Match.com 

A lot of people seem to be down on Match, and I think it’s the price point that scares people away. With the beginning three month package coming in at $72, that’s nearly $25 a month – indeed, steep. If you want to take a demo for a month, it’ll cost you upwards of $40. Occasionally there are free trials, but you’ll run out of time right in the middle of closing leads, inevitably. This is because Match is not a site where women are monitoring their messages all day, glued to their smart phone.

When I was on Match, I found the site had very high quality. Most women were receptive, and  at one point I went on three dates with three different girls in three days from Match – and I banged all of them. On top of that, two of them came straight to my apartment without even meeting for a drink first. I had continued success with the women on Match, I found them to be an overall high quality, both physically and personality-wise, than POF, and on an even level with OKCupid. However, Match doesn’t have the sheer numbers of other sites due to the price.

The good news about that is that it cuts out the girls who are “just checking it out” and have no intention of meeting up, which is rampant on OKCupid, Tinder, and POF. The bad news is that it’s likely they’ll be looking for a relationship, which means you aren’t going to get your quick lay. Granted, my dates were the opposite, but I expect they are the exception, not the norm.

If you want to try out Match, my suggestion is this: Google around for a coupon, they’re always running a special. This should knock down your monthly cost to a much more reasonable price point; expect $50-60 for a three month package, less than $20 a month. At the end of your three months, you’ll probably have exhausted the majority of the people on Match, so cancel it (don’t forget, or else you’ll be charged the real price).

A few months later, re-up your subscription with a new coupon code. Realistically there aren’t that many people on Match, if you’re doing my tried and trusted copy and paste message method, you’ll be exhausting the supply of women. Don’t worry though, they’ll recycle through. Just like hookers.

Final note: don’t bother with Match if you’re under 23, unless you’re willing to lie about your age. Most women on the site are 22 or older.

Final Verdict: Well worth the bi-annual investment to find the good talent.

Tinder

Everyone’s favorite slutfest.

If you found this post hoping for some Tinder tips, I wrote a post about that here. My buddy at Masculine Profiles also wrote a fantastic book about the subject, which I reviewed here (note: affiliate link).

Tinder is fantastic because everyone is on it, therefore nobody judges, and plenty of people just want to fuck. While Tinder is desperately trying to shed the “hookup app” label, it’s way too late – sorry, wanna-be-politically-correct Tinder CEO, that ship sailed with the first swipe right from the toilet.

Tinder is fantastic because it removes all of the bullshit associated with dating and dumbs it down to raw animal sexuality. No long-winded profiles, no mutual friends needed, it’s as simple as, “Do I want to bang this person?” If you get a match, men have an advantage: you already know she’s attracted to you, so don’t fall into the typical chaser role – make her chase you. Granted, it’s not that simple with hypergamy and various dick coming at her from every direction, but you get my point. Don’t be a supplicating wuss.

Final Verdict: If you’re not on this, you’re wasting thousands of potential leads (literally).

OKCupid

OKCupid is hands down the best online dating site right now. I like OKCupid so much that I wrote an entire fucking 100+ page book about it. I’d also say this post is an excellent read.

OKCupid has the highest quantity of high quality girls of any online dating site. Sure, Plenty of Fish might have more sluts, but you have to wade through more to get there. OKCupid does a good job with matching you up with girls who you really are compatible with, rather than just spitting a grid of pictures out in front of you. I’d also reckon there are simply more “normal”, down-to-Earth girls on OKCupid than any other dating site. You’re less likely to deal with single moms with three children from four fathers, or some chick who just got out of rehab.

There are more uglies than on Match, but OKCupid is free and has significantly more users.

I’m happy to announce OKCupid as the official Troublesome best online dating site for 2015. If you want to find out how to get a ton more OKCupid dates, CLICK HERE.