What is RSVP?

Australian members: Over 4 million

Demographic: Middle aged users – 50% of users are aged 35 to 55

Gender split: 50% female; 50% male.

Unique features: RSVP has developed the “Discover Engine”. The Discover Engine suggests members based on historical matching data. Now if that sounds a little complicated than all you need to know is a Queensland University of Technology study has proven Discover to be more successful than standard matching algorithms.

Matching:
RSVP offers tailored matches daily based on a members seeking criteria. They also use a match scoring system, showing you what percentage another members matches you by.

How much does RSVP cost?
The RSVP platform is free to join and search, but one party will need to pay to initiate contact.

Free: If you sign up for free, you can create and view full profiles, set a criteria for your matches, with new results daily and you have the ability to send and accept virtual winks, which are expressions of interest. The other party initiate a conversation with you at no cost to you.

Stamps: The RSVP currency for contact is Stamps. You can purchase between 3-24 stamps. Prices start from $5 per stamp.

Subscriptions: RSVP offers 3 levels of subscription. “Premium” allows you to see all members who have viewed your profile, highlight your profile to other members, boost you to the top of Search, Match and Discover results, added privacy options and more. “Premium+” includes all of the features of Premium with 4 contact Stamps every month. “Platinum” Will give users the same benefits as Premium with 10 contact stamps a month and includes a super wink every day, which allows other members to reply for free. 

“RSVP has a level of credibility because you have to pay and there are more processes and checks in place. People are more serious about dating on RSVP, whereas other sites are more about hook-ups.” – Isabelle*.

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Australian members: Over 4 million

Demographic: Oasis has a younger slant – 48% of users are 18-35; 34% are 36-50.

Gender split: 40% female; 60% male.

Unique features: Oasis is one of the few sites that offers virtually all features for free. It’s 100% Free to contact and chat with other members and boasts a 30 second sign up with web and app platforms to access.

Matching: Users describe their personality, interests and hobbies and select criteria for their ideal partner. They can then search for suitable matches.

How much does Oasis cost?
The Oasis platform is 100% free to contact and chat with it’s members. To give yourself an extra boost, Oasis offers the premium feature “Shout outs” for $5.49. This feature pushes a members profile to thousands of active members to get them noticed instantly. 

​Australian members: 1.1 million

Demographic: Younger users – 50% of users are aged 22 to 30

Angle: designed to “disrupt traditional gender roles”, women must make the first move in sending a message for heterosexual matches. (Either person can initiate contact for same-sex matches.)

Unique features: Bumble isn’t just for dating – the app also includes Bumble BFF (for platonic friendships) and Bumble Bizz (business networking), making it a kind of Facebook/Tinder/LinkedIn hybrid.

Matching: Bumble uses your GPS location to find people in your area who fit your age criteria. If you swipe right on someone’s profile and they swipe right on yours, it’s a match and you’ll both be notified.

The Bumble app is free and I have had the most dates with this app. It’s an easy format and given the female makes contact first, you can eliminate unwanted attention. – Kate*, 44

How much does Bumble cost?

The Bumble app itself is free to download, but you can pay to access a few premium features.

• Bumble Boost – From $11.99 for a one-week subscription or $33.99 per month for one month, $22.33 per month for three months or $12.50 per month for six months. This enables you to see everyone who has right-swiped you, extend your matches by 24 hours and rematch with expired connections.
• Bumble coins – $2.99 each, or $10.99 for five, $29.99 for 15 or $52.99 for 30. These allow you to access SuperSwipe, which lets you tell a potential match you’re confidently interested in them. You’ll need one Bumble coin per SuperSwipe.

We asked eHarmony for up-to-date details about their membership demographic, but they didn’t respond.

• Unique features: eHarmony’s selling point is its tailored approach. Your profile is created from a detailed questionnaire where you rate your personality and appearance, plus what you want in a partner and relationship.
• Matching: users are matched based on their personality profile, using eHarmony’s “29 dimensions of compatibility”.

How much does eHarmony cost?

You can access eHarmony for free, but paying a subscription gives you more information about other users.

• Free: Users receive a personal profile, view daily matches and have limited interaction with their matches, like sending a smile or a limited number of set questions. You can only see limited information about matches, and you can’t see photos.
• Paid: $54.95 per month for a three-month plan, $34.95 per month for a six-month plan or $19.95 per month for a 12-month plan. Subscriptions entitle you to see who’s viewed you, send unlimited messages, see unlimited photos and see who’s favourited you.
• Subscribers can access premium features such as Incognito, which allows you to view matches anonymously. You can turn it on or off depending on whether you want to be in stealth mode or not. What If? is another premium feature that lets you browse up to 30 additional people per day. Using the Spotlight feature means your profile will show up in the top spot for all your matches for 24 hours. It’s only available via the mobile website.

We asked OkCupid for details about their membership demographic, but they didn’t respond.

• Angle: OkCupid claims to use a math-based matching system to help users find partners. After completing a basic profile, users can elect to fill out hundreds of optional broad-reaching questions – like if they’d date a messy person, whether they like dogs, or even how often they brush their teeth. The more questions you answer on your profile, the better the matching system becomes, the company says.
• Unique features: you can select which gender/s you’re interested in, and what kinds of connections – hook-ups, friendship, short-term and long-term dating, and non-monogamy. OkCupid had the most gender, sexuality and relationship preferences of all the sites we looked at, so it’s a good option if you don’t identify as heterosexual, cisgender or monogamous.
• Potential matches are rated based on a percentage for being a match, a friend or an enemy. Users can then flick through quick matches or browse all potential matches based on search criteria including gender, age and distance.

We asked Tinder for details about their membership demographic, but they didn’t respond.

• Unique features: Tinder is an app-based online dating service designed for use on your phone or tablet device.
• Matching: Here’s how it works: You pick the gender or genders you’re interested in, the age range you’re looking for, and how close in distance you’d like a potential match to be. Tinder then uses the GPS on your mobile phone to search for nearby Tinder users. Once it locates them, it shows you their first name, age and a profile picture. You swipe right if you’d like to be matched with them, left if you’re not interested. If both parties swipe right, you’re a match, meaning you can start interacting with them.

How much does Tinder cost?

You can use Tinder for free, or you can pay to subscribe to unlock extra features.

• Free – free users can send one Super Like each day, which shows someone that you’re really interested in them.
• Tinder Plus – this in-app subscription gives you access to features like Rewind and Passport, as well as five Super Likes per day. It also gives you additional Boosts. Tinder’s pricing varies depending on where you live and your age, from around $5 to $25 a month. Tinder Gold – this offers the same features as Tinder Plus, as well as access to the Likes You feature, which shows you who likes you before you swipe. At the time of writing, it isn’t available in all markets but Tinder says it hopes to roll it out to all users soon.
• Super Like – you can send a Super Like to let someone know you’re really interested in them. Boost – this makes you one of the top profiles in your area for 30 minutes.

Bear in mind that unless you specifically opt out, subscriptions automatically renew.