How to Create a Dating App: Tips, Features, Process, and Cost

Does it make sense to build a dating app these days?

It seems that the market is oversaturated with dominant players like Tinder, Badoo, Bumble, and Grindr.

Nevertheless, Statista forecasts the growth of online dating revenue to 755 billion U.S. dollars by 2024 in the US alone. This says one thing: the niche is still on the rise.

Due to the pandemic, dating apps are more socially accepted than ever and if you have a worthy dating service idea we will tell you everything about dating app development and how to succeed in the matchmaking business next year.

In this article you’ll discover:

• Insights on custom dating app development from MLSDev’s expertise
• Key features to make a dating app competitive
• Tech stack on how to build a dating app and website, technically
• Step by step flow on how to make a dating app from idea to actual implementation
• Market overview and top-players in dating app services

Let’s start our journey of developing a dating service.

How to Create a Dating App: MLSDev Expertise

To beat the competition, a dating app should have some unique functionality in order to drive customer interest. In order to execute this plan, it is necessary to find a reliable dating app development company.

The MLSDev, software engineering company, has vast experience in creating dating apps.

We start with fundamental features like profile, photo viewing and editing, search, etc. Yet, to make the app stand out from the crowd, we offer a specific matching mechanism based on an analysis of hobbies and interests.

We helped to implement business goals and technical requirements for dating app projects, namely:

GoBibbon - a dating app that matches users based on their favorite activities.

GoGibbon Dating App Screens

Sqyle - an exclusive dating app for people with high standards.

Sqyle Dating App Screens

Based on the case above, here is a short answer to the question of how to build a dating app:

• Nurture a unique idea or vision
• Discuss your vision with a tech team for insights on technical implementation
• Develop a dating app with specific functionality, a high level of security, and respect to the privacy of your future customers

Now, as you’ve started the journey, the next step is learning how to build a dating app with an interesting functionality and a high level of security.

Why You Should Still Build a Dating App: Market Situation

To proceed with the argument regarding creating a dating app or not, statistics show that 19% of couples found their partners on a dating website.

Look at the data provided by Stanford University that illustrates the shift in the ways of meeting partners over the years.

Graph: How Couples Meet Today

IBISWorld states that the dating service market has shown 11% annual growth over the past five years. These days, 40% of Americans use online dating services (more men - 52.4%, than women- 47.6%). Just imagine that over 11M people use a dating app at least once each month in the US.

Dating App Market: Trends & Statistics

According to Manifest research, a third of users (29%) download a dating app because of their curiosity, followed by the convenience of meeting someone (19%). The third most common reason is simple boredom (15%), followed by loneliness (12%). Only 12% of users actually have hopes of finding a relationship.

To add, Statista provided the following insight about the online dating market:

• Revenue in matchmaking will reach US $3.758 billion in 2022
• Revenue predicted to grow at a 6.9% annual rate (by 2026)
• Average revenue in online dating, per user amounts to US $32.91
• The projected market volume in 2026 will amount to US $4.908 billion
• The number of users will reach 153.5 million users by 2026

Yet, there are some important considerations regarding successful mobile dating app development in the next few years.
In addition, the number one reason why users delete dating apps is that they get bored with the app (25% of users questioned). This reason is followed by feeling stressed (18%) and not feeling safe using the app (11%).

According to an expert opinion “Due to the increasing amount of free services, the industry needs to explore new revenue streams and add extra value to their services. Widespread application of Artificial Intelligence could extend to AI coaching from profile recommendations to relationship and life coaching.”

The conversation about market oversaturation is valid. The dominant players are

1. Match Group Inc. (OkCupid, PlentyOfFish, Tinder, Match.com)
2. Badoo
3. eHarmony Inc.
4. Grindr LLC
5. FTW & Co (Happn)

However, even with the majority of dating apps, they don’t fully cover all user needs, lack quality, or have a low level of security.

Dating App Market Map

Key insight: Dating apps account for almost a quarter of the dating services industry revenue with a growing portion each year. This is due to wider adoption of the Internet and mobile technology.

Reasons for Using Dating Apps

We assume you are interested in knowing how to create a dating app to serve the needs of a particular audience.

Let’s address the question: why do people actually use online dating services

The main benefits provided by dating apps include:

• Permanent and fast access to the service
• Efficient option for busy people
• Opportunity to find a soulmate nearby
• Variety
• Good option for introverts
• Ability to avoid unwanted connections

A study performed by Kaspersky Lab revealed that the top reasons for using a dating app are just for fun, to find friends, and to spend time with an interesting person.

Reasons for Using Dating Apps

How To Create A Dating App People Want To Use in 6 Steps

The diversity in the dating app market is broad.

Keeping this severe competition in mind, we should try to figure out how to create a dating app to attract users, gain traction, and receive such expected revenue.

First and foremost, you should make a dating app targeting a specific but sufficient audience. It is possible to concentrate on matches of particular interests, tastes, relationship focus, or even allow group dates if you plan to build a dating app with increased trustworthiness.

Potential Users of a Dating App

Here are the main steps for how to create a dating app successfully:

Step 1: Conduct Market Research

What this means is that you should be really inventive in order to earn money with dating application development. As well, your app should not just be innovative, but also extremely user-oriented.

Want to know how to make a dating app to meet users’ intentions? Take the following market factors into consideration:

1. Higher divorce rates: people are more entitled to search for a new partner by utilizing online dating services.
2. Marriage postponement: current generation is more prone to concentrate on their career; many go on casual dates via a dating app to save time.

Study the market trends, demographics (male-female ratio, age, income, location, etc.), and psychometric parameters to define a detailed user portrait.

Step 2. Study the Competitors

As mentioned, learn from competitive dating apps, check out their functionality, monetization methods, strong and weak points.

It is worth mentioning a big market player: The majority of dating apps (Tinder, OkCupid, Plenty of Fish, etc.) are owned by the Match Group. In 2021, the company reached over 11 million paid dating subscribers worldwide; they continue to expand via international acquisitions like Meetic in Europe and Eureka in Japan.

Facebook is building its own dating service as well. More precisely, the network will provide suggestions for a date based on upcoming events, personal status, and interests.

So you want to know how to make a dating app that will stand out? First of all, it is necessary to study your competitors well.

The table below lists the top ten dating apps with key insights about them.

Step 3: Validate a Dating App Idea

Creating a new app is challenging; you never know exactly how it will perform, or whether it will be positively accepted by users.

For this, again you can simply ask your potential users how to create a dating app that would meet their needs.

Conduct a few polls and ask the target audience directly what functionality they want to see and what elements they find important. Then, it is possible to create a great user matchmaking algorithm and clarify the USPs of your dating app.

To cut the risk of going in the wrong direction, you may create your own Lean Canvas, used to visually represent the desirability and viability of your idea. This method consists of nine blocks, each of which deals with one of the nine aspects of your idea:

• The critical problem that users have
• Your solution
• Unique selling points
• Your app’s advantage
• Channels of advertising
• Audience segment
• Cost
• Key indicators of success
• Revenue channels

Filling in these blocks will help you clearly see if your idea has any potential and is worth development.

Business Model Canvas: Draft

The developers of Tinder used a lean canvas to validate their idea. Now, this same method may help validate yours.

Step 4. Create a Dating App Design

User experience (UX) should be well-thought-out when it comes to moving through app screens. The user interface (UI) should support the app’s functionality.

Note: Come up with an app name and logo that will be easy to remember.

If you want to know how to create a dating app with a catchy design, consider the following pro tips:

• Use the latest trends like blurred background images, translucent elements, swipe navigation
• Apply positive and energetic color schemes
• Use interactive elements to communicate with your audience
• Include simple and easy-to-understand onboarding
• Focus on gestures for app engagement and interaction

Swipe Gestures in a Dating App

Work on the app's content from an early stage. Along with UX and UI design services, notifications and system messages should encourage more interaction with a dating app.

Step 5: Build Engaging Functionality

Advice for how to create a dating app that engages users is to include a gamification factor (e.g. left/right swiping in Tinder app).

Build a behavior-stimulating feature on top of the general functionality of a dating app. For instance, give rewards when a user logs into the app, creates a great profile, writes messages, or for other actions. Motivate users to use good quality photos for their profiles.

As well, personalized feeds, a unique matchmaking function, and app moments can help with user engagement.

Step 6: Design a Marketing Plan

Do not forget about creating marketing campaigns to spread the word about your application beforehand.
For better outreach, you may want to use different promotion channels to spread the word about your dating service app, namely:

• Social media (in communities, or by creating a promotional page for your product)
• Reaching out to influencers, creation of paid ads
• Building referral networks
• Event organization
• Creation of landing page and content marketing

One of the most successful ways to tell the world about your app is high-quality content that has been optimized for search engines.

Extra tip: Curious about how to create a dating app that will conquer the hearts of users?

Solve the following issue!

There are many sexual predators using dating apps to find a victim. Crime statistics support this increase in the number of related claims connected with the use of online dating services.

Want to know how to make a dating app as safe and secure as possible? Take the following aspects into close consideration:

• User security - includes profile verifications, message filtering (either manually or automatically for hate speech), ban option, blacklist possibility. Make sure to block nudity and other inappropriate content.
• Data privacy & security - apply high-security standards in app development to avoid information leaks and misuses. As well, request permission to use personal data and state how and why this information is stored within the app. This aspect relates particularly to the European market, where apps should comply with the GDPR (General Data Protection Policy).

How Much Money Do Dating Apps Make?

As stated, statistically, the dating app market has money and users who are willing to spend some to find a partner.

When calculating the dating app development cost, planning your budget and/or fundraising, you have to outline the scenario for the return on investment.

If you want to know how to create a dating app that will make money for you, consider the following revenue streams:

1. Advertising

The most effective variant is via affiliate networks. You can show interesting and relevant deals from bars, cafes, shops, jewelry stores, florists, etc. Rewards are typically received from the affiliate company based on clicks or installs.

2. Freemium model

Users may be billed on a monthly or annual basis. This model offers additional features like unlimited swipes, profile showcases, ad-free app version.

3. In-app purchases and gifts

One option is to create virtual gifts. Another option is to go offline and hold some speed dating events, meetups or integrate with delivery or booking systems (e.g. selling tickets to concerts, taxi services, restaurant bookings, etc.).

4. Sponsorship

This option can be utilized later with growing app popularity and user base. Then, you can contact sponsors from related spheres to place their ads in the app.

How to Make a Dating App | Key Functionality

A dating app is a subcategory of social media app development, only with relationship intentions. Thus, general features resemble the functionality of most social apps.

Here, we cover the core tech components and aspects in terms of their importance for dating app development.

Features of a Dating App

So, you want to know how to build a dating app with decent functionality? Consider the following components.

Matching Algorithms in Dating Apps

A matching algorithm is one of the most important functions in a dating application that derives from a set of attributes. If you want to know how to create a dating app with proper matching algorithms, you may choose from the following options:

1. Using Geodata

By using geolocation data, an algorithm can offer users dates in their immediate vicinity, if that’s what they want.
On the contrary, if a person is thinking of moving, they will likely be more interested in acquaintances around their new destination.
In any case, geolocation matching has a vast range of benefits and is an important aspect to consider in dating app development.

2. Mathematical Algorithms

Mathematically-based matching relies on algorithms that analyze the information that users provide in their profiles and through different surveys, namely:

• Personality characteristics (e.g. age, gender)
• Compatibility of interests (e.g. music taste, hobbies)
• Physical state (e.g. height, physique)
• Friend connections to build better trust and user safety (uses data from social networks)

Although mathematically-based matching is quite popular, it is imperfect.

This is because people often fake information about themselves in the surveys or their profiles (like mentioning that they are fond of music or literature they have no idea about).

Therefore, to receive a better view of what a person’s personality is, it is recommended that you instead use behavioral analysis.

3. Behavior Analysis
Behavior analysis is far more complicated compared to mathematical matching. This analysis relies on a person’s real digital footprint (information on social media, search history, YouTube playlists, pages visited, movie preferences, etc.) Today, this type of analysis is possible with Big Data solutions.

4. Advanced Matching (AI & AR)

Also, it is possible to implement advanced matching algorithms with the help of AI or AR.

AI for Advanced Matching

Similar to Netflix and Amazon, a dating app can base its recommendations on complex data analysis. Facial recognition, biological data use, and behavior analysis would definitely provide more efficient matching and predictions.

Creating clear filtering within the app allows users to get connected with preferred people and thus, use the dating app more regularly.

Messenger & Communication Channels

A messenger is another core component in a dating app. Whichever matchmaking process you apply, the next step always involves communication. Let's find out how to build a dating app with a good communication channel.

A good way is to set some rules about who messages first or stimulate users for an initial message. As well, in order to cover the security side, it is recommended that you build a dating app with message encryption.

To improve the experience of using a dating app, consider implementing GIFS, symbols, stickers, or video calls for more advanced communication.

If you are interested in learning how to create a dating app with a unique functionality, you may also include some of the following features:

1. Feed - common in social networks, but most dating apps do not have a personalized feed. If you implement this, users can express their thoughts and ideas, and share photos so that they have a better chance of finding their soulmate.

2. Stories - take advantage of stories that are so often shared, especially by millennials.

3. Missed connections - users can be notified about missed connections to boost interest in a new dating app. Alternatively, reminders can be sent in the form of potential dates based on navigations throughout the city, visited places, and intersection points.

4. Verification system - this system makes the difference between a solid app and a pool full of creeps and pranksters. To avoid reputation-threatening issues, implement a multiple-step verification system. This may include verification with: social media, photo, phone number, e-mail, etc.

Dating App Design

5. Advanced date suggestions - based on personal data and collected information from services like Tripadvisor, the app can suggest a place to go on your first date.

6. Message editing - the feature may be life-saving for many users, since the mistyping of some words can hit hard on one's confidence.

7. Undoing the mistaken “Like” - every like, swipe, friending or unfriending someone, comment, or message in a dating app carries a bigger emotional burden compared to conventional social media apps. Therefore, make sure that an accidental action on the part of a user will not end up a reason for embarrassment – implement the undoing feature for as many of the activities as possible.

8. See preferences - sometimes it feels comforting to know you are not the only person in the world who didn’t watch Game of Thrones. Or, on the contrary, maybe you’d like to date someone who’s in the same fan group. By implementing the preference feature, you give users a chance to meet someone with similar taste in music, games, books, or movies.

9. Gift-giving option - during the initial steps of courtship, it would make a great experience to give or receive some signs of attention. It is possible to integrate with some gift services to deliver sweets, flowers, etc.

10. Push notifications - notifications help people stay informed on new matches, events, or messages. You may combine this feature with geo-location functionality to inform users that a person they’d like to meet is in the vicinity, or you may implement birthday alerts. With a bit of imagination, the notification feature can be very useful.

11. Reporting feature - if someone uses your app for harassment (this may happen even if the offender has gone through all the security checks), the victim should be able to report it and be protected without feeling the need to leave your platform.

12. Spam alert - your app may be used for phishing attacks. To avoid this, make sure you inform your users when the same message was sent to a bunch of profiles.

13. Risk score - opinions are not settled about this feature yet. It may act as a discipline factor for people who behave inappropriately online or when it comes to real dates. However, others may be afraid to engage with a new acquaintance if they know that their behavior will be rated afterwards.

We hope by now that you are literate in all the aspects of dating application development. However, your business won’t be complete without a high-quality website.

The following section will be dedicated to the question of how to create a dating website and provide reasons why you should create one.

How to Create a Dating Website from Scratch

Once you have a working app, it’s a good idea to have a dating website as well. The benefits of dating website development are vast:

• Convenient for users who prefer web services (Statista states that today only 49% users globally prefer mobile to web)
• Wider possibilities to tell people who you are (the story of your brand, philosophy, trustworthiness, etc.)
• Additional platform for advertising
• Simplifies administration, control, issue solving, and overall management

If you are curious how to build a dating website technically, find a brief intro below.

Traditionally, dating website development unites front-end (how the site looks) and back-end (how the site works) development.

1. Front-end is the client side of your website. This side deals with the user interface and user experience.
2. Back-end is the server side of your website. This side refers to how the website works and how its main functions are performed. This is the most complicated part of dating website development.

Here are the technologies that are most often used:

Now that you know how to build a dating app technically, you might be curious about how much does it cost to make an app for dating and how you can make money with your app.

Resources for, & Cost of, Making a Dating App

Any custom software development requires proper planning in terms of budget. In general, the cost of making a dating app depends on the following factors:

• Development approach
• Number of platforms (plus adaptation to devices - web responsiveness)
• Location of a software development partner and their rates
• App design complexity
• Number and complexity of features during dating mobile app development in the first and subsequent app versions

If you plan to develop a dating app as a fully-featured product and want to launch it more quickly, a wise approach is to divide the full product into a few logical app versions. This means implementing the most crucial features and leaving all additional goodies for later versions. Thus, you can find a great balance between the app development cost and profit.

Our experience shows that it takes approximately 3-6 months to develop the first version at a cost of around $60,000-$80,000 per platform (iOS or Android + back-end development + basic admin panel).

This is the minimum budget for the first version that you should expect to spend. The cost of making a dating app may increase depending on your requirements and needs.

The subsequent app versions are planned out ahead of time along with the first version. This is due to the product scalability factor, which should be incorporated in the architecture. To keep things in perspective, be prepared to spend $300,000+ if you plan to make a solid dating service.

Our next table will show a breakdown of dating app development costs based on the project stage and the complexity of the app:

Please note that the calculations have been made with a $40/hour rate (average rate on software development services in Ukraine).

Extra note: How to create a dating app similar to Tinder is not a relevant question to ask. That company received investments of $50M dollars to develop, scale, and promote the Tinder app.

Not every product can boast such a budget. However, you can have your own success story. Just don't intend to build an app like Tinder, as cloning an existing product will not result in a great outcome. Rather, try bringing a new idea to the market.

Based on the rates, it makes a lot of sense to look for a software vendor in Ukraine. With an average hourly rate of USD $40, Ukraine is a great place for outsourcing software development if you seek great quality for moderate prices.

How to Build a Dating App: Tech Stack

In order to create a fully-featured dating app, these are the tools and tech services that can be incorporated.

Also, keep in mind the following aspect in executing a dating app:

• Native dating app development

If you want to know how to create a dating app that performs well, then you should opt for the native dating app development approach rather than web or hybrid. This approach increases app operation, allows for the creation of a more suitable user experience and advanced interface, offers the application of innovative technologies, and more.

• Avoid free templates of dating apps

Do not be misled by a free dating app template offering. There are online services that propose the ability to create a dating site or app for free. The result is not actually a properly working product, but one with ads and malware. It is impossible to launch apps like this in the app stores.

How to Create a Dating App: Final Thoughts

There is enough demand for a new dating app on the market. All you need to do is to сome up with a fresh and value-giving app concept, concentrate on a specific target group, and prepare your business strategy well.

Here is a list detailing how to create a dating app step-by-step:

Step 1: Research the market and study competitors to find your niche
Step 2: Define the target audience in order to serve their needs exactly
Step 3: Conceptualize a unique dating app idea with great scope of functionality for the first and following app versions (matching algorithm, gamification elements, user interaction)
Step 4: Focus on creating appealing UX/UI design and branding materials (e.g. logo, icons)
Step 5: Ensure high-end app security, data protection, and verification processes to boost trust in a service
Step 6: Think bigger and apply innovative technologies like AI, AR, VR, etc. in subsequent app versions
Step 7: Spend enough time on app testing in terms of security, user acceptance, bugs, and freeze avoidance
Step 8: Develop and launch the first dating app version or, in the case of a limited budget, test the waters with an MVP
Step 9: Build revenue streams naturally and unobtrusively inside your dating app
Step 10: Launch an effective marketing campaign and invest in user acquisition

Frequently Asked Questions: