BestDatingSites.com earns affiliate commissions on every subscription it drives, publishes no ranking methodology, names no reviewers, and has no disclosed criteria — the ratings are ungradeable by design, which is the design.
What it's really for Affiliate lead-generation funnel dressed as a ranking guide — drives paid subscriptions to dating platforms via click-through links.
What our grade covers The grade on this page is about Dating websites and apps, not everything the site does.
Medium Scoring Confidence Mostly sourced, but a detail or two still needs a primary source, so the grade could shift slightly.
The site earns affiliate commissions when readers click through and subscribe to a dating service. Its public "Add My Site" submission form makes "Do you have an affiliate program" a required field and provides an "Affiliate Program URL" field, so a site's affiliate programme is collected as part of the listing intake.
Source →- Operating since
- 2013 (13 years) · source
- What it costs you
- Free to read The reviews are free to read.
- How they make money
- Affiliate commissions: the site's own footer states it "may receive a portion of revenue if you click a link and subscribe to a dating service," and adds that those links "are independently placed by our affiliate team and do not influence editorial content." No evidence is offered for that separation.
- What they do
- Ranks and reviews 500+ dating websites with letter grades and star ratings, organized by category (hookup, seniors, LGBTQ+, etc.), with click-through affiliate links to each platform.
- What to watch for
- No ranking methodology is published. No named reviewers or editorial team are identified. No criteria weighting, testing protocol, or scoring rubric is disclosed. The footer asserts that affiliate links do not influence editorial content, but the site publishes nothing a reader could use to check that claim.
- Composite score
- 1.10 / 5.00 → grade D-
- Last verified
- September 1, 2026 — when a human last checked this entry's facts, links, and grade against the live site.
- Citations checked
- September 1, 2026 — our automated check re-fetched all 8 sources cited on this page. All resolved. This is a link check, not a re-grade — the “Last verified” date above is the one that covers the facts and the grade.
- Site confirmed live
- September 1, 2026 — our monthly automated check reached BestDatingSites.com and got a normal response.
How the grade was reached
Does the site take money from the very entities it ranks? Pay-for-placement, vendor-funded data, and affiliate commissions all pull this down. The less the ranking can be bought, the higher the score.
What is the ranking actually built on? Hands-on testing scores highest, then verified first-hand reviews, then opinion or popularity surveys and self-reported figures, then pay-to-rank, which scores lowest.
Is the methodology published, specific, and reproducible? Can a reader see how a given rank was reached, or is it a black box?
Are commercial relationships, sponsorships, and affiliate arrangements disclosed clearly and near the rankings themselves, rather than buried?
How hard is it to game? Controls against fake reviews, solicited reviews, and vendor gaming raise this; an open box anyone can stuff lowers it.
Evidence
- The footer states: 'BestDatingSites.com may receive a portion of revenue if you click a link and subscribe to a dating service. The links are independently placed by our affiliate team and do not influence editorial content.' The second sentence is a new firewall assertion; no methodology, reviewer, or audit is published that would let a reader verify it. Source: BestDatingSites.com homepage footer →
- The site's 'Add My Site' listing-submission form makes 'Do you have an affiliate program' a required field and provides an 'Affiliate Program URL' field, so whether a dating site runs an affiliate programme is collected at the point a listing is submitted. Source: BestDatingSites.com — Add My Site submission form →
- No about page, methodology page, or advertiser-disclosure page is publicly accessible: /about, /methodology, /how-we-rate, /advertiser-disclosure and /editorial-policy all return HTTP 404, re-checked 2026-09-01. The ranking criteria remain entirely opaque to the reader. Source: BestDatingSites.com site structure (404 responses) →
- The site displays letter grades (A+, A, A-) alongside star ratings with no named reviewers, no testing protocol, and no explanation of how scores are derived, leaving the basis for rankings undisclosed. Source: BestDatingSites.com homepage review cards →
- Copyright notice reads '2013 - 2026 bestdatingsites.com' with no parent company, owner name, or editorial organization identified anywhere on the homepage. Source: BestDatingSites.com homepage copyright →