When it comes to household names in the matchmaking industry, eharmony very well may be the most popular. However, popularity doesn’t always equate to effectiveness. In this article, our team shares our findings from our extensive review of eharmony, its services, its track record, pros and cons, and its overall matchmaking approach for singles.
eharmony’s results as a matchmaker/dating app hybrid make a bold statement
In case you’re looking for the tl;dr of the most important pros and cons associated with using eharmony, here’s what you need to know.
eharmony offers a powerful matchmaking platform with over 25 years of experience earning it the title as the app known for the most marriages and the #1 trusted dating site amongst U.S. singles (though that study is a bit outdated). The biggest drawback to eharmony is that it’s 100% only for singles looking for serious relationships. If you’re looking for casual dating or short-term flings, it won’t be the right matchmaking service for you.
Pretty powerful accolades and the biggest drawback could be something that may excite you if you’re tired of men or women who just want to play games. If you’re interested in checking out eharmony for free, we’ve included a link below that will automatically set you up with a free trial account and let you take their free personality matching questionnaire.
If you want to learn a little more, though, please keep reading. Below, we’ll detail the findings of our most recent eharmony review that looks at pricing, the process, common myths about eharmony, and more.
The matchmaker known for the most marriages is not for the casual dater.
Sometimes we wish we could scream something through the webpage. We’ll spare you an awkward YouTube video of us yelling or a message written in all caps. Please, please, please, take this seriously. eharmony is an awful matchmaking service and dating app for anyone looking for a casual relationship or short-term dating.
Why do we want to shout that from the rooftops? Because we’ve talked to countless people who have had a “negative” experience with eharmony, only to find out through asking a few questions that the reason they had a bad experience is that eharmony in no way, shape, or form lined up with their relationship goals.
Here’s a few pieces of evidence that eharmony is only for those looking for committed relationships.
First, while it’s a bit dated (from 2013) a data study conducted by researchers from the University of Florida and Gonzaga University found that amongst the largest matchmakers at the time, eharmony was responsible for the most marriages.
And while this gets reported on quite frequently (as it should because it’s a big deal), there’s actually even better news if you dig a little deeper into the study.
eharmony also has the lowest percentage of marital breakups at just under 4%.
| Provider | Weighted n (marriages) | % Marital break up |
|---|---|---|
| eharmony | 750 | 3.86% |
| Match.com | 729 | 7.98% |
| Plenty of Fish | 171 | 11.46% |
| Yahoo | 216 | 5.75% |
| Small Sites | 738 | 4.95% |
| Other | 392 | 7.15% |
And not surprisingly based on the previous data, eharmony marriages also had the highest rate of martial satisfaction compared with marriages from other matchmaking services.
| Provider | Weighted n | Marital satisfaction |
|---|---|---|
| eharmony | 737 | 5.86 |
| Match.com | 693 | 5.71 |
| Plenty of Fish | 167 | 5.65 |
| Yahoo | 205 | 5.3 |
| Small Sites | 712 | 5.71 |
| Other | 379 | 5.54 |
If that doesn’t get you excited, maybe this will. Over 2 million people have found love on eharmony, according to their matchmaking team. this breaks down to someone finding love every 14 minutes through their service. If you are now officially excited and you want to check out eharmony for free, here’s a link that will get you set up with a free trial account.
The second reason we’re so confident that eharmony is ideal for serious relationships is the consistent marketing message toward serious singles.
“Quality Singles, Just Like You” – Like you, they are tired of dating games.
This screenshot is prominently posted on eharmony’s homepage pointing out that their members are not here to play games or mess around. And if you watch any of their commercials or read any of their external ads, they are 100% aimed at showcasing meaningful and lasting relationships.
And lastly, eharmony’s in-depth sign up process is designed not only for better matchmaking (which it clearly succeeds at), but it’s also meant to weed out low-effort singles who aren’t committed to the process.
The sign-up process takes around 45-60 minutes (about the duration of a matchmaking service discovery call) and includes your free matchmaking personality test and gives you an opportunity to start filling out your profile fields. The personality test asks you all about your life, your personality, what you’re looking for, what’s important to you, and what makes up the perfect match. This data is then fed into the matchmaking algorithm that curates the matches for you (which we’ll talk more about in just a moment).
If you’ve tried any traditional dating apps before, you know that most take 5-10 minutes to get signed up. With this process taking nearly six times as long, it is masterful at weeding out low-effort singles who aren’t fully committed to the process.
Match curation is driven by technology and not hand-picked selections.
A review of eharmony isn’t complete without a full understand of how the site conducts matchmaking.
eharmony is a hybrid between a professional matchmaker and a dating app. Like a matchmaker, you’re given curated matches that are selected for you based on your interests, goals, and personality. However, these matches are selected by a computer algorithm and not by a person. The pros of this are a much more affordable price, access to more than just one match per month, and freedom to choose who you approach. The cons, though, are that you have to do more of the work.
How much extra work? Unlike a pure matchmaker, you’ll have to make the final selection from your curated matches about who you message and who you choose to go out with. Additionally, you’ll be responsible for setting up your own profile and for the little things like picking out your photos to post, planning your date, following up after the date, and guiding the full process.
Again, this means a lot more control over the process, but some added work. That said, the cost between a pure matchmaker and a matchmaker/dating app hybrid like eharmony is night and day. The price of a 6 month pure matchmaking service is on average 22 times more expensive than a 6 month eharmony membership.
The cost of an eharmony membership starts at $19.99 per month, but you may be able to get it for cheaper.
Since we’re on the topic of costs, let’s break down how much an eharmony membership costs. Here are the most up to date prices for a membership.
| Membership Type | Duration | Monthly Price | Includes All Features? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Premium Light | 6 months | $45.90 | Yes |
| Premium Plus | 12 months | $29.99 | Yes |
| Premium Extra | 24 months | $19.99 | Yes |
There are some caveats to this worth pointing out.
First, literally 100% of the time our team logged into our eharmony review account, we were offered some sort of a deal or discount. Usually this discount ranged from 30% up to as high as 50% off! Additionally, as we have created multiple accounts on eharmony over the years of testing, each time we have been offered some form of savings immediately after creating our free account.
So, while these prices already look affordable, in reality they may be much better. Here’s a screenshot of the most recent pricing last time we logged into our account that does not already have premium.
Here are a few other caveats about the price of an eharmony membership you need to know:
- All (3) plans offer the exact same features and level of service. There are no differences between the plans other than length and price.
- The longer the term is you sign up for, the more you’ll save when you break the price down monthly.
- Payments can be made as a one-time lump sum, or broken down into 2, 3, or 4 payments.
- eharmony accepts all major credit cards and PayPal to pay for your service.
- All matchmaking memberships are auto-set to auto-renew. You can easily turn this off from within your account by setting it to cancel and you’ll still enjoy the remainder of the service time you paid for.
You can get an eharmony free trial. Here’s how.
As we’ve mentioned a few times already, eharmony does allow you to try their service out for free, but with limited access to the available features. We have a link below that will automatically create you a free trial account when you click. We’ve also included some additional information below about the eharmony free trial that you may want to know.
- The eharmony free trial is not limited by time. You can stay on the free plan for as long as you’d like.
- You are not required to provide a credit card or payment method to access your free trial account.
- You will be limited in the features you have access to (outlined in the table below).
- If you click on a premium feature, you’ll be prompted to upgrade (screenshot below)
| Feature | Available with free trial? |
|---|---|
| See all your curated matches | Yes |
| Take the compatibility quiz | Yes |
| Flirt with other users (smiles) | Yes |
| Use the icebreakers | Yes |
| Use the advanced search filters | Yes, but limited |
| See your match’s photos | No (blurred for free trial) |
| Send messages | No |
| Respond to messages | No |
| Search based on proximity | No |
| See what members have viewed you | No |
eharmony is not a Christian matchmaker (as many believe), but is actually an inclusive service provider.
Often, when people are reviewing whether or not eharmony is the right matchmaker for them, religious preferences is a topic of discussion. More directly, many people hold the belief that eharmony is a Christian dating site. And we completely understand why you might think this.
eharmony was founded in August of 2000 by Dr. Neil Warren, an evangelical Christian, Christian theologian, and seminary professor and the dean of the graduate psychology department at Fuller Theological Seminary.
It is true that in eharmony’s early days, there was a high prevalence of Christian members due to Dr. Warren’s influence. However, after Dr. Warren stepped down from a leadership role at eharmony in 2016, the company focused on expanding its diversity and inclusion, marketing to singles of all faiths (and no faith), as well as its support for the LGBTQIA+ community.
Here are a few key points of that expansion:
- Partnership with GLAAD and more LGBTQ supportive features (2023)
- Dedicated marketing landing pages published for Black singles (2024)
Does this mean you shouldn’t join eharmony if you’re Christian? Of course not. The site’s matchmaking algorithm not only asks what your faith background is, but it also asks how important that is to you and if it’s a deal breaker. If you select Christian and that it’s a deal breaker to date someone who isn’t, you’ll only be shown matches you match your faith.
Is eharmony worth it or a waste of time?
If you’re looking for short-term dating, eharmony is not going to be worth it for you. If you’re looking for more serious and committed dating (and possibly the thought of marriage down the road), eharmony is certainly a matchmaker that is worth your time. While you won’t get the full suite of support that you get with a full-fledged matchmaking service, you still get curated matches, access to high-quality singles, and the opportunity to meet the love of your life—all at a literal fraction of the cost.