Elite Singles and eharmony are two of the bigger names in the world of matchmaking and online dating. The challenge is that both apps tell you they’re the best and certainly that can’t be true, right? We’re going to settle that today in our Elite Singles vs eharmony comparison.
Our main goal today is to compare these two apps in a way that empowers you to decide which is going to be best for you. We’ll talk differences, similarities, and who each app might be best for.
And if at any point in time you want to dig deeper into either selection, you can always check out our Elite Singles review or our dedicated eharmony review.
How Elite Singles and eharmony Compare by the Numbers
| eharmony | Elite Singles | |
|---|---|---|
| Our Overall Ranking | #1 | #2 |
| Member Size | Private | Private |
| Founded | 2000 | 2008 |
| Starting Price | $19.99 | $44.95 |
| Casual or Serious? | Serious | Serious |
| App Store Rating | 4.0 (39.1k ratings) | 4.1 (1.4k ratings) |
| Google Play Rating | 3.0 | 2.8 |
| Google Play Downloads | 5,000,000 + | 50,000 + |
| Get a Free Trial | eharmony Free Trial | Elite Singles Free Trial |
The winner depends on the type of singles you’re looking for.
So, which app wins the Elite Singles vs eharmony matchup? We have a two part answer here. If we were forced to pick an overall winner, we’d pick eharmony. However, we don’t think that’s the right approach to answering this question in a way that best benefits you.
The real answer is that both eharmony and Elite Singles will be the best app for different groups of people, mainly depending on what’s most important to you in a partner.
If things like success and level of education are important to you but not the most important, then eharmony is best for you.
For the record, we are not saying there aren’t smart and successful people on eharmony. In fact, a large part of their membership base fits this mold. What we’re saying is that eharmony prides itself on successfully matching people based on their personalities and compatibility.
And they’re dang good at it. Every 14 minutes someone finds love on eharmony and the app is responsible for over 2 million marriages. There is actual data that shows that eharmony is the best dating app for marriages.
If all of this sounds great, eharmony is your winner. And if you want to give it a try for free, we’ve included a link below that will automatically get you signed up with an eharmony free trial account.
If the level of success and education of your partner are most important, Elite Singles is best for you.
Elite Singles also focuses on more committed relationships (like eharmony) but the focus is much more on educated and successful singles. The app shares on its website that over 85% of the people on the app hold an above average level of education. And in case you’re curious more about the demographics, 90% of people on the app hold that level of education and are over the age of 30.
What we like about Elite Singles is that they handle this in a way that doesn’t feel pretentious or hollow. Yes, the focus is on attracting these types of singles, but not in a way that it’s going after gold diggers or anything like that.
If this sounds like more of your speed, Elite Singles is your winner. To try it out for free, the link below will get you set up with an Elite Singles free trial account now.
Major differences and similarities you need to know when comparing Elite Singles and eharmony.
If you’re still curious about which option might be best for you, we wanted to dig deeper into the comparison between the two apps. Below, we’ll share some of the biggest differences and similarities between eharmony and Elite Singles that should weigh into your decision.
eharmony offers more barriers to entry and messaging (in a good way).
Both Elite Singles and eharmony require members to take a matching questionnaire when joining. eharmony’s, though, is considerably longer and has more in-depth questions that tend to take more thinking about your answers (at least in our experience).
When we signed up for Elite Singles, the full process took us about 10-15 minutes. With eharmony, the process took us about 20-30 minutes. Not obnoxiously long, but twice as long. While this might seem like a checkmark in the win column for Elite Singles, it might not be.
The longer and more in-depth sign up process tends to discourage flaky daters who aren’t committed to the process from joining. You could make a good argument that both processes are long enough to accomplish that, but you could also say that longer means more effective.
Additionally, once you join Elite Singles and upgrade to a premium membership, you are free to send messages without restriction. On eharmony, though, you’re not allowed to send a message until at least 50% of your profile is completed.
Again, the idea behind this is to drive quality so you’re not receiving messages from incomplete and frankly, lazy, profiles. That one is unique and probably a win for eharmony from us.
Pricing is about the same for both apps, with a few nuances.
The last we checked, Elite Singles’ memberships start around $44.95 per month, whereas the cost of an eharmony membership is around $19.99 per month.
Now, you might be saying, Elite Singles is twice as expensive as eharmony. However, there is another variable at play here. The $44.95 monthly price for Elite Singles is for a 6 month membership, which is the longest term they offer. The $19.99 monthly price for eharmony is for a 24 month membership, the longest term they offer. If you look at the 6 month price for eharmony, it’s $45.90 per month — basically the same price as Elite Singles.
Keep in mind that both apps often run unpublicized sales on memberships just to people who are signed up with free trial accounts. Usually, you’ll get an email or see some savings when you first log in and create your account. To take advantage of these, use the links we shared at the top of the article to create your account and see what offers might be running.
The reality is that both apps are quite similar, but just target slightly different groups.
At the end of the day, both eharmony and Elite Singles are quite similar across the board. The real difference comes with the clientele they’re primarily trying to attract. Figure out which fits more with what you’re looking for, and that’s your answer.
Again, if you’d like to learn more about each option, consider checking out the reviews or free trials we linked at the top of the article. The best form of comparison shopping will always be trying things out for yourself.