Dating in the military is hard. With deployments, rotations, long hours, frequent PCS moves, and strict rules about who you can or cannot date at work, it is not easy. The obvious first thought for many military members is to turn to online dating.
Is this the right move? We think so. However, you have to be very careful where you choose to date online. Your first instinct might be to use a military dating app. And while this logically makes sense, there’s a lot hidden under the surface you may not be aware of.
In this article, we’ll answer if military dating apps are worth your time, look at a few of the most popular options, and give you our recommendation of what you should do.
Apps like Military Cupid, UniformDating, and U.S. Miliary Singles miss the mark pretty hard
In true military fashion, here’s the BLUF (bottom line upfront). Military dating apps are great in theory, and awful in practice. They have too few members, attract the wrong types of people, and could leave you open to OPSEC challenges.
Your best option as a military single is to use a traditional/mainstream dating app that has a lot of members and focuses more on serious relationships (as this generally brings better security and less people who will waste your time). Popular dating apps for marriage are going to be your best bet.
We wish military dating apps were better, but it’s just not the case. Let’s look a bit deeper at the reasons we recommend using a mainstream option.
The number of real members is just too small.
Less than 1% of our country currently serves in the military. If you’re going to a military dating app, this already dramatically shrinks the number of matches you can get. When you take that number and rule out people who aren’t single, people who aren’t your desired gender, and people who are stationed elsewhere, you’re talking such a small number of matches.
Additionally, there are strict rules in the military about who you can and can’t date (officer vs. enlisted, senior enlisted vs. junior enlisted, people in your chain of command, etc.). This cuts the size of your matching pool down even further.
There are different regs for each service, but they all basically say the same thing. Here’s a link to Army Command Policy that outlines relationships between soldiers. You’re looking for Section 4-14 and Section 4-15 which can be found on pages 34-38.
While the idea is great, the military is just too small to support a military dating app.
You’re only going to see other military members or boot chasers.
The second reasons we believe military dating apps aren’t worth your time is you have to think about the people an app like this attracts. First, it will attract other people in the military. But what if you don’t want to date another soldier? Things can get wildly awkward if you date someone at the same base or installation and it doesn’t work out.
Second, these apps will attract what we call boot chasers or DITs (‘dependas’ in training). The only other people who will be joining a military dating app are those who have a fetish for people in uniform.
While this might sound nice, it means they’re the type of people who don’t care who they date — as long as they’re in a uniform.
It’s not a recipe for a great experience.
Military dating apps could be targets for foreign operatives.
Foreign operatives use relationships and intimacy to extract information from service members. It does not just happen in the movies.
If you were a foreign operative looking to find someone to violate OPSEC, wouldn’t a military dating app be the first place you go?
A deeper look at a few military dating apps
Lastly, and in the spirit of completeness, we want to show you a few different military dating apps. Again, our recommendation is that you use one of the dating apps we referenced at the top of this guide. We’re merely showing you these so you can see what the landscape looks like.
Military Cupid
If there was one military dating site that could be classified as ‘the best’, it would probably be Military Cupid. The app is owned by the Cupid Network, which offers a ton of very niche dating app options. Because of this bigger affiliation, the quality of the software and overall security are going to be light years better than the other options we’re going to share.
Additionally, the site does showcase some real testimonials, so it clearly is working for some people.
That said, it looks like a lot of the people that soldiers are meeting are foreign. Maybe that’s okay (and we are by no means implying anything bad here), but our OPSEC spidey-senses just can’t help but tingle.
This option could be worth checking out, but we still think mainstream is a better course of action.
U.S. Military Singles
This military dating app is filled with stock photos and generic language that just screams something to avoid. Additionally, the app looks to be owned by Overman-Green Web Systems AB.
When we look this company up on Dun & Bradstreet, we see that they’re operating out of Solna, Sweden.
Nothing says trust our dating app for the U.S. military like a foreign-run company.
Uniform Dating
Another military dating site that gives us the heebie-jeebies. There is no app you can download, just what feels like a cookie-cutter website with more stock photos and generic language.
And ownership? Yes. Another foreign entity.
Uniform Dating is owned by Antheia Services Limited and is based out of the island of Cyprus, conveniently just off the western coast of Syria.
AGA Military Dating App
We’re not even sure where to start with AGA Military Dating App. The screenshot above is of their About Me page. It has placeholder text, a placeholder logo that just says “Dating”, and an outdated year for the website.
Upon further investigation, it looks like AGA Military only operates an Android App. A quick look at the listing shows a dismal 2.2 star rating. Additionally, this is the first review we saw.
While you can’t ever verify reviews, this one scares us enough to stay far, far away. Other reviews show telltale signs of scammers as well:
Are military dating apps worth it?
Ideally at this point you probably have a pretty good idea on how we feel about military dating apps. It’s nice that they wanted to try and offer something special for the military, but it unfortunately has to be classified under the ‘good idea fairy’ marker.
Stick to mainstream dating apps that focus on serious relationships. These are safer, have more members, and are much less likely to waste your time.
Maybe one day the DOD can launch their own dating app? If you’ve ever used a military computer system, our sarcasm is probably knocking you out of your chair right about now.