The Cost of Online Dating Keeps Climbing

Over the past 10 years, the cost of online dating on singles sites has climbed steadily, right alongside rising prices for in-person dates (think movie tickets, meals out, and so on) and the growing popularity of paid relationship models. The classic costs of dating have gone up by 52 percent — and that's before you've spent a cent on the platform itself. The average dating site (some of which are still partly free) pulls in around 75 euros per user through advertising revenue alone. National consumer reports show online dating services are a rapidly growing market, expanding by 3.1 percent a year. That's a serious amount of money changing hands, just for the privilege of looking for a date. This article takes a closer look at the cost of online dating and why people still turn to these platforms anyway.

High Online Dating Costs per Person

The average person spends 239 euros a year just to maintain a presence on dating sites, and many rely on promotions and coupons to sign up in the first place. That means if you go on 4 dates a month, you're looking at over 5,000 euros a year in the search for love. And if you eventually find someone you'd like to commit to for the long haul (or maybe not), the cost of online dating adds up to roughly 72,000 euros from that first "hi" all the way to "I do." Across age groups and backgrounds, attitudes toward online dating apps seem remarkably neutral. There are things dating sites won't tell you — like how paying up can get you better matches, or how Cupid might not be quite the reliable matchmaker we all once assumed. None of that has stopped online dating from becoming part of our culture, no matter how high the cost of online dating climbs.The Cost of Online Dating

Online Dating Costs Climb Further When You Use Multiple Platforms While there's plenty of research and hard data out there on how dating algorithms actually work, the basic idea is to connect people based on the things they say they like. That lets people be as picky as their heart desires, matching and chatting with someone whenever they like the look of the other person. Since you really have to try a platform yourself to know whether you like it, or whether it's the flawless one, there's something to be said both for sticking with one exclusive platform and for going with whichever one is most popular. Experts suggest reworking your dating profile every few months to boost your chances of landing a future date, all while trying to keep online dating costs out of the equation for as long as possible. Comparing prices, or chasing down the cheapest platform out there, often doesn't get you very far. These suggestions usually involve things like swapping out selfies, refreshing your photos, using the right keywords, and staying active on the site. There is some good news, though: if you meet someone outside of a dating platform, your odds of actually making it official go up. And since some people juggle several online dating platforms at once, most of which cost real money, their online dating costs climb to fairly hefty sums. They're trying to boost their odds of finding a potential partner this way, and tend to worry less and less about what they're actually spending on online dating along the way.