7 Best Online Dating Sites for LDS Singles

For any LDS Single making the foray into online dating it can be a daunting task to know which LDS online dating site among the myriads to join. (My latest count is that there are 13 sites specifically targeting LDS Singles)  The task is made more difficult if you add to the mix the number of non-LDS specific sites that are also available which provide great services.  Below, I’ve list 5 LDS specific sites and 2 non-LDS specific sites that are worth looking into.  Admittedly, one of LDS sites I’ve listed is not a dedicated singles or dating site, but more of a social networking site.  It is still worthy of your time and attention if you want to explore online dating.

LDSSingles.com (LDS Singles Online or LDSSO) makes two claims to fame (or 3 depending on how you want to count.)  Launched in 1996 they were among the first, if not THE first online dating site geared specifically towards LDS Singles.  They maintain that over 200,000 profiles have been created since they began and that from those profiles and through their services, at least a thousand couples have found their eternal companion.  (That’s actually pretty impressive!)

LDSSingles.com offers the basic services that you expect from an online dating site.  You can upload a limited number of pictures. You can send and receive unlimited email from the people who interest you and who are interested in you. You can interact with others by joining discussions, on a wide variety of topics, in the Forums.  You can talk to people who are online through an instant messenger.  (They claim it has audio/video capabilities, but since I don’t have a web cam, so I can neither confirm nor deny that claim.)
 
LDSSingles.com has some pretty unique features as well.  As with most sites, they allow you to break the ice with someone by sending a flirt.  However, their flirts include: a smile, a wink, sending flowers, blowing a kiss, saying hi, etc. (Some of the flirts are animated; it’s pretty cool!)Additionally LDSSingles.com offers its members the opportunity to take the COMPASS® Personality Profile.   There are two separate, totally voluntary, series of questions.  The one profile is designed to help you assess your readiness for a relationship. (I took this one when I first joined; the results were enlightening to say the least.)  The other is the compatibility portion of the personality profile. After taking the COMPASS® Personality Profile, you can be matched and search for people who would be a good match for you based on your compatibility.

Oh, and one more thing: signing up with LDSSingles.com also makes you eligible to receive the online edition of LDS Living magazine! (Hey, it’s a good perk!)  Check out my review of LDS Singles Online here.  Otherwise, to experience LDSSingles.com for your self, click here.

LDSPlanet.com makes it simple, safe and fun to view and contact other LDS Singles.  LDSPlanet.com has unique profile features which allow you to your tailor your profile and make it fit your personality.  Customization includes changing the wall paper and adding audio clips by phone and video of yourself.  The number of photos you are allowed to post on your LDSPlanet.com profile is unlimited and you can easily browse the photos posted by others.  You can send flirts (quick “one-liners” to demonstrate interest in another member) and send messages to or receive messages from people who interest you.  LDSPlanet.com allows you to easily chat live with other members (via an instant messenger), see who’s online and quickly and easily bookmark people you are interested in.  If you would like to experience LDS Planet for yourself, click here!  If you would like more information about LDS Planet, read my review!

LDSMingle.com started way back in 2001 as free dating service for LDS Singles. Later, they merged with another LDS Singles dating service to become what they are today; one of the largest and most popular of LDS specific dating sites. (LDSMingle.com also claims to have helped bring a significant number of LDS Singles to the altar.) 

Members of LDSMingle.com can upload a fair number of pictures to their profile and even create photo albums.  You have an unlimited ability to send email to people who catch your fancy and to be contacted yourself from those who fancy you.  You can initiate contact with other members, letting them know there is a spark of interest on your part, by sending them “a spark.”  LDSMingle.com hosts a series of chat rooms that allow you to interact directly with other members online who share similar interests.  (These chat rooms are a great way to get to “know” someone initially without contacting them directly.)  And if you want to talk to someone one–on-one, there is always the instant messenger option.  If you’re not comfortable with the real-time chat, you can instead join in on the topic of the day on the message boards.

LDS Mingle provides a compatibility profile to help it members match up more effectively.  The profile study that LDSMingle.com uses to help you find your perfect match is Dr. Taylor Hartman’s Color Code®. (If you would like to know more about the Color Code® you can go to the website or you can check out the books on Amazon.com.  I have the books and had taken the test years ago; when I took it again on LDSMingle.com…I was still a “natural blue!”)

One final note, according to LDSMingle.com: they are “the site you are proud to tell your mom you belong to.” (You’re gonna have to make up your own mind about that one.)  If you’re ready to experience LDSMingle.com for yourself, click here!  Or,  if you would like to learn more check out my review of LDS Mingle!

LDSRomances is a newer member of the online dating community geared towards helping LDS Singles in their efforts to find that special someone.
 
The features LDSRomances.com offers their members are similar in nature to those already described above with some notable differences.  Due to their desire is to maintain the quality of matches available through LDSRomances.com, any pictures you upload to your profile will not appear immediately, they take the time to approve each photo before it is posted.  LDSRomances.com allows you the ability to reply to email from other members from your own web-based email account (you know: yahoo, gmail, etc…) rather than logging in to your LDSRomances.com account. Don’t worry; the process allows you to keep your web-based email account address anonymous.  (I actually wish this was an option with other services.  Sometimes it is a pain to have to log-in to a site to read and respond to email; especially if you have email notifications that show up on your cell-phone, as many of us do.)  The instant messenger on LDSRomances.com allows you to communicate easily and instantly with members who are online at the same time you are. It allows you the option to archive your chat history so you can browse and search through past conversations.  If you are not interested in participating in real-time chat, you have the option of posting to your own blog and commenting on the blog entries of others, or participating in the online forums that they host.

LDSRomances.com lets you bookmark people you are interested in as well as send them a “quick one-liner” (a wink) to make them aware of your interest.  You can easily search through profiles to find people and invite them to be your friend. Through this you quickly develop a “circle of friends” to connect with. (This is similar to the way LDSLinkup.com works…see below.)  Because sometimes it’s not about what you know, but who you know.  The person you could be searching for just might be the friend of a friend and through the “Circle of friends” you might get connected. If you are ready to experience LDSRomances.com for yourself, click here!

As previously mentioned, one of the sites on my list is not a dedicated LDS online dating service. LDS LinkUpTM is that site.  It is actually a social networking site and LDS Link Up management goes to great lengths to stress it is not a dating said.  However, in some respects it works like a online dating service and people use it that way.  As a member/subscriber to LDS Link Up, you can search for, meet, and communicate with other LDS Singles through your friends, their friends and friends of friends.  And while LDS LinkUp was designed as a way to increase the connectivity of the entire LDS community, it is a great way for LDS Singles to be introduced and ultimately meet.  (I personally know members who meet and were married as a result of Link Up.)

Some of the features of LDS Link Up are similar to those mentioned in all of the dating site summaries. You create a “screen name” and post a profile.  (The “screen name” is changeable provided someone doesn’t already have that “screen name”.  And you will see people change their names regularly with the season’s or a theme.)  You can upload pictures to your profile and create multiple photo albums.  You can also include a video on your home page (most upload a favorite from YouTube.)  After you have established your membership there are a myriad of ways that you can search through the profiles of other members to find someone who interests you. You can search by location, mission, language spoken, interests, etc.  Making contact with fellow “linksters” (a name by which long time Link Up members refer to themselves) happens similar to the options offered by dating services.  You have the option of contacting people online through a live chat or the instant messenger.  You can shoot off a quick one-liner known on Link Up as “quicknotes” or send a message directly to a member and receive messages to your inbox.  One of the best ways to make contact and get to know others is through the message boards.  The message boards are extremely active and have a large number of posts daily.  The topics range from Banter (plain tomfoolery if you will) to Relationships and Gospel discussions.  Each topic has numerous threads to which you can post or even create your own thread.  (I’ve been a member of LDS Link Up since 2004 and feel I should probably warn you that the message boards can be a little rough at times.  People are opinionated and are pretty willing to give you their opinion and regrettably not always in a kind and gentle manner.  Still, all-in-all, LDS Link Up has some great people on who actively participate.)  If you want to experience LDSLinkUp.com for yourself, click here!

 

Match.com launched its online dating service in April 1995, making them one of the pioneers in the internet dating industry.  They claim that each day 20,000 people worldwide join Match.com and to have successfully led hundreds of thousands of people to marital bliss.  (It helps that you have millions of subscribers.)  My favorite line from some of the promotional material is this: “Match.com is like Baskin-Robbins’ 31 flavors: blondes, redheads, Egyptians and probably a set of Siamese twins if you were to search long enough.”

Match.com is attractive for LDS Singles because the service allows you to search through their members and find those of the same faith.  (They want you to find a relationship that fits you best in our case someone Christian/LDS.)  You can be very specific the type of person that you are looking for.  There are several things to consider before joining Match.com. First, because it is not an LDS Singles specific site, there is the possibility and probability you will be contacted by people not of our faith.  Secondly some of the information regarding church membership (temple worthiness, mission service and meeting attendance) is not immediately available to you.  (Meaning, that if these issues are important to you, you are going to have to ask the people you contact.)  The intent in mentioning all of this is not to scare you or dissuade you from checking out the service.  To ensure the quality and integrity of their program, Match.com screens all photos and profiles prior to allowing them to be posted.

Match.com subscribers can upload and post as many as 26 pictures to their profile.  You get to view all the photos of other members, send unlimited emails and you can even see who’s been viewing your profile to see who’s already shown an interest in you. Then, you can easily let that someone know that they’ve piqued your interest as well by sending them the quick one-liner icebreakers Match.com also calls “winks”.  (Coincidentally, the “who’s checked me out” feature is pretty standard with all online dating services.) 

One of the best things about Match.com is the Make Love Happen guarantee.  They figure with 20,000 new people a day subscribing to their service that within 6 months you are bound to find someone with whom to have a relationship.  So, they guarantee it by giving you another 6 months of service for free if they fail to help you find your mate.  (Pretty cool, huh?)  If you are ready to experience Match.com for yourself, click here!

Yahoo! Personals is another attractive option for LDS Singles despite not being targeted directly to Latter-Day Saints because the service allows you indicate your religion (Christian/LDS in our case) and the religious preference of the person that you would like to meet (again, Christian/LDS).  You also indicate how important that is to you (must have or nice to have) that someone be LDS, along with the frequency they attend church.  You can also indicate that it is important for you to find someone who doesn’t smoke and doesn’t drink. I made mention of this before, but again with Yahoo! Personals there is the possibility you will be contacted by people not of our faith.  Additionally temple status and worthiness as well as missionary service are not immediately available to you.

Yahoo! Personals is for all intents and purposes a matchmaking service.  You post a profile and you search through profiles to make contact with others and others do the same.  Yahoo! Personals allows you to include up to 10 photos in your profile (they even have tips and suggestions for what types of photos to include.)  Your profile on Yahoo! Personals is your first name rather than a “screen name”.  (They had polled members and asked how they could improve the site and many indicated they would like it to be more personal.)  Now before you walk away shaking your head because you wouldn’t be comfortable using your first name, you have the option of using your name or your initials or even a “pen name.” (Your full name will not be revealed, unless of course you do the revealing.) Yahoo! Personals reviews first names, as they do all profiles, photos and the captions to photos to make sure they are appropriate.  If you are unsure of how to make your profile stand out and get you noticed, they have a Personals Profile Salon to help you make your online profile stand out!  (The profile Salon is pretty interactive and worth a look, especially for online dating neophytes.)  The Personals Profile Salon includes a blog where you can post comments and chitchat about all things dating.  (There are a large number of articles on everything dating and being single available to subscribers that are worth a look.)

Finding a match on Yahoo! Personals is pretty simple.  In addition to your standard search you have two “One-Click” options: “We Match” where you quickly get matches for whom you fit their criteria as they fit yours, and “I Match” to find someone who’s looking for someone like you!  Once you find someone who sparks your interest, you have the option of contacting those people by instant messenger (if they are online), sending them an “icebreaker” (you know the quick one-liners) or by email.  You can also save the profiles of those who interest you for later viewing.  You can also see if they have “checked you out” as well with the “who’s viewed me” feature.

All-in-all Yahoo! Personals is simple and fun to use!  If you are ready to experience Yahoo! Personals for yourself, click here!

Remember:  We’re LDS! We’re single! And, we’re all in this together!

P.S.  By the way, these sites all offer a trial membership that allows you to get a basic feel of their services while enjoying only limited connectivity with other members.  (Doesn’t really allow you to score any dates, but if you’re just there for the eye candy, by all means!)