The Three Best Dating Sites in Africa (What I Learned)

I lived in various countries in Africa for about five years and tried just about all the dating sites and apps out there (including Tinder, which is currently the most famous app out there for dating).If you are looking for something longer term (like I was), here are the three sites/apps I had the most success with (I’ll go into more detail in my reviews later in this article):

1. Afrointroductions.com
2. Hinge
3. Bumble

I had a great time dating in Africa during my years as an expatriate. The two countries I dated in the most were Mauritius and South Africa, but I did get the chance to do some dating in other countries across the continent. Your best bet would be to make sure you are in a country with large urban centers since these tend to be the places where dating online or via your smartphone is more prevalent.

Countries that have large urban centers include Nigeria, Ghana, Tanzania, Kenya, Mauritius, Mozambique, Uganda, Botswana, Ethiopia, South Africa, Namibia, Angola, and many others.

As is the case with most African countries, the majority of people meet their romantic partners via the traditional methods of friends of the family, mutual friends, organizations, work, or school, etc; however, like in Kenya and South Africa, the dating landscape as a whole is changing in Africa. With each passing day, dating using technology is becoming more common.

Should you decide to sign up for the dating sites I recommend below, be sure to read member profiles carefully as you might come across a lot of fake profiles. Usually, I can spot these profiles easily. A woman who has only one picture posted, is wearing a tight bikini and making an overly suggestive pose are usually clear signals to steer clear.

Without further ado, here are my detailed reviews of the top three dating sites/apps in Africa.

1. Afrointroductions.com

Afrointroductions.com is by far the best online dating site in Africa. No other site has achieved the delicate balance between quality and quantity like this site has.

I was a long time member of Afrointroductions.com while I was living in both Mauritius and South Africa and can tell you that it works. I had a girlfriend I met through this site and met women of all shapes, sizes and personalities. To be honest, it is really the only site you need in Africa as all the other sites just don’t come close.

The site is part of the umbrella of the Cupid Media Network, which has dating sites internationally. AfroIntroductions has been around for seemingly forever. It has grown tremendously since it was launched in 2002, with 2,000,000 members and growing.

As is the case with any dating site, there are a few suspect profiles, but if you are interested in meeting singles in any populated country in Africa, this site should be your go-to site.

Sign up Process

Signing up goes fairly quickly. There isn’t much to it. You can either provide your email address, gender, location and age or just link up your Facebook account to start. Write a little about yourself, the type of partner you’re seeking, and you’re pretty much in.

You can now browse around the site to view the profiles of members. Along the way you’re going to get a prompt asking you to provide more profile information if you want to continue, which is a bit distracting if you’re not interested in completing your profile just yet. When this happens, you only need to answer a few questions before you can continue browsing.

All-in-all, the most surprising thing about AfroIntroductions is how much they let you do without filling out a complete profile.

How to Locate Potential Matches

AfroIntroductions has a robust browsing system, with four different options:

1. Just photos
2. Photos plus some basic information
3. Photos, basic information plus a short blurb
4. Complete profile

You can do a specific search beyond just the basic information like location, age, and education. They let you choose ethnicity, body type, lifestyle choices like smoking and/or drinking, religious views, zodiac sign, marital status, and have kids vs. don’t have kids.

How to Communicate with Other Members

The messaging system on AfroIntroductions is fairly easy to use, with a lot of different options to filter and narrow your search. Aside from messaging, you can “show interest” with a click to the heart icon located on a member’s profile, or you can add them as a Favorite.

While you’re online the site shows you if someone else is online and can receive an Instant Message.

The site also supports audio and video chat, enabling you to find out if you and another member might be a good match before meeting them in person.

As an unpaid member, you are allowed to receive messages from people with a Premium membership, however if you want to reply or send your own messages, you must upgrade to Premium.

Unique Site Features

The site is well laid out, well designed in my opinion, and quite welcoming. If you look at the bar at the top, you can find out how many other members are currently online, which makes it nice.

It’s also helpful to be able to browse just Reverse Matches, which are members that are seeking someone like you, and Mutual Matches, which means you both meet one another’s criteria. Both these features make it much easier to find someone you’re highly likely to be compatible with.

What is Included for Each Membership Level
What is included in each membership level tends to change as the site adds and subtracts new features, but the basic tiers remain the same:

• Standard: Search for matches based on your preferences, send interest to any member, read messages from paying members
• Gold: Communicate with all members, audio/video chat, Instant Messaging, ad-free browsing, anonymous browsing
• Platinum: Higher ranking in searches, more profile space, extensive search features, message translating, VIP profile highlighting

2. Hinge

Hinge is the second dating app I recommend you try. I did a full review of this dating app here.

3. Bumble

As a third option, I recommend you sign up for Bumble. I did a full review of Bumble here.

What to Write When You Message Someone: 

If you need some help for what to write when you send that first message to someone you are interested in, I’ve got several scripts you can use inside my e-book, Online Dating Success: How to Find Love Anywhere in the World.

Nothing works 100% of the time in online dating, but there are certain words you can write that will increase the chance that you will actually receive a response back to your initial communication.

In the book, I also go into detail about how to set up a profile, what I recommend writing for your initial and follow up messages, when to ask the woman/man you’re interested in to go offline for a date, and more.

Dating isn’t easy, and, like any skill, requires practice to get good at. You have to kiss a lot of “frogs” before you will find success. It is really all a numbers game. Just keep dating, and keep up the faith.

Happy Dating, and good luck!

Further Reading

• Worldwide Online Dating Site Reviews: Be sure to check out my country-by-country reviews of the best online dating sites in the world.

• Worldwide Moving Guide: Everything you need to know in order to plan your move to 65+ countries around the world.

• Worldwide Jobs Guide: If you are interested in working in this country, be sure to check out my posts on how to find jobs in this country and other countries around the world.

• Worldwide Apartments Guide: If you are interested in renting an apartment in another country, take a look at my articles on how to find an apartment in various countries around the world.

Visahunter.com accepts no responsibility or liability whatsoever with regard to the accuracy of the information contained on this site. Please read the Visitor Agreement and Disclaimer. If you think there is an error in the information, please bring it to our attention so that we can correct it. Also, some of the links above could be affiliate links, which means that I will earn a commission (at no additional cost to you) should you decide to click on the links and make a purchase. I recommend sites from time to time, not because I get a tiny commission if you click on the links and make a purchase, but because, I want you to focus on the places that will deliver you the most value and the best results. Good luck!