Spanish Model – Mariana Fernandes de Cordoba (Source: Wikimedia Commons)
Here is my quick list of the top five dating sites in Spain. I’ll go into more detail in my reviews later in this article.
If you’re looking for love in Spain, you are in luck because there are several dating sites and apps that are quite active and will give you the best chance to succeed in this country. For the best results, try to stay close to a city with a lot of single people, like Barcelona, Madrid, Seville, or Valencia.
In contrast to Portugal’s online dating scene, Spain has a wide variety of dating sites and apps from which to choose. This is a double-edged sword however because the increased choice can make it difficult to determine which one you should sign up for. There are a lot of sites and apps out there that promise the world but don’t deliver. My job in this post is to explain which dating sites and apps you need to focus on.
A Couple in Barcelona, Spain
Without further ado, here are my detailed reviews of the top five dating sites in Spain.
Founded in 2001 and based in Boulogne-Billancourt, France, Meetic.es is the best dating site in Spain.
Meetic.es is the Spanish version of Meetic.com. The site resembles Match, so if you have used those sites in the past, you will be familiar with the format. You will need a premium membership in order to get the most out of this site. So, if you are in Spain and willing to pay, then this is the site for you.
Meetic Spain
Sign up Process
The sign-up process is similar to other dating sites. You will need to provide your name, email address, and your birthday. From there, simply fill out what your perfect match would be and a little bit about yourself so that others can find you.
It is important to upload a good image of yourself. Studies have shown that profiles with images receive more attention than those without an image.
Don’t forget to add a tagline to make yourself stand out in the sea of people. What you say can be anything from a joke to catch someone’s attention, to a catch phrase.
All in all the process for signing up only took me about 10 minutes. If you want to generate a quiz for people to take, you can on this site. Quizzes are a fun way to get people interested in your profile and break the ice for communicating with other members.
What’s different about Meetic is that they have moderators who must review your profile and approve of it before it becomes available for other members to see. While this may seem like a time-consuming hassle, it helps weed out fake profiles. You will also need moderators’ approval anytime you want to edit your profile.
How to Locate Potential Matches
You won’t have to fill out extensive surveys or questionnaires as Meetic doesn’t automatically “pre-match” you with compatible users. You’re left to do most of the searching yourself. This may be an issue if you’re looking for a quick date but could be perfect if you want to take your time and be in complete control of your dating experience.
If you do want to fill out a survey, Meetic does have “Perfect Matches” category so you can just see the users who fit your criteria. There’s also a “Reverse Matches” category that gives you the availability to search for users who are looking for someone like you, and a “Mutual Matches” section that combines both Perfect and Reverse results.
How to Communicate with Other Members
Once you found someone that tickles your fancy, you can send a flirt/wink, which on this site is known as a “Flash.” However, if you have not upgraded your account to premium, there isn’t much you can do but “Flash” someone.
If you have paid for a membership, you can communicate by text or instant message (IM) and see where the conversation leads.
Unique Site Features
Meetic’s most unique quality is its extensive search feature which allows users to take control and feel like finding their match is truly in their hands. However, they do offer paid members a few other features that make using Meetic a special experience.
- Lara — Lara is Meetic’s AI video coach. Her icon will pop up periodically to give you dating tips that will make you more successful on the app.
- Singles nights — Meetic periodically hosts in-person meet-up events in different cities to allow users to get off the app and start mingling in real life.
- Incognito mode — Incognito mode allows users to view other members’ profiles discreetly. While in incognito mode, they won’t see when you’ve visited their page.
- Zen mode — Don’t waste your time with matches you know you won’t be interested in. Zen mode ensures that only users who fit your criteria will be able to message you.
What is Included in Each Membership Level
If you want to do more than wink at other members on the site, you might consider purchasing a premium membership. Here’s what’s included:
- Send/receive chats and emails
- View who winked at you
- View who visited your profile
- Incognito Mode
- Zen Mode
EDarling Spain
EDarling.es is perfect for people between the ages of 30 and 40. The average member of EDarling.es is in their late 30s.
eDarling site has a professional look and a clean design. While you can do a few things for free, you’ll get the most out of the eDarling site if you sign up for a premium membership.
Sign Up Process
Signing up for the site is as easy as can be. Once you choose your gender and the gender you’re looking for, you can create a password and sign up with your email address. All eDarling users must take the personality test, but you can complete the test in around 40 minutes or less.
The 200 questions cover topics like what you want in a mate, what you value most out of life, and the things you love the most. You can then create your profile, add a picture of yourself, and start searching for a partner.
Though eDarling will search for potential matches based off your answers to the personality test, you can also create a detailed profile that shows other members more about you. Use each of those 12 sections to give others everything they need to know about you. The site gives you some potential responses for many of these sections.
How to Locate Potential Matches
Unlike other similar sites that require you to search for people, eDarling does all the hard work for you. The site uses its own algorithms to determine how you compare to others registered on the site.
As a free member, you’ll have the chance to see who matches with you, but the site will prevent you from seeing their photographs. As a paid member, you can view complete profiles, and eDarling will provide you with the profiles of up to seven people who match you every single day.
How to Communicate with Other Members
Paid members have the option of connecting with others via text messages, but free members have fewer options. As a free user, you can only give others a small smile or send them a simple question. The responses that you get back help you determine which users you’d like to know more about.
Unique Site Features
The most unique aspect of eDarling is its professional personality test. This simple test looks at nearly 30 different features of you and then compares your results with other members to find the best matches.
What is Included in Each Membership Level
- Free – Take personality test, create a profile, upload photos
- Premium – See all photos, unlimited communication, view profile visitors, use the mobile app
- Premium PLUS – Receive 20 extra profile matches in the What If feature, verify your identity, see detailed personality profiles, read message notifications
Bumble
As another option, I recommend you sign up for Bumble. I did a full review of Bumble here.
Badoo
Badoo says it has more than 250 million users in 190 countries. You can meet folks on the app through “Encounters” or “People Nearby.”
In the Encounters portion, you are paired with men or women who Badoo believes may grab your attention.
You select an X or heart to make a decision about your possible pairing.
Although you can spot just a single meeting in an instant, how many pairings you can enjoy each day is unlimited.
In the People Nearby portion, you see folks in your region who like things you do.
Sign up Process
You can get on board through Facebook or with an email address. Facebook is the recommended course, as Badoo will then populate sections from your Facebook account with your occupation, pictures, area, and how old you are. At that point, you can put in information about yourself. There is also an “interests” portion that shows thousands of possible pastimes that you can select.
Uploading a main image enables connection with other users. (It plays a huge role in your profile, so it must be good.) Additionally, you will be asked to validate your profile. You just photograph yourself duplicating the motion found in the cue. The image you send is only for verification purposes.
How to Locate Potential Matches
The app will indicate patrons geographically close to you with compatible passions. You can select profile photos and begin talking or expressing admiration for their user description.
If the other user and you both “like” one another’s user descriptions, your connection can possibly transform in just minutes from messaging each other to meeting up. Further, the app will indicate to you additional patrons you’ve come across and show the area and hour you came across them.
There’s also a portion like Tinder where you can swipe left or right through given user descriptions of patrons in your geographic region.
How to Communicate with Other Members
Besides Encounters, Badoo has a chat section.
Unique Site Features
“Spotlight” time makes sure your user description and picture appear first for 100 users.
What is Included in Each Membership Level
You can get an account at no cost, but paying the subscription charge will free up Badoo’s bonus features, described as “Super Powers.” How much you pay determines how long your subscription will be.
Tinder
Tinder is a straightforward, user-friendly app for both casual and serious dating. Dating apps are only useful to their customers if they have a wide base of users (more swipes, higher odds of matching, better chance of going out with someone).
Sign up Process
Signing up for the app has two routes: it can either import your personal info (name, photos, etc.) from Facebook, or take the long route and enter the information manually (once they verify your phone number).
Given the negative press Facebook’s gotten with data privacy, it’s a bit more comforting to just run through the process manually. Either way, signing up and creating a profile is pretty straightforward and painless. Compared to other dating apps that ask a series of more invasive questions, Tinder just asks you to throw a few photos up for the world to see, and write a short bio about yourself.
How to Locate Potential Matches
When creating your profile, Tinder asks for basic information like the gender you identify with and your sexual orientation. From there, you just need to set the distance you’re willing to travel.
For more dense cities like NYC, you shouldn’t need a wider radius than a few miles and you’re bound to find a ton of matches. For more rural/sprawling areas, you might want to think 20-30+ miles. The algorithm that gauges attractiveness has been pretty on point, and you won’t be disappointed with the quality of profiles you’re swiping on.
How to Communicate with Other Members
Once you match with other members, the floor is open for conversation. You’ll be matched into a private conversation where people feel each other out, and decide whether or not to go out. For psychological safety, Tinder makes it easy to unmatch or report disrespectful matches. Tap the red flag in the top-right corner to do either.
Unique App Features
Tinder makes it really easy to find common ground with someone despite not having the long-form questionnaire about yourself that other apps use. You can link your Instagram and Spotify accounts to your profile for potential matches to browse through. There are some really useful features like Rewind, Top Picks, and See Who Likes You that are available with a Premium subscription.
What is Included in Each Membership Level
There are three levels of Tinder membership: Basic, Plus, and Gold. Upgrading to Plus unlocks features like Unlimited Likes, Rewind (the undo feature), more Super Likes per day, and one Boost per month. Upgrading to Gold opens the Likes You feature (see everyone who likes you and decide whether or not to like them back), Top Picks (curated high-quality profiles to swipe on) and all of the Plus features.
Getting Started
To get started, sign up for one of the dating sites/apps above and then start sending out messages to people who spark your interest.
If you need help about what to write and how to set up a profile, check out my e-book, Online Dating Success: How to Find Love Anywhere in the World. In the book I 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.
Good luck!
Useful Phrases in Spanish:
- Hola, ¿Cómo estás? – Hi, how are you?
- Me llamo… – My name is…
- ¿Cuál es su nombre? – What is your name?
- ¿De dónde eres? – Where are you from?
- Yo soy de los Estados Unidos. – I am from the United States.
- ¿Hablas Inglés? – Do you speak English?
- ¿Qué te gusta hacer para divertirte? – What do you like to do for fun?
- ¿De verdad? – Oh really!?
- ¿Tienes hermanos o hermanas? – Do you have any brothers or sisters?
- Tu eres bonita. – You are really stunning.
- Me gustas mucho. – I like you a lot.
- Vamos a salir este fin de semana. – Let’s go out this weekend.
- ¿Estás libre a las 7 de la tarde? – Are you free at 7 o’clock?
- Qué bueno!! Gracias. – Cool! Thank you.
- ¡Qué genial! Hasta Luego. – Great! See you later.
- Adiós – Bye.
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.
About Addison Sears-Collins
Hey! I'm Addison Sears-Collins, the founder of Visa Hunter. You can learn more about me here. Connect with me by liking my fan page on Facebook, connecting with me on Twitter, or check out my website Automatic Addison where I build robots and embedded systems.
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