Elite Singles bills itself as a platform that’s committed to helping professional singletons find long-term partners. Most of its users are aged 30 - 55 and have an “above-average” education. Despite this, there are no restrictions on who can join, although you do have to be aged 18 or above to create a profile.
When testing it out, we were impressed with its detailed sign-up questionnaire and easy interface. You’ll need to splash out on a subscription if you want to use this platform, as messaging isn’t included in the free tier membership. But we still think it’s one of the best dating sites and apps you can find in 2021.
Elite Singles: the best features
The Elite Singles sign-up process starts with a lengthy questionnaire, which takes about 15 minutes to complete. This is actually based on the Five Factor personality test, a psychological model that lumps personalities into five basic categories: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism.
This all sounds very technical, but the questionnaire is a breeze to get through, whether you’re filling it out on the app or the desktop version. Another fun feature on the platform is that you’ll get to see your personality type once you’ve finished the process, which will break down your character according to the above categories.
There’s no concrete evidence to suggest that matching people along these lines will result in a long-lasting partnership. But it’s a nice contrast to platforms like Tinder, which don’t seem to take compatibility into account when pairing up members.
Unlike a lot of dating platforms, Elite Singles only shows you 3 - 7 matches each day, the idea being that you’ll have more time to browse through the profiles and evaluate whether or not you’re interested. We liked this narrower approach, which encourages considerate browsing rather than manic swiping. However, you can also browse other profiles on the platform by using the “Have you met…” feature.
In addition to being shown a handful of matches each day, you’ll also get a compatibility rating on each profile. This is based on the in-depth questionnaire you have to fill out, along with your own preferences on a partner such as their location, age and religion.
You can access Elite Singles either via an app or on your desktop; we found both versions very easy to navigate. In addition to the usual messaging and browsing options on the site, you can also access the Elite Singles magazine, which contains tips and advice on dating.
When we were testing out the platform, we set up three fake accounts and left them active for about 24 hours. One account was a woman seeking a man, one was a man seeking a woman and another was a woman seeking a woman. All three fake users were in their 20s or 30s and had similarly generic profiles. The accounts received an average of 17 matches, with 76 percent of them displayed as an 80 percent match or higher.
Elite Singles: the drawbacks
It’s basically impossible to use Elite Singles on the free tier version of the platform. You can’t see other users’ profile pictures and – more importantly – you can’t send them messages. If you’re serious about using this particular dating service, you’re going to have to pay for a subscription.
There are three levels of membership, the most basic of which gives you unlimited messaging and heightened matchmaking services. The two other levels of membership have different prices but add on the ability to see all member photos, get notifications when your messages have been read and know who has visited your page.
As mentioned above, Elite Singles draws in a particular age group (mostly people aged 30 - 55). If you’re younger than this, you probably should avoid this platform and head somewhere like OkCupid instead. Or if you’re a little older, take a look through our round-up of the best senior dating sites.
The platform prides itself on weeding out fake profiles and uncommitted users. However, when we tested it out, we struggled to find the blocking or reporting features. These features are there, admittedly, but they’re difficult to discover, which can add to a sense of panic when you need to block another user.
Finally, even though we did enjoy the initial questionnaire, we felt like it was difficult to answer the questions honestly. It’s too tempting to select answers that will put you in a good light, portraying you as an outgoing, compassionate and 100% emotionally stable singleton. You also don’t have the option to go back and redo this test, so you’d better hope that your first set of answers reflect you in the best possible way whilst also being completely truthful.
Who qualifies for Elite Singles?
You don’t need to have any qualifications to sign-up for the site. It is, however, marketed towards mature professionals so most of the users on there have some level of higher education. You also have to be aged 18 or above to create a profile.
Is Elite Singles worth it?
As a platform, Elite Singles is well-suited to people who are serious about dating, rather than those who are looking for casual online friendships. The high cost subscription, coupled with the in-depth questionnaire, should filter out any daters who aren’t committed to finding a long-term partner.
We’d recommend it if you’re someone who is short on time and you specifically want to meet other people of a similar educational background. But if this isn’t a deal-breaker for you, opt to try free platforms like OkCupid before you splash out on a subscription to this particular service.
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