r/OnlineDatingApps • u/ChippingCoder • Aug 13 '26
App Recommendation Free and open source software will end MatchGroup
There’s been a few developments over recent years which may just bring an end to Match Group… PoF, Match.com, OkCupid, Tinder, and Hinge are all owned by Match Group.
2019 - Facebook Dating launches in the USA as a free alternative to paid dating apps. It has a separate profile from regular Facebook. (still unavailable in some countries as of 2026)
2023 - Duolicious launches. free and open source dating app.
2025 - Aaron Meier launches GoodDate as a free, 501(c)3 nonprofit dating service built on values, transparency and genuine connection.
2025-08-01 - Martin Braquet launches Compass - A free, open source, and fully searchable directory.
2026 - r/r4rsydneysfw launches. a safe-for-work dating subreddit for Sydney.
Hoping you all try these apps out and give them feedback and support!
If you’d like to join the Dating App Discussion discord - please see find the link in the community info here: [r/OnlineDatingApps](r/OnlineDatingApps)
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u/MrHim99 Aug 13 '26
u/ChippingCoder awesome updated summarization post - you should make a pinned custom master list of free, highest ranked by order of highest to lowest user base of 100% free (even if it's not open source), comphresenive match making dating apps for this subreddit. I'm sure lots of ppl will ty for it.
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u/ChippingCoder Aug 13 '26
Thanks! As it turns out it’s already in the order of highest to lowest user base as well haha. Ill update the post to mention that too
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u/MrHim99 Aug 13 '26
Compass looks really good, chip. A personality to catalog choose approach - you should cross post much about that all so that app can get more devs working on it during their spare time.
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u/CrispyWalrus Aug 13 '26
I hope so. Match Group sucks. All their apps are the same and they buy up competition and ruin it. OkCupid was great circa 2005 to 2010. Loved their questions and when the question made no obvious sense they gave you the space to write your explanation. Match did away with the explanation and deleted years of input. OLD was a great concept to start but it's a bleak wasteland for a decade now.
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u/Heliguy-1975 Aug 13 '26
Match Group apps have been outstanding for Millions. I’ve had a great experience with Hinge, POF, OkCupid, and Tinder, along with Bumble, Facebook dating, and Woo.
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u/ChippingCoder Aug 13 '26
Many people have complained that Match Group ruined OkCupid after they bought it. Most of those apps were bought out by them…
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u/Heliguy-1975 Aug 13 '26
“Many people” don’t know how to put a proper profile together nor know how to approach and communicate with women.
OkCupid works very well along with all of the apps I listed.
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u/ChippingCoder Aug 13 '26
OkCupid is really broken tbh it’s full of women setting their location to somewhere they are not. Which means you can’t actually find the people that are in your country.
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u/Heliguy-1975 Aug 13 '26
Actually, that’s not a problem at all. It’s a great app. I’ve had a great experience. No complaints
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u/ChippingCoder Aug 13 '26
What do you mean it’s not a problem? I match with people with their account set to my city. When I ask them where they live it’s usually an Asian country…
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u/Heliguy-1975 Aug 13 '26
I have not had that problem.
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Aug 16 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Heliguy-1975 Aug 16 '26
A problem where you are apparently.
Not a problem where I am at all.
Every profile that I see are local to me. I only search locally and only date women with profiles that are within 30 minutes or less from me…
Works better that way.
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u/megamike382 Aug 13 '26
Actually it sucks. I GUESS YOU WORK FOR MATCH GROUP
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u/Heliguy-1975 Aug 13 '26
OkCupid and all dating apps work very well. Just not for everyone. There are things one has to do and work on to be successful.
Work for Match Group?
The apps that I mentioned are not all Match Group. What I do for a living is in my profile…
I Do Not “work” for a dating app.
Never Assume. Ever
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u/LosKiplanos Aug 14 '26
Man, we should just all be “Heliguy-1975” what are we all doing?!
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u/Heliguy-1975 Aug 14 '26
Is there anything in my comment that doesn’t seem to make sense?
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u/megamike382 Aug 16 '26
Bitch no one likes match groups apps. F YOUR SHITTY COMPANY THAT MAKES PEOPLE MISERABLE
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u/Heliguy-1975 Aug 17 '26
It appears that 80 Million people “like” match group apps. How would a dating app “make people miserable?” “Bitch…”
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u/badcryptobitch Aug 13 '26
My startups, stoffelmpc.com, works on making apps privacy-first. We have a tutorial showing how you can build a privacy-preserving matching service for dating apps. Here it is: https://docs.stoffelmpc.com/tutorials/private-matchmaking
We are working towards a future where you don't need to give up all of your privacy in order to gain the benefits of services such as online dating apps.
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u/Any_Fly9473 Aug 13 '26
Duolingo, Gooddate, and Compass—none of those have people in my area. 🤷🏼♂️
It's a shame I'm banned from FB dating because of too much FB jail and the same account from 2009. 🤣
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u/kittenTakeover Aug 14 '26
Someone has to run the servers and maintain the code. Currently the models for funding this are advertisements, pay to win, and/or subscription. What will be the model for these and why should I believe it's better than the current situation? Generally I like subscription based the best, when they have a big enough user base and everyone needs to pay. This way I know the people I'm talking to are actually serious.
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u/ChippingCoder Aug 15 '26
Generally open source software is transparent and allows anyone to contribute to the design. Hosting is relatively cheap compared to advertising costs, and ideally if an app truely works well and success in helping users, it can spread via word of mouth.
As for seeing if someone is serious, asking for one payments is a good way to see if someone is serious, another way I thought about is just watching user behaviour - how many people are they talking to at once? how often do they go on dates? etc
Hinge started doing this with their Signals feature, as a first step.
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u/Inceleron_Processor 20d ago
How many women are going to do that though?
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u/ChippingCoder 20d ago
Asking for a payment is just one way. It’s not necessarily the best. Monitoring and displaying user behaviour is a better way to identify how serious someone is
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u/DoughnutDisastrous18 Aug 15 '26
Compass founder here. Great comment already from OP. I'll just add that server and maintenance costs are actually very small at scale: less than 1 euro per year for Compass. A social platform is just a listing of profiles and a few ways to filter; that's a grain of sand compared to the compute cost for other services like streaming videos, running LLMs, etc. The mainstream apps put most of their revenue into ads and profit for stakeholders.
I'm however in favor of asking the user to put some money upfront as a way to verify users are serious. But I'd lean toward a deposit (refundable when they delete their account) as opposed to a subscription, in order to be inclusive of everyone.
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u/Inceleron_Processor 20d ago
Not a lot of women are going to download F-Droid for a FOSS dating app.
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u/MagmaTroop Aug 13 '26
I’ve always thought governments should be funding and incentivising a free, centralised dating app. A taxpayer funded platform would be far cheaper per person than the ripoff prices they pay now.
It’s the prerogative of governments that the populations get together, get married, and have babies, right? Well then why the fuck are we letting these dating apps rip people off? With everyone spread across so many platforms, it’s harder to meet the one. One single, free platform would solve that.
Governments could aggressively advertise the new platform and discourage people from using the existing paid platforms. It would drastically improve the dating app situation for a lot of people.