eharmony Review (2026) – Real Experiences and Interviews

Fact Checked by: Rychel Johnson, M.S., LCPC

Fact Checked by: John Stringfellow, CEH

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If you’re like me (and I’m about to age myself), you grew up watching eharmony commercials as far back as the early 2000’s talking about a new and innovative way to find someone to marry online. Fast-forward two decades later and we still see commercials this same dating app… except they’re not a startup anymore. With over 10 million users it is now one of the biggest giants in online dating!

Couple that with claims of being the “dating app known for the most marriages” and for “helping over 2 million people find love” and you have officially piqued my interest. But again, there are those nagging questions—is eharmony worth it? Is this a dating app that you actually want to spend your time (and money) on? And even more importantly, does eharmony actually work?

That’s what I plan to help you get to the bottom of in this review of eharmony. I’ve read hundreds of other eharmony reviews, personally tested the app extensively, and even got a chance to interview one of the company’s executives! So that all said, lets get your questions about eharmony answered!

Is eharmony Actually Worth It? My Overall Conclusion

When it comes to the quality of the eharmony dating app, it’s top tier. The technology works well (bug-free), the sign-up and matchmaking processes are well thought out, and there’s an abundance of singles nationwide from all walks of life.

The app is driven by a complex matching algorithm that helps to curate quality matches for you, which means you don’t have to do any of the searching work. Here are a couple of quick videos from testing eharmony to give you a feel for what some parts of this process will look and feel like:

It’s a pretty intensive matching questionnaire and takes about 30 minutes to complete, but it can really be worth the effort. By sharing your honest answers, the algorithm uses the responses and compares it with millions of other users to find the most compatible matches.

That said, there are some reasons that the eharmony app might not be great for you, and there are some drawbacks you need to be aware of before making your purchasing decision. Let’s dig a little deeper.

Whether you should join eharmony or not depends heavily on what type of relationship you’re looking for.

• If you’re looking for a real relationship, potential commitment, and maybe even marriage one day, eharmony is hands-down the best option for you. Unlike other apps that boast how many “matches” or “connections” they’ve made (typically things associated with casual dating), eharmony’s claim to fame is how many people it has helped find love—something much more lasting.
• On the other hand, if you’re looking for casual dating, hookups, or no-commitment, eharmony will be the worst experience of your life (and that is probably an understatement).

That’s really what it comes down to. eharmony drives all of its marketing efforts, features, and matchmaking processes towards singles looking for real committed relationships. And they’re really good at it boasting an impressive 2 million plus success stories to date.

In a recent interview we conducted with eharmony, our team asked Kristen Berry, eharmony’s VP of Communications and CSR if eharmony had an ideal customer. Here was her response:

“We don’t have a type – eharmony members represent adults of all ages, demographics, religious beliefs and backgrounds. What our members have in common is a shared desire for meaningful relationships based on something deeper than looks, likes, and location. eharmony is passionate about creating real love for all, and that’s exactly what our members are looking for.”

Kristen Berry – VP of Communications and CSR at eharmony

In terms of drawbacks, there are a few. First, as I stated, eharmony is a hard no for anyone looking for anything resembling casual. Second, and this relates to the first, eharmony is a much bigger time commitment than pretty much any other dating app on the planet. The sign up process takes 30-45 minutes (including the eharmony matching questionnaire), the profile is a lot more robust with more areas you need to fill out, and it’s not a swipe-style app where you can see your matches in 30 seconds.

What’s nice, though, is that all of this gets rid of the casual singles who may be more open to playing games, but it also means you’ll need to be ready to put in some effort. The good news is that you don’t have to do everything all at once. You can do it incrementally, so for my final eharmony review, I’d say that the positives here far outweigh the negatives.

eharmony’s Accolades and Awards

Pros and Cons of the eharmony Dating App

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In This Review

Test Results | How It Works | Notable Features | Pricing | Company Interview | Complaints | Alternatives

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eharmony Testing Results

Learn more about how we test and score here.

Our in-depth and hands-on eharmony tests are conducted regularly over hundreds of hours over the course of several years looking at over 70 different data points across all available platforms. In the table above, you’ll see our final results from this testing for eharmony. Below, you’ll find a few highlights from specific factors from our testing.

9-Point Safety and Security Checklist

Based on our safety testing of eharmony, the dating app scored a 9.1 out of a possible 10 points on our proprietary 9-point safety and security checklist test. Here are the scores with any important notes. Overall, we would rate eharmony as a safe and secure dating app, which is to be expected when paired with its 20+ year track record and paid status

UX and Usability Testing

During our multiple rounds of focus group testing of eharmony, our team determined that eharmony is not only easy to use, but it also enjoyable from a UX and UI perspective.

Some of the key highlights our testers shared in the additional information section of their scoresheets include:

• They didn’t feel that eharmony was overly “busy” or “distracting” with too many features
• Older users found that it was easy to navigate and liked that the company paid attention to the desktop site version as well as the apps
• Most users liked that the set up was straight forward and didn’t rely heavily on gamification

Popularity Analysis

Through our testing, our hypothesis that eharmony would rank as one of the most popular dating apps out there was correct.

Our overall popularity score for eharmony was a 9.9 out of 10.0 based on our internal testing and external metrics.

Here are a few of the data points that went into our popularity testing algorithm.

Additionally, during our data study on dating app burnout, we polled 1,000 dating app users who were asked which dating app they had used before. Respondents were able to answer more than one answer if they had used multiple apps before.

Based on the study, 320 respondents (32%) said they had used eharmony before. Out of the 19 dating apps (and an option for none of the above), this ranked 4th highest, behind Tinder, Bumble, and Facebook Dating.

Value Analysis for the Price (DAVPD)

To determine the value you’re receiving based on the cost, we use our Dating App Value Per Dollar (DAVPD) metric.

Based on a monthly cost of $45.90, the DAVPD value of an eharmony membership is 33.44.

1,535 total points divided by a monthly cost of $45.90 = 33.44

Here is how our testing scored eharmony at 1,535 points.

How does eharmony work?

While the premise of eharmony has changed over the years, it has always followed a fairly structured roadmap for users—and the same can be said today.

When you first join eharmony, you’ll be asked to take the eharmony Compatibility Quiz. This is a fancy name for an extensive questionnaire asking you about yourself, what you’re looking for in a partner, how you live your life, your values, and what’s most important to you in life. There are even some seemingly bizarre questions asking you to look a bunch of different shapes and share which ones you like most.

This takes about 15-25 minutes to complete, but it’s important as it’s the basis for how matchmaking works. It took me about 40 minutes to complete, but part of that is because I was pulling screenshots and trying to do parts of it on both my phone and desktop to see if it’s any different (it’s not).

While you’re taking this questionnaire, so are all the other users who are joining. eharmony takes your answers and the answers of other users and plugs it into their matchmaking algorithm.

From this, eharmony serves you up curated matches based on your algorithmic matching, as well as based on your matchmaking preferences. You’ll actually be able to see how and to what degree you are compatible with your different matches. Here’s a sample of what that will look like:

The compatibility scores of your matches will range from 60 (meaning there is a low base-level of compatibility) to 140 (meaning eHarmony’s algorithm predicts you and that match would get along perfectly well). Most matches will be somewhere in the middle of that range and you’ll want to poke through the specifics a bit more to see what areas you do and don’t mesh. Their general advice is that matches with a score of 100 or higher are probably worth contacting.

Once you’ve found a match you’re interested in, you can send them a message and start a conversation. Beyond this point of the matchmaking process, eharmony functions quite similarly to a lot of other dating apps. You message back and forth doing your best to learn about your matches and make meaningful connections.

eharmony Has Several Notable Features Worth Checking Out

eharmony isn’t over the top with the number of features it has, but the primary ones work well and again, are well thought out. If you’re someone who loves a million different complex features, bells, and whistles to keep you busy, you aren’t going to like eharmony. It’s really about the matchmaking and doesn’t have a lot of the gamification you might see with other apps like Tinder or Bumble.

Let’s take a look at some of the more important and impactful features I found during my last eharmony review.

See Visitors to Your eharmony Profile

Want a surefire way to know that a match is interested in you? They have it at eharmony! The “Visitors to my profile” feature allows you to see all the latest singles that have been checking you out in a super easy to digest layout.

As amazing as this eharmony feature is for gauging the interest of potential matches there are some downsides. First, you’ll noticed that all the images are blurred in the screenshot above. Until you upgrade to a premium membership you will find this to be the case with any and all user images on the site (it’s one of the ways eharmony works to protect users).

The second downside of this feature is also only applicable to free members. As a premium eharmony users you can see anyone who’s ever visited your profile giving you a ton of options. Free members on the other hand will only be able to see the profiles of the 3 most recent visitors.

In short – this is a great eharmony feature, but you have to pay up to get the most out of it.

Reviewing eharmony’s Search Functionality

You may notice when you get onto eharmony that they don’t have a traditional search feature. Nothing like starting the list of features with a feature they don’t have, right? Instead what they do is present matches to you that they think are compatible.

eharmony really likes to be in the driver’s seat when it comes to helping you pick your matches. (Imagine them like your good friend who always wants to play matchmaker, except they are professionals.)

Now, you do have the ability to search within your matches and you can change your overall preferences so see matches that fall outside of what you originally set. In a sense, this is a search function, but it’s definitely not what you are traditionally used to and not the method they seem to prefer for you to use. Here’s video showing you some of the options you’ll have (As you’ll see not all are available for free members):

Why does eharmony have no real search feature? They do this because they want you to trust in their systems and the processes they’ve put in place. Let’s be honest for a minute…if you’re reading this review of eharmony, then you’re obviously in need of some help, and this app wants to make sure that you’re getting it.

They have such a high success rate with pairing up perfectly compatible people (2 million+ successful relationships) that we’re totally ok with the fact that they choose to do the searching for you.

Eharmony Added SMS Verification!

eharmony has added in the ability to verify your account through an SMS text message. It’s a simple process, but goes a long way to weeding out fake profiles. All you have to do is add your mobile phone number and eharmony will send you a text with a code. Once you input that code on the website or app, you are verified!

From then, you get a badge on your profile that shows you have been verified. And while this process is 100% optional, user reviews of eharmony say it certainly helps with increasing your likelihood of matches and message responses.

2 Factor Authentication

There’s pretty much no reason anyone but you should be accessing your online dating account right? Well, the team at eharmony fully agree and have implemented this 2FA security feature. Anytime you (or anyone else) try to log in from a new device this will pop up:

You will then need to check your email, get the 4 digit pin, and input in to gain access to the account. It is worth noting that once you’ve verified a device you will not have to do it every time. Unless you clear your cache one verification should do the trick, which is great for those users who love security but hate dealing with 2FA.

Protected Messaging

If you’re trying eharmony as a free member you may not see this feature as a perk, but the fact remains that messaging is a feature reserved for eharmony premium members. If you get a message from a paid member on your free trial you will see something like this:

As frustrating as this may be in some cases, it goes a long way toward making eharmony one of the safest dating apps available. Only users serious enough to pay will be able to message you (which works wonders at keeping eharmony scammer and catfish free). Also, it does take money to keep a dating app running and to pay for security features and upgrades.

Eharmony Free Communication Weekends

So, you’ve read some eharmony reviews and you’re interested, but not quite ready to pay. Here’s some great news for you, they have free communication weekends fairly regularly that will let you use a lot of the premium features for free. What I recommend is that even if you aren’t planning on becoming a paid member, you should create an account just so you can be ready for one of these weekends.

During the weekend, any member of the site is free to flirt, send questions, or write messages/respond to other singles. This will let you fully review eharmony for yourself and see if it’s a fit.

There are a few features that you won’t get access to without upgrading, though. These are the ability to see who visited your profile, the “What If?” function, and the ability to see other member’s photos. The last one is a bummer, but you’ll still be able to interact and start getting to know other members and see if it’s worth it for you to upgrade and join the site.

If you’d like to learn more or get signed up for the next free communication weekend at eharmony, we’ve put together a full guide with all of the important information you need to take advantage and make sure you don’t miss out on this awesome feature.

Reviewing IceBreakers, Smiles, and Compliments on the eharmony App

To this point we’ve established that free eharmony users won’t have the easiest time trying to establish contact with other members. So how can you test messaging to see if other users may be interested in chatting with you? This is where smiles, compliments, and icebreakers come in.

Now, compliments are the hardest of these features to find in the eharmony app’s interface. In fact, if you didn’t know to look for them you may not even realize they’re there. If you’re interested in sending a compliment you’ll want to look for the thumbs up icon on your match’s profile. We’ve included a screenshot below showing what each of these features might look like in your inbox:

Overall I feel these work alright for just poking someone to see if they have any interest in messaging further, but would have to say they’re a bit underwhelming (especially when compared to something like Higher Bond’s guided first messages). While I’m not taking anything away from eharmony’s tremendous success rates, I highly doubt these emojis have had much role in them.

Eharmony Profile Completeness Requirements

One of the more annoying things that can happen when using an online dating site is getting a message from an empty profile. Nothing says “Hey I’m serious about finding love” like putting no effort into your profile! Thankfully, eharmony has a feature to help curtail this.

In order to be able to send or respond to a message, you have to complete at least 50% of your profile. While this can still be circumvented, it is a nice (and somewhat effective) attempt at stopping lazy messages.

Also, it’s meant reiterating that there are some users on the site without photos, which always bugs us.

A Quick eharmony Pricing Review

Here’s a look at exactly what it costs to get a membership at the time of this 2024 eharmony review.

(In the past eharmony reviews, there were different types of memberships that offered different levels of service. Now, though, all of the memberships offer the same features.)

It’s important to point out that eharmony offers discounts and sales year round on most of their memberships. But, here’s the secret! The only way to see these sales is by creating a free trial account. Once you do that and log into your account, you’ll see what current offers the eharmony app is pushing. Often, this can be upwards of 60% off or more in some instances!

For example, here’s the pricing discount I saw the last time I logged into to update this eharmony review. You’ll notice that there is a hefty 60% discount on the 12 month and 24 months plans.

To learn more about pricing, check out our in-depth eharmony cost guide.

Company Interview

Most companies who review eharmony (or any dating app for that matter) don’t go the extra mile to get you all the information you need. One area that we see shortcomings with review analysis is getting in touch with the company to hear their unique take on the status of the company and the future of it’s feature.

Our Head of Interviews, Matt Seymour, spoke with Kristen Berry, the VP of Communications and CSR for the company.

“eharmony is for all adults looking for real love and meaningful connections. For context, over half of our members are Gen Z or Millennials.“

“Our Trust & Safety team works hard to make sure our members discover the most compatible matches possible in a trusted environment. Because our free Compatibility Quiz – the first thing our potential members complete – is so detailed, it is a highly effective first step to help identify falsified accounts, sometimes even before matches are made.“

Here are a few notable quotes from our interview. Additionally if you’d like, you can read the full eharmony interview transcript here.

Reviewing eharmony Complaints from Users

If you’ve read my review of eharmony to this point, then you probably know I’m a fairly big fan of what the app has to offer… but, you can’t please everyone. And when reviewing eharmony, other dating apps… or anything really… it’s important to look at both sides of the argument. One area I like to look is if there are any eharmony complaints from existing users out there. Often, these get emailed to me, and I wanted to share a few here.

Here are some eharmony complaints that I’ve been emailed:

• User “iclough” says, “How do you allow accounts without pictures? I have said hello to people and they don’t respond one way or the other. They should have to either respond and say not interested or something like that or they should delete the match and not leave someone hanging. When I asked for help they implied it’s my fault for not being flexible in my choices or not reaching out.” 
• Deb says, “Eharmony absolutely needs to be completely removed from your article! NO way in heck are they the #1 dating site.   My nicknames for them are E-UNharmonious, and E-harmful.”
• Sandra L. says, “They (eharmony) have changed quite a bit since the founder stepped out. In their profile suggestions they say not to mention God. They say, separation of church and state. When I fill in the questionnaire the only questions about spirituality were to check off my religion.” 
• Charles J. says, “I would like to tell you that my experience with eharmony was extremely negative.  They do not take faith into their matching process or 29 points of comparability nor political views.  Therefore I was matched with atheist liberal/progressives that I wouldnt have lasted 5 seconds with.  Half the matches have no photos and all of this I pointed out to them.  On top of that I was spoken to rudely by a potential match essentially accusing me of catfishing.  Sorry I look much younger than my age but it was no excuse.  I would not recommend eharmony to anyone.”
• Patti says, “People should be warned that many of the people on the site are predators who eHarmony EVENTUALLY even weeds out as being fraudulent. This would be after spending hours of dialoguing with a person you thought was real and then feeling like a total idiot.

Some other eharmony reviews from users talked about the price being expensive, not realizing that the entire membership is charged upfront or that eharmony has a fairly strict refund policy (which they do share before you sign up).

Again, these eharmony complaints do not necessarily represent my views and very well may be factually inaccurate as they are just the views of the commenters that contacted me. Additionally, you’ll notice that some of the complaints could also be construed as positives. For example, one user does complain about bad actors, but then also talks about how eharmony does weed them out. So, a negative at first, but a positive showing the company is proactively working on this.

If you’d like to share your experience with me or eharmony reviews (positive or negative), please send our team an email.

eharmony Alternatives Worth Considering

While I am super high on the eharmony app as a great choice for serious singles, it might not be the right fit for everyone—and that’s okay. If you’re still on the search for someone special, I wanted to share some other eharmony options you may want to consider. I’ve linked below to my review of each dating app as well as shared who I think each is best for.

• Christian Mingle – If you’re looking for a 100% Christian faith-focused relationship, Christian Mingle may be an app worth checking out. The site boasts an impressive 15 million members and unlike eharmony is 100% focused on Christian singles.
• Match.com – In the early days of online dating, it felt like your only two options were Match or eharmony. Match is still a fairly popular app, though, I feel like they’ve fallen behind on the features and upgrades curve. Still, if you have tried eharmony and need to find a new place to look—check out Match.com. Yes, you will see a lot of people that are signed up for both of these accounts.
• Bumble – While Bumble is a swipe-style dating app, it does have the reputation for a higher quality membership base than other swipe apps like Tinder. You will get some people looking for casual dating on here, but I feel a higher percentage are looking for something more than that. Keep in mind, though, unlike eharmony, only the women can start conversations on Bumble.

Is eharmony a Christian dating site?

Questions I hear a lot are whether eharmony is for Christians or if eharmony is a Christian dating site? Let’s answer both questions starting with the second one. No, eharmony is not a Christian dating site. In fact, the company even went as far as to add a page to their website recently clearly stating that eharmony is not a Christian dating app. Here is part of the text from that page. “We are often asked, “is eharmony Christian?” However, that is a misconception. We are not associated with any religion nor is our membership pool composed of any single religion.”

However, so many people believe that it is due to the more serious nature of the app’s approach. What this results in is eharmony attracts a lot of single Christians even though it’s not a faith-focused dating app.

The reason for this belief is that eharmony was founded by Dr. Neil Warren who is an evangelical Christian. While the site wasn’t created to be Christian, you can imagine how a lot of his beliefs were included in some of the setup and processes. In 2016, Dr. Warren stepped down from the company.

So, no at the time of this eharmony review it is not a dedicated Christian dating app, but it’s a great site for Christian singles. You will find people of other faiths (or who aren’t religious on the site), but you’ll also find plenty of single men and women looking for religious-focused dating. And the site does come with some great features that will help you to quickly sort through your matches to find people who fit what you’re looking for.

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