When it comes to real Christian dating, the options are surprisingly limited. And when you want a Christian dating app that goes a little deeper than just “how often do you go to church?—here are your matches”, the list becomes close to pretty non-existent.
That is until now. A brand new dating site recently launched called Higher Bond is aiming to be the right option for serious singles in the US looking for faith-based dating. According to the site, it’s “built for Christian singles who value faith as the driving force behind their relationship decisions.”
But is Higher Bond worth it? Is it really changing the game for Christian singles? In this Higher Bond review, we’re going to answer those questions and more.
How Higher Bond’s Curated Matchmaking Changes the Game
Higher Bond is clearly working hard to be the leader for serious Christian singles looking to find a faith-focused relationship. If that sounds like you, Higher Bond is a must-try. When you look at their faith-based algorithm, manual approval of all accounts, and marketing focused on a specific niche in the market, it appears to be a big win.
Now, if your faith is not important to you and you’re more casual about it—Higher Bond is not going to be the right fit no matter how you slice it. Additionally, the site is quite new, so expect a smaller (though higher quality) pool of singles. If you’re cool with that, you’re going to like what you see.
Also, Higher Bond does batch-style matching instead of just giving you a list of every single in the area like a lot of other Christian dating sites. The idea behind this is that people have developed unhealthy obsessions with online dating and tend to spend hours and hours every day on the site. Higher Bond wants to show you 3-5 curated matches a day and then send you on your way, hopefully leading to a more balanced life.
All of this (plus everything else we’re going to cover in this review), shows that Higher Bond is on the way up—all puns intended. Use the link above to check things out and get signed up free now!
Pros
- Taking a much more faith-focused approach to Christian dating than the currently available options
- Will use a powerful matching algorithm built by Pastors, faith leaders, and relationship counselors
- Unique first message rules to promote better conversations and more interactions
- Special features designed to target the problems with the current state of online dating
Cons
- Brand new so the userbase will be small at least during initial launch
- There is potential for small bugs while new features are being released
- There is an iOS app available but not an Android App (it is however usable through any mobile web browser).
Accolades and Awards
| Category | Ranking | Testing Score |
|---|---|---|
| Best Christian Apps | #1 | 8.55 |
| Safest Dating Apps | #2 | 8.70 |
| For Catholic Singles | #1 | NA |
Who Higher Bond Is Good For
- Christian singles in the US looking for a serious and committed relationship
- Faith-focused singles who are tired of watered-down dating options
- Singles who want results without spending countless hours scrolling and swiping.
Who Higher Bond Might Not Be Best For
- Anyone who doesn’t live in the United States.
- Singles whose faith is not a priority in their life.
- People who like to flick through an endless sea of options.
See Test Results
Here are the recent results from testing Higher Bond. The overall score of 8.4 comes in as a weighted average of the 8 categories listed here that we cover in our normal course of app testing.
| Factor | Results (out of 10) | Weight | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Safety and Security | 9.0 | 20% | Manual photo approval, selfie verification, faith-based community reduces catfishing risk. No 2FA yet. |
| Profile Engagement | 9.5 | 15% | Highly detailed profiles, unique faith-based questionnaire, matches thoughtfully curated. |
| Feature Effectiveness | 8.0 | 15% | Batch matching, guided first messages, robust free trial with messaging. Small feature set still growing. |
| Pricing | 9.0 | 15% | Affordable subscriptions for premium service; generous free trial with messaging included. |
| UX and Usability | 8.5 | 10% | Clean, modern, simple. Few minor bugs noted, but site is very user-friendly. |
| Popularity | 6.5 | 10% | Brand new, smaller user base. High quality but low volume so far. |
| External Reviews | 8.0 | 10% | Early buzz and word-of-mouth positive. Reputation solid but limited due to newness. |
| Feature Growth | 8.5 | 5% | Lots of updates planned (notifications, read receipts, more). Dev team seems responsive. |
| Overall | 8.4 | ~ | ~ |
Learn more about how we test and score here.
Safety and security results come in at a 9.0.
Higher Bond very clearly prioritizes safety as number one. There are a lot of manual processes to confirm accounts that take place behind the scene. Some users report it taking several days to gain access, but do mention they are okay with it because it brings a high level of security and trust with the app.
| Factor | Score (0-10) | Weight | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Privacy Policy Protections | 8.5 | 15% | Clear privacy statements, no obvious data sharing. |
| Third-Party Data Usage | 8.5 | 15% | Minimal sharing, no social login forced. |
| App and Data Encryption | 8.0 | 15% | HTTPS-secured but no advanced encryption info published. |
| Block and Report Options | 9.0 | 15% | Not explicitly listed but expected in moderation. |
| Account Verification Options | 10.0 | 10% | Manual photo reviews + selfie check. Huge win. |
| Data Minimization Practices | 8.0 | 10% | Reasonable amount of personal data collected. |
| 2FA Available | 5.0 | 10% | Not currently offered. |
| TOS Acknowledges Safety | 9.0 | 5% | Faith-based site reinforces moral expectations. |
| Strong Password Requirements | 8.5 | 5% | Standard modern requirements. |
| Overall | 9.0 | ~ | ~ |
Popularity is still low, as expected with newer dating apps.
As you would expect with a newer app that prides itself on not being backed by the normal giants of the industry, popularity and press coverage for Higher Bond are lower. This does have an impact on the user experience, but the mission-driven cause and high levels of safety and security do make for a super high quality userbase.
| Factor | Testing Score | Weight | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Search Trends | 6.2 | 25% | Minimal search interest so far, consistent with early-stage launch status. Slight spikes around press coverage and marketing pushes. |
| Internal Testing | 6.7 | 25% | Platform design is strong and mission-driven, but the limited user pool impacts the matching experience in most regions. |
| Search Volume | 6.0 | 15% | Branded search is growing gradually but remains low overall, with very little unbranded discovery traffic. |
| Traffic | 6.6 | 15% | Early-stage traffic is modest but promising. Users are engaged once onboarded, but visit volume is still low. |
| News Coverage | 6.8 | 10% | Covered by several Christian lifestyle sites and marriage-focused blogs. Awareness remains niche but relevant to the intended audience. |
| Social Reach | 6.3 | 10% | New but building a presence on Facebook and Instagram. Messaging is consistent, though the following is still relatively small. |
| Total | 6.50 | ~ | ~ |
Features Like Batch Matching and Guided First Messages Are New
Generally, when new dating apps launch, they’re quite lean when it comes to features. Usually, they focus on the most important things (like matching and messaging) and release new features quickly after the launch. For Higher Bond, that’s what it appears their strategy will be.
Here are the features the company has made public that are currently available. The link also gets into how Higher Bond handles the matchmaking and dating process.
Signup – The Higher Bond Questionnaire
Everyone who joins Higher Bond gets to take a multiple-choice matching questionnaire that asks questions about their faith, lifestyle, and relationship goals. We’ve seen things like this before with sites like eHarmony, but this one looks like it’s going to be different.
Instead of targeting primarily surface-level issues or things that may be culturally outdated, the Higher Bond matching questionnaire actually gets into the deeper-level factors that can have a profound impact on the compatibility of two people—specifically as it pertains to Christianity.
Some of these signup questions include:
- Is prayer important to you?
- What denomination do you identify with?
- How often do you serve your church or community?
- How often do you do a devotional or read your Bible?
- Do you watch R-rated movies or shows?
- Do you believe in traditional gender roles within the household?
- Do you feel it’s okay to tell a white lie to protect your partner’s feelings?
Higher Bond will take your answers to these questions, plug them into the high-tech matching algorithm, compare them privately with answers from other users, and use that to shape the matches they send you.
The intended result is higher quality matches that you have a much higher probability of compatibility with.
Batch Matching (New Matches Daily)
A lot of people find online dating overwhelming. There’s this thought that showing people as many people as humanely possible as quickly as possible is an effective form of online dating. The problem is that it cheapens the quality of interactions and adds an unhealthy air of disposability to people.
What Higher Bond is doing to change this is only sending users 3-5 matches per day. What’s awesome about this is:
- It encourages users to dig more into their matches and not just swipe them away.
- It discourages the unhealthy desire to spend hours on end looking through matches.
- It allows you to meet and match at a healthier pace without monopolizing time away from other areas of your life.
First Messages
One of the biggest problems with online dating tends to be the quality of first messages. Low-effort messages like “hey” or the mass sending of copy and paste messages don’t promote the best experience for users looking for real Christian relationships.
And the other problem is that even when you take the time to send a great first message, your odds of getting a response always seem lower than they should be.
Higher Bond is looking to correct both of these issues in three ways.
1. Premium users can only start one new conversation per day.
You can always continue chatting with people you’re already talking to or receive as many messages from other users as they want to send. However, when it comes to sending a message to start a brand new conversation with a new match, you are limited to one per day.
What this does is makes users spend more time looking through their 3-5 matches to find who they really want to send a message to. It also encourages them to put more effort into that first message, instead of trying to rapid-fire off messages to a lot of singles at once.
2. The first message is always templated.
Sometimes writing a first message is hard. You may not know what to say or how to write in a way that encourages responses. Higher Bond aims to fix this by helping with templated first messages. You’ll receive four short questions to answer, and your answers to those questions (along with the questions) are sent to the match you’re interested in.
After that, it goes to normal open conversation, but the site is there to help you through arguably the toughest message to send.
3. Free users can always respond to messages from premium users.
At most dating sites, only about 10% of the users are paying for a premium subscription. This means that at most sites if you send 10 messages, only 1 of those people actually has the ability to respond. And if they happen to not be interested, you’re going to be out of luck with zero responses.
At Higher Bond, free users are always able to respond to messages from premium users. That means that 100% of the people you send a message to have the ability to respond to you, which is a pretty big deal.
If free users want to initiate their own conversations with one of their matches, they will need to upgrade to a premium account. But no matter what, they’ll be able to respond to messages from premium users free of charge.
Account Approvals – Security
One thing that is really cool about Higher Bond is how seriously they take account security. While other dating apps let you join in just a few minutes, Higher Bond has a pretty in-depth review and approvals process. This means you can expect it to take a few to get your account active, but you can also expect a much safer user experience.
Here are the highlights to know:
- All accounts are manually approved by customer support.
- All users have to submit a verification selfie to prove they are who they claim to be.
- All photos are manually approved by customer support. This is not just during the sign up process but at any point in time.
Higher Bond Daily Devotional
Now, you may not know this, but not all Christian dating apps “walk the walk”. Having a daily devotional front and center with scripture references and application (though it won’t help you meet singles) is a clear signal that this app takes faith a bit more seriously than it’s competitors.
Here’s a look at what they look like:
User Photos
Higher Bond allows all users the option to upload up to (6) photos to their account. What’s different, though, are two things. First, as we mentioned, every single photo you upload is manually approved by customer support. Usually this takes less than 24 hours unless it’s over the weekend.
Second, there are some pretty strict guidelines for photos. Don’t expect to see any shirt-off photos, bikini photos, excessive cleavage, etc. Higher Bond does acknowledge that everyone has different ideas of what “showing too much” is, so they err on the side of strict caution.
Here is what the email says if you submit something that is not approved:
We completely understand that everyone has different views on what is showing “too much.” It’s for that reason that we choose to err on the side of caution with strict guidelines around photo approval.
How Easy is the Site to Use?
Higher Bond launched as a mobile-friendly application, which means you can access it from any device including a phone, tablet, iPad, laptop, or desktop computer. Regarding the ease of use, it’s super user-friendly. The layout is easy to follow, features are intuitive and easy to find, and it’s not overwhelming at all.
There are some features we’d like to see that have not been released yet (like notifications and read receipts), but the word on the street is that these are coming soon.
How to Signup for the Higher Bond Dating App
If you want to give Higher Bond a try it’s a pretty simple process (and it’s free to join)….
- First, you’ll want to visit HigherBond.com
- Once there click any of the signup buttons or “Join Now” in the nav menu.
- You will then need to input an email, password, and agree to the apps terms and privacy policy.
- Once you’ve completed this you should see an email in your inbox. This should happen almost instantly and will look something like this….
From there you will be able to complete the questionnaire, input some personal details (like location, age, height, level of education, and interests), and upload a photo to complete your profile setup. Since the questionnaire is quite extensive, the whole process should take around 15-20 minutes.
A Small But Quality (and Vetted) Userbase
While the userbase at Higher Bond is still small, it’s super high quality. What we’re seeing is a slight edge of females to males with a lot of users from all different age ranges and walks of life. What’s real exciting is that a large percentage of the users work in ministry as pastors, youth pastors, missionaries, etc.
Now, if you’re not in ministry, that’s okay! There are plenty of singles from a wide range of professions. What they all appear to have in common, though, is a love for Jesus and a desire for a faith-focused relationship.
A Review of the Simplistic Pricing Model
Higher Bond has one membership type and three different term lengths to choose from. What’s nice about this is that you don’t have to pick and choose between features or feel like you’re getting nickeled and dimed.
- 6 month membership – $14.95 per month
- 3 month membership – $17.95 per month
- 1 month membership – $28.95 per month
As you see, you’ll get a sizeable discount for every month if you select a longer term. Keep in mind that all memberships are paid for upfront, which is the reason for the deal. You can find a lot more information at Higher Bond’s membership pricing page.
You can message with the Higher Bond Free Trial!
- You can actually send and respond to messages with the free trial!
- Free access to take the matching questionnaire (35 questions)
- Able to set up your profile, upload photos, and answer profile questions
- Able to complete the account verification process
- Begin receiving your daily batches of matches
- See all your match’s main photo (not blurred like some sites)
With most online dating app free trials, you get the ability to set up your profile and search through matches. However, something you get with the Higher Bond dating app free trial that you don’t get with most apps is the ability to actually send and receive messages!
If any premium member sends you a conversation invite (basically a message), you’re able to unlimitedly chat with them completely free for as long as you want without ever needing to upgrade. This is WAY more than you’re going to get with most other free trials, which is really awesome.
Additionally, you’re going to get the ability to complete the profile setup, take the unique faith-based matching questionnaire, and complete the account verification process. Higher Bond goes above and beyond (all puns intended) to ensure the validity and authenticity of user accounts, so it’s awesome to be able to take care of this for free.
Once that all is completed, you’ll get to start seeing your daily batches of matches! Compared with the industry, the Higher Bond dating app free trial is wildly more expansive and actually gives you the opportunity to make real connections.
3 bonus features you won’t get for free…
- If a premium member messages you then you can reply for free. But, you’re unable to start your own conversations.
- The ability to see another member’s extended profile
- You can only see your match’s main photo (not their additional photos)
While this free trial is one of the most robust in the industry, there are still some limitations that only come with a premium membership. Specifically, there are three things that are not included.
First, while you are able to respond and chat with as many premium members as possible, that’s only if they initiate the conversation first (send the first message). If you want the ability to send the first message to a match you like, you’re going to have to upgrade to premium.
The second limitation of the free trial account for Higher Bond is that you’ll only be able to see the basic part of their profile. The more potentially sensitive information like if they have kids, their testimony, etc. are reserved for paying members only. This is more of a security feature than anything, but it’s also a nice incentive for those who choose to upgrade.
The other thing you aren’t going to get is the ability to see each member’s additional photos. Unlike some websites, you do get to see their main photo. However, if you want to see the Higher Bond member’s additional photos (if they have some), you will need to purchase an updated membership.
Reviewing Higher Bond Support
Customer support is available by email and usually takes about 24-48 hours to get a response, though it can sometimes take up to 72 hours. The customer support team does not work on weekends (occasionally on Saturdays) or on major holidays (especially faith-based holidays).
Support is highly personal and the team works hard to help with any and all requests.