Date online with confidence: spot the red flags and stay in control
Practical, sourced guidance for every stage of online dating: protecting your privacy, checking who you are talking to, meeting safely and noticing red flags early. Plus independent safety ratings for 67 dating apps and a free Red Flag Check.
From first swipe to getting home
Most dates are fine. These guides help you keep it that way, and avoid ending up somewhere, or with someone, that leaves you vulnerable.
Setting up your profile
Share enough to connect without giving away where you live or work.
Start hereChatting and checking
Get to know someone while keeping control of what you share.
- What to share and what to hold back
- When a match asks to move to WhatsApp
- Video call before you meet
- Reverse image search, explained
The first date
Stay in charge of the venue, your drinks and your way home.
- First-date safety checklist
- Share your date details with a friend
- Alcohol, pace and the way home
- Drink spiking: signs and reporting
Afterwards
End things safely, and know what to do if something went wrong.
- Ending things safely
- Getting home after a date
- When a match won’t stop contacting you
- What to save and who to tell
The world’s top dating apps, rated for safety
Tinder
Bumble
Hinge
Badoo
Grindr
OkCupid
Match.com
Plenty of Fish
Happn
Coffee Meets Bagel
Feeld
HER
Muzz
eHarmony
Tantan
Pairs
Something feels off about a match?
Tick the signs you have noticed: moving you to WhatsApp, a sudden money problem, a crypto tip, a camera that never works. The Red Flag Check scores the risk and tells you what to do next. Nothing you tick is saved.
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Independent, sourced and free
Safe Dating Online is not a dating app and is not paid by any. Every safety rating and scam case on this site links to the app’s own help pages or to police, court, regulator or news sources, and anything we cannot verify is labelled as such.