If you have been looking for love in all of the traditional places but haven’t met your match, now is the time to consider online dating. COVID shutdowns made it difficult for people to get out and meet new people, and online dating sites have definitely filled in and expanded the dating pool over the last few years. While online dating has carried a stigma for many years of only being used by people with social anxiety or awkwardness or who simply don’t have the time to get out and date, it has come a long way and is now considered a premier way to find a match made in Heaven. Most online dating sites use complex algorithms to match their members, which is one of the most-appealing features to online dating and almost ensures a perfect match.
Specifically for Koreans who are looking for a match, online dating is a great option. With over 2 million Korean-Americans in the country, online dating makes it possible to find a perfect match, even if they are halfway around the globe. A review of the top 10 Korean online dating sites may convince you to get out there and find your match online!
1. Korean Cupid
KoreanCupid is the leading Korean dating site. Founded in 2004, it is part of the Cupid Media Network. With over 1 million users and thousands of profiles from all backgrounds, you can easy and anonymously search for a match. Signup is easy and just requires that you give your name, gender, email, password, and sync to your Facebook page. You should also describe yourself and your ideal match and, voila, you’re done! Some of the unique features include video messaging where you can live chat or just post a video message; anti-spam; and message translator where, just like that, it is possible to talk to matches in other countries.
This online dating site has strict safety guidelines to protect their members, including an age requirement of 18 or older to register, no person other than the member in any photo, no nudity or overly sexually-suggestive photos, no sending money to a match, no solicitation, no abusive or obscene or threatening actions or speech. They also have anti-spam protection including profile ID verification to ensure that the person you see on the other end is who they say they are.
Costs and Features:
No cost to look at profiles. Platinum level for one month costs $34.99, three months cost $23.33 per month, and one year costs $12.50 per month.
Standard level subscription includes browsing matches, customized searches, and communication with premium members.
Gold level includes everything in the standard subscription and adds unlimited messaging and communication with other profiles via text, audio, video, and instant messaging, and invisible browsing.
Platinum level includes everything in the gold level subscription and adds more profile space, message translation, additional search features, and a better search rank for your profile.
Quick Takeaway: Focuses on Koreans/Asians and has an almost equal gender balance. Great for long-term commitment goals.
2. eHarmony
With over 50 million members, eHarmony states they bring the “cream of the crop” by using a 32-dimension compatibility test that uses personalities to match their members with people with whom they are more likely to have something in common. With a goal to build connections between all communities, they have a diverse and inclusive environment and a safe and user-focused space. Once a member of eHarmony, a user is able to view the personality profile of anyone they are matched with. Lists are updated daily as new people join and are shown as compatible. Users have the ability to filter by age, ethnicity, region, education level, and desire to have children, to name a few. A great feature they offer to their premium members is video dating, wherein members can date without leaving their homes. This creates a more-relaxed first-date experience.
Costs and Features:
Premium six-month membership costs $65.90 per month.
Premium 12-month membership costs $45.90 per month.
Premium 24-month membership costs $35.90 per month.
Quick Takeaway: Targets ages 20-45. Men are more present on eHarmony at 55%. Great for serious relationship goals.
3. International Cupid
Founded in 2004, International Cupid is part of the Cupid Media Network. Made up of over 1 million users, International Cupid offers quick registration and detailed member profiles. Their base is made up of hundreds of women from Russia, Eastern Europe, Asia, Latin America, and Africa. They offer friendly service, sophisticated search facilities, and a private inbox that allows you to search for a match anonymously. It is free to sign up, and you are only required to give your name, gender, the gender of the person you are looking for, and then upload a photo of yourself. One-two-three, and you are done! You can also sign up via your Facebook account. They offer free and paid services.
Costs and Features:
Free to sign up. Upgrade to Gold or Platinum for access to the best features including making unlimited contacts, no ads, and higher search result position.
Gold level subscription costs $10.67 to $31.98 per month for a 1-12 month membership, depending on the length of the membership.
Platinum level membership costs $12.50-$36.99 per month for a 1-12 month membership, depending on the length of the membership.
Quick Takeaway: Members are diverse, high-quality, real, and active on the site.
Try International Cupid for Free
4. Elite Singles
This is the leading site for professional dating in the U.S. and is a good place to find eligible and successful Korean singles. Over 80% of their users hold a college degree. Their members are part of a larger online Asian community and most are over the age of 30. Elite Singles is an international dating platform with partners in over 25 countries. The dating site claims to beat other Korean dating sites with a matchmaking system that helps select the best potential partners with a shared background, cultural heritage, and similar life experiences. This online dating site uses a personality test to assess characteristics of how conscientious, extroverted, agreeable, or neurotic a user may be, in addition to location, income, and education. Users are able to search by age, education, lifestyle, and ethnicity. There is also a dating app, which makes it easier for you to meet singles when you are out and about.
Costs and Features:
Premium Classic for 1 month is $59.95 per month.
Premium Light for 3 months is $57.95 per month.
Premium Comfort for six months is $44.95 per month.
Quick Takeaway: EliteSingles seeks to match like-minded singles of all races, religions, and ages.
5. Asia Me
This online dating site has a variety of active profiles, and their members have made matches across North and South America, Europe, and Asia Pacific. Members browse the profiles of other members for free and are able to explore the site safely. AsiaMe’s goal is to provide a professional platform that is safe and easy to use so their members have peace of mind. They have an advanced fraud-protection system and online-purchasing system and are protected by GoDaddy and McAfee. All lady profiles are verified by government identification bearing a photo and are only published after authorization by the member. AsiaMe offers an app that makes it easier for members to express themselves with a variety of tools including EMF mail, chat, Camshare, call, video, and the ability to send gifts. These are pay-to-use services that are purchased with Qpid credits. AsiaMe hopes to break conversational barriers and to make communication easier with these services.
Costs and Features:
For the free services, you can sign up, browse profiles, edit your profile, and contact support.
Paid services include love letters, live chats, access to private photos, phone calls, and gift delivery.
1-month premium membership is $9.99.
You can purchase credits for various services. These costs are:
2 credits for $3.99 (for the 1st order), $15.99 (for the next orders)
16 credits for $96
100 credits for $399
Quick Takeaway: There are more men than women on the site, and over 70% of the women are 18-34 years old.
6. Asian Dating
AsianDating is one of the first Korean online dating sites and is also one of the largest and most trusted. Part of the Cupid Media Network, AsianDating has over 1 million members from locations including the United States, Europe, the Philippines, Thailand, China, Japan, and Vietnam. This dating site focuses on matching men in the U.S. with women in Asia. In fact, three-fourths of the users are Asian women in their mid-to-late 20s.
As do the other online dating sites, AsianDating strives to provide a safe online dating experience and only allows users over the age of 18 to register and use their site. Signing up for AsianDating is fast and free, but there are limited features for the free membership. As with other dating sites, you can use your Facebook account to join. It is also necessary to write a little about yourself and to define the type of person you are looking for. Profiles tend to be very descriptive.
They do not allow members to post photos of anyone other than themselves, and do not allow nudity, violence, pictures that disclose contact information, or pictures that are photoshopped or digitally altered.
Costs and Features:
Gold membership costs from $10.00 to almost $30.00 per month depending on the length of the subscription.
Platinum membership costs from $12.50 to almost $35.00 per month depending on the length of the subscription.
Standard subscription allows you to sign up, fill out profile, upload photos, visit other profiles and show interest in someone, favorite a profile, and communicate Gold/Platinum members
Gold subscription includes the standard features plus unlimited messaging and communication with other profiles via text, audio, video, and Instant Messaging), ad-free browsing, and invisible browsing.
Platinum subscription includes the gold level features in addition to ranking above other members in searches, increased profile space, VIP profile highlighting, advanced matching algorithms, message translation.
Quick Takeaway: Mostly for men seeking a relationship with Asian women.
7. OkCupid
Created in 2003, OkCupid was the first free online dating site. By 2011, they added an app so daters could connect with anyone anywhere. By 2013, they became the first dating app to introduce other gender and orientation options. Using an algorithm that factors in thousands of questions so it can match based on topics that matter, over 50,000 dates are made every week through OkCupid, and over 91 million matches made are made every year. This dating site proudly supports black-owned businesses and Planned Parenthood, and provides badges for users wishing to make a statement about vaccination status or where they fall on the climate change topic. If you peruse their website, you will find them discussing social issues such as NYC Pride, Black Lives Matter, voting, and the ACLU to name just a few. OkCupid is definitely an online dating site that pushes traditional limits and breaks traditional barriers to dating. Stating they are a “champion of relationships in all forms,” they believe every person should be celebrated and encouraged to find their person based on what matters.
Costs and Features: Premium plan is $19.99/month for six months.
Free, unlimited communication.
The paid plan comes with the ability to see who has liked and messaged you.
Quick Takeaway: OkCupid is the only online dating app that asks thousands of questions on current cultural topics in order to match you on things that matter to you the most.
8. Azarlive
Azarlive is a live video chat platform developed by Hyperconnect, whose goal is to provide an authentic and safe place for people to meet. You can have real conversations through live video chat and watch videos on Live every day. They also have filters to make things more fun! They allow users to select region preferences, and they also feature an instant voice and text translator to make communicating with a potential perfect match easier. They take a strong stance against fake profiles and spam accounts, in addition to cautioning their members against prostitution or trafficking, nudity or sexual context, or sharing private info.
With AzarLive, there is no barrier to time or language with the ability to select regions in your time zone and the use of text and voice translation. This opens the dating pool immensely.
Costs and Features: Azar is free to use.
In-App Purchases include:
Azar VIP$14.99
Gem package$13.99
Gem Package$21.99
Gem Package$4.99
Gem Package$8.99
Gem Package$6.99
Special Gem package$27.99
Gem Package$5.99
Luxury Gem package$99.99
Azar Gem Plus Lite$5.99
Quick Takeaway: AzarLive is a quick way to meet people and have real-time conversations.
9. 1km
1km is a social networking app on Google Play that allows you to match with anyone within 1 kilometer of each other. This online dating app is targeted toward the Korean population, with 95% of its users being Korean and the app language being Korean. Signup is via Facebook. Once you are verified, you can set your preferences, create a profile including your age, region, gender, ideal match, and upload a few photos. What makes this dating app unique is the 1Km Club feature which allows you to join groups or clubs made up of other members who share the same interests, giving you the ability to communicate with these members. This also seems to make it less awkward to start a conversation with other members since you already know you have something in common to talk about. It does not currently have a translation feature, so it is not possible for non-Korean-speaking members to communicate with Koreans via this app.
Identity verification is necessary before getting started.
Costs and Features: 1km is free to use.
Free chatting. The app has in-app purchases. With features such as 1km photo, you can see four pictures at once of the users around you. With 1km Say, you can share your thoughts. 1km Club allows you to join groups that share the same interests as you. 1km Chat makes it easier to chat with other users anytime, anywhere. 236
Quick Takeaway: GPS location will help you discover people close to you, and you can see them on your screen.
10. Tinder
With over 55 billion matches made, Tinder is the most popular free online dating app and is used in 190 countries, has 60 billion members, and can be used in 40+ languages. Unlike other online dating sites, Tinder does not use a personality quiz to make a match. Signup via Facebook, Goggle, or with your phone number. Be sure to include your height in your profile as that appears to be of a lot of interest to some men and most women. Tinder uses photo verification, so when you see a blue checkmark beside a person, it means they are the real deal. This online dating app is different in that it does not focus as much on the long-term relationship as it does about the dating experience itself.
In 2022, Tinder is expanding its offerings by making some of their subscription features available as a la carte features. Uses will use Tinder Coins to purchase these services, which will enable each member to have an experience that fits their budget. They are also bringing back their blind date feature, which is a low-pressure social experience that matches two people before allowing them to see each other’s profiles. Their first impressions are based on their conversations rather than their looks.
Costs and Features:
The basic subscription allows for location-based searches, in-app messaging, and the ability to set your dating preferences.
The Tinder Plus subscription allows for unlimited likes per day, 5 super likes, 1 boost, Passport, and no ads. The Passport feature allows you to chat with people around the world, which expands your potential match pool.
With a Tinder Gold subscription, you are able to see who likes you, allowing you to focus only on those potential matches and not wasting time pursuing someone who is not interested. 301
Tinder Gold is $14.99/month for under 30s and $29.99/month for 30 and older.
Tinder Plus is $2.33 to $4.99/month for under 30s and $3.33 to $9.99/month for 30 and older.
Quick Takeaway: The swiping feature creates over 12 million matches per day. Equal gender ratio. Users can message mutual matches for free.