I wouldn’t say that there’s no stigma in using a dating app anymore, but the growing list of happy relationships that come from these dating sites is definitely doing a lot to improve the public’s impression of them. At the very least when you tell someone that your next bae came from a dating app, they wouldn’t side-eye you that much.
And, surprise surprise, there are more dating apps in this world than just Tinder. So we’ve picked up on a few dating apps that are active in Malaysia, and did a comparison of how they work so that you can find the best one for your needs.
1. Tinder
Pros
- Simple to use
- Location-based
- You can filter people before they message you
- You can filter by age and distance
- The biggest pool of users
Cons
- It’s not as easy to check mutual interests
- You can’t filter by height, interests or education
- No curated matches
Tinder Plus Features Include:
- Rewind on a wrong left swipe
- Passport (set your location to anywhere in the world and swipe like you’re there)
- Unlimited right swipes
- 5 Super-likes a day
- Hide age
- Control who you see, and who sees you
We all know how Tinder works. You swipe right to like, and left for no. The matches come to you based on your selected preferred radius, and the chat box will only open if you have a mutual match. It’s a simple system that has been proven to work, seeing that Tinder can be considered one of the top dating platforms worldwide.
Find it on the Apple App Store or on Google Play.
2. Paktor
Pros
- Simple to use
- Location-based
- You can filter people before they message you
- You can filter by age and distance from you
- You can see mutual interests
- A pretty big pool of users
Cons
- Many of the best features are on premium
- Even though you can scan by number of mutual interests, you can’t see what they are
- You can’t filter by height, interests or education
- No curated matches to your interests (unless you’re on premium)
Premium Features Include:
- More filters like job, education and height
- You can view who liked you
- View suggested profiles
- You can participate in sending gifts and direct messages
- Unlimited replies to Direct Request messages from compatible people
It’s very similar to Tinder, except for a few key differences. The biggest one is that it’s mainly populated by Asians. The second is that Paktor does have quite a few more extra functions.
Do note that most of the features that make it unique are only available on a Premium membership, like Winking (where you get a lot of messages from interested partners) or looking at all the people who have liked you.
Find it on the Apple App Store or on Google Play.
3. Coffee Meets Bagel
Pros
- More options available than most others, but is still user-friendly
- Matches are curated based on who you’ve shown interest in and mutual friends of friends
- You can filter people before they message you
- More emphasis is placed on their personality
- You can see everything from height, religion, location and education level
- A more in-depth profile
Cons
- Limited matches (only a few a day)
- Locations aren’t directly configurable
- You only have a week to make conversations happen after beginning a chat (might be a pro for users who only want to match with active people)
- Requires time to set up a decent profile
- Since matches are based on friends, might lead to some awkwardness
Premium Features Include:
- An activity report (how often they message first, how often they chat, last active, etc)
- See when your messages are read
- 6,000 beans per month
With Coffee Beans You Can:
- Unlock extra Bagels (daily matches)
- View mutual friends
- Unlock ‘dead’ chats
Coffee Meets Bagel’s best feature is that they will give users curated daily matches, promising more quality rather than quantity. So unlike the popular use of Tinder as a hookup app, Coffee Meets Bagel’s function does steer it more towards an actual dating app.
And you only have a limited time to talk to someone before the chat gets closed. This means that you can easily declutter your messages and that your response rate will generally be higher. But it also a bit annoying to have to spend ‘coffee beans’ (the in-app currency) to reactivate a chat all the time, or feel the time pressure to exchange numbers.
Find it on the Apple App Store or on Google Play.
4. OKCupid
Pros
- Lets you set up a more in-depth profile
- Includes a lot of categories, like smokes, drinks, kids, to even horoscope
- Calculates match percentages based on a compatibility test
- Based on those questions, the app also tells matches your personality
Cons
- Everyone can message you, unless you block them first
- Filtering just puts them in a different inbox
- After a while, your inbox will get cluttered
- It takes a longer for you to both set up your profile and take the quiz
A-List Features Include:
- No ads
- You can change your username
- More search options to filter through your matches
- See a full list of everyone who has liked you
- Visit on incognito mode, and see your visitors list at the same time
- More space in your mailbox
- See who has read your messages
- More message filter options
Premium A-list:
- One free profile boost per day during prime time
- See everyone’s public answers to their questions before you answer
- Your messages will be at the top of anyone’s mailbox
- See and be seen by more attractive matches
This site uses math to help users filter through their potential matches. It puts less restrictions on matches from different areas to message you, but to make up for it, OKCupid has a quiz feature.
You can pick out your opinions on controversial topics (Should women do all the housework? How do you feel about gay rights? How do you feel about casual drug use?), indicate how important you think they are, and the site will determine your personality in your profile and also indicate how compatible you are with someone.
Find it on the Apple App Store or on Google Play.
5. happn
Pros
- Unique selling point that you can use it concurrently with other apps
- It’s based fully on location, so you know if they frequently visit the same places you do. So there’s no issue of liking someone who lives too far away.
- The app is simple to use
- You already have a common point of talking based on where you both go together
- You can filter out who messages you
Cons
- Other than name, age and occupation/education, you can’t see much else
- Opens you up to potential stalking/enables stalkers to find you
- Since the app may tell someone where you frequently are, any awkward encounters on the app might translate to frequent awkward real life encounters
The most location-based of the dating apps, this one is unique because it matches based on the places you’ve been. The app will also tally how many times you’ve ‘missed a connection’. They have announced that they will be rolling out premium features soon.
Find it on the Apple App Store or on Google Play.
6. LOVOO
Pros:
- Like happn, it’s more location-based
- It has more options to view matches
- It allows you to view a lot of matches at one go and also individual matches
- Thanks to the verification process, there are less bots and fake profiles
- Profiles are easy to set up
- The profile includes many ‘important’ dating details like relationship status, children, smoker or not, profession and education
Cons:
- Smaller user-pool in Malaysia
- No curated profiles
VIP Features Include:
- See who visited your profile or liked you in Match right away
- Be shown more often in Match
- Your messages appear at the top of their inbox
- No ads
- You can make yourself invisible. You can visit profiles unnoticed, and also no longer appear in search or Match
LOVOO actually combines two functions. One is the match function, which works like Tinder. You just swipe on the matches that you like.
Then there’s the radar function, which shows you all of the matches in your area. It does take a little time to figure out everything that it offers, but once you do, the app is both easy-to-use and tells you a lot about what you’d want to know.
Find it on the Apple App Store or on Google Play.
Feature Image Credit: Yalantis