- Swipe and match
- Social discovery
- Live video
- Faith and culture
- 40 plus
- LGBTQ+
- Matchmaking
An empty app loses everyone. Ours start full.
A dating app only works when there are enough real people nearby. Buying them is expensive: installs cost $2.76 each in 2025, and 69% are deleted within a month. So every member who stays costs about $8.90 to find. Dating API comes with a shared network of millions of real members, if you want it.
Day one, on your own
Try widening your distance.
Day one, with the network
- Launch into a full room. A new app, country or relaunch starts with real members nearby, not an empty screen.
- Your members always come first. Network members only fill the gaps, and only where you allow it.
- Change it any time, by country, age band, plan or brand, with no app release.
What it would cost to fill your app with ads
of installs you don’t need to buy
Your call. There’s no industry standard; it depends on your audience and how far members will travel.
Everything under a dating app. Already built.
The parts every dating app needs, and members never see. Take all of it, or start with the parts that cost you most.
Matching and discovery
Decks, search, filters, likes and the match itself. Tuned on 25 years of dating behaviour.
"matched": trueMessaging
Threads, photos, priority messages and introductions, with spam and scam checks on every message.
Priority messagesNew profileApproved · 41s
Report: scamRemoved · 3m
PhotoPhone number
New profileApproved · 38sSafety and moderation
Checked by AI moderation (Sightengine) with rules shaped by 25 years of dating safety, supervised by our trust and safety team. Every reported profile is reviewed by a person within 4 hours.
Expert moderation
Age 18+
Liveness pass
ID and age checks
Government ID and selfie checks, plus age checks built for the UK Online Safety Act and similar laws. From 30 November 2026.
Verified badgePayments
App Store and Google Play reporting, web checkout where the rules allow, failed payment recovery and chargeback handling.
Under 0.3% disputesThe shared network
Millions of real members, if you want them. Private, backfilled or fully shared. You choose, by country.
Private · backfill · sharedWhat would you save?
Move the sliders to match your app. It’s an estimate built on public cost data. Your cost review replaces it with a fixed figure.
Engineers, DevOps and QA. Not your product or marketing team.
Uses sourced US salary and hosting costs, assumes 9.3% of active members pay (our calculation for Grindr, Q2 2026), keeps one engineer and values the saving at Match Group’s multiple. Change every assumption on the pricing page.
Added to EBITDA every year
36% lower running cost.
No migration project. Members just tap Update.
We rebuild your app on Dating API and ship it as your next version, under your own App Store and Google Play listing. Same reviews. Same ranking. Same subscriptions.
Dating LabVersion 5.0 · 41.2 MB
- Rebuilt from the ground up. Faster and smoother.
- ID verified profiles, so you know who’s real.
- Your matches and messages are all here.
✓ That’s the whole migration.
Pilot first
Your own app on our platform, in TestFlight about two weeks after we have your materials. Your team tests it for four weeks before you decide.
We build it
Native iOS and Android, plus web. Same features, names and prices. Member data copies across in the background.
Members tap Update
Accounts, photos, matches, messages and subscriptions are all there. Nobody signs up again.
We run it
Servers, safety, payments and releases. Your team runs the brand, the marketing and the roadmap.
Dating apps are earning less and spending more.
It isn’t one bad quarter. Five pressures are landing at once, and nearly all of them land on the technology: the servers, the safety team, the payments and the engineers.
Fewer people are paying
Paying members, change from a year earlier, April to June 2026.
Every new member costs almost double
The average cost of a dating app install went from $1.46 to $2.76 in 2025. And 69% of installs are deleted within a month.
Old tech holds the product back
One of the biggest apps says small changes took months on its old system. Its rebuilt app has slipped from mid 2026 to early 2027.
Safety is now the law
UK fines can reach 10% of global revenue. Face and ID checks are now standard on the biggest apps. Romance scams cost Americans $1.16bn in nine months.
App stores still take their cut
Match expects alternative payments to add about $110m to its profit this year. Getting the same saving takes payments work most apps can’t staff.
Trusting us with your infrastructure? So we put it in writing.
In 2026 one dating group’s operating company failed. Members of a closed brand got two days’ notice before their accounts and conversations were gone. We built Dating API so that can’t happen to you or your members.
- Your members and data are yours. Full export any time, at no charge, in standard formats.
- Your app’s code is yours. The screens we build for you are yours to keep, with source code escrow available on request.
- 90 days of run-off. If you leave, or if we ever stopped, your app keeps running while it moves.
- No revenue share, ever. You pay a fixed fee per active member and per paying member. Your subscription money stays yours.
The questions every CEO asks us.
And a few the CTO and CFO ask after.
All questions, answeredWhat is Dating API?
Dating API is a white label dating platform and app infrastructure. We rebuild established dating apps on our platform, ship them as their next update and run everything underneath: members, matching, messaging, moderation, ID and age checks, payments and releases. Partners keep their brand and their subscription revenue, and can connect to a shared network of real members if they want to.
Will our members notice the switch?
Only that the app got better. They tap Update like any other release. Their account, photos, matches, messages and subscription are all there, and nobody signs up again.
Can we use your members as well as your technology?
Yes. That’s what makes Dating API different. Plug into the shared network of millions of real members on day one, use it to backfill quiet areas behind your own members, or not at all.
How much does it cost?
A fixed monthly fee per active member and per paying member, lower at volume, with no revenue share. Your cost review gives you a fixed quote. See pricing.
See your app working before you commit.
Start with a free cost review. Then a $50,000 pilot puts your own app, running on Dating API, in TestFlight about two weeks after we have your materials. If you go ahead, every dollar comes back as credit.
- 1A free cost reviewYour numbers, a fixed quote and the pilot pass marks.
- 2Your app in TestFlightRunning on our platform, in your brand, about two weeks after your materials arrive.
- 3Your team decidesFour weeks of testing against agreed pass marks. Go ahead and the $50,000 is credited back.