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Online dating has gradually become the most popular way for people to look for and meet potential dating partners and its popularity is destined to increase in future years according to recent studies.

This is mostly due to several benefits that online dating provides in comparison to traditional dating.

Some choose it because it allows overcoming the approach anxiety that usually accompanies approaching strangers in the real world, while others use it because it allows them to better know a person before actually dating her or him.

We have summarized a list of the 15 greatest advantages of online dating.

Don’t forget to also check our articles on online dating tips for beginners.

1. Connecting with Many More People Than in Traditional Dating

This is one of the most intuitive benefits of online dating.

While meeting new people through social circles, at bars and clubs, or on the street only exposes you to a very small percentage of potential dating partners, online dating apps and sites are hubs where you can connect with tens of thousands of people in your area that are looking for someone to date.

You can compare this situation to the benefits of buying physical products on an online store like Amazon to buy them in a physical store. The variety and quantity of products offered on an online store cannot be beaten by any street shop.

Due to the quantity and heterogeneity of the potential dating partners, you are exposed to on online dating platforms, the chance that you will meet the right one is significantly higher than when using traditional dating methods.

2. Narrowing Down Your Search by Selecting Preferred Characteristics

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Online dating platforms give you something that is very difficult to replicate in traditional dating:

searching for potential dating partners based on preferred traits and characteristics.

You can narrow down the search by specifying the gender, age, and location you’re interested in.

Most recent apps also have many additional search filters that go beyond basic demographics.

Compare this to approaching various people in a bar or in a club until you speak with one that matches your preferences (and still have to check whether she or he is interested in you!).

Being able to focus on a narrowed-down group of potential dating partners will make your search easier and will increase the chance that you will find a potential dating partner soon.

3. It’s Cheaper Than What You Usually Spend When Dating Traditionally

People who choose to date traditionally usually go out (especially on the weekend) much more often than people who are in a couple.

They do so in the hope of finding a dating partner that matches their preferences and tastes.

What they don’t realize is how much money they’re spending between drinks at a bar, food at a restaurant, club entry tickets, and so on when they are out looking for somebody to start a conversation with.

Online dating also allows you to understand a person is not a good match for you before meeting that person in real life, usually after having spent money during the date.

Compared to the sum of these expenses, the subscription you usually pay when joining a dating app is quite low and affordable, meaning it’s a good option also for people who are currently not experiencing the best financial situation.

4. Meeting People with Different Backgrounds

When you date through your social circles or go out only in certain specific areas, you may end up meeting only people who are from your same cultural, socio-economic, and demographic background.

Through online dating, you can gain access to a wider and more diverse pool of potential dating partners.

This can make your dating and romantic life richer and more interesting. Being exposed to different types of people is great for personal development and not just to make your love life more captivating and entertaining.

If you are willing to travel to meet people outside of your geographical area (city or region), online dating allows you to meet people from around the nation or around the world, another benefit you won’t have at your local bar or bookstore.

5. Less Approach Anxiety

Approach anxiety is one of the major problems for people who choose traditional dating, especially if they tend to be quite shy and reserved.

Unless you’re meeting people through your social circles, which means you’re exposed only to a small number of people, dating traditionally means putting yourself out there and approaching strangers in bars, clubs, at a bookstore, on the street, and on various day and night situations.

When using online dating platforms this problem almost disappears as sending the first message is not nearly as intimidating as trying to start a conversation with a random stranger. This is one of the main reasons why online dating platforms became so popular in the last decade.

Not everybody’s personality is compatible with a cold approach in a real-world context, and that’s perfectly ok.

Check our articles on how to start a great conversation and keep it going if you are unsure about how to kick-start an interaction on dating platforms.

6. Online Dating is Much Less Time-Consuming than Traditional Dating

Dating traditionally means dedicating a significant chunk of your week and day to dating. This usually means hours going from bar to bar or from club to club or from café to café.

Online dating, in contrast, is an activity that you can do whenever you want without dedicating a huge chunk of your time to it.

If you have some spare time during the morning or afternoon, you can just surf through profiles and show interest in the ones you like the most.

The app will then notify you when some other user is interested in you (either because they replied to your show of interest or because they ended up on your profile and found it attractive).

Dating becomes a casual and time-saving activity that doesn’t have to take a significant amount of time from your schedule.

7. It Can Boost Confidence in Your Potential

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When using online dating platforms, you will start realizing that more people are interested in you as a potential dating partner than you thought initially.

This is especially true for shy people who don’t have a lot of experience with approaching strangers and dating in traditional ways.

The existence of a digital distance between the other person and you can make you more comfortable and allow you to express your best features more naturally, which in turn will boost your attraction.

This newfound comfort will also make the actual real-life date much more relaxed and enjoyable because there will have been enough rapport building already.

8. Rejections Don’t Feel as Bad as in Traditional Dating

Being turned down after approaching somebody or asking that person to go on a date can happen both in traditional and online dating.

Yet in online dating rejection doesn’t feel as painful and hard as when approaching people in traditional dating contexts or asking them out.

A no (or simply a lack of response) via chat from a person you’ve never met in person doesn’t have the same effect as a cold reaction from somebody you’ve just approached in a bar or in a bookstore.

This is very important because multiple rejections are one of the reasons people give up and stop trying.

Online dating takes this obstacle out of the picture and allows you to focus more on finding the right match rather than worrying about being rejected.

9. The Other Person’s Friends Won’t Get in The Way

Another obstacle when approaching strangers in traditional dating is the fact that they are often accompanied by friends which will make it difficult to have one-to-one interaction with the person you’re interested in.

This problem is usually referred to as “cockblocking” and it’s the reason for many potentially good interactions going bad in traditional dating.

Let’s say you’re a guy who meets a girl at a bar. She may be in a group with 3 other friends, and you may not be able to conclude the interaction because she doesn’t want to leave her friends alone or because one of her friends doesn’t like you and tries to keep you from talking to her.

This problem disappears in online dating. When you contact a person (especially after a match) the interaction is entirely between you two and there is no risk she won’t reply due to “cockblocking”.

10. You Don’t Need to Ask the Other Person for a Phone Number

Dating traditionally means meeting new people through either social circles or approaching strangers during the day or in nightlife venues.

This also means that, if the first approach is successful, at one point during the conversation you will have to ask for the phone number (or alternatively a social media profile) of the other person.

This is an additional obstacle because the other person can either refuse to give you a contact or give you a false one.

This problem doesn’t exist in online dating because the platform is an effective communication tool in itself.

Many online dating apps have a mobile version that works exactly like an instant messaging app, meaning you can chat back and forth even when you’re not home, which is the same as texting with people after you have obtained their telephone number.

11. Knowing Somebody Better Before Dating That Person in Real Life

In traditional dating, the date is usually the part of the interaction during which two people assess whether they are good for each other.

This means that the first date has a significantly high chance of failure if one or both people realize that the other person is not what they were looking for.

Online dating introduces a “pre-date stage” during which the two sides interact and get to know each other before actually meeting in the real world for an actual date.

This means that when they finally catch up for a drink or a walk, they already have a general idea of what to expect and the chances that the date will work out are much higher.

Of course, this is not a guarantee that the real-life date will work out, but the probability is much more in your favor considering that the “initial screening phase” has already taken place during the online interaction.

12. More Preparation for the First Date

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Interacting with your potential dating partner online before actually meeting in real person also gives you the chance to understand which parts of your personality the other person is interested in, which in turn gives you more time to prepare for the first date.

It’s never advisable to pretend to be somebody else but it’s perfectly ok to showcase those authentic traits of your personality that are more likely to attract the other person.

While chatting with your potential dating partner, you can start getting an idea of what parts of you the other person appreciates the most and make sure that you will put them on very good display during your first real-life get-together.

13. Spotting Red Flags

There are some aspects of a person that may be very undesirable for a dating partner. Some of these traits have to do with an objective problem in the other person (e.g., neurosis, depression, sociopathic behaviors), and some have to do more with subjective taste (e.g., you may not be compatible with certain personalities, relationship-wise).

In both cases, interacting with a person online before actually going out on a date gives you the chance of performing a preliminary analysis and check for such red flags.

Discovering them way before you go out on a date with the other person can save you time, energy, and trouble.

14. Assessing the Other Person’s Short and Long-Term Intention

Some people date because they are interested in a casual relationship, others date because they are just looking for some random hook-ups (“friends with benefits”) while others are looking for a committed, romantic relationship that may evolve into something even more serious.

It may be painful to discover that the two of you have completely different intentions after having already met that person a couple of times, which happens quite often in traditional dating.

In online dating, the possibility of chatting with the other person on the internet gives you both the chance to make clear to the other side what type of relationship you are looking for.

If you are looking for different things, you can avoid wasting too much of each other’s time and move on to somebody who’s more in tune with your expectations.

15. It’s Easier to Become Experienced

Relying on traditional dating for accumulating experience in this field means that you will have to approach and interact with dozens of people in everyday life.

This is not always easy or possible timewise.

Online dating gives you the chance of interacting with countless people over a relatively small amount of time, meaning that you’ll develop a “dating skillset” much sooner.

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