Most Popular Dating Apps Worldwide
Here is the quick list of my top five dating sites in Brazil. I’ll go into more detail in my reviews later in this article.
With over 6.5 million monthly downloads in May 2021, Tinder is the most downloaded dating application in the world. First released in April 2012, the American company introduced the swiping model. This popular dating app was designed in 2002 to serve black and biracial singles around the world. Today, BlackPeopleMeet’s easy-to-use chat features and location-based searches allow millions of African American daters to flirt with one another while on the go. A Marketplace report on the dating app scene found that the top 20 dating apps saw active daily users grow by 1.5 million last year. Adding video chat features, as many dating apps did, certainly.
I lived in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil for four years and traveled extensively around the country to cities including Sao Paulo, Salvador, and Belo Horizonte. When I arrived in Brazil, I was single. When I left Brazil to move back to the United States, I was married to a Brazilian woman.
During those four years, I learned a lot about dating in Brazil. If you’re looking to date or find love in Brazil, you can always check out the normal places to meet people (bars, clubs, church, mutual friends, supermarkets, organizations, etc.); but, I found this strategy to be very inefficient. The best and most efficient way to meet new, single people in Brazil is to sign up for a dating site or app.
I found my wife on one of the sites I mention below, so I can tell you from experience that dating online works and will yield results if you’ve got patience and persistence.
The benefit of dating via your PC or your smartphone is that you will find large numbers of single women (and men) who are ready to date and find love. You can also check out their interests and profiles before establishing a connection.
As I mentioned over on my Brazil Travel Guide, Brazil has really beautiful people. My theory is that the history of mixing among the various races in the country – Portuguese, African, and Native – generated the perfect storm, with a country filled with jaw-dropping beauty and some of the most diverse array of skin tones, shapes, and sizes you will find anywhere in the world.
A clear example of this diversity of Brazil is evident in the picture below of the Brazil Olympic National Female Volleyball Team.
Brazil Female Volleyball Team (Source: Olympicgirls.net)
Ok, without further ado, let’s get into my reviews of the top five dating sites and apps in Brazil.
BrazilCupid is a member of the prominent Cupid Media network that owns 30+ dating sites around the world. It is my favorite site in Brazil and just happens to be where I met my wife (who is “Carioca”…which means a native of Rio De Janeiro, Brazil).
I first heard of BrazilCupid when I arrived in Brazil. I also had previously used another Cupid Media site, AfroIntroductions.com, during the days when I was an expat in South Africa.
BrazilCupid was started in 2005 and has more than 1 million members. Like all of the sites on the Cupid Media network, BrazilCupid has a well-designed, easy-to-use interface, with basic free profiles, and a lot of great features for its premium members.
My only complaint when using BrazilCupid was that I received a couple of sketchy messages almost immediately after I signed up. A targeted application of the message filter system solved that issue quickly though, and there are plenty of genuine men and women looking to connect on this site.
Bottom line, if you are Brazilian or looking for a Brazilian single to meet, then BrazilCupid is the site for you.
Sign up Process
BrazilCupid makes signing up an easy decision, with a streamlined, straightforward process that takes a couple of minutes. After you link up your Facebook or enter your basic information (both about yourself and your ideal match), you’re done. At this point, your profile is technically still incomplete, but you’re free to browse profiles if you wish.
If you decide to leave your profile incomplete for now, I should mention that the site will sometimes ask you to answer a few more questions to continue. This will continue to happen until you take the time to complete your full profile.
How to Locate Potential Matches
When looking for matches, there are four display options:
- Photo View
- Basic View (with basic information)
- Detail View (with basic info and a short tagline)
- (Full) Profile
You can make a more targeted search, narrowing down by age, location, education, lifestyle choices, etc. You can also search by Cupid Tag (self-created tags, e.g. simple, movies, down to earth, religious, etc.), first name, and popular search. Popular searches include New Members, Latest Photos, Most Popular, and In My Area.
How to Communicate with Other Members
BrazilCupid’s basic messaging feature is straightforward, with perks available as you upgrade. As a Standard member, you can communicate freely with premium members. You can “send” messages to other Standard members, and they will be notified that they’ve received a message from you, but the message itself will be “locked” and blurred out. To read it, they’ll have to upgrade to premium.
Basic messaging is text only, but once upgraded, you have access to audio, video and IM chats as well. I’ve found audio and video to be essential tools in the online dating world, as they are extremely helpful in making sure you are compatible with someone before meeting them in person.
Unique Site Features
One of my favorite unique features on BrazilCupid that I haven’t seen anywhere else (besides the other CupidMedia sites) is the ability to upload a video message to your profile. Whenever someone visits your profile, they will get to watch this video. I found this feature to be a much more personalized welcome than simple text.
Creating and shooting a video of yourself can seem like a daunting task and a lot of work. However, the chance to so clearly display and express your personality is an invaluable asset in the world of online dating, where compatibility is all-important. The only downside is that this feature is for platinum members only.
What is Included in Each Membership Level
- Standard – Create profile, upload photos, create customized searches, send interest to anyone, communicate with Gold/Platinum members
- Gold – All of the above, plus: Communicate with all members, audio/video chat, Instant Messaging, ad-free browsing, anonymous browsing
- Platinum – All of the above, plus: Rank above other members in searches, doubled profile space, VIP profile highlighting, platinum-exclusive search features, advanced matching algorithms, message translation
ParPerfeito
I have had a decent amount of experience with ParPerfeito (“perfect partner” in Portuguese). I like the site but not as much as BrazilCupid. It is still a good second choice though. You might have seen their banners inside Metro stations if you’ve ever been to Rio De Janeiro.
Bottom line, ParPerfeito is a pretty standard dating website. In terms of website design, search and communication features, and premium membership benefits, ParPerfeito shows up, but won’t particularly wow you.
ParPerfeito’s biggest strength is easily its large user base, and the fact that the site has been around a long time (since 2000). In the end, ParPerfeito does just enough to merit your time. If you’re looking for Brazilian singles, this is a good place to look.
Sign up Process
To start, select your gender and selected match gender, country and state. Next, enter your birthday, email, username and password. This will take you to the first of 10 pages of questions about your ideal partner and yourself (5 pages each).
The questions regard appearance, education, marital status, religion, children status, drinking/smoking habits – the usual. For each question about your ideal match, you have the option to select if this is something you consider important. The last page concerning yourself includes two text boxes which will require you to write: a call to action for visitors to your profile and a brief description of you. After this, upload a profile photo and you’re done.
How to Locate Potential Matches
ParPerfeito both finds matches for you and gives you ample search options to find matches yourself. You can refine your search for matches by appearance, interests, training, values, lifestyle and keyword.
You can also filter results to include only members with photos, those who are online now, and those who are available to chat.
Mutual Search shows you members who both match what you are looking for and members who are looking for members like you. Reverse Search shows you only members who are looking for people like you.
ParPerfeito’s matching system includes the Daily Couple feature, which uses both your selected preferences and your on-site activity to pair you with 2 compatible matches each day.
How to Communicate with Other Members
ParPerfeito’s communication features are pretty standard. You can start things off with a Wink/Like, send messages, or add a profile to your Favorites.
Messages are unfortunately only available in text. ParPerfeito also gives you many pre-written subjects to include in your message, including such gems as “If you believe in love at first sight, never stop looking. So, give a look at my profile and write me. Kisses”. That sounds slightly more natural in Portuguese, but it still doesn’t make a lot of sense. Online chat is also available, also in text only.
Unique Site Features
One helpful feature is Our History, which catalogs your activity with other matches on the site. You can only access this feature on individual profiles however.
You can also make your profile invisible if you wish. This is not the same as the Invisible browsing you’ll see on other sites however. This is more like putting your profile on pause, removing you from the search results.
What is Included in Each Membership Level
- Standard – Create a profile, search/browse profiles, send winks, receive chat requests
- Gold – Send personalized messages, read/reply to received messages, read message notifications
- Platinum – Unlimited communication
Badoo is another website for online dating in Brazil that you can try if you’ve found no luck at the sites above. To have any success on this site, you need to send out A LOT of messages as their filtering system for fake profiles is definitely not the strongest.
Badoo site was started in Soho, London in 2006 and has over 300 million members, from 190 countries, speaking 41 languages. The majority of Badoo’s user base is in South America.
Badoo allows you to meet and chat with new people around the world, forming new social circles and finding dates. Although it advertises itself as a hybrid social-media network/dating site of sorts, in my experience, it is more of a dating site than anything else, lacking the features of a fully fleshed out social media site.
Sign up Process
New members can sign up by entering their name, birthday, location, and gender, or by connecting their Facebook profile, or from one of their email accounts. In any case, you’ll also have to specify your reason for joining Badoo, with 3 options given to you: make new friends, chat, or date.
Next, you’re given the option of linking your Twitter account, and importing your friends list from an email account. After that, you’re free to browse profiles.
How to Locate Potential Matches
You have two main options for finding a match: Encounters and People Nearby. Encounters presents you with one profile at a time, for you to either like by clicking a heart or dismissing them with an “X” and moving on to see the next member. You are notified when there is a mutual match.
People Nearby is a more standard browsing feature, allowing you to scroll through multiple profiles, all of whom are (you guessed it!) near your location.
How to Communicate with Other Members
Click on a profile via Encounters or People Nearby and you can look through their photos, start a chat (text only), add them to your favorites, or send them a gift. To read their personal information you’ll have to fill out your own profile.
To see their location, you’ll have to turn on location services on your mobile or laptop. You can also see who has liked you in return, but only if you invite your friends from one of your email accounts. This felt like a weird request. Even if I did want to invite my other friends to Badoo (which I did not), I would have rather invited them from Facebook or Twitter.
Unique Site Features
While you can fill out your profile with a fair amount of information, there aren’t really any features to share updates like on Facebook or Twitter. So although it can at times feel like an established social media network (you can upload photos and videos to your profile), in my experience, Badoo really is a dating site first and foremost.
The emphasis Badoo places on the popularity and rank of profiles (how many people liked a profile out of everyone who visited) further supports this notion, as well as the many options available to pay to be seen by more people.
What is Included in Each Membership Level
- Free – Sign up, create a profile, browse, favorite, and chat with other users
- Platinum – You see the most popular members in Encounters, your profile is shown more often in People Nearby and in Encounters, includes all Super Power features
- Super Powers – See who wants to meet you or who favorited you, undo previous votes in encounters, invisible browsing, chat with new users and most popular users
- Paid Features – Rise up in People Nearby, be shown more in Encounters, be featured in local searches, send stickers in chat, send “gifts”
Tinder
Tinder is the most popular dating app in the world. It is especially popular in Brazil. Let’s take a look at it now.
Sign up Process
You can sign up via Facebook – Tinder will pull your name, age, and location, and you can choose which Facebook pictures you’d like to include in your Tinder profile.
I decided to sign up using just my phone number – Tinder says it doesn’t ever post to Facebook, but I couldn’t bear the thought of a glitch.
After you register, they give you a quick tutorial as well – covering basics like swiping right (on the people you like) and swiping left, in addition to other fun features such as “Super Likes,” which I’ll talk about more later on.
How to Locate and Communicate with Other Members
Messaging another person on Tinder only becomes available after you swipe right on someone, and they swipe right back (or vice versa). In terms of providing information about yourself, Tinder doesn’t prompt you much – which actually might have made the process a bit easier, as I wouldn’t have had to dig around to fill out my information post-registration.
But it’s simple enough once you get there – you can choose to include things like a quick bio and your job title or company. There are also options to connect your Instagram and Spotify accounts – in case you’re looking for someone with a similar music taste, which I loved.
Also, be sure to set your maximum distance for potential matches (how far are you willing to travel?) and to select an age range (anywhere from 18 to 100+).
Unique App Features
Something I found to be pretty exciting was the option to “Super Like.” A Super Like is basically letting someone know that they stood out to you. With a free account, you get one Super Like a day, which will display a little notification with your profile when you show up in your crush’s feed. This will definitely make you stand out, and it’s supposed to make you three times more likely to receive a match.
Something that I discovered that I didn’t love about Tinder was the lack of filters for your dating pool. Sometimes you just want to be able to discriminate by height and other superficial matters.
What is Included in Each Membership Level
Tinder Plus is the first tier – you get an extra four Super Likes a day, access to “Passport” (so that you can change your location to anywhere), and unlimited right swipes (that means no time restrictions).
Even more, if you happen to accidentally swipe left on someone – which is bound to happen after hours of addictive swiping – you can “Rewind” and undo your last swipe. You also get 1 monthly “Tinder Boost,” meaning your profile goes straight to the top for 30 minutes of increased exposure. Finally, you can choose to hide your age and your distance, if you don’t want people to judge a book by its cover.
With Tinder Gold, the second tier, you get all the benefits of Tinder Plus, and a few more. You can see who likes you (without liking them back), and you have access to your Top Picks. Tinder picks out 4 to 10 profiles as highly compatible matches, which is great if you happen to be looking for something more serious.
Plenty of Fish began in 2003, and has over 90 million members. It has grown into one of the largest dating services in the world, and you’ll be happy to know that it is free.
Doubling as a social networking site for dates, Plenty of Fish offers many unique features and options to chat with other members. Whether you are looking for singles events or a simple date, Plenty of Fish has it all.
Sign up Process
To sign up and “start fishing” there are a few steps:
Start by filling in your basic information like email address, password, and desired username.
The next step requires a bit more detailed information such as
- Gender you are seeking
- Personal physical stats
- Family situation
- If you have children
- Longest relationship
- Smoking and drinking habits
- Drug use
- Religion
- Pets
- Income
- Profession and education
- Other unique questions: Do you own a car?, Describe your personality in one word. How ambitious are you?, When it comes to dating what best describes your intent? What is the longest relationship you have been in?
Create a headline, description, fill out a few of the optional conversation starters, and interests.
Verify your account with your mobile number
Add at least one photo that can be downloaded from your Instagram or Facebook photos
Take the relationship chemistry predictor test. This does not need to be taken at the time of sign up but will help to improve your matches.
How to Locate Potential Matches
There are a few ways to locate potential matches on Plenty of Fish:
1. Live!: This feature is only available on the app, and is a live stream feature that allows you to either broadcast a live video, or view potential matches on a live video. This can help you to favorite those who spark your interest, and you can even send virtual gifts.
2. Searching: This aspect of the site gives you extremely detailed search options on either a basic or advanced level. The basic search will be defined by your previously set match preferences such as gender, age, location, body type, education, ethnicity and distance to your location. While the advanced search allows you to search with all the basic filters as well as marital status, profession, pets, eye color, personality, and ambition.
3. Meet Me: This section is more for automated matching. Here you can swipe left for “no”, right for “yes”, choose “maybe” or “super yes”.
4. Relationship Chemistry Predictor: This type of matching measures five different dimensions of your personality that are considered essential for building a relationship: self-confidence, family orientation, self-control, social dependency/openness, and easygoingness. It is composed of 73 questions that are multiple choice.
How to Communicate with Other Members
There are an incredible number of tools that allow members to communicate on Plenty of Fish. Many of these features are located on the user’s profile, or within the search and match results.
Through a user’s profile, you can send a direct message, add a user as a favorite or send a virtual gift for attention. These are located in the inbox/conversation area.
Live! is another way to communicate with members, as you can comment on other user’s live streams, or send a private message.
There are also many unique features which allow some form of communication on the app or desktop site.
Unique Site Features
1. NextDate: This is a virtual speed dating game. It allows each streamer 90 seconds to ask questions and select either match, or next. After matching, a video chat will be unlocked for you and your date.
2. Spark: This is only available on the app, but allows you to quote any part of someone’s profile to “spark” a conversation.
3. Relationship Chemistry Predictor: Along with the standard Relationship Chemistry Predictor and its 73 statements about you and your personality, there are also the Relationship Needs Assessment, Is Your Love Interest A Keeper?, a “Psychological Assessment, and The Sex Test.
What is Included in Each Membership Level
Popular Free Dating Apps
There are two membership options on Plenty of Fish, the free level and upgraded membership, with the ability to purchase tokens as well.
1. Free Membership
- Create a profile with maximum 8 photos
- Search for members
- View member profiles and photos
- Read and reply to any message
- Send a message to any user whose criteria you match
- Use Meet Me
- Take personality tests
- See who has viewed your profile without the ability to sort
2. Upgraded Membership
Includes everything from the free membership with a few added features:
- No ads
- Listed before free members in Meet Me
- See all users who want to meet you from Meet me
- View extended profiles
- Search for members by username
- Read receipts
- Send 3 virtual gifts per day for free
- Ability to upload 16 images
Tokens are a virtual currency in Plenty of Fish to purchase different premium features all costing one token such as:
- Highlight yourself: Makes your profile highlighted in search with the label “today’s catch”
- Boost in MeetMe: Same as highlight yourself, but in the MeetMe section.
- Super yes: Essentially a super like for more of a chance to get a mutual match.
- Send a priority message: Your message will be at the top of a user’s inbox for 29 days or until read.
- Send virtual gifts in Live!: Any virtual gift sent in Live! will give that member diamonds that can eventually be traded in for cash rewards.
Overall, Plenty of Fish is filled with incredible features that are mostly free. This app gives users a fair chance to meet someone on an app, versus many other apps on the market requiring payment for the slightest message.
How to Get Started
Sign up for one of the sites I mentioned above. If you need help trying to find out what to say in your first conversation, or if you need help on when to ask the woman/man you’re interested in to go offline for a date (and more), check out my e-book, Online Dating Success: How to Find Love Anywhere in the World. In the book I go into detail about everything I learned while dating in Brazil as well as in other countries around the world.
Useful Phrases in Portuguese:
- Oi, tudo bem? – Hi, how is it going?
- Meu nome é… – My name is…
- Qual é o seu nome? – What is your name?
- De onde você é? – Where are you from?
- Sou dos Estados Unidos. – I am from the United States.
- Você fala Inglês? – Do you speak English?
- O que você gosta de fazer para se divertir? – What do you like to do for fun?
- É mesmo!? – Oh really!?
- Tem irmãos ou irmãs? – Do you have any brothers or sisters?
- Você é muito gostosa. – You are really stunning.
- Eu gosto muito de você. – I like you a lot.
- Vamos sair neste fim de semana. – Let’s go out this weekend.
- Você está livre às 7 horas? – Are you free at 7 o’clock?
- Legal! Obrigado. – Cool! Thank you.
- Ótimo! Até logo. – Great! See you later.
- Tchau. – Bye
Further Reading
Most Popular Dating Apps By Country
Worldwide Online Dating Site Reviews: Be sure to check out my country-by-country reviews of the best online dating sites in the world.
Worldwide Moving Guide: Everything you need to know in order to plan your move to 65+ countries around the world.
Worldwide Jobs Guide: If you are interested in working in this country, be sure to check out my posts on how to find jobs in this country and other countries around the world.
Worldwide Apartments Guide: If you are interested in renting an apartment in another country, take a look at my articles on how to find an apartment in various countries around the world.
Most Popular Dating Apps
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