5 Best Dating Sites in Iowa

By: Michele Baird
Updated: January 11, 2023
Popular Iowa Dating Sites

If you’re looking for love in Iowa, you’ll be happy to know that 47% of Iowans are single, so there are plenty of fish in the proverbial sea. If you’re anything like me, these types of statistics fill you with a lot of optimism, but that optimism eventually gives way to doubt and apprehension. 

It doesn’t matter how many single people exist around you if you can’t find a way to connect with them. Thankfully, the digital age has completely transformed the modern singles scene in Iowa and beyond.  

Top 5 Dating Apps in Iowa

Using dating sites in Iowa is no longer stigmatized or unorthodox; it’s the new normal. Still, you will need to know which sites work best for your unique situation.

To help you get started, I’ve compiled a list of my top 5 picks for the best dating sites in Iowa.

1. eHarmony - Best Overall

eHarmony

eHarmony is one of the oldest dating sites on the web, and it is by far the most popular. It averages an astounding 4.1 million visitors a month and boasts more than 33 million members from 200 different countries.

Unlike other matchmaking sites where users merely share quick bios and photos, eHarmony uses a compatibility quiz to take a deeper, more nuanced look at its users and better facilitate compatible partnerships. The optional quiz is over 80 questions long and deals with goals, dating preferences, communication style, and more to fully assess a user’s beliefs, temperament, values, and desires. 

Another unique feature of eHarmony is that you won’t find yourself searching for or scrolling through potential matches for hours on end. Instead, eHarmony curates your matches for you, taking a lot of the stress and hard work out of the process.

2. Elite Singles - Runner Up, Best Overall

EliteSingles.com

More than 80% of Elite Singles members have a university degree, and it’s the perfect site for singles who prefer a dating pool of more intellectually minded people. You can find elite, single professionals who understand the ins and outs of your successful career. 

Elite Singles has over 2 million monthly users, features both a match curating system and multiple search features to help you find the love of your life. It is a general dating site that offers diverse singles who all have very similar life goals. 

With Elite Singles, you can use custom, premium dating preferences to ensure you’re making the perfect matches.

3. Christian Cafe - Best for Faith-Based Dating

Christian Cafe signup page

If you’re looking for a dating service targeted towards Christian singles, Christian Cafe is the best choice out of the bunch. 

You can indicate what level of importance faith plays in your life, set up denominational preferences, and share your level of church involvement to find others with similar spiritual convictions. 

Christian Cafe offers Quick Matches as well if you don’t feel like doing the detective work yourself. 

The site also offers an active blog centered around Christian dating and relationships. The content in their blog is explicitly targeted at Christian singles and can provide unique perspectives that you won’t find on more generalized dating sites.

4. Silver Singles - Best for Senior Dating

Silversingles Online Dating Signup Page

When Silver Singles started in 2002, it was called PrimeSingles.net. Since then, the dating site has been through two name changes. Through it all, the service has remained loyally committed to helping mature singles find each other. 

Silver Singles is now one of the most popular senior dating sites on the web. The dating site has over 800,000 monthly users from all around the world. 

Silver Singles only allows members to join if they are 50 years or older. Their secure signup process uses fraud detection and verifies each profile to make sure that all the users accurately represent themselves, so you can feel safe looking for love on Silver Singles.

5. Catholic Match - Best for Catholic Dating

Catholic Match

18% of adults in Iowa identify as Catholic. That means that there are roughly 567,900 Catholics in the Hawkeye state. If you’re a Catholic single looking for love, CatholicMatch is the best place to find your perfect partner. 

In its two-plus decades, CatholicMatch has seen 1.5 million new members join the platform and thousands of new members join each month. CatholicMatch has almost five times as many members as other leading Catholic dating services. 

The site uses a comprehensive, well-researched matchmaking system that relies on an in-depth Match Portrait questionnaire. It is a list of multiple-choice questions that help determine your personality, outlook, values, and worldviews.

FAQs About Dating Sites in Iowa

If you’d still like to know more about the best dating sites in Iowa, read on below to find answers to some of the most frequently asked questions about dating sites in Iowa. 

Which Dating Site Is Best for Serious Relationships?

Of all the aforementioned dating sites in Iowa, eHarmony is the best choice if you’re looking for a serious relationship. They are responsible for 4% of all current U.S marriages. 

The site creates about 15 million matches every single day. 69% of men and 71% of women meet their spouses within a year of signing up. If you want to find your true love, eHarmony is the site for you. 

What Is the Best Hookup Site in Iowa?

If you’re an Iowan looking for more casual encounters as opposed to longer-term partners, never fear! AdultFriendFinder has over 80 million members worldwide, and it is one of the biggest adult dating platforms out there. 

What Is the Best Dating Site for Seniors in Iowa?

If you’re looking for casual romance, serious romance, or even friendship later in life, Silver Singles is the dating platform for you. It operates at a bit of a slower pace than most dating sites and dating apps in Iowa, so you don’t have to worry about feeling overwhelmed in your search.

Which Dating Site Has The Highest Success Rate?

Aside from being the most used dating site in Iowa and the best dating site for serious relationships, eHarmony’s divorce rate is actually lower than the national U.S average, at only 3.86%. 

The site has also successfully matched over 2 million couples around the world. 

Key Takeaways for Singles in Iowa

Iowa skyline

Did you know that 72% of Iowans have access to the internet? Moreover, in June of 2021, almost $100 million in public funding became available for broadband resources that better serve Iowans without access. 

  • There are 3,156,145 in Iowa. 
  • Half of them are men, and half are women - split evenly down the middle.
  • 48% of men are single, and 47% of women are single - another even split.
  • 13% are between 20-29 years old
  • 13% are between 30-39 years old
  • 11% are between 40-49 years old
  • 13% are between 50-59 years old
  • 24% are 60+ years old. 

Are Iowa’s Cities Good for Singles?

All of Iowa’s cities have some sort of dingles scenes, but their sizes, demographics, and access to the internet all vary widely. 

What City in Iowa is Online Dating the Most Popular?

If you look at Google search traffic patterns over the past 12 months, you can see which cities in Iowa are most interested in learning information about online dating. Here they are below in order:

  • Des Moines
  • Ames
  • Cedar Rapids
  • Waterloo
  • Dubuque
  • Davenport

Free Dating Sites in Iowa

All the sites listed offer free trials, so check out the following most popular dating apps in Iowa if you are looking to save some cash!

Rank

Site

Free Trial Link

#1

eHarmony

#2

Elite Singles

#3

Christian Cafe

#4

Silver Singles

#5

Catholic Match