Sick of Tinder and Bumble? Try These New Dating Apps

Dating app fatigue has gone mainstream, with many people growing tired of swiping, ghosting, being ghosted, and generally treading water while searching for the right fish in the sea.

Luckily, there’s a barrage of new apps on the market aiming to help you find the love of your life, a friend with benefits, or both.

Some apps, like Sitch and Ditto, use AI to narrow the dating pool, limiting matches or skipping the app interface entirely in favor of text messages. Other apps match users through mutual connections. For singles who are sick of algorithms altogether, there are startups betting on the in-person meet-cute, hosting dinners, or ticketed events.

The dating startups aim to disrupt the industry’s incumbent power players — Tinder, Hinge, Bumble, and Grindr — which defined a generation of online dating, but have since seen their stock values tumble.

That means opportunity, and investors are pouring money into the space. Dating startups raised $121 million last year, according to PitchBook data.

Still, it’s a tough industry to break into. A dating app needs wide adoption — aka enough potential matches — to be a hit.

So where can you turn to right now to find love, sex, or new relationships of any kind? We’ve researched 24 apps that have launched in the US since 2020 and could be new alternatives for your doom-swiping.

The AI matchmakers

Finding the one is all about finding the right one — something which can take a lot of work in the old-school apps. With AI matchmaker chatbots and AI-powered algorithms promising better matches, these apps hope to make that a whole lot easier.

• Amata: French dating app founder Ludovic Huraux returned with a new app, Amata, in 2025. The app launched in the US this fall and uses large-language models to power a matchmaker chatbot that helps find people matches. The app sets up the date, and users can’t message each other until two hours before the date — a tactic to prevent ghosting and get people off the app.

• Ditto: Available to college students at a handful of universities in California, Ditto is an AI matchmaking service that skips the dating app experience and meets Gen Z where they’re at — in their text messages. Founded by UC Berkeley dropouts Allen Wang and Eric Liu, the startup raised $1.6 million in pre-seed funding and is currently free for students.
• Keeper: If you’re down to spend potentially thousands of dollars on a matchmaking service powered by AI, there’s Keeper. While it’s free for women, Keeper charges $5,000 per date and has men sign up for a “marriage bounty” that typically costs $50,000 — which you only pay if you get married. The service is limited to heterosexual relationships currently. The matchmaking startup recently announced it raised $4 million.
• Known: Founded by Stanford students Celeste Amadon and Asher Allen, Known is an AI-powered dating service based in San Francisco. Known was founded in May and will launch officially in February. While in beta testing, Known users verbally talk to an AI matchmaker and pay a $30 fee for dates. Known gives its users 24 hours to accept an intro and another day to commit to a date. Then, Known helps set up the date by giving recommendations on what to do.
• Sitch: Nandini Mullaji cofounded Sitch after spending years setting up friends with romantic partners. Launched in late 2024, the AI-powered dating app has raised $9 million to date from investors, including A16z. The app has a matchmaker users can chat with instead of swiping through profiles, and people pay for a “set-ups” bundle that starts at $90 for three matches.

The ‘we met IRL’ — sorta

These apps seek to address one common complaint among app daters — the lack of actual dates. Endless flirtations often fizzle before anyone actually meets for drinks or coffee. With location-based features and rewards for getting off the app and into a bar, a handful of new entrants hope to change that.

• Court IRL: All about in-person meet-ups, Court IRL is available to those looking to network, make new friends, and, of course, date. Users check in at a venue to see who else there is open to connecting and take it from there — no matching or messaging required.
• Drinks First: Ariana Nathani started her podcast in 2019 to interview anonymous singles about their dating histories. In 2021, she began hosting in-person dating events to spark connections, partnering with brands like Bumble. Events range from free to $120, with an average starting price of $40.
• First Round’s On Me: First Round’s On Me rewards in-person connection, whether it be with an existing friend or partner — the app allows you to sync calendars — or new connections based on proximity. Users rack up points that can be redeemed for drinks at a list of New York City bars and restaurants.
• Swerv: Founded by Scott Demyon in 2023, Swerv places dating profiles on a map. Users can seek out those profiles at public venues, such as bars, to keep the meet-cute alive in real life. The app is “in the process of raising $3 million,” per its founder.
• The Room: Billing itself as a “social discovery app,” The Room connects people at the same venue so they can meet up in real life. It also offers a map, showing the hot spots where users are most likely to find each other.

• 222: Although the 222 app explicitly declares it’s neither a dating app nor a friend-making service, the IRL-social startup is an easy way to simulate a meet-cute in your city. 222 pairs up small groups of strangers over dinner or other activities after requiring you to take a long personality quiz.

The ‘we met through friends’

Not everyone is interested in dating strangers. A handful of apps are trying to build tools that help people narrow their dating pool to people they have mutual friends (or hobbies) with.

• Cerca: Cerca wants to make it easier to meet people to date within your own social circles. The app syncs with your contacts and lets you know if you have mutual friends with a match. Founded by recent Georgetown graduates, the dating app raised $1.6 million in funding from the former CEO of Match Group in 2025 as it launched in several US cities.
• Frnds of Frnds: The golden rule for Frnds of Frnds: “Don’t talk to strangers.” This dating app, founded by Shayna Ellis and Jake Herman in 2023, connects users with mutual friends.

• Left Field: Launched in 2025 originally as a location-based dating app, Left Field pivoted to matching people based on overlapping details like mutual friends, hometowns, colleges, and favorite spots. Only available in New York, the app says it uses AI to calculate users’ compatibility.

The apps for if you just want to try something new

There’s a grab bag of apps looking to refine their user bases by specific affinities or matching principles — and prove they’re better dating environments than the main apps. Daters are now matching based on astrology, their Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, or different relationship styles.

• Breeze: The European dating app, which launched in the US this year, was founded in 2019. There is no DMing on the app, and Breeze tries to get people on dates rather than just matching by automating the date planning process.
• Beyond: A self-described “social club for modern dating,” Beyond is catering to the “monogamish” crowd of daters who seek relationships that aren’t traditional. The invite-only app was founded by Öykü Saran, Eric Waldstein, and Bobak Emamian and launched in 2025. Beyond has raised $2 million and has advisors from apps like Hinge, Bumble, and Tumblr. Members can match by checking out people’s profiles, or meeting in group chats or at local events.
• Collective: Calling itself a “digital gay bar,” Collective is an app that focuses on LGBTQ+ connections over hookups. It’s somewhere between a social network and a dating app, and focused on creative types.
• Cuffed: Cuffed, cofounded by conservative activist Kyle Kashuv, is a members-only app that only lets users have one match at a time. The idea is to make each chat more high-stakes and limit those that don’t go anywhere.
• Duet: Developed by Wink Tech, a Hong Kong-based Company, Duet matches users based on smart tags. These tags cover users’ habits, interests, and opinions, personalizing connections like a “romantic musical duet.”
• Hoppy: Founded by a former cast member of The Real Housewives of New York, Hoppy promises a members-only space curated by women. Users create short videos to include in their profiles.
• Inni: A personality quiz-focused dating app, Inni was founded by the same team that built Dimmensional, a social app for personality tests that had a viral moment in 2022. Inni launched in December. When matching with people, it shows how compatible you are with each other according to the personality tests.
• Raw: Raw is about “unfiltered” dating — meaning users add daily real-time photos to their profiles. The posting prompt’s time changes every day, which the app says keeps out scammers and catfish. Founded by Marina Anderson, the company has raised $3 million so far.

• Stars Align: Would you date a Leo? Stars Align matches users based on their astrological compatibility. Founded in 2020 by Thomas Rutherfoord and Grace McGrade, the startup has raised $500,000 of outside money.

• Twinby: Twinby is ditching swiping for psychological matchmaking. Based on a combination of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, the Big Five personality framework, and attachment theory, Twinby says it can find your best fit.