Tinder might have gotten a lot of action in 2016, but according to a recent article in The Washington Post, niche dating apps are poised to get more attention this year.

Research from online dating sites and apps have shown that the biggest increase in memberships and activity occur from New Year’s Day through Valentine’s Day. It’s the time when the most people are looking for love, or at least a few dates. Traditionally, people have gravitated to the bigger sites like Tinder or Match in the hopes of having the widest pool of daters to choose from. But this year, people are looking for new ways to connect.

Part of the problem according to the Post is that dating apps don’t necessarily lead to users getting more dates. It’s easy to swipe endlessly, but that doesn’t seem to translate to meeting in real life. In the past year, poor and flaky dating behavior has left a lot to be desired, and daters are increasingly frustrated.

JDate is currently having a sale on 3 and 6 month subscriptions. The sale starts January 26th and runs to January 29th, 2017 and gives you up to 30% off. No coupon is required for this promotion.

JDate is a popular online dating service for Jewish singles which has been in operation since the late 90s. Thousands of members are online at any one time looking for a match making it very easy when you are on the service to find local Jewish people to date in your neighbourhood. When you visit Jdate.com you can create a membership for free. Once you have filled out your profile you can then go ahead and search for your ideal match using a number of different criteria you can choose from. If you spot any profile you like in the results, you can go ahead and view their full profile and photos. If you want to contact the member you would then have to purchase a subscription for a low monthly fee.

For more information about this popular Jewish dating service please read our review of JDate.

Recipient
PlentyOfFish.com

The 2016 Dating Sites Reviews Single's Choice Award poll was closed for voting on December 31, 2016. The poll opened mid October (a little later than planned) and in the 2 and a half months that voting took place it received a total of 407 votes which is a little less than last year (probably due to being open 2 weeks less). This award is the result of the second question from the poll which asks our visitors what is in their opinion is the best free dating service (includes websites and dating apps). The top 8 free dating services where picked by the Editor's to be the options for the visitor to select from. These dating services were selected by meeting a number of criteria. This includes having a review on Dating Sites Reviews, having the core features of the service being free (including, profiles, searching, and messages), and being a service with a large amount of traffic.

The recipient of the 2016 Single's Choice Award for a Free Dating Site is Plenty Of Fish. This is the eighth straight year in a row that Plenty of Fish has won this award. In 2016 POF received 126 votes which is a percent more than last year, and 30 percent of the total votes cast.

Here are the final results of the poll:

A Social Game With Dating?

Think Tinder is grueling? A new app promises an even more vicious take on mobile dating.

Already a source of controversy, FMK turns the classic boredom-busting game ‘F*ck, Marry, Kill’ into the newest way to find a mate (or, at the very least, kill some time). FMK presents users with three photos and three blunt choices:

• F*ck: Perfect for a one night stand, but you’d only introduce them to your parents if you were trying to piss them off.
• Marry: The complete package of looks and personality. Someone with serious long-term potential.
• Kill: Not even if you were the only two survivors of a zombie apocalypse. In fact, you’d rather hookup with a zombie.

Recipient
Match.com

The Editor's Top Pick - Over All Award recipient for 2016 is Match.com. This award is a difficult one to determine as the race is very close amongst the popular dating services. After careful review we determined that Match would be the recipient of the Overall award this year thanks to their continued popularity and customer service.

In a recent study it was found that 38% of Match members had a relationship (which started on Match.com) that had lasted longer than one month. This was the highest of all the dating services which were in the study. Thanks to statistics like this and Match's continued ability to offer easy and accessible tools for members to find their potential partner, it raised the bar and put this dating service top on our list for 2016.

HitWe App Profile View

Another day, another new dating site that’s trying to hit it big.

Hitwe calls itself the “fastest-growing online discovery network” and promises to offer “the best opportunities for communication and new acquaintances.” They’d be big claims coming from anyone, but they’re downright gargantuan coming from a service most of us haven’t heard of. Naturally, it makes you curious… does Hitwe live up to its own hype?

A quick investigation reveals a colorful but simple site. Hitwe is clearly a product of its time. New users can sync their account with Facebook to automatically populate their profiles and save time. Pictures can be imported directly from Facebook or Instagram. The profile layout has both a featured image and a cover photo, a design that will be intimately familiar to any social media user. The profile also has tallies of visitors and likes, another resemblance to many social media profiles.