If it’s free, it’s for me, right?! Well, not so fast. While we 100% agree with that sentiment when it comes to a lot of things (like food, yum), you may want to pump the brakes when it comes to online dating. The more accurate cliché phrase you have to pay attention to is that you get what you pay for.

This becomes especially true when you’re looking for a faith-filled partner. The idea of Christian dating for free certainly sounds like a winning combination (it’s Christian, it’s dating, and it’s free!), but the reality is there are some real dangers you need to be aware of.

In this article, we’re going to explore why the idea of Christian dating for free may not be the right fit for you.

Security and safety measures cost money.

Much like in-person dating, there are dangers when it comes to online dating. There are people out there who don’t have the best intentions and want to take advantage of you. Because of this, dating apps have to work hard to try and keep you safe.

The ways they keep you safe can include things like screening profiles, proactively searching for fake accounts, creating educational material for members, upgrading systems, and so much more.

The reality? None of this free. It costs money to invest in the safety and security of members.

Yes, the heart behind providing Christian dating for free is incredible. There is no denying that. However, if a Christian dating app doesn’t have the funds or resources necessary to properly invest in safety and security, it runs the risk of doing more harm than good.

When you’re paying for a Christian dating app, that app should be using those funds in part to create a safer and more secure environment.

An alternative to apps offering Christian dating for free

Before we run through the other risks associated with the idea of Christian dating for free, we want to make sure we offer a solution. If you’re looking for a safe, wholesome, and Christ-centered dating app that cares about Kingdom work and cares about providing you the best experience possible, you have got to check out Higher Bond.

It’s 100% Christian owned and operated, built on Biblical values, and offers an environment ready to help you meet someone special.

While Higher Bond does offer paid services, there is still a lot you can do for free (including some messaging). Additionally, pricing is incredibly affordable if you do decide you want to upgrade.

If you’re interested in checking it out, you can use the links below to get started.

With that shared, let’s jump back into the list of reasons that the idea of offering Christian dating for free may not be as good as it seems.

People tend to put more time into things they’re financially invested in.

There’s this weird phenomenon you’ll want to understand to see the point we’re making here. Check this out.

Let’s say you have two sculptures in your house that are nearly identical. One of them you got for free at a garage sale, and the other one was $1,000 from a special collector. Are you going to be more mad if your dog knocks over the $1,000 one instead of the free one?

If we’re being honest, we’d probably be more upset about the one that cost a lot of money! Even though they’re the basically the same item, our minds are wired to assign more value to the one that costs money.

When it comes to online dating apps, the same phenomenon carries true. When someone has to pay for their dating app, they tend to put in more time and effort, contact more people, be more responsive, and so on.

The problem when you offer Christian dating for free to people, they assign less value and minimal urgency to the process. This means you’re going to see less responsiveness, fewer filled out profiles, and an attitude toward the process that “it’s always going to be there for free, so I’ll get to it when I get to it.”

Do we wish this wasn’t the case? Of course! However, when you have a dating app environment where people are less likely to be engaged, the overall quality of the experience for everyone (regardless of how engaged you are) suffers.

Again, the idea of Christian dating for free is great, but there are intangibles that may be getting overlooked.

New features, upgrades, marketing, and customer support cost money.

The last point we want to make here about the idea of Christian dating for free is that the things you love about dating apps and the things that make dating apps more successful, more enjoyable, and overall a better service also cost money. This may sound like such a basic point we’re making, but it’s easy to overlook.

Customer support, new features, upgrades to existing features, marketing to bring on new matches for you…all of these things are expensive and if a dating app doesn’t have adequate resources to do them, the quality of your experience will suffer.

Is there a use case where Christian dating for free is worth it?

Some of you may be wondering that in spite of all of this, is there ever a time where using a Christian dating app for free is still worth it?

The answer for us is not really. The closest argument might be that if you don’t have any extra money to afford the cost, what are your other options? And in reality, we think in those instances there are better options to meet Christian singles that don’t potentially risk your safety and security.