The 5 Best Dating Sites in Colombia (What I Learned)

medellin_colombian_woman

Colombian Woman from Medellín

Here is the quick list of my top five dating sites and apps in Colombia. I’ll go into more detail in my reviews later in this article.

  1. Colombian Cupid
  2. Latin American Cupid
  3. Bumble
  4. OKCupid
  5. Tinder

Colombia is one of my most favorite countries in the world. And, best of all, you’ll be happy to know that it has a really vibrant dating scene with a massive pool of available singles all over the country.

Since my first trip to Colombia way back in 2008, I’ve traveled all over the country…from the beaches of Cartagena (the first ever city in Colombia I went to) to the Andean highlands of Bogotá (the capital city). No matter where you go, you will find a large number of singles ready to mingle.

While countries such as Argentina witnessed a slow growth in the number and popularity of online dating sites during the early 2000s, Colombia’s online dating industry exploded. That explosion continued through the entire 2010s with the introduction of the popular dating app known as Tinder.

You should know that, as far as dating apps go, Tinder is by far the most popular dating app. Why did I put in last in the list then?

Because, in my experience down in Colombia, Tinder is efficient if you’re looking for a short term relationship. However, if you are interested in finding your soul mate on Tinder, forget about it. Tinder falls short. My theory behind this is that the whole swipe-right/swipe-left way of meeting people is too superficial. The minimal effort required to sign up and indicate your interest in someone might attract a huge number of members, but you have to sift through so many timewasters that it really isn’t worth your time unless you’ve run out of options.

If you’re looking for a Colombia girlfriend (or boyfriend), start with the dating sites below and make these the focus of your search efforts. Then, if you have spare time, download Tinder and see what happens.

The dating scene in Colombia is very much like the dating scene in Brazil. You can’t go wrong on any dating site/app in any city or town in the country.

Sure, the majority of Colombians still meet their romantic partners through the usual methods, such as through mutual friends or organizations, or at school, work, or church, etc; however, this scene has been changing quickly, and dating via the Internet and the smartphone is now mainstream.

Colombians (like Venezuelans and Brazilians) have a pure, raw, and unadulterated beauty. They are a stunningly attractive bunch.

The women of Medellin, Barranquilla, Santa Marta, Cartagena, and Cali are legendary. Throw a racially diverse population, a warm, friendly overall demeanor, and salsa dancing to the mix, and you will come to Colombia and never want to leave.

Ok, without further ado, let’s take a look at each of my five favorite dating sites and apps in Colombia.

colombian_woman_with_hat

Colombian women are beautiful

1. Colombian Cupid

This is definitely the best site for finding Colombians to date. Colombian Cupid is part of the Cupid Media family that owns sites such as Brazil Cupid and Afrointroductions (two sites that I’ve used in the past while living in Brazil and South Africa, respectively, with a lot of success).

colombian_cupid

Colombian Cupid

There is a special place in my heart for ColombianCupid because I met my wife on the sister site, BrazilCupid. When browsing profiles and chatting with members on this site, the fiery energy of Colombia comes clearly shining through.

With upwards of 250,000 members, you have a lot of singles to choose from. ColombianCupid has the same solid interface and great features of its sister sites in the Cupid Media Network, with the audio/video chat really taking the cake for me as far as killer communication options. Unfortunately, you’ll have to pay for a premium membership to really get the most out of this site.

Sign up Process

ColombianCupid values ease and efficiency, and it shows from the start. To sign up, start with your name, gender, email and a password. Next, fill out a short About Me section, tell the site what you’re looking for in an ideal partner, and you’re done.

At this point, your profile is technically not yet finished, but you are free to browse and search for matches if you wish. If you elect to leave your profile as-is, be prepared for random pop-up boxes that will force you to answer more questions to move forward.

How to Locate Potential Matches

After stipulating what your ideal match looks like, ColombianCupid will display compatible matches for you, which you can browse in Photo View (photos only), Basic View (photos and basic information), Detail View (with photos, basic info and a short tagline) and Profile (full profiles).

You can also personalize your search based on basic information like age or ethnicity, or look through Popular Searches, like those who have recently joined ColombianCupid or uploaded new photos.

How to Communicate with Other Members

Messaging between Standard members on ColombianCupid is limited. You can flirt with “Sending Interest”, profile visits, favorites, and messages (which can only be read after upgrading to premium).

These are all great options for turning heads and prompting visits to your profile, but if you want to move on from hoping someone will like your profile enough to upgrade so they can talk to you, I recommend taking the leap and upgrading yourself. Once you do, you can truly communicate with other members, via text, audio, video, and IM chats.

Unique Site Features

One of the best features of ColombianCupid is the built-in message translator. With this feature, your messages can be translated into your target language with just one click.

Of course, these translations won’t be perfect, but that is to be expected of any online translator. This feature is only available to the paying, premium members, but if you’re willing to upgrade, your dating pool will be significantly expanded with the use of this feature.

What is Included in Each Membership Level

  • Standard – Craft customized searches, browse recommended matches, send interest, communicate with premium members
  • Gold – All of the above, plus: Unlimited messaging and communication with other profiles (text, audio, video, Instant Messaging), ad-free browsing, invisible browsing
  • Platinum – All of the above, plus: Better ranking in searches, VIP profile highlighting, extra profile space, access to advanced matching algorithms, message translation, extended search capabilities.

2. Latin American Cupid

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Latin American Cupid

Latin American Cupid has a large selection of Colombians. Because it is also owned by the same guys who own Colombian Cupid, you will probably see some overlap in the women and men that show up in your search results. That will not be the case for everyone though, so for the best results, I recommend signing up for both sites.

Latin American Cupid is full of Colombians. When I was in Cartagena, a search for women living in my vicinity between 21 and 35 years old who have been active on the site within the last 3 months typically turned up more than 1000 profiles.

The site has been online since 2003 (ancient in Internet terms) and is one of the biggest sites under the Cupid Media Network umbrella, with over 3 million members.

In contrast to focused, niche sites like MexicanCupid, LatinAmericanCupid is for people looking to connect with residents of any country within Latin America, including Mexico, Brazil, Colombia and many more.

LatinAmericanCupid is an all-around great dating site, available in eight languages, and serving customers with the polished website and strong features typical of a Cupid Media Network member. Just be wary of the scam-artist sob stories, asking for money!

Sign up Process

Signing up for LatinAmericanCupid is enjoyably smooth. All that is required at first is your name, gender, password and email. The next step is just to write a short blurb about yourself, describe your ideal partner, and you’re done!

Technically your profile is not yet complete at this stage. However, you can go on to browse and search for members if you wish. When you do get around to completing your profile, be warned that it may take some time to do so, as there is a lot there.

How to Locate Potential Matches

After entering your ideal match criteria, LatinAmericanCupid will present matches for you to browse, viewing by Photo View, Basic View, Detail View and Profile, and sorting by Newest Members, Photos First, Last Active, and Relevance. You can also tailor your searches to include or exclude profiles based on age-range, location, ethnicity, body-type, even their astrological sign.

How to Communicate with Other Members

As a free member, basic messaging is pretty limited. You can communicate freely with premium members, and you do have a few options for getting other Standard members’ attention. But none of these options (sending interest, adding as a favorite, visiting profile, or sending a “locked” message) include actual conversation. They will only notify the member of your existence and interest, and for anything to move forward, one of you will have to upgrade to a premium account.

The good news is, once you pay for a premium account, the messaging features are top notch, with audio, video and IM chat all available.

Unique Site Features

Easily one of the most useful and unique features on this site is the ability to translate your messages to the language of your choice. While copy/pasting from Google Translate isn’t exactly a hassle, it is nice to be able to translate messages with just one click, without ever leaving LatinAmericanCupid.

Considering that most of the profiles on this site will speak little English, you’ll be as glad as I was to have this feature available.

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: Unlimited messaging and communication with other profiles (text, audio, video, Instant Messaging), ad-free browsing, invisible 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

3. Bumble

Bumble

Bumble

As another option, I recommend you sign up for Bumble because it is the second most popular dating app in Colombia behind Tinder. I did a full review of Bumble here.

4. OKCupid

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OKCupid

Sign up for this website if you’ve run out of options on the sites above.

OkCupid is a free dating site that uses complex algorithms and an expansive question-matching system to find the best possible matches for its members. The huge user base (over 50+ million since launch) and lack of signup fees is both a plus and a minus.

With so many people, your chances of finding a good match are high, however “free” also seems to attract a fair amount of spammers and suspect profiles. Because of this, it might take some time to sift through the chaff.

All-in-all though, you can find whatever you’re looking for on OkCupid: quick hookups, serious relationships, and everything in between.

Sign up Process

You can sign up with your Facebook account or manually enter your basic information. Next, you pick a username and password, write a few words about yourself, and answer five personality questions.

Finally, you “Like” three user profiles to give OkCupid an idea of your type. After that, you’re free to browse!

How long it will take to complete your own profile depends on you. With photos to upload, basic stats to fill in, eight prompts to play with, and thousands of possible questions to answer, there is room for a lot of information.

I love writing and enjoyed the chance to share so much about myself. Others may find it a bit overwhelming and prefer to keep it short and sweet.

How to Locate Potential Matches

For general browsing, OkCupid helps you narrow down your search with a number of filter options. When browsing, you’ll see each person’s main photo, username, age, location and a “% Match” and “% Enemy”. These last two stats are OkCupid’s algorithms at work, comparing and contrasting how each of you answered questions.

You can also use Quickmatch, which shows you other members to “Like” or dismiss, notifying the both of you when there is a match.

How to Communicate with Other Members

You have two official options: “Liking” and Messaging. Liking feels useful really only as a bookmark of sorts, because users can only see who’s Liked them if they pay for the premium membership. Online messaging is text only, but free and simple to use.

A final, indirect form of communication is to simply visit someone’s profile, as OkCupid will notify them each time you do so.

Unique Site Features

OkCupid’s most unique feature is their question matching system. Questions range from the mundane (Are you a morning person?), to the sexual (Are you fetish-friendly?), the deal-breakers (Is interracial marriage a bad idea?), and the downright bizarre (In a certain light, wouldn’t nuclear war be exciting?).

For each question, you also specify which answers you’ll accept from others and how important the question is to you. There are thousands of questions to choose from, and the more you answer, the more accurately you can match with others.

OkCupid also uses all of your answers to create an overview of your personality, e.g. More Adventurous or Less Kinky.

Membership Fees and What is Included for Each Membership

  • Free – Create a profile, browse, Like, and message other users
  • A-List – Advanced search options, invisible browsing, message filtering, extra message storage, ad-free browsing, username changes, see who has liked you, and see when someone has read your message.
  • Incognito Mode – Lets you Like and visit profiles invisibly, hides your profile from searches.
  • Profile Boosts – Appear more often in searches and at the top of the list in Quickmatch.

5. Tinder

tinder

Tinder

Tinder is the most popular dating app in Colombia by far. As I mentioned in the opening of this article, you will not likely find your soul mate on here. I suggest downloading Tinder to your phone after you have exhausted all the options above.

How to Get Started:
Sign up for one of the websites above if you’re interested in finding a Colombian woman (or man) for a long term relationship. If short-term love is your thing, download Tinder to your smartphone.

If you need help with how to set up a profile, what to write for your initial and follow up messages, when to ask the woman/man you’re interested in to go offline for a date, etc., check out my e-book, Online Dating Success: How to Find Love Anywhere in the World.

Good luck!

Useful Phrases in Spanish: 

  • Hola, ¿Cómo estás? – Hi, how are you?
  • Me llamo… – My name is…
  • ¿Cuál es su nombre? – What is your name?
  • ¿De dónde eres? – Where are you from?
  • Yo soy de los Estados Unidos. – I am from the United States.
  • ¿Hablas Inglés? – Do you speak English?
  • ¿Qué te gusta hacer para divertirte? – What do you like to do for fun?
  • ¿De verdad? – Oh really!?
  • ¿Tienes hermanos o hermanas? – Do you have any brothers or sisters?
  • Tu eres bonita. – You are really stunning.
  • Me gustas mucho. – I like you a lot.
  • Vamos a salir este fin de semana. – Let’s go out this weekend.
  • ¿Estás libre a las 7 de la tarde? – Are you free at 7 o’clock?
  • Qué bueno!! Gracias. – Cool! Thank you.
  • ¡Qué genial! Hasta Luego. – Great! See you later.
  • Adiós – Bye.

Further Reading

  • 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.

About Addison Sears-Collins

Hey! I'm Addison Sears-Collins, the founder of Visa Hunter. You can learn more about me here. Connect with me by liking my fan page on Facebook, connecting with me on Twitter, or check out my website Automatic Addison where I build robots and embedded systems.

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