Christian Cafe is an online dating site and app that’s been around since 1999. In online dating terms, that practically makes it prehistoric. However, the site has remained popular over the years and is still favoured by many Christians looking for love.
Whether you're looking for love, companionship, or even something casual, our selection of dating sites has something for everyone. Find what you're looking for with Age Times!
Signing up
Signing up for Christian Cafe is easy, as they will guide you through all the steps along the way. However, set aside half an hour for it, as you have to fill in several multiple-choice questions to be allowed to create a profile.
After the multiple-choice questions, you can answer several other questions about yourself, your life, your faith and more. There is even one question asking what you've learned from past relationships! These are questions where you write the answers in your own words. While you don't have to answer these questions, it's worth doing, as people will be more likely to connect with you.
Remember that on a dating site, the only impression people get from you is through your photos and what you share in your profile. People are much more likely to send you a message if they feel they’ve learned enough about you to get what they think to be an accurate impression of your personality. Online dating differs from meeting someone at an event because there isn’t that instant impression.
Apart from the questions, you also can upload three profile pictures. If you post the photos, they will give you a 3-day free membership! Though they offer a 10-day trial for free regardless.
Members
As you must fill in many multiple-choice questions when signing up, ranging from your education level and fashion sense to how much money you make, profiles are pretty detailed. Not everyone has taken the time to answer the optional questions, but it's nice to see that some have. It makes the profiles a whole lot more interesting to look at.
Overall, the quality of members seems good. Chances are you’ll find some great matches here if you're Christian and looking for a long-term relationship.
Features
You can search for members using the following:
- Quickmatch
- Your own criteria
- New members
- Username
- Birthday
You can also create a list of Favourites that you can easily access, check your own search history and see who has viewed your profile. In addition to that, you're able to see who is online. You can choose if you want to see males or females online and if you want to see people worldwide or only in your region.
If you like someone’s profile, you can message or wink at them. You can also add them to your Favourites list to quickly return to their profile if you want to wait to message them.
There’s more to Christian Cafe than searching and matching with members. There are several forums, and you can post a daily prayer.
Overall, the functions on Christian Cafe are good, if not mind-blowing. The only thing that stands out as exceptional is the search function, as you can do highly detailed searches.
Site design
For some reason, the primary colour on Christian Cafe is brown. Possibly because that is the colour of coffee? Unfortunately, one does not associate brown with true love and happy days.
The overall design needs updating, too - the site could be prettier.
That said, the site is functional. Very functional. It's effortless to use.
Members in the UK
Christian Cafe is said to have over two million members worldwide. However, according to DatingScout, they only have 2,500 members in the UK, of which 1,500 are active weekly. Those numbers may need to be updated, but we cannot confirm the number of UK members right now.
While the number of members is low, more than half are active weekly, showing the site has a very active community.
You are not limited by your location when searching for partners. While you can search for partners near you, and their Quickmatch search focuses on people nearby, you can match with people worldwide. There are no geographical limitations.
You must decide if joining a site with that few members is worth it. Bear in mind that a couple of thousand Christian singles in one place is still a lot compared to how many you'll probably find at the local pub. The members on Christian Cafe also appear a lot more serious about their faith and finding a long-term relationship than many people on, say, Bumble or Tinder.
Cost
Signing up for a year will cost you about $10 monthly (they list everything in dollars).
Six months is about $17 per month, three months $20 per month and just one month $40.
Reputation
Christiancafe.com has been around since 1999, and they proudly display 3,000 testimonials on its website. While that might not sound like an awful lot for having been in business that long, most dating sites don't take the time to gather many testimonials in one place.
On Google Play, ChristianCafe claims that over 25,000 marriages have happened thanks to the site.
Newsweek has also awarded them an award for Best Customer Service 2023. This shows that they care about their customers.
On SiteJabber, ChristianCafe gets 3.9 out of 5, which is extraordinarily good, as many people who haven't found the love of their life on a dating site go there to write complaints. Most dating sites are lucky if they score over two stars on SiteJabber.
Overall, people seem to think that Christian Cafe is a great site.
The Christian Cafe dating app
Unfortunately, the Christian Cafe app doesn't have as great reviews as the site - at least not on the App Store. There, you'll find reviews saying there are scammers on the site who ask for money to hand out their phone numbers. Chances are moderators will remove those members very quickly, however, as you can report someone with the click of a button right on their profile.
It’s interesting to note that the last update for the app for Android was back in 2020 and for iOS back in 2019. That’s a long time to leave between updates.
On Google Play, it gets 3.3 out of 5 stars, and in the App Store, it gets 2.6 out of 5 stars.
The verdict
Is Christian Cafe a good place to find potential matches?
Absolutely.
However, there are few members in the UK, but as you'll get a free 10-day membership when signing up, you can check if any members are near you before forking out any money.
Is the site easy to use, though?
Yes, it has all the functionalities you need, but there are no bells or whistles. So if you're looking for an innovative new site, this is not the one.
But overall, we'd say give it a go. Christian Cafe doesn’t have a lot of members in the UK, but the members it does have tend to be pretty active. Profiles are detailed and make the site more interesting than many other sites that offer little more than photos of potential matches. And while you might wish for an upgrade of the design of the site, it’s still straightforward to use and functional. They give you a 10-day free trial, so nothing stops you from checking it out!
We spoke to Siobhan Copland, Matchmaker and Relationship coach, who told Age Times: "It makes sense to use a niche site such as Christian Cafe, as already you are searching within a pool of people who have similar values, as in Christian values. If you know your faith is important to you, and particularly if you are looking to start a family with someone, it really gives you a better chance of long-term relationship success by finding a partner who has the same values and outlook, and religion is one way of establishing what values someone stands for."
Alternative online dating sites
You can search for people by faith on Match.com, Zoosk, and eHarmony. The latter requires you to take a personality test to join, as does EliteSingles, which makes them two of the best sites for finding long-term relationships in the United Kingdom.
Let’s say you are looking specifically for a Christian dating site or app. In that case, you might want to try Christian Mingle, Christian Cupid, Christian Connection (they offer offline events in addition to traditional online matchmaking), Christian Dating for Free, Catholic Match, and Upward. The popularity of these apps and sites varies from region to region. Still, they are all well-known sites for Christian dating.
Tips for using Christian Cafe
If you’re wondering what matters when joining a dating site, here are some tips:
- Do fill out your profile properly
- Do upload several recent photos, including at least one close-up of your face and one full-body picture
- Do use photos that show your life/hobbies
- Do state things in the positive (“I’m looking for someone faithful,” as opposed to “I’m not looking for cheaters”)
- Do meet someone as soon as possible after connecting and, failing that, get on a video call with them so that you can see they are who they say they are
- Do meet in public until you feel confident you really know someone
- Don’t use only selfies, and avoid bathroom selfies
- Don't give out any personal details before meeting up, including your phone number and social media if they can be traced to your personal or work
- Don't schedule a three-hour date for your first meeting—keep it short and sweet as it removes unnecessary pressure (if you fear awkward silences, try doing an activity together or simply grabbing takeaway coffees at the local farmers market and going for a stroll)
If you want more tips, you can read this article I wrote about online dating.
