Lesbian Dating Apps: Top 10 Best Lesbian Dating Apps of 2020

Finding a match is no piece of cake.

But lesbian dating has its own extra stumbling block.

You see a cute girl you’re into at a bar and you’re wondering if they’re playing in the same league.

And it could potentially put you in a vulnerable position.

Thank goodness for lesbian dating apps coming to the rescue for the queer community from such vulnerable moments and for some, it is safer.

Online dating has given the lesbian community the chance to meet others who are looking for the same thing as them.

Not only that.

It has given the chance for the community to connect with one another from all over the world.

So, muster some courage and download one or two (no harm done!) of these apps.

Sit back and start connecting!

You may enter these dating apps to well, date but it is always plus to find and build friendships with like-minded queer friends!

1. Lex

Usage: Free on iOS and Android.

Overview: Remember those penpal ads in the good ol’ days? This is a great remake of those to look for hookups, friendships or even serious relationships. Instead of focusing on profile photos, this focuses on your way to inject your personality into your words.

Lex’s website will remind you of those cool dated magazines from the 80s to 90s.

And there’s a reason for it.

Lex is like an online dating tribute to the personal ads in United States’ On Our Back, a women-run erotica magazine and the first magazine featuring lesbian erotica, in the 80s to 90s.

Unlike other lesbian dating apps which focuses on profile pictures, Lex is bringing a refreshing lime-cool twist to the old-school ads.

In fact, Lex is short for lexicon, which means the vocabulary of a language, an individual speaker or group of speakers, or a subject (according to Merriam-Webster).

In other words, you define your lingo and what suits you best.

They are all into “text first, selfies second”.

It boldly markets itself as an app for queer, trans, gender non-conforming, two spirit and non-binary people.

It is for meeting lovers and friends!

Judging from their Instagram success stories, you’ll have a good chance on this app of finding love or friends, if you’re not big on apps where your face comes first before your mind.

It’s easy to set up an account with the straightforward app sign up, which you can do with an email or your mobile number.

Choose to switch on your location so you get to know people in your area, your pronouns and you can also choose to connect your profile to your Instagram too!

So, although there is no space for selfies on your profile, you can choose for people to view you on a more wholesome light through your IG account.

The choice is yours.

Next, check out the ads posted up and if you find any that speaks to you, hit them up with a message!

Also don’t forget to create an ad for yourself and post about what you’re into or what you’re looking for!

And voila, you’re now part of the Lex community!

Looking at the ads posted up here, you won’t feel embarrassed or ashamed for stating your desires and wants so don’t be shy!

The cool part is you get to customise your notifications whether you only want them for new messages, someone likes you or new ads in your area.

This is great if you get real annoyed with the bombardment of messages from a dating app the whole day (more embarrassing if you’re with people with your phone is on the table, lighting up like a Christmas tree every few minutes).

2. HER

Usage: Free on iOS and Android, with paid subscription options, starting from USD14.99 per month.

Overview: With a huge pool of users here centred around queer women around the world, HER is at the top of the lesbian app chain. The app is great to have a community behind it and can get you connected to like-minded lesbians.

No surprise here.

HER had to be in this list, thanks to its 4 million queer women users worldwide.

Also has tons of success stories of women meeting their partners on the app and they have a strong community for you to meet your people according to your interests.

Designed for queen women by queer women, you get to give your thumbs a little rest from that Tinder swiping and meet other lesbians here due to its specific target market.

Also the story of HER’s founder Robyn Exton, well-known lesbian entrepreneur, is pretty empowering and inspiring.

The community feature here is a real winner as you get to choose from a huge range of communities and find like-minded women, who empathise with you and hear you out.

More than a dating app, you can send a “Friend Request” if you think they can be part of your femme crowd instead and you never know, it could be the start of a beautiful friendship.

HER has been compared aggressively to Tinder thanks to its swiping feature but you get limited swipes a day on a free account.

So if you’re sick and tired of those threesome messages on Tinder, you should definitely take this for a ride on a free account first.

So save those limited thumb swipes for this app instead!

HER is currently working on translation of the app to Japanese and is definitely eyeing Asia!

Interestingly enough, some of their biggest markets include Indonesia, Philippines and Thailand.

This is a positive sign for this app improving along the way and that just means it keeps getting better!

3. Bounce

Usage: Free on iOS and Android.

Overview: A must-have app for a New Yorker to have in your phone if you’re real serious about dating. This is a great alternative to swiping apps and really handy to get fast and serious daters. Members who are a no-show will get the boot!

If you’re a New Yorker seeking for a cut-to-the-chase app, then Bounce is your app.

If you’re sick and tired of the swiping apps out there where you have to sit around and swipe countless of profiles for a match, try Bounce instead.

The app goes live at certain times so remember to check in at the specific times and select when you would like to go out.

Then you’ll get to view other potential members live, based on your location and if the other person is also interested, you have a date set!

Bounce would pick a location, then get dressed while some smooth Janelle Monáe hits and head out to meet your date!

Each matching sessions only last for 15 minutes so no time-wasters here.

And you’ll get only one date for the night as Bounce believe in quality over quantity.

This is great if you genuinely want to get to know someone and are not in a rush to meet another date for the night.

A word of caution though – this app is for serious daters only.

Members who don’t show up or cancel, will be suspended from the app!

So make sure you are really sure you are going to turn up so you don’t risk getting banned from using the app later.

Talk about some serious IRL connections here.

Bounce is only bouncing in New York for now but they’re planning to expand to other cities.

If you’re excited over this app and want to be notified when they launch in your city, shoot them an email at hello@trybounce.com.

4. OkCupid

Usage: Free on iOS and Android, with paid feature options.

Overview: Highly inclusive now, OkCupid is known for matching couples based on answers made through a series of questions. It may seem tedious but this app definitely is worth a try.

Started off by catering for the straight community, OkCupid has evolved to become more queer-friendly.

Now, they have a bunch of new gender identity and sexual orientations so you won’t feel left out.

If you want something that goes deeper than physical attraction, give this app a spin!

It may seem tedious to fill out the questionnaire but believe us when we say that, it’s well-worth it as their algorithm factors in your answers and your matches’ answers.

Your matches will improve and you’re bound to find someone you can jive with here.

Also, it will filter out shallow swipers thanks to this matching method!

If you’re very sure of what you’re looking for, its ideal preference filter system is definitely something you should try.

In order to pick a body type of your possible matches, the app will prompt you to fill out details of yourself first including if you’re politically liberal or moderate.

The basic filters you can fill in for free include gender, age group,  distance, type of connections, body type, height, employment.

You get to also set your preferences on their lifestyle such as if they drink often or smoke and if they want kids!

If these factors such as height and body types are particular dealbreakers of yours, you may consider signing up for their A-List subscription where you can select that option to get more specific matches!

Also, do fully utilise their carefully categorised matches according to “Match %”, who’s online, new people who have joined the community, questions pros and even nearby!

All these on a free account!

So if you’re tired of being randomly matched and is serious about looking for relationships, friendship or even particular hookups, be sure to give this a fair shot!

5. Coffee Meet Bagel

Usage: Free on iOS and Android, with paid feature options.

Overview: CMB has been widely known to bring it home when it comes to serious relationships. There’s more space in their profile section to be able to tell more about yourself and your interests as well. Patience is needed though to find a good match as it gives limited matches in a day.

CMB wouldn’t have made it into this list if this was years ago.

It was an app built for straight people but they have become more inclusive of the LGBT+ community.

Now you get to choose between the same sex, opposite sex or even both.

They are still working to grow their user-base among the LGBT+ community but it is still worth a shot.

They call themselves the “original anti-swiping app” where you’ll get better quality dates here.

If you’re looking for meaningful connections, CMB would be the right app for you.

The app has more depth to their profiles as you get to write more about yourself, what you like and about what you appreciate about your date.

Then add your icebreakers with 3 fun facts about yourself to help break the ice with your “Bagels”.

Generally, this app does help strike better conversations and from experience, you get to meet a lot of interesting people.

My lesbian friends have given this a thumbs up and have gone on dates, while making a lot of friends here.

On the downside, it does give limited Bagels per day and you can choose to “pass” or “like” them in your Suggested page.

Other than that, you can also look for people who have discovered and like you in the “Discover” page.

Once both parties have matched, a chat between them will open up for 7 days for you to make a connection.

The app highly encourages you to ask each other out after or keep in touch and get to know each other better outside the app.

So those who are looking for serious relationship and are sick of crossing paths with people looking for hookups, this app is one of the better choices out there for you.

6. Fem

Usage: Free on Android, with paid feature options starting from USD6.00 for a 3 months subscription.

Overview: If you want more life to your profiles, Fem hits the spot with its video profiles. It’s a change to see people moving versus a still photo and will give you a better sense of the other person. Fair warning though. The ads here may get annoying to some.

Fem is a dating app with a distinct difference from the rest – you get to meet single lesbians nearby through videos.

With videos, you get to see if they’re real people (yay to booting out fake profiles) and view real people.

You get to see new members and who’s online currently.

Signing up is a breeze and you get to put in some zest to your profile with their “About You” section.

You also get to put in 6 hashtags on what you’re looking for such as #friendship #chat #dating #tattoos and #lesbian.

For connecting with lesbians worldwide, you can scroll through the Video section to watch quick videos by members worldwide.

But we’re not going to hold back on the cons of this app.

The ads do get irritating sometimes and in order to chat before matching, you need to pay in order to send potential matches a message.

So patience is needed while going through the app and hopefully the fun from video profiles would make up for the experience.

Also you get to chat with people using video, photo and audios, meaning no need to give out your number and you can keep the conversations on the app!

If you would like to meet other lesbians not just in your area but also worldwide, this app is definitely worth the try to meet good-looking lesbians out there.

7. Lesly

Usage: Free on iOS and Android, with paid feature options starting from USD9.99 per month.

Overview: Instead of connecting with lesbians in your area, this app is the top option if you’re looking to connect with lesbians worldwide. Do take advantage of the “Lesly Show” to get a big advantage of standing out from the rest.

There aren’t many apps tailored for lesbians and bisexuals that when anything tailored-made for lesbians comes up, it is already a huge step up.

Lesly’s layout is a reminiscence of Scruff but for lesbians.

You get multiple mugshots of people across the screen rather than swiping left and right.

It’s easy to like this app thanks to the fast sign up and user-friendly navigation through the app.

You can easily view people who are nearby or anywhere around the world.

So if you’re looking to build connections worldwide and don’t want to be confined to just your area, this app would be your champion!

You can choose your dating goals such as friendship, dating, long-term/serious relationship, marriage or casual/intimate!

Beyond just a dating app, it is a great social networking app thanks to its “Lesly Show” where people can post up pictures of themselves or even what they’re looking for in the app, to stand out among the crowd!

For those who still love to get some thumb swiping action, you can explore the “Lesbian Meet” to swipe for possible matches nearby.

If the free account is not enough for you to get some dating action, you could upgrade for paid subscriptions, starting from USD9.99.

8.  Hinge

Usage: Free on iOS and Android, with paid feature options starting from USD9.99 per month.

Overview: Marketed as an app to be deleted, you know they’re serious about getting you quality dates. This is the solution people who are suffering from swiping fatigue from other dating apps, have been waiting for.

Hinge is a pretty cool app that don’t seem to get enough of love in my opinion.

It has been deemed to be the app that will give Tinder a run for its money as it is growing rapidly, so don’t be discouraged by the gender ratio.

It actually markets itself as an app “that’s designed to be deleted”.

How crazy is that?

In a nutshell, it is the dating app for people suffering from swiping fatigue from other dating apps.

So if you want to get off dating apps for good, give this a fair try.

Just like any other app, I believe it depends on where you live such as how big is the area you live in and how many people sign up for the app.

Keeping with its mission as an app built to be deleted, the profiles are designed into brief response sections.

This gives you a better sense of the other person’s personality and the person will be able to get to know you better as well.

It keeps you from swiping aimlessly and really take the time to scroll through the short but entertaining profiles.

With fun prompts to go with your photos and videos, it definitely sets the tone for better conversations between us humans.

Choose prompts such as “You had to be there”, “Don’t show this to my mum” or even “Together we can be terrible at”.

You are sure to be entertained by the media that the prompts are matched with, at the very least.

They also will prompt you to add three prompt questions to which you will also answer.

It definitely gives room for some dating prime time comedy here!

Hinge encourages you to load up six photos or videos into your profile before you can begin to “like” other people, which means no single photo profiles that leaves you unsure if the person is even real.

So pick your best 6 photos and don’t be shy to show your full face.

Also by showing off your 6 photos, you can set your age range, maximum distance, ethnicity and religion.

And you can choose that you’re interested in women easily.

If you’re serious about finding dates and not ghosting people, this is the app for you as things are about to heat up with the gorgeous selection of people here.

9. Bumble

Usage: Free on iOS and Android, with paid feature options starting from USD10 per month.

Overview: Users of the same gender can make the first move in this app versus those of opposite sex. There are less fake profiles thanks to their verification process. If you verify yourself, you can filter to receive only verified profiles!

Known for being the app where women are taking the wheel when it comes to sparking a conversation, Bumble cuts down on the creepy messages women get on many other dating apps.

When involves people of the opposite sex, men cannot message first but between the same gender, it doesn’t matter.

Both can make the first move.

While the gender ratio may put you off, don’t diss it yet until you’ve tried it.

There are many success stories of lesbians finding their partners here or even making new friends.

According to Bumble, the best time to text is between 8pm-10-pm and Sundays are the best!

Just like Tinder, you get to swipe right or left through potential matches and you can get expressive in your messages here.

They have included emoji reactions to react to different profiles photos and also you make voice or video calls on Bumble!

This means there is no need to use other apps to do the job and also keep your privacy airtight (safety first!) before you feel comfortable revealing your number.

With the video call, you’ll know that you’re not being sucked into a scam or caught off guard by any catfishes.

Plus it’s a great and safer way to do virtual dating during this pandemic until things eases up!

It is also worth mentioning that fake profiles don’t loom here as much as Tinder or other dating apps due to their verification process.

And do take the option to verify your profile as there is a filer to weed out unverified profiles so you may miss talking to that cute girl if you leave the verification process out!

Also if you verify yourself, you can enable the filter to receive verified profiles only so it’s a win-win here.

It really does speed up the dating process and leads to less frustration and less time wasted on fake profiles!

Free users will get two advanced filters where you can pick whether you want verified profiles only, if they exercise, their star sign, education level, smoking or drinking or even political views.

Once you have chosen two, you can go back at anytime to adjust as long as you pick a maximum of two filters.

Also, you can connect your Bumble account to your Instagram so people can view more pictures of you and Spotify to share your music taste!

Overall, it is a great app that allows you to switch between three modes of BFF, Date or even Bizz.

This means you can go on these modes and create separate profiles to suit the modes and kill three birds with one stone with only the use of one app!

Who said you can’t have it all?

10. Taimi

Usage: Free on iOS and Android, with paid feature options starting from USD4.99 per month.

Overview: Looking to be part of a big LGBTQ+  community? Taimi is the champion for that. You can find people to chat, date, find new friends or even find something serious here.

Taimi has filled a huge void in the LGBTQ+ world as it is a dating, chat and social working app.

While it is not catered for only lesbians, you will get a well-represented app that serves the community well.

With its awesome filters, you get to pick who you are looking for in the app so if you’re looking for non-binary or other females, it doesn’t limit you like other apps where you would have to upgrade.

Get specific by looking for people who have the same dating goals as you such as chat, dates, friends and long-term relationships.

No more second guessing or playing mind games here as you know right away what they’re looking for.

You can also put in extra preferences for free such as Top, Bottom and Switch!

A big bonus in the app is being able to enjoy the social networking feature of this app, especially if you don’t feel safe to share everything on your personal Facebook.

Here, you don’t judged and you’ll meet like-minded people where you’ll feel supported.

You get to do Live sessions, share Stories and posts to others here.

Pick who you want to follow as well as explore popular posts or people nearby in this section.

You can personalise your feed and profile enough to feel that you are well-represented here.

So, even while you’re looking for people to date, you can make great friends locally or worldwide.

However, to change your location, you would need to pay as low as USD4.99.

But they make up for it with the amount of free interaction you get and you will not feel unwelcome.

Instead, you’ll feel that the app is safe and genuine, thanks to its profile verification.

So get connected with people in the community and build a great support circle here, even if you don’t find any interesting dates just yet.

Another perk is that Taimi has started their in-app streaming event featuring top LGBTQ+ celebrities, athletes and models, in an effort to raise awareness on LGBTQ+ issues.

This is an app you won’t regret downloading and giving it a whirl at least once!

-end-

(Last updated: 27 November 2020)

About the Author

Kelvin Kevin is the Chief Marketing Officer and Chief Content Editor of the World-Renowned HappyMatches.com Dating App and Dating Site. An avid writer since young, he is an Expert Dating and Relationships Coach for Casual Dating, Serious Dating and General Dating. You can follow him on Twitter (@HowToDateBetter), and also check out his personal Dating Blog, for the latest Dating Advice and Dating Tips to help Straight, Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Singles and Couples find and enjoy Fulfilling and Intimate Dating Relationships.

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