The basic idea is that people sign up and answer questions about what they are and what they're looking for.

The app then uses your answers to find the most compatible matches. The more compatible answers a user provides, the more strongly they'll match.

It seems to us that the profit motive of dating apps is to keep you on the app as long as possible, and to get you to pay for features. This is not a good way to find love. GoodDate is free and non-profit, and our goal is to help you find love as quickly as possible (partly to save money on hosting, but mostly because we want you to be happy).

Other reasons we chose a nonprofit structure include: building trust - we have stricter rules to follow; prevent acquisition - the dating monopoly does not find nonprofits attractive; no worries about revenue - we can focus on building a great product; and we really believe in the mission - love should be accessible to all.

Absolutely we do. We do not do that "soft-delete" thing where your data is still there but hidden. When you delete your account, all of your data is immediately and irrecoverably deleted from our systems.

We first delete all of your data in our databases, and this includes all messages you've sent, likes, profile information, answers, preferences, etc. We then delete photos from our storage provider—this may take a little more time due to caching and replication, but rest assured your photos will be deleted as well.

There can be a lot of reasons this might be the case.

• As of 5/01/25 the platform is brand new and more users need to join — tell your friends please!
• You may have very specific criteria, and the app does not show users who don't match your criteria.
• You may have an answer that very few users accept.

You both need to like eachother to send a message. If this occurred after talking, it's possible that user has unliked or hidden you, has deleted or deactivated their account, or was banned.

Nope! It could be a bit of a power imbalance / weird for the creator to use the site.

Yes, eventually. This is not a priority at the moment.

In the event that GoodDate closes down, we'd prioritize this and release the (very imperfect) code.

The short answers is that only a small percentage of legitimate users actually change their email address.

The longer answer is that it's a security measure to reduce the amount of scammers and bot accounts using temporary addresses and changing them after signup. If you really need to change the email address associated with your account, e.g you use social login and the email from the social provider has changed, please contact us and we can help you out after some verification.

Not for any code on gooddate.org. Specific cases where we have used generative AI:

• Research for our 501(c)(3) application.
• Logo design prototyping. The logo itself was handmade using Inkscape.
• Assistance with our trademark application.
• Some PR stock images.

Short answer: we prioritize quality matching over platform engagement.

The long answer is that the questions you answer on GoodDate contain not only how important they are to you but also very specific acceptable answers for others. This helps ensure your matches are more aligned with your values and preferences, reducing mismatches and enhancing compatibility. Many apps focus on showing you as many people as possible to keep you engaged. Our focus on quality over quantity might make it harder to find matches but you're also not just a fish in the sea, you're a unique person with their own values, needs, and quirks looking for someone special.

Bonus differences: it's completely free. We don't show ads and we don't sell or share your data in anyway.

No platform is completely safe, however at GoodDate we prioritize safety in a few ways:

• We blur your photos for users that you have not liked.
• Optional ID and Background checks for users to show they're safe, read more.
• Only people whom you like (and like you) can be messaged. This prevents harassment from random users.
• You can report people at the click of a button, preventing them from contacting you and alerting us to their behavior.
• Hide a match at any time to immediately stop all contact.
• No photos can be exchanged on the platform, so if you start chatting with someone there are no unsolicited photos to be sent.
• You can hide the answers to any or all of the questions, making it difficult for someone to guess.
• The nature of the platform and how it matches makes it difficult to cast a wide net, naturally reducing the number of predators on the site.
• While bots are more sophisticated than ever we work to make the platform unattractive to them.
• We follow infrastructure best practices, such as encrypted storage and credential rotation.

It's important to note that it's impossible to vet everyone and you should always take steps to help keep yourself safe when using online services.

In the future we hope to be able to add opt-in background checks that our users can order, which would allow people to filter by only users with a passed background check. This is a very complex topic and we want to make sure it's done right, respecting privacy while enhancing safety.