Best sites · Lifestyle & needs
A good single mom dating site saves you time and keeps your kids private. Stir is built only for single parents in the US, Hinge lets you message matches for free, and Match lets you search by whether someone has kids.
| Site | Fit for single moms | Overall | Best for | Free version | Paid from | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stir | Single parents who need dating to fit around the kids | Yes | ≈ $17/mo | Visit | ||
| Hinge | Finding a relationship in your 20s and 30s | Yes | ≈ $30/mo | Visit | ||
| Match | Serious daters who like to search | Limited | ≈ $25/mo | Visit | ||
| eHarmony | Serious relationships and marriage | Limited | ≈ $25/mo | Visit | ||
| Plenty of Fish | Free messaging and searching a big pool yourself | Yes | ≈ $10/mo | Visit |
We rank for this audience, so the order follows the fit score. The overall rating reflects the site as a whole. How we score.
Fit for single moms · Overall rating 3.7
Best for: Single parents who need dating to fit around the kids
Everyone here is raising kids, so nobody needs a custody schedule explained twice. Mark your free evenings with Stir Time and message mutual matches without paying. US only, and the pool is smaller than on mainstream apps.
Fit for single moms · Overall rating 4.5
Best for: Finding a relationship in your 20s and 30s
Children and family plans sit on the profile, so you know early where a match stands. Messaging matches is free; filtering by children needs Hinge+ or HingeX. It’s an app only, with no website.
Fit for single moms · Overall rating 4.2
Best for: Serious daters who like to search
Search by whether someone has or wants kids before you spend an evening chatting. Members are mostly 30 to 60, so plenty are parents too. Browsing and likes are free, but messaging needs a subscription.
Fit for single moms · Overall rating 4.4
Best for: Serious relationships and marriage
Instead of a feed to swipe through, you get a short list of compatible matches, which suits a mom with one quiet hour after bedtime. The questionnaire is long, and messaging is paid.
Fit for single moms · Overall rating 3.6
Best for: Free messaging and searching a big pool yourself
The cheapest way to start, since searching and messaging cost nothing. Expect more fake and inactive profiles than on paid sites, so video call before you book a babysitter.
Single mom dating online mostly comes down to free evenings, so judge each single mom dating site by how little of them it wastes. Three features do most of the work.
First, kids on the profile. Hinge shows whether someone has children and whether they want them, and Match lets you search by it, so you can skip people who aren’t open to dating a mom before you’ve said hello. Second, a way to share when you’re actually free: Stir Time does exactly that, for example the weeks your kids spend with their other parent. Third, free messaging, so you can find out whether anyone nearby replies before you pay. Hinge and Plenty of Fish both allow it.
Single mothers looking for love are far from rare. About 7.7 million US families with children under 18 were headed by a single mother in 2025, roughly three in four single-parent families (U.S. Census Bureau, table FM-1). Online dating for single mothers is ordinary, so saying “mom of two” in your profile is too, and anyone who skips you over it wasn’t going to fit your life anyway.
Stir works in the US only. Elsewhere, Hinge, Match, eHarmony and Plenty of Fish all have members in the UK, Canada and Australia, and Plenty of Fish is especially popular in Canada and the UK. Single mums dating outside the US can use the same approach: one free app for numbers, plus one site with kids filters. Among the services we checked, there’s no single mum dating site for parents only in the UK, Canada or Australia.
If you’re the one hoping to meet single moms or date single mothers, flexibility counts for more than a big gesture. Plans can change at a few hours’ notice when a child is sick, weekday lunches may be easier than Saturday nights, and the kids’ schedule with their other parent comes first.
When you chat with single moms, let her decide when you meet the children, and don’t ask about them in detail early on. Someone dating single mums who treats those boundaries as normal stands out quickly.
Leave your children out of your photos, and don’t share their names, ages or school with a match. Be wary of anyone who asks a lot about your kids early or pushes to meet them. Video call before the first date, and read our romance scam guide if a match asks for money. You can also check that a match is real before you book a sitter.
Write one honest line about your week, such as “mom of two, free most Tuesday evenings and every other weekend.” It answers the first question people have and saves a long back-and-forth. Our guide to writing a dating bio has more examples.
Finding love as a single mom is easier when dates fit your week. Keep first dates short and close to home: a coffee after school drop-off or a lunch break. Pick a set time for replying to messages, such as after bedtime, so dating doesn’t creep into the whole evening. Our first date ideas include plenty that fit inside an hour.
We ranked sites on match quality, features, value, safety and ease of use, and weighed how well each fits this audience. See how we rate dating sites.
In the US, Stir is the best fit if you want to meet other parents only, since every member has kids. Hinge is one of the best dating apps for single moms on a budget, with free messaging and a children field on profiles, and Match is best for searching by whether someone has or wants kids.
Not among the large services we checked. Stir, from Match Group, is the closest single mother dating site: it’s for single parents, so you’ll meet both moms and dads, and it works in the US only. Outside the US, Hinge and Match let you show you have kids and look for people open to that.
Yes, partly. Plenty of Fish lets you search and message for free, Hinge lets you message matches with a limited number of daily likes, and Stir lets you message mutual matches free. Match and eHarmony let you browse, but you need a subscription to message.
Say you’re a mom in your profile, then use the filters. Hinge+ and HingeX let you filter by whether someone has children, and Match lets you search by kids. On Stir everyone is a parent, so the question never comes up. Whoever stays after your profile line is usually open to it.
Keep dates short and plan them around childcare, such as lunch on a workday. Set one time a day for messages, use a service that sends a few matches rather than an endless feed, such as eHarmony, and video call before you pay a babysitter.