Sick Of Dating Apps? This Personalized Matchmaking Service Is Coming To The Rescue

Apps have transformed the dating landscape—and it's not always a good thing. Sure, more people are meeting their partners online than ever before, but others are dealing with the downsides of an endless dating pool: ghosting, situationships, and mindless swiping.

It's clear that dating apps have a reputation problem right now, and it's opened the door to an alternative way of online dating: Tawkify.

The online dating service connects members with matchmakers, who hand-select potential partners for every single user. The matchmaker then sets up the date, including picking the location.

Tawkify launched in 2012 as the brainchild of relationship advice columnist E. Jean Carroll and Kenneth Shaw. (Note: The site has two additional co-founder Patrick Shih, and Susan Huang).

At the time, Match and eHarmony were thriving, but the group saw a gap between the data-driven value of online dating websites and the benefits of personalized matchmaking service.

Before joining Tawkify, every member must go through an application process. This questionnaire vets your age, location, income, and desired outcome to ensure Tawkify is the right service for you.

Additionally, most users are between the ages of 30 to 65, per Tawkify. If the service can't find suitable connections that match your demographic and location, the service may recommend skipping for now.

When creating my profile, I selected traits like curious, independent, confident, ambitious, and honest. You have the option to give more context about why you selected these specific traits.

From there, you can adjust information about your Ideal partner. This includes selecting a connection's ideal age, height, spirituality, and ethnicity. You'll also select the traits that are most exciting to you in a potential match.

I found this process really forced me to be thoughtful about what I wanted in a relationship, which is something I rarely find myself thinking about on the apps (where I'm mostly chasing the adrenaline rush of matching with an attractive guy).

During your call, the membership coordinator discusses your relationship goals and the site's membership options. Transparently, Tawkify is not cheap with matchmaking services starting at $4,900.

The cost of your membership is based on the number of dates you select. The starting package is three matches, with options for up to 12 matches. The brand doesn't share the cost of its most expensive membership, but reddit say they've been quoted up to $70k for the VIP membership tier.

If you're not in the right financial place to spend money on matches, Tawkify also allows you to join the matchmaker database for $9.99 per month. This allows your profile to still show up to matchmakers (but there's no guarantee you'll get a date).

When I spoke with a membership coordinator, she noted that the database was relatively passive—and the most success with Tawkify will come from paying for match.

Matchmakers coordinate dates, which includes scheduling the time and location. Members don't receive any photos of their dates beforehand. Instead they're given the name, age, hair color, and outfit of their date. Think of it like an old school blind date!

While for many this is a perk—especially when it comes to the safety of online dating—some users online felt like they could benefit from having more information about their match.

A lot of the benefit of a matchmaking service comes down to whether you're over the world of dating apps. As relationship expert Marie Thouin, PhD, puts it, "Swiping culture can be dehumanizing and make us view other humans as disposable."

While Thouin supports ritualizing the use of dating apps to connect to others with intention, she also sees the value of a matchmaking service.

"People who know exactly what they want in a partner and a relationship, and do not want to spend time sifting through profiles, could benefit from a matchmaking service where a matchmaker curates dates for them. It can save people time and energy."

On the flip side, Thouin also recognizes that matchmaker services often have "limited databases compared to dating apps" and "are a lot more expensive."

You'll find a mix of online reviews about Tawkify, and I'd argue it resembles the rhetoric around most online dating apps.

While Tawkfiy has a lower Better Business Bureau rating, it has an exceptional 4.5/5 from Trust Pilot. Nearly 80% of users gave the service a 5-star rating, with another 9% giving the service 4 stars.