.png)
About the Author: Steve Ward
Steve Ward is the Owner and CEO of Master Matchmakers and a second-generation matchmaker who built the firm alongside his mother and co-founder JoAnn Ward. He hosted and executive-produced VH1's Tough Love for six seasons, co-authored Crash Course in Love (Simon & Schuster), and has been featured as a dating expert by CNN, the Today Show, Oprah, Glamour, People, and Cosmopolitan. He has spent more than 25 years personally coaching and matching relationship-minded singles nationwide.
Quick answer: Master Matchmakers' fee starts at $3,500 and covers active sourcing, identity, age and photo verification, a criminal and public-record background check, a profile you approve before meeting, plus coaching and post-date feedback. Retained firms like Selective Search publish $50,000 to $500,000 for a defined-term search.
A five-figure quote tends to arrive with almost no itemization behind it. That is the strange part of this industry: a firm will name a number, or decline to, and then leave you to work out what the money actually pays for. I run Master Matchmakers, and in my experience the number is the easy part of the conversation. What sits inside it is where two quotes that look alike turn out to be two different services.
So this is not another piece about what a matchmaker costs. It takes the fee apart: the five kinds of work a serious engagement should include, then the places firms genuinely differ, which are the ones worth raising on the call rather than discovering in a contract. Every competitor detail below is quoted or paraphrased from that firm's own published pages.
What a High-End Fee Actually Pays For
Strip the branding away and a matchmaking fee buys five distinct kinds of work. A firm can be strong on one and thin on another, and the price alone will not tell you which. Read a proposal against this list rather than against somebody else's proposal.
Sourcing: Someone Actively Looking, or a Queue You Wait In
The largest single cost inside any real fee is a person going out to find candidates who are not already on file. That is a different service from a firm waiting for the right profile to appear in its existing membership and calling you when it does. Both get described as matchmaking. Only one carries ongoing work behind it, and it is the one that costs more to deliver. Ask what happens when nobody currently in the network fits: does the firm recruit for you specifically, or do you wait. Selective Search states on its own site that when the right person for a search is not already in the system, it goes and finds them, which is the candid version of that answer.
Verification: Who Gets Checked, and How Far the Check Goes
Verification is the second-largest cost and the place where wording does the most work. "Vetted" can mean a phone screen. It can also mean identity documents, age confirmation, photo confirmation, and a criminal and public-record background check. Ask which, and ask it about the people you will actually meet rather than about the roster in the abstract. At Master Matchmakers, every member clears identity, age and photo verification plus a criminal and public-record background check. Selective Search describes a reputation analysis process that may include a background check, social media analysis, identity verification, and a home or office visit. Notice the words "may include" wherever you meet them, including there.
The Introduction: Do You Approve It Before You Meet
This is the inclusion fewest people think to check, and the one that changes the experience most. In one model you are handed a name, a time and a restaurant. In another you receive a written profile with verified photos and decide for yourself whether to proceed. Master Matchmakers sits firmly in the second group: you review a verified profile and exchange phone numbers before you agree to meet anyone, so there are no blind dates. Selective Search likewise states that a comprehensive profile prepared by your matchmaker is provided before any introduction is made. If a firm cannot tell you the point at which you get a say, you have your answer.
Coaching and Post-Date Feedback
Coaching is the inclusion most often unbundled. Plenty of firms treat it as a separate product with its own price, which is perfectly legitimate as long as you know that before you set two quotes side by side. The reason it belongs inside the fee is mechanical rather than sentimental: without structured feedback after a date, the next introduction gets chosen from exactly the same information as the last one. Coaching and post-date feedback are built into every engagement at Master Matchmakers, which is why our process is meant to sharpen rather than repeat. Kelleher International's membership page similarly describes a dedicated team that helps you prepare and follows up after each introduction.
The Term: How Long the Fee Keeps Working
Almost every quote carries a clock, and almost nobody reads it before signing. A contract is typically written for a finite number of introductions across a defined period, which makes the term itself part of what you are buying. Selective Search states that a typical contract runs 6 to 12 months. That is a defensible structure, and it also means one demanding quarter at work can consume a share of what you paid for. Master Matchmakers contracts do not expire, which is the difference between a fee that waits for you and a fee that runs down while you are busy.
Two Quotes, Same Number, Different Service
Picture two firms quoting you an identical figure. One is running outreach for you, checking identity and criminal records on everyone you will meet, sending you a profile to approve, and debriefing you after each date, with no clock on the engagement. The other is filtering an existing membership, screening by conversation, and booking a table. Both are selling introductions. Only the itemization tells you which one you are buying.
Where Firms Differ Most, and What to Ask
The five inclusions above are broadly recognizable across the top of the market. What varies sharply, and what a quote almost never spells out, is the commercial structure wrapped around them. These are the six questions worth asking on the call, not after the paperwork lands.
| Ask this | Why the answer changes what you get | Master Matchmakers |
| Is this a retainer or a package? | A retainer prices the difficulty of the search; a package prices a set number of introductions. Selective Search publishes retained searches averaging $50,000 to $500,000 by scope, and says highly complex searches may reach seven figures. | Fees start at $3,500, with the total shaped by your criteria, your openness, and how much coaching you want |
| Do unused introductions expire? | A term-limited contract can lapse with introductions still owed to you. Selective Search states a typical contract runs 6 to 12 months for a finite number of introductions. | Contracts do not expire, so nothing you paid for runs out while work is busy |
| Who is the paying client here? | Some firms run two sides: paying clients, and recruited candidates who join at no cost. Selective Search describes exactly that split, with candidates eligible to be matched with its clients. | Whoever you are introduced to, the same verification standard applies before you meet them |
| Exactly who gets background-checked? | "We vet everyone" can mean an interview. What matters is whether a criminal and public-record check reaches the person sitting across from you. | Identity, age and photo verification plus a criminal and public-record background check on every member |
| Do I approve the match before I meet? | This decides whether you are a participant in the selection or a recipient of it, and it is rarely stated in a fee summary. | You review a verified profile and exchange phone numbers before agreeing to meet. No blind dates |
| Is coaching included or billed separately? | An unbundled coaching line can move the real cost of two comparable quotes a long way apart. | One-on-one coaching and post-date feedback are inside every engagement, not sold alongside it |
Every competitor figure and description above is taken from that firm's own live website, checked in August 2026. Selective Search publishes its retained-search range, its contract length, and its candidate program terms; Kelleher International's membership page sets out its process at length without naming a fee. Neither firm sets our pricing, and none of this is a comment on what their clients receive for it.
What No Fee Buys, at Any Price
One line item does not belong on any honest proposal, and a firm that implies otherwise should give you pause. Under the law we cannot promise you a relationship, and neither can anyone else charging for this work, at $3,500 or at six figures. What a fee can properly be held to is narrower and considerably more useful: that the sourcing was done, that the checks were run, and that the facts behind each introduction are accurate. Master Matchmakers stands behind the reliability of the information we give you about every match. That is something you can hold a firm to. A promise about how your year turns out is not.
What Is Inside the Number Every Inclusion Above, From $3,500
Master Matchmakers' fees start at $3,500, and the total moves with your criteria, how open you are about who and where you will be matched, and how much coaching you want. What does not move is the inclusion list: active sourcing, identity, age and photo verification, a criminal and public-record background check on every member, a verified profile you approve with phone numbers exchanged before you meet, coaching and post-date feedback, and a contract with no expiry date on it. That is the whole of it, itemized, which is rather the point of this article.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is included in a matchmaker's fee?
At a full-service firm the fee covers active sourcing, vetting, the introduction itself, and usually coaching. At Master Matchmakers it also covers identity, age and photo verification, a criminal and public-record background check, a profile you approve before meeting, and post-date feedback. Ask any firm to list its inclusions in writing.
Does a matchmaking fee include coaching and post-date feedback?
Sometimes, and sometimes it is billed separately, so confirm before you sign. Master Matchmakers builds one-on-one coaching and post-date feedback into every engagement, which is what lets each introduction improve on the last. If coaching is an add-on elsewhere, price it in before you compare two quotes.
Do unused matchmaking introductions expire?
At most firms, yes, because the contract runs for a defined term. Selective Search states that a typical contract runs 6 to 12 months for a finite number of introductions. Master Matchmakers contracts do not expire, so a slow season at work does not burn through what you paid for.
Is high-end matchmaking billed as a retainer or a package?
Both models exist. Retained firms price the search itself: Selective Search publishes retained searches averaging $50,000 to $500,000 depending on scope. Others sell a set number of introductions. Master Matchmakers starts at $3,500, and the more open you are about who and where, the lower the fee.
Do the people a matchmaker introduces me to pay a fee too?
Not always, and it is worth asking. Selective Search runs a candidate program it describes as complimentary, with no fees to join and no fees to be matched. That is not a flaw, but it changes who is across the table. At Master Matchmakers, every member clears the same verification.
Ask for the Itemization Before You Ask for the Price
The most useful thing you can do with any matchmaking quote is make someone read it back to you line by line. If a firm cannot tell you who gets checked, when you get a say, and what becomes of introductions you did not use, the number was never the problem. We will happily walk you through ours in plain terms, including the parts that would not apply to you.