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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 is a matchmaker, not a self-directed dating service: a person sources, background-checks, and verifies every match before you meet, with fees from $3,500. "Dating service" is the broader term, covering apps and websites too. What matters is who does the searching, and what you know before you meet them.
Search "dating services" and the results will not agree with each other. Dating apps, subscription websites, video-dating platforms, and matchmaking firms all get called a dating service somewhere online, and none of those pages will tell you which one you actually need. That is not a search problem. The term itself is genuinely broad, and it always has been.
The question worth answering is not which label fits, but who does the work of finding your next date, and what you actually know about that person before you meet them. I have spent more than 25 years running Master Matchmakers, and this is the plain version: what "dating service" actually covers, what a matchmaker does differently inside that category, and how to decide which one fits what you are looking for.
What "Dating Service" Actually Means
A dating service, in the broad sense, is any company whose job is to introduce you to people you might date. That definition is wide enough to cover a swipe-based app, a subscription dating website, a video-dating platform, and a traditional matchmaking firm. All four fall under the same umbrella term, whether or not they use that phrase to describe themselves.
What differs enormously between them is how much of the actual work is done for you, and how much is left in your hands. On most of the businesses people mean when they say "dating service," you create a profile, you browse, you message, and you decide who is worth meeting, largely on your own. The service provides the pool and the mechanism for reaching it. You provide the labor of searching it.
What a Matchmaker Does Differently
A matchmaker sits inside that same broad category, but flips who does the searching. Instead of handing you a pool of profiles to sort through, a matchmaker gets to know you directly, then goes looking on your behalf for people who fit what you have actually described, rather than waiting for you to find them yourself in a feed.
At Master Matchmakers, that starts with a personal consultation, moves through profile building and verification, and continues into curated introductions with coaching after each one. The searching, the vetting, and a good share of the judgment calls move from you to a person whose job is to make them well, rather than staying entirely on your plate.
The Line That Actually Separates Them
Here is the distinction that matters more than the label. On a self-directed dating service, what you know about someone before you meet is usually whatever they chose to put on their own profile, unverified, and you are deciding largely from that. On a matchmaking service, someone else has already done the checking before an introduction is ever offered to you.
Verified before you ever meet: every person eligible to be introduced through Master Matchmakers clears identity verification, age verification, photo verification, and a criminal and public-record background check first. When there is a genuine fit, you receive their verified profile and a phone number, and you speak with them yourself before agreeing to meet. There is no blind date standing in for a real answer.
Dating Service or Matchmaker, Side by Side
Put plainly, side by side:
| What you're comparing |
A typical dating service |
Master Matchmakers, a matchmaker |
| Who finds your matches |
You browse a pool and message people yourself |
A matchmaker sources candidates on your behalf |
| What's verified beforehand |
Usually nothing beyond what the profile states |
Identity, age, photos, and a criminal and public-record background check |
| What you know before meeting |
A profile and whatever they chose to share |
A verified profile, photos, and a phone number |
| How it's priced |
Often no charge to join, then a subscription or per-feature charges |
One fee for the search itself, starting at $3,500 |
| What happens after a date |
Nothing built in; you go back to browsing |
Feedback both ways, with coaching built into the process |
| How long you have |
As long as the subscription continues |
A contract that does not expire |
What Each One Actually Costs
Cost structures differ as much as the process does. Self-directed dating services are usually inexpensive to join and charge afterward, through a subscription or individual purchases, in exchange for access to a larger pool that you search yourself. Matchmaking works the opposite way: one fee covers the search itself, because a person, not a database, is doing the sourcing and the vetting.
Master Matchmakers' fees start at $3,500, and the more open you are about who and where you are willing to be matched, the lower that fee tends to be. The total varies with how many introductions and coaching sessions your search needs. Published ranges vary widely across the matchmaking industry generally, since a personal search costs more to run than a subscription does, and most firms price it as a project rather than a monthly charge.
Which One Actually Fits You
If you enjoy the search itself, have the time to browse and message consistently, and are comfortable deciding from a profile alone, a self-directed dating service does exactly what it is built to do. If you have already tried that and the volume, not a lack of options, is the problem, or if knowing who someone actually is before you meet them matters more to you than casting the widest possible net, a matchmaker is solving a different problem than a swipe-based app ever could.
Neither one can promise you a specific outcome, and any service that does is telling you something about its marketing rather than your odds. What a reputable matchmaker can stand behind is narrower and checkable: that the person you sit down with is exactly who you were told they were, verified before the introduction was ever offered.
The Only Guarantee We Make
Accurate Information, Not a Promised Outcome
In business since: 2001 | Private network: 65,000+ singles | Fees from: $3,500
We do not promise you will meet the right person this month, this year, or ever, because no legitimate service can make that promise. What we are answerable for is narrower and checkable: the person on the other side of an introduction is exactly who their verified profile said they were, background checked before it was ever offered to you.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a dating service?
A dating service is any company whose job is to introduce you to people you might date, which technically includes dating apps, subscription websites, video-dating platforms, and matchmaking firms. What varies enormously between them is how much of the searching and vetting is done for you versus left in your hands.
What is the difference between a dating service and a matchmaker?
A matchmaker is a type of dating service, but flips who does the work. On most dating services you browse a pool and decide from a profile yourself. A matchmaker sources candidates on your behalf, verifies who they are first, and stays involved with feedback and coaching after each introduction.
Is a matchmaker a type of dating service?
Technically, yes. Both exist to introduce you to people you might date. The practical difference is who does the searching and what is verified before you meet. Most people use "dating service" to mean the self-directed kind and "matchmaker" to mean the kind where a person sources and vets on your behalf.
Are dating services safe?
It depends on how much verification the specific service actually performs. Many self-directed dating services rely on whatever a person chooses to put on their own profile, which is one reason unverified profiles remain common. Master Matchmakers verifies identity, age, photos, and runs a background check before anyone is eligible to be introduced.
How much does a dating service cost compared to a matchmaker?
Self-directed dating services are usually inexpensive to join, then charge through a subscription or individual purchases for continued access. Matchmaking is priced as a project rather than a subscription, since a person is doing the sourcing. Master Matchmakers' fees start at $3,500, based on the scope of your search.
Judge the Category by the Work, Not the Name
Whichever term a company uses for itself, the questions worth asking are the same: who is actually doing the searching, what gets verified and when, and what happens once the agreement runs its course. Those answers tell you far more than whether a business calls itself a dating service, a matchmaking firm, or something else entirely. We lay out our own version of that process, consultation, verification, introductions, and coaching, in detail on our How It Works page.