Cougar Dating Apps: Find Cougars and Cubs Online

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Attractive, older women really have it all: life experience, a mature mindset, dependability, confidence in who they are, and an attitude of keeping relevant and with the times. These older women are referred to as cougars, and many young men out there (cubs) desire to be with one. Likewise, cougars are willing to be with younger men because they are young at heart.



Where can I meet a cougar or a cub online? You’d be surprised to know that many of our favorite mainstream dating apps can turn the trick, but there are a few niche dating apps dedicated to cougar dating as well! Check out our unbiased list of the best cougar dating apps, along with some tips and advice on using these platforms for all they’re worth.

Dating App Key Facts Free Trial
eharmony logo eharmony
  • Best For: finding serious, compatible relationships with older women
  • Active Members: 16+ million
  • Gender Ratio: 48% men to 52% women
  • Matchmaking: 32 Dimensions of Compatibility
elite singles logo Elite Singles
  • Best For: finding older women who are highly educated or successful
  • Active Members: 2+ million (1.7 million visitors per month)
  • Gender Ratio: 44% men to 56% women
  • Matchmaking: Five Factor Model theory of personality traits
sugarbook logo Sugarbook
  • Best For: finding a mature woman who’s looking to date a younger man
  • Active Members: 50,000
  • Gender Ratio: 35% men to 65% women
  • Matchmaking: location-based matching
SilverSingles logo SilverSingles
  • Best For: finding women over 50
  • Active Members: 800,000
  • Gender Ratio: 53% men to 47% women
  • Matchmaking: simple personality testing
zoosk logo Zoosk
  • Best For: finding a large dating pool of older women
  • Active Members: 40 million
  • Gender Ratio: 47% men to 53% women
  • Matchmaking: personal dating preferences and Carousel results
Cougarlife logo CougarLife
  • Best For: finding a large dating pool of older women
  • Active Members: 500,000+ (50+ million users worldwide and 12 million visitors per month)
  • Gender Ratio: 48% men to 52% women
  • Matchmaking: personal dating preferences and Carousel results
EliteMeetsBeauty logo EliteMeetsBeauty
  • Best For: finding casual relationships with attractive, high-society women
  • Active Members: 200,000 (50,000 active weekly)
  • Gender Ratio: 75% men to 25% women
  • Matchmaking: location-based matching and search filter settings

Why Are These the Best Cougar Dating Apps?

We had to get creative with the dating apps we recommended for cougars and cubs. While some awesome niche products in the market get right to the heart of cougar dating, we found that one of the best keys to meeting older women online is to use mainstream dating apps that cater to a broad user base.

These are the best reasons we could of as to why this impressive list of dating apps is best suited for cubs looking to date a cougar:  

Large and Active Userbase

Each of these cougar dating apps has a solid base of members and free trial users who remain active every week. Most of these platforms either have hundreds of thousands or millions of active members, which leads to a big dating pool. The chances of you meeting older women rise dramatically when using these mainstream dating apps, the more prominent names in the online dating market where customers flock around.

Solid Daily Matches

These dating apps have superb matchmaking systems (personality/compatibility testing, dating preferences, search settings, and swipe-style dating preferences) that generate great matches for young men looking for older women. Most of these dating apps have relatively even gender ratios that guarantee that cougars and cubs can find precisely what they’re looking for.  

Awesome Features

Two major aspects of these dating apps come to mind when we think of the features they offer: search settings and dynamic profiles. Good search-setting menus are a perfect way for you to plug in all your personal criteria and dating preferences into the app so they can find the right singles to send your way. Likewise, quality profiles on these dating apps can really help cubs and cougars alike to find the right partner based on age, location, appearance, interests, beliefs, and other factors. 

Ease of Use

All the cougar dating apps on our list are really easy to use. It’s simple to get signed up; many of these platforms have a process that takes no more than 10 minutes or so. Profile and search filter setup is intuitive and straightforward, as is navigating the apps themselves. If you’ve never used a dating app before or it’s been a while, these platforms are easy to figure out and slide right into.

Affordable Price Points

You might be a cub who’s still trying to gain your footing in the real world, and money is tight. Or you could be a cougar who’s on a fixed income. No matter who you are or what your cash flow situation looks like, you can count on our bet cougar dating apps to feature affordable prices for premium membership! Many apps have multiple membership plans catering to different kinds of budgets. 

7 Best Cougar Dating Apps Reviewed

Let’s break down each of these cougar dating apps and get into the nitty gritty of why they are the best-suited platforms for finding love and romance with cougars online. To succeed in meeting older women, you’ll want the right dating app to get the job done. And we guarantee these platforms will get you the best connections and the most simpatico cougar-cub relationships. 

#1 eharmony: Find Serious Relationships with Older Women

Best For:Compatible relationships with Older Women
Active Members:16 million
Matching Process:32 Dimensions of Compatibility
Gender Ratio:48% men to 52% women

If you’re looking for a serious relationship with an older woman, your best bet is to hit up eharmony. They have the dating pool to provide you with plenty of good options (16 million active members) and first-rate compatibility testing to ensure a perfect match.

eharmony has a nearly-even gender ratio, and many of the app’s members are between the ages of 30-45. This dating app is used by many middle-aged or older singles, making it an excellent platform for younger men to find older women! eharmony is the best cougar dating app for younger men who desire a deep connection with their partner.


#2 Elite Singles: Find Highly Educated Older Women

Best For:finding older women who are highly educated and successful
Active Members:2+ million (1.7 million visitors per month)
Matching Process:Personality and compatibility testing
Gender Ratio:44% men to 56% women

The average member of Elite Singles is between 30 and 55 years of age, making this dating app one of your best options for dating older women. Elite Singles focuses more on serious relationships than on casual dates or encounters.

In addition, they cater to a clientele with above-average educations, working in high-paying career fields. This is the ideal place to find a serious relationship with an older woman who is well-educated or is successful in their career. At the very least, you’ll find an older woman who enjoys the finer things in life.   


#3 Sugarbook: Meet Wealthy, Mature Women

Best For:Finding wealthy, mature women who want to date younger men
Active Members:5,000
Matching Process:location-based matching
Gender Ratio:35% men to 65% women

If you’re looking for quality luxury dating, check out Sugarbook and its dating pool of 12 million active members!

As a premium member, you can enjoy profile highlights in the form of premium badges earned by buying a higher-tier membership plan.

As for discretion for sugar mommas, members can hide their login details or activity and get discreet names on their billing statements.  


#4 SilverSingles: Find Women Over the Age of 50

Best For:finding women over 50
Active Members:800,000
Matching Process:Simple personality testing
Gender Ratio:53% men and 47% women

In its simplest form, finding the best cougar dating experience means using a platform where many of the singles are more advanced in age. And there’s no better dating app to turn to than SilverSingles!

Most members here are between the ages of 48 and 52. This makes SilverSingles an excellent option for finding older women who want serious relationships. And even though this app is geared toward an older crowd, younger people are still included. In fact, the only requirement for joining this platform is to be at least 18 years of age!


#5 Zoosk: The Best Dating Pool for Older Women

Best For:Finding a large dating pool of older women
Active Members:500,000+
Matching Process:Members set up their search filters and dating preferences; Zoosk then establishes a “type” based on Carousel results
Gender Ratio:47% men to 53% women

When it comes to a modern dating app with an exciting and dynamic pool of singles, nothing comes close to Zoosk. They cater to over 50 million members worldwide, and over 3 million messages are exchanged daily.

The Carousel feature allows members and free trial users to employ swipe-style dating methods to narrow down the right singles for casual dates and romance! Zoosk is the perfect venue for meeting older women of experience and maturity because they handle such a large base of users.


#6 Cougar Life: Find Casual Dates and Romance with Older Women

Best For:Finding dates with older women
Active Members:4.9 million
Matching Process:Personal dating preferences and search settings
Gender Ratio:48% men to 52% women

You would think this one would be our top cougar dating app due to its name, but it falls slightly lower in our ranking due to its niche nature. They cater to 4.9 million active users, which is decent, but one big drawback is that the app has way more men than women.

This is a dating app where you can find older women, but they’re going to be older women who are more interested in casual dating and romance instead of serious relationships. If you want to meet older women and just have some fun, you should definitely give Cougar Life a look.


#7 EliteMeetsBeauty: Find Beautiful, Classy Women

Best For:Finding casual romance with older, high-society women
Active Members:200,000
Matching Process:location-based matching and search filter settings
Gender Ratio:75% men to 25% women

EliteMeetsBeauty is another dating app that caters more to casual romance with older women. And in this case, it’s casual dating and romance with older women who are attractive and a part of high society.

This is a dating app specifically designed for meeting older women who are well-connected and rub elbows with those in the upper echelons. In fact, 63% of female members at EliteMeetsBeauty have an above-average education. Over 67% of older women members consider themselves attractive!


Comparing the Best Dating Apps for Cougars

What do these cougar dating apps going to cost me? And will I be able to use them on my mobile device?

Check out the comparison chart below for more details on how one of these apps will fit your budget and which is the best cougar dating app for iPhone and Android devices.  

Dating AppYear FoundedPrice RangeIOS/Android
eharmony logo2000$35.90-$65.90/monthYes
2013$19.95-$37.95/monthYes
2016$39.95-$71.95/monthYes
silver singles logo2002$27.95-$54.95/monthYes
2007$12.50-$29.95/monthYes
2009$29.99-$149.99/monthYes
2021$39.99-$69.99/monthYes

Why You Should Trust Our Dating App Recommendations

How can you know these dating apps are the best for cougars and cubs looking for love? Check out our top five reasons why our dating app recommendations can be trusted and why we are a respected authority when it comes to online dating market matters. 

We Use an Unbiased Review Process

Our goal is to deliver unbiased cougar dating app reviews, and a significant step in this is focusing on the pros AND cons of each platform we appraise. We target five key categories (features, cost, usability, active members, and daily matches) and assign an individual rating. Then we pull an average to determine our unbiased overall rating for the cougar dating app.

Our Dating Experts Actually Use the Apps

One of the best ways to ensure an honest and accurate review of these cougar dating apps is to have our writers use them firsthand to gain actual experience. Our writers create a free trial account, develop a personal profile, and adjust their search settings to see what kind of singles are using these platforms. What better way to accurately write cougar dating app reviews than to experience it firsthand?

We Provide You With
Free Trial Links

We never want our readers to jump headfirst into a cougar dating app without at least trying it out in a limited capacity. We always include links to free trials in our reviews as a way for customers to test out the product to see what it offers. It’s an excellent method for gauging if the app will be a good fit for you personally.  

Up to Date Information on Prices and Features

Our cougar dating app reviews are entirely up to date in terms of membership pricing and any new or improved features. If any changes occur in the market, we will promptly implement them into the fabric of our content. Our team diligently scans content regularly to ensure it’s accurate, honest, and current.

Promote the Latest and Best Apps

It’s our due diligence to our readers to promote the latest and best platforms for finding love or casual romance with older women. We’ve included a few niche dating apps that capitalize on that market, but by and large, we recommend many mainstream dating apps that have many older women using them. We don’t want to waste your time with platforms that are so obscure that they only give you lackluster results.

Best Cougar Dating App Tips

From time to time, cougars and cubs alike can use some good advice to increase their chances of finding the ideal partner online. You could be new to the cougar-cub dating scene and need more familiarity to navigate these relationships confidently. Or you’ve already been in this scene for a while and want some excellent advice for increasing your chances of success.

Check out our best tips for using cougar dating apps. Hopefully, we can show you some creative techniques or solutions for any challenges you might face.

Post Photos of You at Your Best

If you want to attract an older woman, you'll want to post a photo of yourself at your best. It doesn't have to be a shirtless photo of you on the beach or pumping iron at the gym. It just needs to be a clear photo where you're making firm eye contact with the camera, and there's nothing in the background distracting the viewer from you.  

Avoid Talking about Your Age or Her Age

You both know why you're on a cougar dating app, to begin with. There's no need to state the obvious. You're better off not bringing up age in your conversations until you know one another better. Some people don’t want to be reminded of how old they are. 

Be Honest and Genuine

Older women have experienced and seen a lot in their time. It's best not to BS your way through your conversations or intentions. Be clear about what it is you want out of the relationship upfront. It’s also good to be genuine in your conversations to establish trust and understanding.  

The Relationship can be Serious OR Casual

If you want a casual romance with a cougar, be sure you're on the right dating app (and vice versa). Cougar relationships can be either serious or casual, so it's essential to be on the right platform. Some cougars want companionship with a young man without any sort of sexual relationship. Don't be surprised if you meet an older woman where this is the expectation. Cougar relationships can be nuanced. 

Create a Robust Profile that Captures Her Attention

Be sure to fill out your online profile so the viewer can learn as much as they can about you. If you can provide a written answer to a question or prompt, go for it! The idea is to stand out amongst other app members, so put your creative writing skill to the test.   

Set Up Search Settings and Dating Preferences

Find the singles you want to date or be in a relationship with by clearly specifying what you’re looking for in your search setting and dating preferences. If you want to find a cougar or a cub of a certain age, adjust accordingly in the settings. You can do this for factors like appearance, location, interests, and many others. 

Cougar Dating Apps FAQ

If you’re unfamiliar with cougar dating, you might have some questions about the terms we used, the nature of cougar dating, and how it works. We hope this FAQ can clarify any additional questions you might still have!

What is a Cougar?


A cougar is an older woman that young men are attracted to because of their maturity and life experience. Cougars don’t necessarily have money, but they are typically very attractive. Young men are drawn to them due to their maturity and grace.

What is a Cub?

This term is used for young men interested in developing relationships with older women (cougars). They are drawn to these older women because of their life experiences and not because of any wealth or status they might have.

How Long Does It Take to Create an Account and a Profile?

The answer to this will depend on which cougar dating app you use. Some take anywhere from 5-10 minutes, while others are more time-consuming. eHarmony, in particular, will take you anywhere from 30-45 minutes, but that’s considering their top-notch compatibility testing. On average, you’re probably looking at a sign-up process that will take around 10-15 minutes.

Can I Use Cougar Dating Apps For Free?

There’s no way to use any of these dating platforms to their fullest extent, utterly free of charge. Any free trial opportunities that are offered allow the user to enjoy a limited number of the membership features for free, but they will have to pay for a premium membership plan to use the app for all its worth.

Are Cougars and Sugar Mommas the Same Thing?

While a cougar is an older woman who attracts young men because of their life experience and their mature mindset, a sugar momma is an older woman who attracts young men due to her wealth or social status. Sugar momma relationships are much more transactional, where a young partner gets gifts or perks in exchange for a low-commitment relationship

What’s the Best Cougar Dating App for Casual Romance?

Zoosk, Cougar Life, and EliteMeetsBeauty are your three best options for dating older women and taking a more casual approach to romance. These platforms are more adept at fostering casual dates, romance, and low-key commitments. To an extent, SugarBook could be seen as a more casual dating app for finding older women because many sugar mommas are okay with the idea of an open relationship with their babies.

Our team of experts diligently research and review all of the products and services we recommend. If you buy through our links, we may receive a commission. Learn more here.