Best Matchmaking Services in the U.S. (2026): 13 Firms Compared

The best matchmaking services in the U.S. for 2026, by what each one does best: my own practice, Julie Ferman, if you want the matchmaker herself running your search in Los Angeles, Denver or Santa Fe; Kelleher International or Selective Search for a team-run executive search; Master Matchmakers or LUMA for published prices; Tawkify for a short trial; Three Day Rule for matchmaking plus coaching; and It’s Just Lunch for first dates booked over lunch. I checked every fact about the other firms on their own websites on September 28, 2026.

I’m a matchmaker, so I’m on this list, and I’ve sat on the buying side too. In 1990 I handed a dating service $1,450 I didn’t have. I’ve run my own practice since 2001, more than 40,000 singles have registered with me, and I’m credited with more than 1,600 couples.

The Short Answer: The Best Matchmaking Services by What You Need

• The matchmaker herself, plus coaching, with published prices: Julie Ferman, in Los Angeles, Denver and Santa Fe.
• A team-run executive search in many cities: Kelleher International or Selective Search, both published at $50,000 to $500,000.
• Published prices and a lower entry point: Master Matchmakers ($3,500 to $35,000) or LUMA Luxury Matchmaking ($20,000 to $250,000 or more).
• A short trial before you commit: Tawkify, which starts clients on three or six matches.
• A matchmaker who is also your dating coach: Three Day Rule, or me.
• Low-key first dates booked for you: It’s Just Lunch, which arranges lunch or after-work drinks.
• A remote search, anywhere: Cinqe, with contracts from $25,000 to $350,000.
• Another small, founder-led firm: Agape Match in New York, Perfect 12 in Beverly Hills or Janis Spindel Serious Matchmaking in New York.
• A very large budget: Select Date Society, which publishes a $1 million tier, and Janis Spindel, whose men’s tiers run from $75,000 to $1 million.
• To be considered for free: the free databases at Selective Search, Cinqe, Agape Match, Three Day Rule and mine.

13 U.S. Matchmaking Services Side by Side

The Services, One by One

After mine, the firms are in order of the year each one says it was founded. Agape Match doesn’t state a year, so it comes last.

Julie Ferman: Best If You Want the Matchmaker Herself, Plus Coaching

I’ve run my practice since 2001, with offices on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles, on Cherry Creek North Drive in Denver and on Washington Avenue in Santa Fe. I vet every introduction myself, and no algorithm is involved. I always go to the man first, and only when he’s a yes do I take him to her. Both people see photos and a detailed profile before a date is set, and I hear back from both of them within 24 hours of every date.

Before anyone pays me for a search, I run one. In the $295 strategy session we look at real people from my database together. Most of the matchmakers won’t do this, and I think the reason is that they don’t want the person who’s thinking about becoming a client to see who they have behind the curtain. The purpose of the consultation is not to sell you a matchmaking program; the fee applies toward matchmaking if we decide to go there.

I work with just as many women as men. Registration is free and confidential, a 60-minute strategy session is $295, the 30-Day Boot Camp is $4,700, and personal matchmaking is $25,000+, by invitation after the session. Everything is on my services page.

Good to know: my own database is deepest in Southern California, Denver and New Mexico. Elsewhere, I work with matchmaking colleagues.

And that’s why for the last 20 years, you’re the only matchmaker I’ve ever recommended anyone to.

Eric Resnick, online-dating profile expert and founder of Profile Helper, on Julie’s Cupid’s Coach podcast

Kelleher International: Best for a Team-Run Executive Search

Kelleher International describes itself as the largest and longest-running luxury matchmaking firm in the U.S., founded in 1986 by Jill Kelleher and Amber Kelleher-Andrews. Each client gets a team of three: a market director, a relationship manager and a network developer. It lists matchmaking teams in 20 cities, Los Angeles and Denver among them.

Its fee is published: $50,000 to $500,000, with an active search of typically one to two years. Kelleher says it has an 89% success rate. That’s its own figure.

It’s Just Lunch: Best for Low-Key First Dates Booked for You

It’s Just Lunch has been arranging dates since 1991, the year Andrea McGinty founded it. Its matchmakers hand-pick your match and book the date, lunch or after-work drinks, in more than 200 cities in the U.S., Canada, Europe and Australia. Los Angeles has Century City, Glendale and South Bay pages.

It doesn’t publish prices and calls itself fee-based. Its FAQ says it doesn’t run background checks, and that it guarantees dates, not outcomes.

Janis Spindel Serious Matchmaking: Best for Men With a Very Large Budget

Janis Spindel has run her firm from New York City since 1993, now with her daughter, Carly. Only men are paying clients. Women are recruited and vetted into the firm’s pool, and a woman pays a one-time fee of $500 to $4,000 to be considered, with no match guaranteed.

The men’s tiers start at $75,000 (that tier covers New York, New Jersey and Connecticut only) and rise to a Global VIP tier from $1 million. The firm says it has made more than 5,000 marriages since 1993.

Selective Search: Best for a Recruiter-Style Executive Search

Selective Search was founded in 2000 by Barbie Adler and is based in Chicago. It works like an executive search firm, with a team of matchmakers, researchers and recruiters, for clients nationwide and abroad. The first step is a complimentary consultation.

Its published retained-search fees are $50,000 to $500,000, and it says complex searches can reach seven figures. Contracts cover a set number of introductions, typically over six to twelve months. Singles who aren’t paying can apply to its free Candidate Program. It says it has an 89% success rate and more than 4,000 couples.

Master Matchmakers: Best for a Lower Published Entry Price

Master Matchmakers was founded in 2001 by JoAnn Ward and is now owned by her son, Steve Ward. It’s based in Palm Beach, Florida, and works in all 50 states. It publishes its prices: Premium Matchmaking from $3,500 to $35,000, or a one-time $450 listing in its Private Registry.

Recruiting is part of every package. You talk by phone before a first date, and it runs ID, age, photo and public-record background checks. Most of its clients are 35 to 65.

Perfect 12: Best for Men Who Want Women Recruited for Them

Perfect 12 Introductions is based in Beverly Hills and led by its founder and CEO, Simona Fusco, who meets every client. Men retain the firm, and it recruits women for them. Its pages give two founding years, 2008 and 2010.

It doesn’t publish prices; its tiers are named Gold, Platinum and Carte Blanche. It says it has a 90% success rate.

LUMA Luxury Matchmaking: Best for a National Search With a Published Range

LUMA was founded in 2010 by April Davis and says it works in all 50 states and eight other countries. A team of matchmakers, each carrying 15 to 20 clients, runs the search.

Its cost page puts full service at $20,000 to $250,000 or more. The consultation is complimentary, and a search runs six months. It serves men and women from their late 20s to their 80s and has a dedicated LGBTQ matchmaking page. It says 89% of clients enter a serious relationship while they’re members; some of its pages say 85%.

Cinqe: Best for a Remote Search, Anywhere

Cinqe (pronounced “sync”) was founded by Erica Arrechea. Its home page says 2010, and its FAQ says 2011. It has no office and works remotely, worldwide, with dedicated matchmakers who recruit, including through social media.

Contracts run $25,000 to $350,000, and photoshoots cost extra. Singles who aren’t paying can join a free database. Members range from 21 to 89. It doesn’t run background checks.

Tawkify: Best for Trying Matchmaking With a Short Trial

Tawkify has clients in every state and searches across the contiguous U.S. A dedicated matchmaker searches its network, which it puts at 3 million singles, and sets up photo-free blind dates at a pace of about one match a month, after criminal-record and video screening.

It doesn’t publish prices, and you can start with a trial of three or six matches. Most clients are 30 to 65. Its site doesn’t give a founding year; TechCrunch reported in 2023 that it was founded in 2012.

Three Day Rule: Best for a Matchmaker Who Doubles as Your Coach

Three Day Rule was founded in Los Angeles in 2013 by Talia Goldstein. Your matchmaker is also your dating coach. It has a team of more than 50, recruits, and keeps a free network any single can join. It says it has a strong presence in 15 cities, Los Angeles, Orange County and San Diego among them, and it has an LGBTQ+ matchmaking page.

Prices aren’t published. The first step is a free consultation.

Select Date Society: Best for Very High Net Worth

Select Date Society was founded in 2020 by Amber Lee and Sandra Myers and is based in Richmond, Virginia. It sells tiered memberships with matchmakers and, on its upper tiers, dedicated recruiters.

It publishes one price, its $1 million Founders Club. Its Executive VIP tier is limited to five clients. It runs ID verification, background checks and interviews.

Agape Match: Best for a Small, Capped Client List

Agape Match was founded by Maria Avgitidis in New York City and also searches in other metros, Los Angeles and San Francisco among them. It works as a boutique team that takes 15 clients at a time.

It doesn’t publish prices. Programs run six months, with at least one match in the first month, and a contract can be frozen. Singles can join its database free, and it runs a background check on every client.

Boutique Matchmaker or National Firm?

I learned this business in the nineties at a big video-dating agency, where my husband was a franchisee. They wouldn’t tell you over the phone how much it was; they had to get you into the office. I worked there seven or eight years, and I built my own company to be the opposite.

That doesn’t make every national firm a bad choice. It’s a trade:

• Who runs your search. At Kelleher, a team of three. At Selective Search, matchmakers, researchers and recruiters. At a founder-led firm, the founder, often with a small team.
• How big the pool is. National firms search across the country. A boutique searches its own community first and borrows from colleagues after that.
• What it costs to start. The national firms that publish prices start at $3,500 (Master Matchmakers), $20,000 (LUMA) and $50,000 (Kelleher, Selective Search). Founder-led firms run from free registration upward.
• How much coaching you get. Three Day Rule, Master Matchmakers and Kelleher build coaching in. So do I, after every introduction.

The question that matters more than size is who they’ll introduce you to. If it’s the kind of agency that only introduces paying people to paying people, that is a very small group of people. I don’t like that model, which is why my searches reach everyone in my community, from my clients to the singles who registered for free.

Matchmaker or Dating App, If You Want Marriage?

If you want marriage rather than casual dating, the difference that matters is who does the screening.

Mark Brooks, who has analyzed the online dating industry for years, put the difference to me on my podcast: “What I really think is the absolute core of what matchmakers do incredibly well is pre-date prep and post-date feedback.” An app does neither. If you’re weighing every way to meet someone without swiping, I compare them in the best alternatives to dating apps, and if you’re not sure whether you need introductions or help with how you date, start with matchmaker vs dating coach vs therapist.

What Matchmaking Costs in the U.S. in 2026

These are the published numbers from the firms above, not estimates.

• Free: joining a matchmaker’s database as a potential match, at Selective Search, Cinqe, Agape Match, Three Day Rule and my own practice. You’re a candidate for paying clients, not a client yourself, and nobody guarantees an introduction.
• Under $5,000: Master Matchmakers’ $450 Private Registry and its packages from $3,500. My $295 strategy session and $4,700 boot camp sit here too, though they’re coaching, not matchmaking packages.
• $20,000 to $50,000 to start: LUMA from $20,000, Cinqe from $25,000, my personal matchmaking from $25,000, and Kelleher and Selective Search from $50,000.
• Six and seven figures: Kelleher and Selective Search up to $500,000, Cinqe up to $350,000, LUMA $250,000 or more, Janis Spindel’s men’s tiers up to $1 million, and Select Date Society’s $1 million Founders Club.
• Not published: It’s Just Lunch, Perfect 12, Agape Match, Tawkify and Three Day Rule. Ask for the number in writing before your first paid step.

What the money buys, what it never buys, and when to keep it in your pocket are in how much a matchmaker costs.

Eight Questions to Ask Before You Sign

We’re all so different, so find out how this particular matchmaker operates, and what they can promise and what they can’t. And if the pitch sounds like “sign up today, it will be cheaper today,” walk out.

1. Who will actually run my search? A name, not a department.
2. Will you show me real candidates before I pay? It’s the fastest way to see who they have behind the curtain.
3. Where do my matches come from? Only other paying clients, a free database, active recruiting, or all three.
4. How many introductions, over how long, and is that in writing?
5. Do I see a photo and a profile before a date, and does my match see mine? Tawkify’s dates are photo-free by design. My clients both approve photos and a detailed profile first.
6. What happens after each date? Feedback from both people is how a search gets better.
7. Can I pause, and what are the cancellation and refund terms? In California, a dating-service contract can be cancelled until midnight of the third business day after signing, the refund is due within 10 days, and payments can’t run longer than two years (California Civil Code sections 1694 to 1694.4). Colorado has similar rules. This is general information, not legal advice, so read your own contract.
8. How do you measure your success rate? Every rate on this page is self-reported, and each firm counts differently.

FAQs About the Best Matchmaking Services

julieferman.com · Julie@JulieFerman.com · 805-371-9557