Dating coaches and dating apps: What are people willing to pay to find love?

Australians searching for love are willing to spend big to help find “the one” — and for professional dating coaches and paid dating apps, business is booming.

Australians looking for love are increasingly willing to fork out for help with their search, and services such as professional dating coaching and paid dating apps are booming in popularity.

From dropping thousands of dollars on expert help to paying per month for a Tinder Plus account, the cost of putting an end to loneliness knows few limits.

Founder and director of the School of Attraction, Damien Diecke, is a professional dating coach and says a predominant part of his work is simply teaching social skills.

“A lot of what I’m doing is teaching decent social skills - it’s things like how do you banter and have fun and how do you connect, and how do you build rapport?,” he said.

“It’s about small talk, the basic skills that actually make dating much easier. It’s not about trying to get every girl to like you. It’s trying to get someone who you are compatible with, and giving that the best possible shot.”

Professional dating coach Damien Diecke says a predominant part of his work is simply teaching social skills. Picture: Supplied

With a highly varied client base, Mr Diecke said online dating had made everything “much harder” because it limited real-life interaction.

From online dating cheat sheets through to a comprehensive three-month course – services offered by the School of Attraction range from free of charge to $5495.

“There are a lot of men who are well educated, have good jobs, but they just never got to be social – that’s a very common demographic,” Mr Diecke said.

“There are also men who have been married for a long time, then all of a sudden they find themselves single and they’ve no idea how to date. All their friends are married — there’s no single scene for them.

“Then, of course, you get the really shy guys – the guys who are just socially awkward. A lot of people assume it’s just socially awkward guys who come to me, but that’s only about maybe 10 to 20 per cent of the clients.”

The biggest piece of advice he has for blokes trying to meet someone is to “not get caught up in the narrative that most women are cruel”.

“There’s this niche part of the internet where it’s a very popular belief, and it’s easy to fall into it. But on average, women are so much nicer than most guys actually think.”

Ms Blair-West says a key reason people seek professional help with dating is because they haven’t experienced healthy relationships. Picture: Supplied

Author and fellow dating coach Jiveny Blair-West said a key reason people seek out professional dating help is because healthy relationships haven’t been modelled to them.

“We invest in learning how to take care of our bodies, exercise, nutrition, that kind of thing, or invest in our careers and learning new skills or business mentorship – but relationships often get forgotten,” Ms Blair-West said.

“On top of the problems with dating apps, there are all these TikTok dating coaches who jump online and say the craziest stuff. I’m always cringing at the kind of stuff they’re saying, because so often they haven’t had the experience of a healthy relationship.”

Dating For Love, the coaching company Ms Blair-West runs with her husband, offers a range of courses for men and women. One of their most popular courses, “offline dating in an online world”, is priced at $99, with others costing $297.

Ms Blair-West, who works with clients aged between 20 and 70, said one of the most prevalent struggles she encountered was a lack of openness to emotional intimacy.

Tinder offers multiple subscription tiers for those looking for love. Picture: iStock

“It’s often a case of how can we let down some of the defences that have gotten in the way of being able to build a meaningful relationship,” Ms Blair-West said.

“Funnily enough, I think a lot of men and women are looking for the same things.

“We don’t really work with people who are looking for short-term, casual dating. So many men do want to settle down and to find a good woman to build a life with and have a relationship with.”

In addition to paying for the professionals, people on the hunt for love – or otherwise – are also willing to fork out for the full versions of dating apps, with prices ranging from low to extortionate.

Tinder, the most popular dating app, has several paid options for subscribers.

The App Store lists multiple costs for the same subscription tiers, but Tinder Plus and Tinder Gold deals range from $9.99 to $43.99 per month.

There is also a Tinder Platinum option, as well as an elusive Tinder Select option marketed as “exclusive membership that gives you unrivalled access to the absolute best of Tinder”.

This option requires a specific application and has “limited availability”.