Matchmaking is on the rise again. Will it help us find love?

If you could pay someone to spare you from the drudgery of dating apps, would you? This white knight would screen potential suitors on your behalf, only putting forward options they’d personally vouch for.

For those who think that sounds nice, you’re in luck: traditional matchmaking is having a revival. Only today’s version is more like romantic coaching, or having a dating concierge, than being pressured to marry a member of the gentry by a Victorian society woman. 

This comes as more folks become fed up with the endless scrolling and swiping on dating apps. Even Hinge, one of the apps, says 61 per cent of users find modern dating tiring and overwhelming—a phenomenon known as "dating burnout". 

It’s easy to see the appeal of simply outsourcing all this trouble. Plus, because matchmakers vet everyone in their network, your dates are accountable for their behaviour: if they ghost you, they’ve got someone to answer to.

Could matchmaking, with its centuries-old roots, remedy the ills of modern dating?

Rather than leave you to the mercy of algorithms, a professional matchmaker will personally trawl through their contacts to find you the right suitor.

And as well as ensuring your date checks the boxes you want checked, like having certain religious beliefs, your matchmaker will also suss out what sort of person someone is and what they might bring to a partnership. 

“It’s a lot like being a headhunter,” co-founder of US-based dating service The Bevy told Forbes in 2017.

And, like a job interview, everyone in a matchmaker’s little black book must pass a vetting process. Ostensibly, this is to check they’d be a good partner—red flags like dishonesty mean they won’t make the cut as a client. 

All of this sounds like it would make dating a more pleasant experience. But aside from self-reported figures shared by service providers, we don’t really have enough insight to say whether matchmakers are a more effective way to find your person.

An exception here may be people in religious or cultural groups they’d like to date within: a matchmaker can connect them with a pool of people who share their experiences and beliefs, who it might be more challenging to access otherwise. For some, this is the only way they date.

Do matchmakers work for those of us not in that camp? After all, research has shown that the traits we think we’ll like on paper have no bearing on how well we’ll actually connect with someone.

Having someone gauge who your match is as a person, beyond what a dating app filter could capture, could give you some indication of what they’d be like as a partner. Dating apps can’t tell you if someone isn’t over their ex—a matchmaker could. 

Here, what matchmakers are really selling is convenience. They deal with the dirty work of dating for you, cushioning you from the messiness and cruelties. This won’t magically “fix” your dating life, but it could make it easier.

However, these services come at a price—reportedly, some firms charge in the tens of thousands of pounds. 

But what money can’t buy, and what a matchmaker can’t guarantee, is genuine chemistry. Nor is a matchmaker’s wisdom necessarily greater than yours. 

Matchmaking isn’t a silver bullet to finding love, but it does suggest a more human approach to dating. Wouldn’t it be nice if that was the norm, rather than seeing a photo and swiping left or right?

If you're looking for a new relationship or simply want a companion to spend time with, try Reader's Digest Dating for an easy-to-use and trustworthy dating website.