Create My Biodata
✦ A field guide for families

Which Matrimony Site Should You Start With?

Three companies own almost every matrimony site you have heard of. Dozens of regional, community and offline channels are where many families actually find matches. Here is the whole map: who owns what, what is free, what reviewers say, what to avoid, and a tool that picks the right starting points for your family.

In brief: Start with one national database, not three: Shaadi.com for the widest pool and NRI reach, BharatMatrimony's regional portal in the south, Jeevansathi in the north and west. Add your community's own channel: Chavara or M4Marry in Kerala, Nithra in Tamil Nadu, a samaj registry or vadhu-var mandal in Maharashtra and Gujarat, or the Sunday column in your regional paper. Register once per database, not per brand; CommunityMatrimony's caste sites are a separate fourth pool. All three giants score under 2 on Trustpilot, for the same reasons.

84 platforms profiledNo sponsors, no affiliate linksUpdated

Find the right places to search for your family

Pick your city or state, religion and community. We rank the platforms that actually have profiles for people like you, list the community and offline channels in your region, and flag what to be careful about. Nothing is sponsored; the ranking uses the same public facts printed across this guide.

Ratings are public app-store and review-site figures on the date in the Notes section, and prices are the published list prices we saw on that date. Both change; check before you pay.

Type "best matrimony site" into Google and you get lists written by the sites themselves. Ask a family that found a match last year and you get a different answer: the community app their cousin used, a Sunday column in the regional paper, a mandal that keeps printed lists, a WhatsApp group run by a bureau, or a Facebook group with thirty-five thousand strangers. Which of those is right depends on where you live, which community you belong to, and whether a parent or the person marrying is doing the searching.

This guide maps all of it. We profiled more than eighty platforms and channels, checked who owns which brand and which brands share one database, recorded list prices and free tiers on the same day, pulled public ratings from Google Play, the App Store, Trustpilot and MouthShut, read consumer-commission orders and police cases, and wrote the good and the bad in plain words. The tool below turns that into a shortlist for your family. Nothing here is sponsored, and no platform paid to be listed.

Platforms profiled
84
national, regional, community, apps and offline
Rated from public reviews
43
Google Play, App Store, Trustpilot, MouthShut
Communities
112
across 34 states and union territories
Cities mapped
36
with the offline channels families use

Shaadi.com vs BharatMatrimony vs Jeevansathi: which is best?

Jeevansathi, Shaadi.com and Bharat Matrimony are the three databases every search runs into, and none of them is best for everyone: the honest answer depends on where you live and which community you belong to. Shaadi.com claims the largest member base and the widest NRI reach. BharatMatrimony's strength is the south, through its regional portals, and it carries the most detailed verification badges. Jeevansathi is strongest among north and west Indian communities, has the cheapest entry price, and grew fastest in the last financial year.

They share the same business model. Free members can build a profile, search and send interest. Seeing a phone number or chatting needs a paid plan, priced in three-month blocks with a contact limit. And they share the same complaints from paying users: dormant or fake profiles, sales calls, plans that renew on their own, and refunds that are hard to get.

What mattersShaadi.comBharatMatrimonyJeevansathi.com
OwnerPeople Interactive, Mumbai. Private company; WestBridge Capital holds about 44%.Matrimony.com, Chennai. Listed on NSE and BSE.Info Edge (Naukri.com), Noida. Listed on NSE.
Claimed size35 million+ members, 8 million+ marriages claimed (App Store listing, Sep 2026)0.96 million paid subscriptions in FY26 (company results); '6 million+ active' in marketing'Trusted by 1 crore Indians and NRIs' (marketing); strongest in north and west India
What free members getProfile, search, daily matches and 'express interest' are free; phone numbers and chat need a planProfile, search and 'express interest' are free; messaging, phone numbers and video calls need a planProfile, search and interests are free; contacts and chat are gated or capped, confirm at sign-up
Paid plansGold about Rs 4,650 (web) to Rs 5,200 (app) for 3 months; Diamond 6 months about Rs 6,950; VIP Shaadi Rs 65,000 for 3 monthsGold about Rs 4,900 (web) to Rs 5,900 (app) for 3 months; Platinum 3 months Rs 9,900 in-app; Assisted Service Rs 21,000 to 30,000 per quarterLowest app tier Rs 1,699; typical 3-month plans about Rs 4,000 to 5,400 on the web; add-ons from Rs 499
VerificationPhone OTP; optional government ID via partners; selfie checks; inactive unverified profiles deleted after 30 daysSix-point Trust Badges (mobile, ID, education and salary proof, selfie, location, social); documents hidden from membersPhone and email OTP; selfie verification and Verified badge; trust badge after ID and address proof; watermarked photos
Google Play (India)4.4 / 5 (478k ratings)4.0 / 5 (193k ratings)4.4 / 5 (450k ratings)
Trustpilot1.2 / 5 (421 reviews)1.4 / 5 (56 reviews)1.9 / 5 (27 reviews)
Best forFamilies who want the widest pan-India and NRI pool and are willing to pay for a 3-month contact plan.Families searching within a South Indian or regional-language community, especially Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam.North and West Indian families (Punjabi, Marwari, Gujarati, Hindi belt) who want fine-grained privacy and a lower entry price.
Biggest complaintFree members cannot read or reply to messages, so many matches go silentFree members cannot contact anyone; one side must pay to chatReviewers say the same profiles repeat every day even after paying

Prices are list prices on 11 Sep 2026. In-app prices on the App Store were consistently higher than web prices for the same plan. Contact limits, plan names and refund rules change often; read the plan page on the day you pay and take a screenshot.

Head to head, one pair at a time:Shaadi.com or Jeevansathi: which should you pick? Shaadi.com or BharatMatrimony: which should you pick? BharatMatrimony or Jeevansathi: which should you pick?

When does an independent beat the giants?

Outside the three national databases, the answer changes by state, and in a few states the independents beat the giants. Kerala is the clearest case: a newspaper group (Malayala Manorama's M4Marry), a Catholic congregation (Chavara, run by CMI priests from 32 branches) and a Catholic newspaper (Deepika Matrimonial) together out-rate KeralaMatrimony on the Play Store. Tamil Nadu has Nithra and the 27-year-old Kalyanamalai. Maharashtra has a whole ecosystem of vadhu-var suchak mandals, from Anuroop Wiwaha (since 1975) to caste-specific kendras with printed lists and WhatsApp broadcasts.

In Odisha, the North-East, Goa, Himachal and most of the Hindi belt, no independent with real scale exists. There the honest advice is the giant's regional portal plus the regional newspaper's Sunday matrimonial page. Open your state below for the platforms families there actually use, the community and offline channels, and the newspapers that still carry matrimonial columns.

Which offline channel should you add?

Ask a family that found a match last year and there is a good chance it came through none of the apps. A samaj registry or vadhu-var suchak mandal (Rs 1,000 to Rs 2,500 a year), a parichay sammelan (Rs 301 to Rs 4,500), a Sunday newspaper column (from Rs 200 in Lokmat), a church, karayogam or jamaat desk, or a WhatsApp group run by a bureau. These channels are cheaper than the apps, more trusted inside the community, and invisible to Google. How each one works and what it costs.

Who owns what, in four lines

  • Shaadi.com family: People Interactive (India) Pvt Ltd, Mumbai. 2 brands, one database.
  • BharatMatrimony family: Matrimony.com Ltd, Chennai. 17 brands, two databases.
  • Jeevansathi family: Info Edge (India) Ltd, Noida, the Naukri.com company. 2 brands, one database.
  • Independents: Various owners, none part of the three groups above. 7 brands, much smaller pools or no public pool at all.

Register once per database, not once per brand. Which brands share one database, and the one exception.

The guide, page by page

The questions

Head to head

By state

The dominant platform, the communities you will meet and the offline channels families trust change from state to state, and in a few states the independents beat the giants. Open yours.

  • Maharashtra Where Marathi families actually search: vadhu-var suchak mandals, samaj melavas, MarathiMatrimony and the Sunday pages of Sakal, Loksatta and Lokmat.
  • Gujarat Where Gujarati families actually search: samaj-run pasandgi melas, Patidar Vivah, GujaratiMatrimony.
  • Kerala The one state where independents beat the giants: M4Marry, Chavara, Nest, Deepika and NSS Matrimony, parish and karayogam registries.
  • Karnataka and Goa Where Kannada, Kodava, Bunt and Goan families search: KannadaMatrimony's caste sites, the sanghas, Bengaluru's independents.
  • Tamil Nadu and Puducherry Where Tamil families search: TamilMatrimony's caste sites, Nithra's free tier, Kalyanamalai's centres, sangam marriage information centres.
  • Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh Where MP and Chhattisgarh families search: Indore and Bhopal's parichay sammelan calendar, Lagnavaarta and the Sindhi Marriage Bureau.
  • Delhi and Haryana Where Delhi NCR and Haryana families search: Jeevansathi's home market, the Times of India Sunday edition.
  • Punjab and Chandigarh Where Punjabi and tricity families search: gurdwara and sabha desks, PunjabiMatrimony, Jeevansathi, the Ajit and Tribune Sunday pages.
  • Andhra Pradesh and Telangana Where Telugu families search: TeluguMatrimony's caste sites, the Eenadu Pellipandiri column and portal, Telugu Marriage Bureau branches.
  • North India Where Hindi-belt and hill families search: Jeevansathi and Shaadi.com, caste sabha sammelans from Meerut to Jaipur, Maangal.com for Garhwalis and Kumaonis.
  • East India Where Bengali, Bihari and Odia families search: the Anandabazar Patra-Patri column and ABPweddings, the family ghatak, caste sabhas.
  • North-East India The honest map for Assam, Arunachal, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura: AssameseMatrimony and the Asomiya Pratidin page.

Sites with their own page

  • Shaadi.com Shaadi.com: Families who want the widest pan-India and NRI pool and are willing to pay for a 3-month contact plan.
  • BharatMatrimony BharatMatrimony: Families searching within a South Indian or regional-language community, especially Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam.
  • Jeevansathi.com Jeevansathi.com: North and West Indian families (Punjabi, Marwari, Gujarati, Hindi belt) who want fine-grained privacy and a lower entry price.
  • CommunityMatrimony CommunityMatrimony: Families where caste or sub-community is the first filter. Gold 3 months Rs 3,999 in-app; Diamond Rs 7,900; Assisted Rs 29,900.
  • Aisle Aisle: Singles in their 20s and 30s who want to meet a partner themselves before the families talk.
  • Betterhalf Betterhalf: Nobody at present: the app is winding down, so treat this profile as a record rather than a recommendation. Rs 699 to Rs 4,399 in-app.
  • Chavara Matrimony Chavara Matrimony: Kerala Christian families of any denomination who want a church-linked, assisted search.
  • KannadaMatrimony KannadaMatrimony: Kannada-speaking families; register once here or on BharatMatrimony, not both.
  • KeralaMatrimony KeralaMatrimony: Malayali families; register once here or on BharatMatrimony, not both.
  • M4Marry M4Marry: Malayali families who want the Manorama brand and a big pool. Plans from Rs 5,900 for 90 days; Assisted Rs 26,000 for 3 months (unverified).
  • Muzz (formerly Muzmatch) Muzz (formerly Muzmatch): Urban Muslim singles (not parents) and diaspora matches.
  • NikahForever NikahForever: Indian Muslim families who want a family-oriented app rather than a swipe app.
  • Nithra Matrimony Nithra Matrimony: Tamil families wanting a free, app-first alternative to TamilMatrimony.
  • TamilMatrimony TamilMatrimony: Tamil-speaking families; register once here or on BharatMatrimony, not both.
  • TeluguMatrimony TeluguMatrimony: Telugu-speaking families; register once here or on BharatMatrimony, not both.

By type of site

Frequently asked questions

Which matrimony site is best in India?

There is no single best site. Shaadi.com claims the largest member base and the widest NRI reach, BharatMatrimony is strongest in the south through its regional portals, and Jeevansathi is strongest among north and west Indian communities and has the cheapest entry plan. In Kerala and Tamil Nadu, independents such as M4Marry, Chavara and Nithra out-rate the giants. Pick by your state and community, then register once per database.

Which of the three national sites is cheapest?

Jeevansathi. Its lowest app tier is Rs 1,699, against about Rs 4,650 to Rs 5,200 for Shaadi.com Gold and Rs 4,900 to Rs 5,900 for BharatMatrimony Gold, all for three months with a contact limit. On every site the web price is lower than the in-app price for the same plan, so buy on the website.

Which of the three national sites has the most profiles?

Shaadi.com by its own claim: 35 million members and 8 million marriages on its App Store listing, against BharatMatrimony's 0.96 million paid subscriptions in FY26 and Jeevansathi's 'trusted by 1 crore' marketing line. Google Play rating counts point the same way: about 4.8 lakh for Shaadi.com, 4.5 lakh for Jeevansathi and 1.9 lakh for BharatMatrimony.

Do I need to register on more than one matrimony site?

Usually one national database plus one community channel. Registering on two brands of the same company is wasted effort: the regional and community portals of BharatMatrimony and Shaadi.com are the same pool as the parent. See who owns what for the four databases that are actually separate.

Is a free profile useless?

No. On all three national sites a free profile can be found and contacted by paying members, so the other family can still reach you. What you cannot do free is see a number or start the conversation. The free vs paid page shows what each tier unlocks and what it costs.

Which matrimony site is best in my state?

It changes by state. Kerala and Tamil Nadu have independents that out-rate the giants; Maharashtra and Gujarat run on samaj registries and mandals; in the Hindi belt, Odisha and the North-East the honest answer is a national site plus the regional newspaper. Open your state in the list on this page.

How do I check that a matrimony profile is real?

Insist on a long unscheduled video call, call the parents on a number you found yourself, verify the employer through LinkedIn and the company site, keep early conversations on the platform, and treat any request for money, gifts or customs duty as the end. The scams page has the fourteen patterns and a checklist.

Where do we start if we are not using apps at all?

With your community's own channel: a samaj registry or vadhu-var mandal (Rs 1,000 to Rs 2,500 a year), a parichay sammelan, the Sunday matrimonial column of your regional newspaper (from Rs 200), or a church, jamaat or gurdwara desk. The beyond-apps page explains how each one works and what it costs.

Notes & method

  1. What this guide is. An independent field guide of 43 pages from SendRishta, a free matrimony biodata maker. We do not run a matrimony database, take no referral fees, and no platform paid to be listed or ranked. Links to platforms carry no affiliate codes.
  2. Research date. All prices, free-tier descriptions, ratings and counts were recorded on 11 September 2026 unless a profile says otherwise. Prices are list prices seen on the platform's own page or its India App Store listing that day; where a price came only from a coupon site or a search snippet the profile says so. Prices, plan names and contact limits change often. Check the plan page on the day you pay.
  3. Ownership. The "one database" findings rest on the companies' own terms, FAQs, app-store listings and press releases: BharatMatrimony's terms classify one database by language and region, its regional apps describe a unified login and sell identical plans; CommunityMatrimony was launched in 2009 as a separate company with a separate database (afaqs, 9 September 2009); Shaadi.com's community apps carry the Shaadi.com copyright, seller and prices, so we treat them as one pool, marked as inferred because no help article states it outright. Jeevansathi's community sections are pages on one domain.
  4. Ratings. Google Play figures are from the India storefront, App Store figures from apps.apple.com/in, Trustpilot and MouthShut from their review pages. An asterisk marks a figure taken from a search snippet because the page could not be opened. Google Play mostly reflects users of the free app; Trustpilot mostly reflects paying members, many abroad. Both are shown so neither is mistaken for the whole picture.
  5. Pros and cons are our plain-words summaries of the platform's own pages and of recurring themes in reviews, forum threads and consumer-commission orders. "Reviewers say" means a pattern across many reviews, not a verified fact about every user's experience.
  6. Regional and community channels. Every platform and offline channel listed was checked against at least one retrieved page: the organisation's own site, a samaj or church site, a newspaper rate card (INS-accredited agencies), an app-store listing, or a press report. Items we could only see in a search snippet are marked unverified. Newspaper rates are text-ad card rates before GST for the edition combination stated.
  7. Scams and safety. A company is named as fraudulent only where a police FIR, arrest, court order or reputable press report says so; otherwise the pattern is described without a name. Cases are attributed to the outlet that reported them. Helpline details are from the Ministry of Home Affairs and I4C publications.
  8. The chooser tool runs entirely in your browser and sends nothing to us. It ranks platforms on five things, in order: whether they serve your religion and community, whether they are strong in your state, whether they fit your situation (second marriage, NRI, disability, and so on), whether they fit your budget, and a small adjustment from public app ratings. It shows one entry per shared database, so it will not list TamilMatrimony and BharatMatrimony as if they were two options. Its data file is public and every card links to the platform's page in this guide.
  9. Gaps. Reddit blocked most automated fetches, so forum evidence leans on Trustpilot, app-store reviews, Quora and press. Several matrimony.com-group pages return 403 to automated requests and are cited from search snippets. Odisha, the North-East, Goa and most Hindi-belt castes have no independent platform of scale that we could verify; for those the advice is the giant's regional portal plus the regional newspaper. Muslim jamaat registries and most Indian gurdwara desks are described from press rather than retrieved pages.
  10. Corrections and additions. If a platform, mandal or newspaper is missing, mis-described or mis-priced, write to hello@sendrishta.com with a link and we will fix it and note the change here.

Sources

  1. Shaadi.com membership FAQ: what free and premium members can do - People Interactive, retrieved 11 Sep 2026
  2. Shaadi.com subscription plans and contact limits (company blog, Nov 2025)
  3. VIP Shaadi plans and prices - Rs 65,000 for 3 months as of 11 Sep 2026
  4. Marathi Shaadi (Marathi matrimony service by Shaadi.com) - same seller, plans and prices as Shaadi.com
  5. Sangam.com membership plans (help centre)
  6. afaqs, 9 Sep 2009: BharatMatrimony launches CommunityMatrimony with a separate database - basis for the 'two databases' finding
  7. Matrimony.com FY26 results (Entrackr, May 2026) - paid subscriptions 0.96 million, down 3.3%
  8. Info Edge: Jeevansathi business overview - 'free to list, search and express interest, but pay to get contact information'
  9. Jeevansathi privacy features
  10. Jeevansathi fraud alert page - 'be wary of those who ask for money from you'
  11. Inc42: Info Edge takes full ownership of Aisle (Nov 2025)
  12. FreeElective Network v. Matrimony.com, Madras High Court, 11 Aug 2026 (Jodii trademark) - permanent injunction; Supreme Court SLPs withdrawn 7 Sep 2026 (indiankanoon.org/doc/43587891/)
  13. Madras High Court interim injunction on Shaadi.com's '30 day money back guarantee' ads (Mondaq, Jan 2025)
  14. MatrimonialsIndia packages - Gold Rs 3,000 for 3 months as of 11 Sep 2026
  15. Vivaah.com about page - free including contact numbers
  16. Shaadi.com on the App Store (India) - in-app prices and rating
  17. BharatMatrimony on the App Store (India)
  18. Jeevansathi on the App Store (India)
  19. CommunityMatrimony on the App Store (India) - Gold Rs 3,999
  20. Shaadi.com on Google Play
  21. BharatMatrimony on Google Play
  22. Jeevansathi on Google Play
  23. Trustpilot: Shaadi.com - 1.2 of 5 from 421 reviews, 11 Sep 2026
  24. Trustpilot: BharatMatrimony - 1.4 of 5 from 56 reviews
  25. Trustpilot: Jeevansathi - 1.9 of 5 from 27 reviews
  26. Quora: Are proposals through matrimonial sites fake or timepass?
  27. Quora: experiences with BharatMatrimony and Shaadi.com
  28. Anuroop Wiwaha services (Maharashtra, since 1975) - melava fees separate from registration
  29. Anand Maratha Vadhu Var Kendra, Pune - Rs 2,000 a year
  30. Yog Maratha Vadhu Var Suchak Kendra, Kolhapur - 10 to 12 melavas a year
  31. Bhratru Mandal Pune (melavas incl. punarvivah)
  32. Jain Vadhu-Var Parichay Sanstha, Pune (since 1985)
  33. Rishtey Dhaage: upcoming parichay sammelans and fees - Rs 301 virtual to Rs 4,500 two-day
  34. Patidar Vivah (Ahmedabad) - Rs 999 to Rs 3,999
  35. M4Marry (Malayala Manorama)
  36. Chavara Matrimony on Google Play
  37. Deepika Matrimonial (Rashtra Deepika) - free tier plus Rs 250 to Rs 3,950
  38. NSS Matrimony (karayogam verification)
  39. Nithra Matrimony (Tamil Nadu)
  40. Kalyanamalai plans - Rs 5,400 to Rs 10,800
  41. Eenadu Pellipandiri - portal plus Sunday column
  42. NikahForever plans - Rs 249 a week to Rs 4,299 a quarter
  43. Nikah.com safety tips - 'Never give in to people who demand money'
  44. Maangal.com (Uttarakhand) - about 60,000 Garhwali and Kumaoni profiles
  45. Khandar.in (Kashmiri Pandit)
  46. releaseMyAd newspaper matrimonial rate cards - INS-accredited agency; text-ad card rates
  47. ads2publish newspaper matrimonial rate cards
  48. National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal - and helpline 1930
  49. PIB backgrounder on cyber fraud reporting and the 1930 helpline (Oct 2025)
  50. Rajya Sabha reply on cyber fraud, 4 Feb 2026 (ETV Bharat)
  51. Maharashtra Regulation of Marriage Bureaus and Registration of Marriages Act, 1998 - bureaus must register; fine up to Rs 5,000
  52. D Ramesan v. Kerala Matrimony, Ernakulam District Consumer Commission, 2024 (LiveLaw) - refund plus Rs 25,000 compensation
  53. CCPA Guidelines for Prevention and Regulation of Dark Patterns, 2023 (Trilegal summary) - subscription traps are an unfair trade practice
  54. Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961, section 3
  55. UIDAI advice on masked Aadhaar (The Quint, 2022)
  56. Shaadi.com blog: how it protects against matrimony fraud (Dec 2023) - 'Never send money to anyone you haven't met in person'
  57. The Tribune: 'Perth NRI' messaged 3,000 women on a matrimonial site, Pune, 2025
  58. Patrika: Moradabad teacher loses Rs 94.78 lakh to 'NRI groom', 2025
  59. NewsKarnataka: Bengaluru woman duped of Rs 5.6 lakh by fake NRI suitor, 2025
  60. Medical Dialogues: Kochi doctor loses Rs 37 lakh in NRI matrimonial fraud, 2026
  61. ThePrint: DCW notices to three matrimonial sites over fake suitors, 2022
  62. Free Press Journal: parents turn to private detectives for pre-marital checks (Aug 2026) - Rs 25,000 to Rs 3 lakh per check
  63. eCourts case status search - search pending cases by party name