SALT: A Christian-Made Dating App for Christians Who Want Real Connection

The Short Version: Single Christians can find it hard to feel at home in the church communities around them. SALT, an app built for Christian singles that combines dating and community, makes it easy to find that community of fellow singles while also offering top-tier online dating features.

Where you choose to date online may be among the most important decisions you make in the entire process. It determines which singles you’ll meet, what kinds of relationships they want, and the way they search for them.

If you want a relationship centered on your faith, with a partner who holds your beliefs as dear as you do, you should be on a platform where people look for love through a faith-informed lens.

Roughly 210 million Christians live in the United States, so there’s no shortage of specialized Christian dating apps for singles to choose from. Because there are so many apps and platforms, though, you need to be discerning when picking one, even if you’re only choosing among Christian options.

Nearly every platform will give you great ways to customize your profile, impressive chat and messaging tools, and the chance to meet interesting people.

Few dating apps, however, focus on community, and for lots of Christian singles, having a strong faith-based community matters as much as finding a partner who puts their faith first.

Sarah from the SALT team told us how the platform supports Christian singles.

SALT is a new kind of Christian dating app for Jesus-loving single Christians who want to build genuine community. Christians designed it for other Christians, knowing how hard it is to find a person you click with over your faith, values, and beliefs.

We spoke with Sarah Paxton, SALT’s Operations Director, about the platform’s refreshed look, the ways it serves singles, and the team’s goal of building something that goes beyond setting people up on dates. SALT brings single Christians together for community, friendships, and, when it’s right, God-honoring relationships.

“Churches are great places, and often the communities are wonderful for married people and families,” Sarah said. “But if you’re on your own or dating, it can feel quite lonely sometimes, and you may be struggling with things your pastor doesn’t talk about on a weekly basis.”

How the Leading Christian Dating App Got Started

Sarah filled us in on SALT’s origins, and it turns out the app grew out of its CEO’s own experience with online dating. “Prior to launching the app in 2018, our CEO Paul (Rider) had been online dating, eventually meeting his lovely wife through another platform,” she said.

Paul did find his match in the end, but the online dating process as a whole left him disappointed. It felt clunky and poorly optimized to him, and choosing a faith-based option often meant sacrificing features or paying more. Despite the wonderful outcome, it wasn’t a great experience.

SALT offers young Christian singles a faith-based community and dating with marriage in mind.

“He was inspired to create something that would better serve younger Christians,” Sarah told us. “Some of the Christian sites that were out there were web-based and geared toward an older audience. He saw a gap for something that was discreet, fun, and relaxed, and actually equipped Christians to meet and help each other.”

According to Sarah, Christian dating can carry unnecessary stress in some Christian circles. Taking someone to church on a first date can feel loaded with pressure and expectation, and dating with the aim of a committed, lifelong partnership can feel the same way. These things matter, but SALT wants daters to be able to enjoy dating without getting overly caught up in the outcome.

SALT sits between the web-based Christian platforms and today’s non-religious dating apps, balancing the two. “A lot of the mainstream apps are very hookup-focused and a lot of people are leery of them, even outside of the Christian market,” Sarah said. “There’s a gap for young dating that’s committment-focused.”

SALT combines features that matter to Christian singles with a sleek mobile app, and in doing so, it’s fulfilling its mission to help Christians meet in better ways.

SALT’s Features Put Faith First

SALT has kept things fresh over the years to serve Christian singles of every age as well as possible, and the app and the entire website were recently given a major refresh.

Besides launching a sleek new look across YouTube and its other social platforms, SALT has grown its library of online resources, which features Bible study plans and podcasts, with a newly launched blog that regularly publishes fresh content to support users along their dating journey.

“It’s energized the whole platform,” Sarah said. “We have lots of great content out there to help people and provide a well-rounded experience for people on every date of their single, dating, or relationship journey. We want our site to link all these aspects of our mission together.”

Joining, matching, and chatting on SALT are free for users all over the world. In the app, you can set up interactive community events, video call potential dates, and send voice notes. Sarah said the team focuses on giving users every feature the top apps offer.

SALT’s features are built for finding dates and building community at once.

Beyond the usual profile, matching, and chat features most dating apps offer, SALT includes tools meant to build a strong faith-based community. Users turn to the app’s Social feature for advice, to share a photo or song, and to engage with other users’ posts.

In the Social space, you can connect with Christians nearby or farther away without the limits online dating platforms often impose. It gives you more freedom to find and build the kinds of connections you want.

Through the Table feature, SALT hosts audio events that are live and interactive, with friendly, experienced hosts leading them. With Table, you can listen in on meaningful conversations, offer your own thoughts and feelings, and take in interesting perspectives you might not have come across otherwise.

“You can find wonderful, faith-based encouragements all over the platform,” Sarah said. “And every resource was developed by us, a small team of Christians. And we really understand the challenges firsthand of dating and finding community.”

Getting Spiritually Ready to Date

SALT is built to set users up to succeed at finding both community and dates. Whether you’re a seasoned online dater or coming back to dating after a long break, Sarah said SALT is meant to make connecting simple and fun.

Over one million Christians trust SALT.

“We just want the experience as a whole to be positive and a great step into dating for all of our users,” Sarah said. 

SALT has plenty of features to make online dating as good as it can be, but you need to be sure you’re ready for it. Dating is a journey that demands knowing what you want, particularly when you’re looking for a lifelong partner who shares your most central beliefs.

“As much as you can be, being in a good and healthy emotional, spiritual, and mental place is essential before you start dating,” Sarah said. “None of us can get to this stage where we’re 100% sorted, but we need to equip ourselves to succeed in healthy dating.”

Before you start seriously focusing on dating, the first relationship you need to work on is the one with yourself.

Be sure you’ve worked through painful past relationships and learned how to keep yourself from ending up somewhere unhealthy again.

Dating fatigue is very real, particularly with online dating. When swiping and matching start to wear you out, step back and focus on the good things already in your life. That might mean reaching out to family or friends, diving into a favorite hobby, or just enjoying a relaxing self-care day.

Look after yourself throughout the process, and you’ll be able to show up as the best version of you.

“It’s always worth taking time to make sure you’re ready to date,” Sarah said. “And once you are, remember to not take things too personally, and to stay hopeful.”