Independent comparison based on hands on testing across the platforms reviewed.
Last updated: May 2026
Quick verdict: Both are self-hosted dating scripts that hand you source code and let you own your platform outright. SkaDate suits founders who want a tighter, more predictable package and a moderate budget. PG Dating Pro suits founders who want the widest feature list, the most marketplace add-ons and the lowest entry price, and who are comfortable with a more upsell-heavy relationship. Neither gives you a real shared member base, so you launch from zero either way.
| Category | SkaDate | PG Dating Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | One-time lifetime licence; optional recurring add-ons | Mostly one-time lifetime licence; also a yearly plan and a hosted option |
| Starting price | $799 one-time (Silver licence) | $99 (Package 1); $499 one-time (Standard lifetime licence) |
| Member pool | None. Start from zero; a Chat Operator tool seeds conversations | Partial. 10,000 to 20,000 seed profiles; optional opt-in network across 70+ sites |
| Source code | Full source code included | Open source code included with a licence |
| Best for | Founders wanting a predictable, bundled package | Founders wanting maximum features and the lowest entry price |
| Ease of launch | Standard launch needs no coding; custom work needs a developer | No-code builder marketed, but reviewers advise using a developer |
| Ongoing cost | Optional hosting from $29/month, support $99/month | Add-ons vary; Dating Pro Plus is $2,990/year; 300+ paid add-ons |
SkaDate and PG Dating Pro sit in the same corner of the dating software market. Both are self-hosted scripts, which means you buy the software, install it on a server you control, and own both the code and the member data that builds up on it. That is very different from a managed white-label network, where a third party runs the infrastructure and you earn a revenue share. With these two products, the business is yours and so is the responsibility for running it.
SkaDate is made by Skalfa LLC, based in Lake Oswego, Oregon, founded in 2004. It is built on the open-source Oxwall social platform and sold as a one-time licence with full source code. Every licence is bundled with setup services, so the company does not sell the software on its own.
PG Dating Pro, also known as Dating Pro, comes from Pilot Group. The founder, Yanar, co-founded PilotGroup.net in 1998, and the company's history cites 2008 as the year it launched its first dating site. Dating Pro is long-running and a past iDate Award winner. The public billing entity is a sole proprietorship registered in Yerevan, Armenia, with offices listed in Warsaw, Poland and Yerevan. It is sold mainly as a self-hosted lifetime licence with open source code, though the company also offers a hosted monthly subscription, a white-label rebranding service and a newer revenue-share partnership model.
If you want a self-hosted dating site that you own, both can deliver one. SkaDate gives you a more contained, more predictable package. PG Dating Pro gives you a broader feature set, more add-ons and a lower headline price, with a sales relationship several reviewers describe as upsell-heavy. The right answer depends on your budget, your appetite for managing a vendor relationship, and whether you value a tightly scoped launch over a long features list.
Pricing is one of the clearest points of difference, so look at the published figures side by side.
SkaDate publishes its prices at skadate.com/order. As of May 2026, the Silver licence costs $799 one-time, which buys a white-label website, source code plus installation, the PWA source, the Chat Operator software, and one month of support and hosting. The Gold licence costs $1,599 one-time and adds iOS and Android app source code plus app-store submission, with three months of support and hosting. A Custom Project is quote-only, suited to budgets of $11,000 or more. Optional recurring costs are hosting from $29 per month, a Prime support plan at $99 per month, Chat Operator at $49 per month per agent, and custom development at $70 per hour. There is no revenue share.
PG Dating Pro publishes a different shape of pricing. Package 1 starts at $99. The Standard lifetime licence is $499 one-time, marketed as the most popular option, and the company says it lets you launch in 48 hours and includes around 20,000 dating profiles plus open source code. Dating Pro Plus is $2,990 per year and adds AI features and mobile apps. A Custom plan sits around $10,000, quote-based. There is a 14-day money-back guarantee, no setup fees, and a free demo. Dating Pro's tier names and figures change often, so check the current pricing page before committing.
Here is a direct comparison of the published figures:
| Pricing point | SkaDate | PG Dating Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Entry option | Silver licence, $799 one-time | Package 1, $99 |
| Most-marketed licence | Silver licence, $799 one-time | Standard lifetime licence, $499 one-time |
| Higher tier with mobile apps | Gold licence, $1,599 one-time | Dating Pro Plus, $2,990/year |
| Custom / enterprise | Quote-only; company suggests $11,000+ budgets | Custom plan around $10,000, quote-based |
| Recurring fees | Optional: hosting from $29/month, Prime support $99/month | Hosting and add-ons vary; Dating Pro Plus is annual |
| Money-back terms | Not stated as a guarantee | 14-day money-back guarantee |
PG Dating Pro looks cheaper to start. A $99 entry point and a $499 lifetime licence undercut SkaDate's $799 Silver licence. But the picture changes when you look at total cost of ownership over three years.
With SkaDate, the one-time licence is fixed. Take the Silver licence at $799 and add optional hosting at $29 per month, and three years works out near $1,843 before any custom development. The numbers are published, so you can model them.
With PG Dating Pro, the entry price is lower but the mobile apps sit behind Dating Pro Plus at $2,990 per year. Over three years that is close to $9,000 if you stay on that plan, a very different number from the $499 headline. Reviewers also report that custom features and upsells push the real spend well above the entry licence.
The honest takeaway is that the cheapest sticker price does not decide the cheapest business. If you only need the core platform and a developer to maintain it, PG Dating Pro's $499 licence is genuinely low. If you need native mobile apps and a stream of add-ons, the running cost climbs quickly. SkaDate costs more to start but its fixed licence makes the three-year number easier to predict.
Both products use a licence model rather than a revenue-share model, and for a founder that matters. With a revenue-share white-label provider, the network takes a cut of every payment forever. With SkaDate and PG Dating Pro, you pay once (or pay for a yearly plan), you get the source code, and the business is yours to keep, sell or shut down.
SkaDate's model is straightforward. You buy a licence, receive full source code, and own the platform and user base. The company bundles setup with every licence, and optional managed hosting and custom development are available as add-ons.
PG Dating Pro is more varied. The core offering is the self-hosted lifetime licence with open source code, the same basic deal as SkaDate. But Pilot Group also sells a hosted monthly subscription, a white-label rebranding service, and a newer revenue-share partnership model. That flexibility can be useful, but it means you need to read the offer carefully and be clear about which model you are buying into.
For ownership and exit, both are strong compared with a managed network. Owning the source code means you can move hosts, hire any developer, and in principle sell the asset, which matters if you ever want to exit the business.
On raw feature count, PG Dating Pro is the broader product. Its feature list includes a web platform with a no-code site builder and 130-plus themes, native iOS and Android apps, a PWA, a Telegram dating bot, VR and smart-device channels, 300-plus marketplace add-ons, matching, search, swipes, superlikes and boosts, a messaging centre, pay-per-minute video chat, moderation tools, memberships and credits, virtual and money gifts, analytics integrations, an admin dashboard, multi-language support, a matchmaking edition, and chat-operator imitation chatbot tools. The breadth is genuine.
SkaDate's feature set is more contained but covers the essentials well: matching algorithms, real-time chat and notifications, pay-per-minute WebRTC video chat, paid memberships, a credit system, virtual gifts, ad banner placement, a who-viewed-my-profile feature, configurable registration questions, an admin panel with moderation tools, SMS and email verification, profile pre-moderation, around 45 plugins and 20 themes, multi-language support, and a PWA plus native iOS and Android apps built in Flutter. It runs on PHP and MySQL.
PG Dating Pro tries to cover every channel a dating product could touch. SkaDate focuses on a solid core dating experience. A broader feature list gives you more to grow into, but also more moving parts to test. For a standard niche dating site, both have what you need. If you want exotic channels like VR or a Telegram bot, PG Dating Pro advertises them.
Founders most often misunderstand what they are buying here. Neither SkaDate nor PG Dating Pro gives you a real, live shared member base of actual daters. If you choose either one, you launch to an empty site and have to acquire every member yourself through marketing.
SkaDate has no shared cross-site member pool. The company sells a separate Chat Operator tool, which provides virtual or AI accounts to seed conversations, but that keeps early conversations alive rather than supplying real members.
PG Dating Pro is partial on this point. A licence comes bundled with around 10,000 to 20,000 pre-filled profiles, which are seed profiles rather than real active daters. Separately, the company offers an optional, opt-in Dating Pro Network that connects your site with 70-plus other Dating Pro platforms so members can interact across sites. That network is opt-in and is not a single managed pool, so it is not the same as the shared database a managed white-label provider gives you. Treat it as a possible add-on rather than a solved cold-start problem.
On launch speed, PG Dating Pro markets a 48-hour launch with its Standard licence, and SkaDate's standard launch needs no coding with setup bundled. The slow part is never the software install. It is the customisation and the marketing needed to bring in real members. Plan your budget around member acquisition, because that is the real cost of starting a dating business with either product. For more, see our guide to white-label versus self-hosted dating software.
Both products give you a high level of control because both hand you source code. You are not locked into a vendor's roadmap, and you can change the design, add features, integrate other services and host wherever you like.
PG Dating Pro leans hard on customisation, with a no-code site builder, 130-plus themes and a marketplace of 300-plus add-ons. The important caveat, which independent reviewers raise repeatedly, is that the product is best handled by an actual developer despite the no-code marketing, and that custom features sometimes do not work as expected. SkaDate also gives full source code and around 45 plugins and 20 themes. It is explicit that a standard launch needs no coding but custom work needs a developer, and it offers custom development at $70 per hour.
For data ownership, both are strong. Because you self-host, the member data lives on your server, under your control. That is a benefit and a responsibility at once: you own the data, but you are also responsible for security, backups and data protection law.
Support is where both products show mixed reviews, and a founder should go in with clear eyes.
SkaDate's sentiment is mixed. Positive reviews praise the script and describe support as helpful. Negative reviews cite bugs and glitches, missed completion dates, and support that does not scale well for large projects. SkaDate's Trustpilot rating sits roughly in the 4 range, but from a small number of reviews.
PG Dating Pro's sentiment is genuinely polarised. Its Capterra rating is around 3.5 out of 5 from 16 reviews. The positives include good feature breadth, fast and helpful pre-sales support, and value for money. The negatives are serious and recurring: missed deadlines, constant paid upsells, custom features that do not work as expected, and long-running projects still not right. To its credit, Pilot Group publicly responds to most negative reviews.
Both companies draw praise for pre-sales and the core product, and criticism around custom projects, deadlines and scaling. A standard, in-scope launch is more likely to go smoothly with either. A large, heavily customised project is where risk concentrates, so get the scope, price and timeline in writing.
On reliability, remember that with self-hosted software the uptime is largely on you and your host. Solid managed hosting, whether SkaDate's option from $29 per month or a quality third-party host, is part of the real cost of running a stable site.
SkaDate is the better fit if you want a more predictable, more contained package. Lean toward SkaDate if you have a moderate budget and are comfortable with a starting price of $799 for the Silver licence or $1,599 for the Gold licence with mobile app source code. It suits founders who value bundled setup and a fixed one-time cost they can model over three years, and who want a solid core dating product without a sprawling list of channels to manage. SkaDate also supports niche, mainstream and adult sites, with adult delivered through the PWA.
PG Dating Pro is the better fit if you want the widest feature set and the lowest entry price. Lean toward PG Dating Pro if a $99 entry option or a $499 lifetime licence matches your budget and you have a developer who can handle the product properly. It suits founders who want extras like a Telegram dating bot, VR channels, a matchmaking edition or a deep marketplace of 300-plus add-ons. Just go in aware of the recurring upsell pattern and the polarised reviews around custom projects, and model the true cost rather than the headline price.
PG Dating Pro has the lower entry price, with a $99 Package 1 and a $499 lifetime licence, against SkaDate's $799 Silver licence. But cheaper to start is not always cheaper to run. PG Dating Pro's mobile apps sit in Dating Pro Plus at $2,990 per year, and add-ons accumulate. SkaDate's fixed one-time licence makes the three-year cost easier to predict.
No. Neither gives you a live base of real daters. SkaDate starts you from zero and sells a Chat Operator tool for seeded conversations. PG Dating Pro bundles around 10,000 to 20,000 seed placeholder profiles and offers an optional opt-in network across 70-plus sites. You still have to market your site to acquire real members.
Yes. Both are self-hosted products that include source code: SkaDate provides full source code, and PG Dating Pro includes open source code with a licence. Owning the code means you can change hosts, hire any developer and, in principle, sell the business later.
For a standard launch, SkaDate says no coding is needed, and PG Dating Pro markets a no-code builder. In practice, independent reviewers strongly recommend using a developer for PG Dating Pro, and SkaDate is clear that custom work needs one. Budget for development help if you plan anything beyond a basic setup.
Both support adult niches. SkaDate supports adult sites through the PWA, since app stores reject adult apps. PG Dating Pro supports many niches including adult, matrimonial, LGBTQ+ and senior. If your concept is adult, confirm the mobile delivery method with the vendor, since native app-store distribution will not be available.
SkaDate and PG Dating Pro solve the same problem in slightly different ways. Both let you own a self-hosted dating platform with full source code, and neither hands you a real member base, so the marketing job is yours either way.
PG Dating Pro wins on entry price and feature breadth. If you have a developer and a modest budget, the $499 lifetime licence and the huge feature list are genuinely attractive. The catch is a polarised review record, a recurring upsell pattern, and mobile apps locked behind a $2,990-per-year plan, so the true cost of ownership is higher than the headline.
SkaDate is the more predictable option. It costs more to start, at $799 for Silver, but the bundled setup and fixed one-time licence make the three-year number easier to plan.
Neither is the best for everyone. Match the choice to your budget, your developer access and your appetite for managing a vendor relationship. For more, read our full SkaDate review, PG Dating Pro review and open-source versus paid dating software.
