Indian matrimony in Australia & New Zealand
Built for Australia and New Zealand. Not filtered for it.
Everywhere else, Australia and New Zealand are two dropdowns on a database built for India. Here they are the whole map — whether your family landed last year or you have never lived anywhere else.
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Free for women, always. No payment to look, and we will not ask for your number. Every city in this list is a city we are building for, not a filter on a database in India.
- 51
- women matching one ordinary search on the largest site — in all of Australia*
- 8
- the same search, in all of New Zealand*
- 10 : 1
- men per woman there, against 1.15 : 1 in the census†
*Counted on Shaadi.com on 19 September 2026, logged in, filtering for a Sikh woman aged 27–33. †Ratio observed across the largest platforms serving Australia and New Zealand; census figure is the Sikh population, ABS 2021.
01
She sees his photo. He doesn’t see hers
until she approves him, one person at a time — and she can withdraw it later without telling him. Men get the same control over their own.
02
She chose to be found
Every member sets who can search them: all approved members, only people who match their preferences, or nobody but their matchmaker.
03
Every interest is written
by hand, with a note of at least forty characters. Nobody can bulk-send, so her inbox is real people rather than three hundred taps.
04
No phone numbers, ever
Contact details are never displayed at any membership level. She shares them herself, after she has said yes.
The point of all this
Not an app you open every day for a year. A few good introductions, one Anand Karaj, and then you delete it.
That is why it is free for women, why every interest has to be written by hand, and why we refund 12 months of Search when it works.
The problem
The women exist. They've just stopped showing up.
The census says our community is almost evenly split. Every platform shows ten men for every woman. The gap isn't demographic. It's what those platforms do to her.
- 01
She is put on display
Her photo sits in a public grid that anyone can scroll, including her cousin, her colleague, and the man from the gurdwara. In a community this small, that is the whole reason she never signs up.
- 02
She gets a firehose
Three hundred unread interests in the first week, most from people who never read her profile. Nobody can process that, so she stops opening the app, and then she deletes it.
- 03
Nobody represents her
The platforms replaced the matchmaker with a search box. There is no one to make an approach on her behalf, ask the awkward questions, or carry a "no" back without anybody losing face.
So we removed all three.
A note from the founder
I spent six months on a paid plan on the biggest matrimonial site in the world, searching honestly for someone to marry from here. I found roughly ten men for every woman, a paid plan that produced nothing, and a fake profile I could make in minutes.
The census says our community is almost evenly split. So the women exist. They have just decided, correctly, that a public grid and three hundred strangers a week is not for them.
Rishta is what I wished had existed: women free with nothing held back, photos hidden until she says yes, every profile read by a person before it goes live, every interest written by hand, no phone numbers on the page, and a matchmaker who is never from your own town. I built it because I am looking too.
Founder, Auckland · Read the research
How it works
Different for her. Different for him.
For her · free, always
- 1
Join in two minutes
No photos and no documents required to start. When you add photos they are private by default, and stay that way until you approve each person individually.
- 2
Choose who can find you
All approved men, only men who match your preferences, or nobody but your matchmaker. The default is preferences-only, and you can change it any time. You can hide entirely and nothing is deleted.
- 3
Search, or be found
Search approved men yourself, or let the interests come to you — each one carrying a note he had to write by hand. A matchmaker is there when you want one, and she costs you nothing.
For him · from $39/month
- 1
Apply and wait to be let in
A person reads your profile before it goes live. It is not instant, and that is the reason a reply here means something.
- 2
Set your preferences honestly
You see the women who chose to be found by men like you. Open her profile and it shows, point by point, how many of her preferences you actually meet — including the ones you do not.
- 3
Search and write to her
Every interest carries a note you wrote. Her photos appear when she approves you; a conversation opens when she accepts. Want someone to do the searching for you? That is the Vichola tier.
The Vichola
Somebody who speaks for you.
The vichola is the person who has always done this work in our community — knows both families, makes the approach, asks what nobody wants to ask directly. The platforms replaced her with a search box. We kept the search box and hired her back.
She is a real person
Your matchmaker is a named woman from the community, paid properly for the work, and you can ask for someone else without giving a reason.
Never from your own city
You are never matched with someone from your own town, so your matchmaker will not run into you at a wedding or know your family through a friend.
She negotiates on your behalf
On the Vichola tier she approaches families for you, handles expectations and timelines, and carries the difficult answers both ways.
Software helps her, not replaces her
Our tools keep her notes, remember what you said, and make sure you never repeat yourself. The judgement is hers.
Built in, not promised
Privacy you don't have to trust us on.
Most platforms put privacy on a policy page. We put it in the structure, so it holds even on a bad day.
Read the full safety approach →- Private by default, whoever you are
- Your photos are hidden until you approve a specific person, and you approve them one at a time. Men choose this too — privacy here is not a women-only feature. Not a paid upgrade, not a toggle you have to go looking for.
- You decide who can find you
- Visible to every verified member, only to people who match your preferences, or to nobody but your matchmaker. The default is preferences-only, and there are no public profile pages for anyone. Search engines never see a member.
- Read by a person, or invisible
- Someone reads every profile before it goes live. Until it passes you cannot search and nobody can find you. No bots, no recycled photos, no profile made in two minutes.
- An ID check if you want one
- Photograph your passport or licence and then your face, and your profile carries a verified badge. It takes about a minute, it costs nothing, and it is entirely optional — we are not asking anyone to hand over a document just to look around.
- No firehose
- Every interest has to carry a note someone wrote by hand, at least forty characters of it, so nobody can bulk-send. There is no daily quota to spend and no button that fires a hundred taps at once.
- Talk without giving out your number
- Once you have accepted someone you can call them, voice, straight from the conversation. It goes between your two phones and never through us. Either of you can ask to turn cameras on mid-call, and the other has to agree first. You can switch calls off entirely and still write to people.
- Contact details are never displayed
- No phone number and no email on any profile, ever, at any membership level, and nothing you can buy reveals one. You share them yourself, one person at a time, after you have said yes. The single exception is the Icebreaker, where you type a number in for one call, only your matchmaker sees it, the other person never does, and it is erased afterwards.
- A leak can be traced
- When someone enlarges your photo it carries their own member number across it, not yours. If a picture turns up somewhere it should not be, the number on it says who took it.
- Hiding works both ways
- Hide your profile and nobody can find you, open you, or write to you. While you are hidden you cannot browse or write to anyone either. That is deliberate: it is a pause, not a one-way mirror. Conversations you have already accepted carry on.
- Gone in one tap
- Delete a profile and it is deleted, along with your photos, messages and interests. No retention, no “reactivate your account” email six months later.
- No password to steal
- There is no password on this site at all. You sign in with a six-digit code sent to your email, so there is nothing to reuse, nothing to guess, and nothing worth stealing from us.
Pricing
She pays nothing. He pays for a search where women actually reply.
Women
Free to search, always
Searching, photos, interests, messages and calls. Forever, with no upgrade prompt. The matchmaker services below are paid, the same as they are for men.
Men · Search
$39 AUD/month
Search verified profiles yourself, with the controls that make women reply.
Men · Vichola
$1200 AUD/3 months
A matchmaker reads your file, searches on your behalf, and brings you people.
The Success Refund: marry someone you met here and we refund up to 12 months of Search.
Full pricing and FAQ →Before you join
The questions everybody asks.
Is Rishta free for women?
Women never pay to search, to be found, to add photos, or to talk — including voice calls. That is free forever. Men pay a monthly membership for the same things. The matchmaker services are a separate, paid product for everyone, because a real person is doing the work.
Who can see my photos?
Nobody, until you approve them one at a time. Photos are private by default for both men and women. You can also show a blurred photo, or no photo at all, and you can withdraw someone’s access at any time without telling them.
Do I have to upload an identity document?
No. An identity check is optional and earns your profile a verified badge, but you can join, be approved and talk to people without ever doing one. Every profile is read by a person before it goes live, whether or not it carries the badge.
Will my profile show up on Google?
No. There are no public profile pages on Rishta. Members are only ever visible to other signed-in, approved members, and only to the people you have chosen can find you.
Does anyone see my phone number or email?
They are never displayed on a profile, at any membership level, and there is nothing anyone can buy that reveals one. You share them yourself, directly, once you have decided you want to. The one exception is if you book an Icebreaker call: you type a number in for that single call, only the matchmaker hosting it can see it, the other person never does, and it is erased when the call is over.
Is Rishta only for people who moved here recently?
No. Members here were born in Melbourne and Auckland as much as in Punjab or Gujarat, and the site is built for both. Residency and willingness to relocate are filters you can use or ignore, not assumptions we make about you.
Which communities is Rishta for?
Rishta serves Indian families across Australia and New Zealand, first generation and third alike. The largest groups are Punjabi and Sikh, alongside Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu, Malayali, Marathi, Bengali, Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Fiji-Indian, Sri Lankan Tamil and Nepali members. You filter by community, language, diet and family origin.
Can I talk to someone without giving them my phone number?
Yes. Once you have accepted an interest you can call each other from inside the conversation. It is voice by default, the audio goes directly between your two phones rather than through us, and no number is ever exchanged. Video is only possible if one of you asks mid-call and the other agrees. You can turn calls off completely in settings.
What happens if I delete my account?
It is deleted. Your profile, photos, messages and interests are removed, not archived, and we do not email you months later asking you to come back.
Where is my data stored?
In Cloudflare’s Oceania region, which keeps member data inside Australia and New Zealand rather than shipping it offshore.
Still wondering something? Ask us directly.
Be among the first.
We are opening Melbourne and Auckland first, one matchmaker at a time. Founding members get their first three months of Search free; women are free regardless.
You’re on the list.
We’ll email you once, when we open in your city. If you left a number, a matchmaker — never someone from your own city — will call to introduce herself.