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.
Start here
Who are you looking for?
Or jump straight in
Join now: free until 31 December 2026. No card, 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 the world’s largest matrimonial site on 19 September 2026, logged in, filtering for a Sikh woman aged 27–33.†Roughly ten men per woman in the founder’s own searches on the largest matrimonial site in 2026. The census figure is the Sikh population of Australia, ABS 2021: about 112,000 men and 97,000 women.
Why Rishta exists
Why many women stop using matrimonial sites
In the census our community is close to evenly split. On the biggest site, the founder counted roughly ten men for every woman. That gap isn't demographic. It's what those sites do to her.
- 01
She is put on display
On the big sites her photo is visible by default to every member who searches, and on some, to anyone at all without an account. Her cousin, her colleague and the uncle from the gurdwara or the mandir can all scroll past it. In a community this small, that alone keeps her away.
- 02
She gets a flood
An interest there is a tap, often a pre-written line, and paid members can send them by the hundred. Most come from men who never read her profile, so she stops opening the app, and then she deletes it.
- 03
Nobody speaks for her
Matchmaking on the big sites is a premium extra, sold separately. On the site itself there is no one to make an approach on her behalf, ask the awkward questions, or carry a "no" back without anybody losing face.
A note from the founder
I spent six months on a paid plan with the biggest matrimonial site in the world, to see it the way our families do. It had roughly ten men for every woman, a paid plan that produced very little, and nothing to stop a fake profile being made in minutes.
The census says our community is almost evenly split, so the women are here. They have simply decided, rightly, that a public grid and hundreds of strangers a week is not for them.
Rishta gives women control over who finds them and who sees their photos. Everyone checks their ID before going live, contact details stay private, and every interest includes a personal message.
You can search for yourself or involve your family. If making the first approach feels awkward, the Icebreaker puts a matchmaker on the first call, and a Personal Matchmaker can search and make introductions for you.
Aman, Auckland · Aman’s story · Read the research
How it works
What joining looks like
For her · free in beta
- 1
Join in two minutes
No photos needed to start. Any photos you add stay private until you approve each person, one by one.
- 2
Check your ID, then you are live
Your passport or licence and a short live selfie, about two minutes on your phone. Other members never see your document, and we delete the recording and the photo as soon as a person on our team has checked them. Everyone on Rishta has done the same.
- 3
Choose who finds you, and search
All approved men, only men who meet your preferences (the default), or only Rishta matchmakers. Search yourself, or let interests come to you, each with a personal message. You can hide any time, and nothing is deleted.
- 4
Talk first, without sharing a number
Once you have both said yes, you can call each other from the conversation, inside Rishta and free for you. It starts as voice, video only if you both agree, and nobody can ring you out of the blue. Want help with the first call? A matchmaker can host a three-way Icebreaker.
For him · free in beta
- 1
Your profile and mobile
Write your profile and confirm your mobile with a code. Set your preferences honestly: her profile shows, point by point, which of her preferences you meet, including the ones you do not.
- 2
Membership, then your ID
Join now and it’s free until 31 December 2026, no credit card needed; after that, $39 a month, or $99 for 3 months paid once. Then your passport or licence and a selfie. If your ID check doesn’t pass and we can’t put your profile live, we refund you in full.
- 3
Go live, and write to her
You see the women who chose to be found by men like you. Every interest carries a personal message; her photos appear when she approves you. Want someone to do the searching for you? That is the Personal Matchmaker tier.
- 4
Talk first, without sharing a number
Once you have both said yes, call each other from the conversation, inside Rishta. It starts as voice, video only if you both agree, and neither of you hands over a number. Want help with the first call? A matchmaker can host a three-way Icebreaker.
Personal Matchmaker
Get help with the introduction
A matchmaker is the person who has always done this work in every Indian community — knows both families, makes the approach, asks what nobody wants to ask directly. The big sites turned the role into a premium add-on. We kept the search box and brought it back as a real person from the community.
A real person
Your matchmaker is a named person from the community, paid properly for the work, and you can ask for someone else without giving a reason.
Never from your own city
Your matchmaker is never from your own city, so they will not run into you at a wedding or know your family through a friend.
They negotiate on your behalf
On the Personal Matchmaker tier your matchmaker approaches families for you, handles expectations and timelines, and carries the difficult answers both ways.
Software helps them, not replaces them
Their private notes on your file and every conversation with you sit in one place, so you never have to repeat yourself. The judgement is theirs.
Pricing
Clear prices, with no paid contact-details upgrade
Women and men · join now
Free until 31 December 2026
For everyone who joins now, women and men alike: searching, photos, interests, messages and calls, with no card needed. The matchmaker services are paid, the same for everyone.
Search · after 31 December 2026, the same for everyone
$39/month
or $99 for 3 months, paid once: just over a dollar a day
Search approved profiles yourself, and write to the people you choose.
Matchmaker · Personal Matchmaker
$1,199/3 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
Questions before you join
Do women and men pay the same?
Yes. Everyone who joins during the founding beta pays nothing until 31 December 2026, women and men alike: searching, being found, photos, interests, messages and calls are free, and no card is asked for. After that, Search is $39 a month or $99 for 3 months, the same price for women and men, and we will say exactly what it includes well before then. Nobody will ever be charged to keep their own photos private. The matchmaker services are a separate paid service for everyone, because a real person is doing the work.
Who can see my photos?
Nobody, until you say yes to them. Accepting someone’s interest, or approving their photo request, shows your photos to that one person, and theirs to you. Photos are private by default for both men and women. You can also make them visible to everyone who can find you, or add none and let your initial stand in, and you can withdraw someone’s access at any time without telling them.
Do I have to check my ID?
Yes, everyone does, men and women alike, before going live. It keeps out fake profiles and time-pass, so everyone here is real and serious about marriage. You take a short live selfie and photograph your passport or licence in the app; your phone compares the faces itself, our software reads the document, and a person on our team checks both, usually the same day. The recording and the photo are deleted as soon as they have decided. If you cannot do it, our team can check you on a short video call instead. When a family member makes the profile, the person on it does the check, from a link on their own phone.
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 optional exception is an Icebreaker call. It happens inside Rishta and needs no number, but if you cannot get online you may type one 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.
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.
Still wondering something? Ask us directly.
Join today.
Join now and everything is free for you until 31 December 2026, with no credit card needed. After that, Search is $39 a month or $99 for 3 months, the same for women and men.Every profile is ID-checked before anyone can see it.