Built a Lightweight “Nearby Dating” Plugin for WordPress (Location + Radius + Profiles + Filters) https://meetnearby.us/ Demo
Hey everyone,
I wanted to share a custom WordPress plugin I’ve been building and testing recently. It started as a small side project, but it turned into a surprisingly capable location-based discovery and dating system that runs entirely inside WordPress.
There’s no SaaS, no external platform, and no monthly costs. It’s just WordPress, PHP, MySQL, and custom code.
The goal was to create something fast, self-hosted, and flexible that feels like a modern app but lives completely inside WordPress.
What it does
Members can create profiles, upload avatars, set their age and location, and automatically store latitude and longitude. From there, they can discover other members nearby, filter results, and see exactly how far away people are in miles.
Think of it as a Tinder-style discovery system combined with WordPress simplicity.
Core features
Location engine Each profile stores lat/lng coordinates. The plugin uses the Haversine formula to calculate accurate distance and a bounding box prefilter to keep queries fast even with many users. It also reverse geocodes the city and state automatically.
Users can see how many members are within a radius and view a nearby list with avatars and distances.
Profile system Each member has a full profile including avatar, age, city, state, headline, bio, interests, what they’re looking for, social links, featured status, and last seen time. Everything is stored in a clean custom database table rather than custom post types, which keeps it lightweight and efficient.
Smart filters There’s a front-end filter toolbar where users can filter by minimum and maximum age, state, city, gender, looking for, eye color, and ethnicity. Filters use simple GET parameters and dynamic SQL queries so everything updates quickly without heavy overhead.
Nearby map widget There’s a shortcode that shows a small map with the user’s location and a scrollable list of nearby members. It displays distance in miles next to each person and feels more like an app than a traditional website feature.
Admin tools Inside the WordPress dashboard, profiles can be edited directly. You can change avatars using the media picker, update bio and interests, and manage featured users without complicated forms. It’s simple and fast to maintain.
Why I built it
Mostly because I enjoy building tools inside WordPress that people usually assume require expensive third-party platforms. I wanted something lightweight, self-hosted, and fully customizable that I control completely.
It turned into a really fun project and showed me how much WordPress can handle when you step outside the typical blog or business site mindset.
Tech stack
It’s built with WordPress, PHP, MySQL, custom tables, AJAX, and basic mapping services. No heavy frameworks or external dependencies.
Use cases
Although it started as a dating concept, it could easily be used for networking groups, local communities, church or campus groups, hobby clubs, meetups, or any situation where people want to discover others nearby.
It’s really just a proximity-based member directory with modern UI.
What’s next
I’m considering adding features like messaging, likes or matches, online indicators, real-time updates, and possibly turning it into a progressive web app experience.
If anyone has ideas or has built something similar, I’d love feedback. I’m always looking for ways to improve it.
Thanks for reading.