Dating in Appenzell Ausserrhoden: How to Meet People Beyond Your Small Town

Appenzell Ausserrhoden has about 56,000 people and 20 municipalities, and most of them are small: 18 (90%) have fewer than 5,000 people, and 5 have fewer than 1,000. If you live in a small one, you already know what dating close to home looks like: you've met most of the single people you'd consider, or you know someone who has.

This page is for everyone in those towns. It covers why the big dating apps make a small town's dating pool even smaller, how Amarbis lets you meet people across all of Appenzell Ausserrhoden instead, and, further down, every municipality in Appenzell Ausserrhoden.

Appenzell Ausserrhoden by town size

Size of place	Places	People
Under 1,000	5	4,100
1,000 to 4,999	13	30,000
5,000 to 24,999	2	22,000
25,000 or more	0	0

The typical municipality in Appenzell Ausserrhoden has about 1,800 people. Its largest are Herisau, Teufen (AR) and Speicher.

Why your hometown still sets the limits in Appenzell Ausserrhoden

Most of Appenzell Ausserrhoden is within an hour of a bigger town, but that doesn't help as much as it should on a distance-ranked app. It builds your deck from the people closest to you first, so a smaller town's deck is mostly that town and its neighbours, and the people a little farther out come much later, if they come at all.

Why the nearest city is out of reach on the big apps

Dating in a small town is hard, and meeting someone in the nearest city can be harder. Many dating apps lean on distance to decide who you see, and Tinuiti's analysis of Tinder's algorithm says proximity is a key factor in who it shows you. When someone in Herisau or Teufen (AR) opens a distance-ranked app, the people who live near them come first. You live farther away, so you land behind their neighbours in their deck, whatever your photos and profile say.

That's the small-town problem twice over: at home you keep seeing the same people, and in the city you're barely seen.

How Amarbis is different

You choose your region

On Amarbis you choose the region you meet people from instead of being limited to whoever lives closest. Choose Appenzell Ausserrhoden and your pool is the whole canton, about 56,000 people, whether you live in Herisau or a village of a few hundred. A member in a town of 1,000 has the same canton-wide pool as a member in Herisau.

Ranking isn't based on distance

On Amarbis, ranking isn't based on distance. Choose Appenzell Ausserrhoden as your region and the person you'd like to meet in Herisau isn't shown their next-door neighbour ahead of you because of where you live. It's the opposite of the proximity problem above, and it matters most to the people the big apps leave behind.

No distance limits, and the whole world if you want it

Amarbis has no distance limits, so you aren't limited to Appenzell Ausserrhoden either. You can widen your region to the neighbouring cantons or meet someone in another country: Amarbis is an international dating app, the app speaks more than 50 languages, and built-in chat translation helps when you don't share one. The km only matter once you both want to meet.

Real people, reviewed by real people

Every member has a real face photo, photos are screened before anyone sees them, and every profile on Amarbis is reviewed by a real person. When your local pool is small, every fake or abandoned profile takes up a bigger share of what you see, so that review step is worth more in a small town than in a big city.

Free to join

Joining is free, with no credit card. The free plan gives you 25 likes a day and unlimited messaging with your matches, so you can find out whether Amarbis works for your town before you pay anything. See plans and pricing for what the paid plans add.

How to start from a small town in Appenzell Ausserrhoden

Sign up free and build a profile that sounds like you: a clear photo of your face and one specific thing about life in your town. Our profile tips show what works.
Set your region to Appenzell Ausserrhoden, or wider if you like.
Message first. One good question about where someone lives works better than "hey", and a conversation can start long before anyone plans a trip.
When you both want to meet, pick a public place about halfway, tell a friend where you're going, and follow our safe-meeting checklist.

Built by someone from a small town

Amarbis's founder, Nick, is from Boardman, Oregon, a small American town of about 4,500 people. The small-town dating problem on this page is one he knows first-hand: a deck full of people you already know, and a nearby city that ranks its own neighbours ahead of you. Amarbis is built so that where you live in Appenzell Ausserrhoden doesn't decide who you can meet.

Every municipality in Appenzell Ausserrhoden

All 20 municipalities in Appenzell Ausserrhoden. Wherever yours is on this list, everything on this page applies to you: choose Appenzell Ausserrhoden as your region on Amarbis and every place below is in your pool.

Bühler: 1,841 people
Gais: 3,116 people
Grub (AR): 984 people
Heiden: 4,225 people
Herisau: 15,744 people
Hundwil: 931 people
Lutzenberg: 1,312 people
Rehetobel: 1,726 people
Reute (AR): 697 people
Schwellbrunn: 1,561 people
Schönengrund: 545 people
Speicher: 4,430 people
Stein (AR): 1,437 people
Teufen (AR): 6,438 people
Trogen: 1,845 people
Urnäsch: 2,300 people
Wald (AR): 914 people
Waldstatt: 1,849 people
Walzenhausen: 1,984 people
Wolfhalden: 1,880 people

Frequently asked questions

What is the best dating app for small towns in Appenzell Ausserrhoden?

We think it's Amarbis. You choose the region you meet people from, so a small town in Appenzell Ausserrhoden gets the same canton-wide pool as Herisau; ranking isn't based on distance; there are no distance limits; every profile is reviewed by a real person; and joining is free.

Why do I keep seeing the same people on dating apps in my town?

Many dating apps lean on distance to decide who you see, and in a small town the closest people are a short list. Tinuiti's analysis of Tinder's algorithm says proximity is a key factor, which is why a small-town deck fills with the same neighbours. On Amarbis you choose your region, so your pool isn't limited to your postcode.

Can I meet people from all over Appenzell Ausserrhoden?

Yes. Choose Appenzell Ausserrhoden as your region and you meet people across the canton, from wherever you live, without being ranked behind someone's neighbours.

Can I meet people outside Appenzell Ausserrhoden?

Yes. Amarbis has no distance limits, so you can widen your region or meet someone in another country, with built-in chat translation when you don't share a language. Start with the international dating guide.

Is Amarbis free?

Yes. Joining is free, with no credit card, and the free plan includes 25 likes a day and unlimited messaging with your matches. Create your profile.

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More from Amarbis

Population figures: Eurostat GISCO, local administrative units (LAU 2024) population figures; canton total: sum of the municipalities below (Eurostat LAU 2024). Figures are for whole municipalities, which include the countryside around the main town. Distances are straight-line between town locations, so road distances are longer.