Why we wrote this algorithm.
Most of the "which cat should I choose" guides you will find online fall into one of three traps. The first: they confuse popularity with compatibility. You get offered a Maine Coon because it is the most adopted breed, not because it fits your home, your budget, your activity level or your experience.
The second: they reason in binary categories ("small cat", "family with children", "lap cat") where reality is continuous. An 8 kg Maine Coon is not a cuddly "big cat": it is an indoor athlete that asks for 30 minutes of active play a day and vertical space. The word "big" hides the data that matters.
The third: they never explain their criteria. You read that "the Maine Coon suits families" without knowing whether the author accounted for the HCM (hypertrophic cardiomyopathy) predisposition, for which genetic screening at the breeder is recommended, and which can weigh heavily on the veterinary cost of a feline lifetime, or whether they simply copied the FIFe page.
CatMatch starts from the opposite principle: every breed is scored on 15 axes from 1 to 5, your answers build an ideal profile on those same 15 axes, and we compute the distance between the two. No magic, just transparent arithmetic, with verifiable data and a method documented publicly on this page.
15 axes, hard filters, Euclidean scoring.
In practice, the algorithm runs in four steps:
(1) Catalogue filters. Allergy, young-child and other-pet filters use catalogue classifications. They guarantee neither allergy tolerance nor individual behaviour. Housing and budget no longer remove breeds using a weight cap. Explicit size limits and, for dogs, heavy-shedding limits remain in use. If comfort constraints empty the selection, they are relaxed and compromises remain visible; household filters are retained.
(2) Preferences and capacity. Answers describe your preferences. Available time and preferred activity jointly set daily capacity: a garden or extensive experience cannot increase it. Accepting lots of upkeep or having a large home does not mean you must choose a breed that needs them. Easier training is not penalised just because you are experienced.
(3) Score and practical limits. A weighted distance compares breed traits with your profile. Estimated costs are checked against your stated budget, and activity and upkeep needs against your capacity. Budget overruns, heavy shedding and incompatible vocal tendencies are flagged separately. The score does not predict an individual animal or your actual expenses.
(4) Ranking and alternatives. Breeds without practical-limit overruns precede alternatives requiring changes. With equal numbers of overruns, score breaks ties, then popularity and finally slug for a reproducible order. If no breed meets your limits, the results say so and explain the compromises.
Where the breed scores come from.
Every breed in the catalog goes through a structured extraction protocol based on four primary sources:
- FIFe (Fédération Internationale Féline), the official standard for each breed: size, weight, life expectancy, temperament as defined by the country of origin. FIFe nomenclature
- LOOF (Livre Officiel des Origines Félines), France-specific data: registration statistics, official recognition status, and the breeder network. LOOF
- TICA (The International Cat Association), the American Breed Standards, more detailed on behavioral traits and health tendencies. Used as a complement when the FIFe page stays terse. TICA Breeds
- French Wikipedia, for verifiable figures (average weight, life expectancy, genetic prevalence) always cross-checked against the primary sources. Never used on its own for a subjective trait.
For behavioral traits absent from the official standards ("easy to train", "tolerance of children"), we rely on published behavioral studies and veterinary consensus. When sources disagree, we record the median and flag the discrepancy on the breed page.
What the quiz does not do.
The quiz is not an individual predictive test: it is a classifier of breeds relevant to your profile. The distinction matters.
A Maine Coon is not a guaranteed match just because it comes out first. Every kitten is singular, the temperament of the line counts, and the early socialization you give it counts even more. The quiz points you toward a breed that is statistically consistent with your life; choosing a specific individual is still something you do at the breeder or the shelter, by spending time with the kitten and its mother.
The quiz does not capture love at first sight. If you grew up with a Birman and that is the one calling you, no algorithm should talk you out of it, unless there is an objective dealbreaker (allergy, budget incompatible with veterinary costs, unsuitable home).
The quiz does not replace a veterinary assessment or a conversation with a feline behaviorist. If your situation is unusual (a very young child, an adult cat already at home, a respiratory allergy), go and see a professional who will meet your family before confirming the choice.
We also have structural biases. The catalog is mostly made of breeds recognized by FIFe and TICA, so European and American ones, with a few Asian breeds. Non-standardized primitive breeds (village cats, landrace breeds) are not covered. If you adopt from a shelter, the quiz will give you an idea of the traits compatible with your profile, but the on-site assessment by the volunteers will always come first.
Weights: how we calibrated.
The 15 axes do not all carry the same weight in the final score. A bad match on talkativeness (a very vocal Siamese with someone looking for quiet) or on independence weighs heavily; a bad match on cold tolerance only matters at the margin in mainland France. The weighting below reflects those differences.
How we calibrated those weights. A first version based on veterinary consensus and behavioral literature (heavy weights for the feline pivots, that is talkativeness, independence and grooming, light weights for climate tolerance in a temperate climate and for energy and exercise, since a cat's activity is mostly self-triggered). Validated with synthetic personas: 18 user profiles built by hand (urban young professional, rural family of three children, senior in an apartment, and so on), each with a known expected answer. We iterate on the weights until at least 12 personas get a top 3 judged plausible on manual review.
| Axis | Weight | Rationale |
|---|---|---|
| Talkativeness | 1.5 | A feline pivot: a Siamese (5/5) and a Persian (1/5) sit at opposite ends. Decisive in an apartment. |
| Independence | 1.5 | A feline pivot: from the velcro Sphynx to the self-sufficient Norwegian. Crucial given how much time you have. |
| Grooming | 1.4 | Highly differentiating: a Persian needs daily brushing, a Bengal almost none. |
| Good with children | 1.4 | Decisive when there are children — neutral otherwise. |
| Good with dogs | 1.4 | Decisive when a dog already shares the home — neutral otherwise. |
| Affection | 1.3 | Differentiating: from the lap cat to the aloof one. A strong personal preference. |
| Space needed | 1.2 | Cats adapt to every home, but Bengals, Savannahs and Maine Coons ask for room and height. |
| Good with other cats | 1.1 | Counts in multi-cat households, which are common among cat adopters. |
| Trainability | 1.0 | Less central than with dogs, but useful for a first-time adopter. |
| Coat length | 1.0 | An openly aesthetic preference: it separates two close breeds without ever ruling one out. |
| Openness to strangers | 0.9 | Social comfort, secondary to the overall profile. |
| Energy | 0.9 | Less central: a cat's activity is mostly indoors and self-triggered. |
| Exercise | 0.9 | Same as energy — a moderate weight for an indoor animal. |
| Cold tolerance | 0.6 | Low: cats mostly live indoors in mainland France. |
| Heat tolerance | 0.6 | Same — mainly relevant for flat-faced breeds during heatwaves. |
Table generated from the algorithm's own code (single source of truth: it cannot drift from what actually runs). Last calibration: July 4, 2026.
Our commitments, plainly.
Three operating commitments, for as long as this site exists:
(1) Every calibration change is public. If we change a weight, a hard filter or the modifiers of a question, it is announced at the top of this page with the date and the reason. Your results may legitimately change between two visits, and you will know why.
(2) No breeder promotion influences the ranking. We accept neither money nor breed placement. The only monetization considered (never switched on without notice) is affiliation on generic utility products (litter, carriers), which creates no bias on the breed ranking.
(3) Your data stays local. Your quiz answers are stored in
localStorage, on your device, never sent to a server. You can erase them
at any time from your browser settings. We run no intrusive analytics and there is no
user account.