Date.com Reviews

Editor's Star Ratings:

Chances of Getting a Date:
Features:
Quality / Size of Members' Photos:
Help Files / Technical Support:
Ease of Use / Navigation:
Ease of Joining / Registration:
Value for Money:
Overall Star Rating:

Costs:

• FREE basic membership!
• Premium memberships are priced as follows:
  • 1 month: $29.95
  • 3 months: $59.95
  • 6 months: $89.95
  • 12 months: $119.95

Features:

• Over 2 million registered members
• 250,000 new signups every month
• Launched in 1997, then re-launched as a subscription-based service on Valentine's Day 2000
• Create a profile when you sign-up, comprising mainly multiple choice questions with one longer essay-style question
• Statistics to tell you how often your profile was viewed, how often your photos were viewed, etc.
• See when a member was last online - this is very important in determining whether or not it's worth contacting another member.
• Advanced searches - search for members regionally and based on up to 100 characteristics of their profile.
• Keyword searches available - search other members' profiles by keyword.
• Flirt with other members by sending them an "I'm interested" message
• Receive a monthly e-zine (electronic magazine) by e-mail
• Access to the Date.info webzine and weekly newsletter, containing:
  • dating tips
  • tips on creating an eye-catching profile,
  • articles on the psychology of online dating,
  • tips on how to chat up other members via email
  • how to secure that all-important first date!
• Computerized auto-matching facility to try and automatically match you with other like-minded members based on your profiles, likes and dislikes
• Create a hot list of friends
• Access Date.com on your mobile - browse profiles, send and receive email on the go!
• Wide age range of members, with approximately:
  • 30% in the 20-30 age range,
  • 30% in the 31-40 age range,
  • 30% in the 41-50 age range
  • 10% in the over-fifty age range.
• Membership-base is worldwide, but mainly USA and Canada, with over 70% of the members residing in the US.
• In-house astrologer to give you astrological advice
• Excellent technical support.
• Premium members get the following perks:
  • Record your own video and audio greetings
  • Internal email tool to email other members
  • Instant Messenger available
  • A variety of chat rooms, including private messaging

Joining:

• You must complete an in-depth questionnaire upon signing-up as a free member to Date.com. This comprises a series of multiple choice questions plus a longer essay-type question, detailing what you are like as a person and the type of match you are looking for. This is your chance to make a great first impression, so try and add a little light-hearted humor if possible.
• In order to initiate contact with another member via e-mail, reply to e-mails, chat via instant messenger, enter the chat rooms or use the audio/video messaging service you must become a premium member. Membership prices are quoted above.
• Premium memberships give you full access to the site and all the additional features mentioned above. As a premium member your profile will be listed above all free members' profiles in the search results, giving much more exposure.

Performing a Search:

• A full search facility is available, allowing members to search by:
  • gender
  • sexual orientation
  • age range
  • race
  • body type
  • location
  • zip code
  • last visited
  • who's online now
  • who's instant messaging now
  • featured members
  • whose birthday it is this week
  • whether the member has pictures posted
  • keyword search - search for keywords appearing in other members' profiles
  • plus 100 other characteristics of a member's profile

Editor's Verdict:

Date.com has a great name, doesn't it? I bet all the other dating sites wish they'd bought this domain name first! Launched in 1997 and then re-launched as a subscription-based service on Valentine's day 2000, Date.com now has over 2 million members worldwide and over 250,000 new members each month. It was responsible for more than 50 marriages last year! One of the best things about Date.com is the fairly even ratio of male to female members, which is about 55% male and 45% female. This is in sharp contrast to most other dating sites which tend to be more male-orientated with perhaps 65% male members, and 35% female members. This is great news for any men who are thinking of joining Date.com.

Date.com has all the features you would expect in a dating site (see the list of features above for a complete list). The only major feature that we would like to have seen is the ability for free members to reply to emails sent to them by Premium members. As it stands, if you're a free member on Date.com and someone you like sends you an email, you will have to upgrade your membership before you can reply. Some other dating sites (though not all) do allow free members to reply to e-mails they're sent. The fact that you can't do this on Date.com is a major hindrance to finding a date, whether you're the free member who received the email and cannot reply without upgrading your membership, or whether you're the paid-up member who sent the email to a free member. Either way, this is a bit of a bummer! If you like the look of Date.com, you may also wish to check out Matchmaker.com, which is run by the same company. Matchmaker has a very similar feature set to Date.com, a similar user interface, but it has more members and does allow free members to reply to emails! Good news for everyone!

We particularly liked the chat rooms on Date.com, which are always buzzing with activity. The chat rooms are split into a number of different rooms according to location, hobbies, fetishes, etc. If you don't like any of the rooms available you can simply start your own chat room and see who happens to stumble along to it!

As a premium member you will also be able to privately chat with any other member simply by double-clicking on their username in the menu. This will pop open a new window where you can chat with each other in private. It would have been a nice feature if you could also have easily viewed the profile of the user you were chatting to simply by clicking on it, but as it stands this feature is not available, and instead you have to search the Date.com database for the username of the person whose profile you want to view. However, this is only a minor annoyance.

At first glance it would appear that you can't browse the site to see who's in your area before signing up as a free member at the very least. But, if you look towards the bottom of the homepage you'll see some rather inconspicuous links marked "Personals" and "Dating". The first of these links to a page where you can browse member profiles by state (US and Canada only) and the second links to a page where you can view member profiles by major city (US, Canada, UK and Europe only). You can then filter these profiles by gender (although not by age). This may at least give you an idea of who's online in your area before you even need to sign-up as a free member! We have no idea why Date.com have decided to include these links in such a secretive manner - but they have - and now you know all about it!

Membership of Date.com also gives you access to a webzine at Date.info, which is packed with useful tips and advice for anyone engaged in online dating, from advice on creating a really cracking profile that will attract everyone's attention, to advice on how to make a great first impression when emailing someone for the first time. Unlike the online magazines that are available from many other dating sites, Date.info really is an interesting read, with contributions from members giving their success and failure stories, as well as articles and tips from professionals in the dating scene. Check out David de Angelo's dating tips for men and Christian Carter's dating tips for women as a must read. A copy of the weekly e-zine will also be sent to you by e-mail unless you choose not to receive it. Members of Date.com's sister-site, Matchmaker.com also have access to Date.info's webzine. It's free to set up a profile and perform searches on Date.com, so why not sign-up and give it a whirl!

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