Only a couple of years ago, if you wanted to join an online dating site, you’d have to get out your credit card and pay for it. Not anymore however. Free online dating services seem be appearing just about everywhere these days. Well you might have already encountered Internet personals sites that claim to be completely free. They let you become a member, fill out a lengthy questionnaire, upload some pictures and create a nice profile. Then when the time arises and you want to communicate with a cute member you've found by sending them an email message or reading a message you’ve received yourself, you are suddenly prompted with a box that informs you that you need to upgrade your membership and make a payment. Nearly all Internet dating services offer some kind of free basic membership or free trial such as this, just to hook members in and to entice them to have a look around the site.
So if you are looking for a free dating site, it’s best to do a little research before signing up just to make sure the service offered really is completely free, that the site is safe and secure, and that it has an ample number of members. While the majority of free sites are little known and have very few members, the more established ones such as Plentyoffish.com, OKCupid.com, Amoureux.com and JustSayHi.com each have hundreds of thousands, or even millions of members from all over the world. Plentyoffish.com for example regularly appears in the top ten visited matchmaking sites lists worldwide, along with leading pay sites such as Yahoo Personals, eHarmony.com and Match.com.
Are free dating sites lower quality than pay sites? Many people believe in the saying that “you get what you pay for” and when it comes to online dating the same thing applies. Any service that’s totally free of charge just can’t be very good. Or can it? Well the main difference between free online dating sites and pay sites is that the free ones are usually paid for by advertisers or sponsors instead of the members themselves. If you don’t mind the occasional advert appearing, this shouldn’t present too much of a problem. The other concern people often have is about safety and security. After all, without credit cards or other payment methods, with free dating websites there’s no built in way to verify the personal identity of members. And with most of these sites being run on a tight budget, it might be the case that there’s less effort devoted to moderating profiles that appear or the behavior of members, not to mention online help and support. In either case, as with any online dating experience, members ultimately need to act in a responsible way that does not expose them to risks of unsavory characters that could lurk in any online communities. Following common sense safety guidelines is a must, ensuring that personal information is kept safe.
Since there’s no financial commitment and little effort required in signing up to a free dating service, it’s little wonder that some people question whether those who use such sites are serious about a relationship, or if they just want to test the waters of online dating. In other words, are free dating sites full of people who are just curious about internet dating? Well looking at sites like Plentyoffish.com it would seem not. With thousands of success stories and marriages attributed to the site, it seems that many people that visit these online meeting places really are there to find love and succeed in doing so.
Here are some of the best free online dating websites on the Internet.
PlentyofFish.com was founded by computer programmer Markus Frind in 2003, and is now the largest and most successful free online dating site in existence. While other sites earn their proceeds from charging their members to use certain features, Plentyoffish relies heavily on advertising revenue to support itself. Up until recently, its founder was running the site single handedly from his apartment in Vancouver, but due to the massive growth of the site, he has since hired some helpers. The site offers things such as email and chat at absolutely no charge. This can be a good option for those who want an online dating site with decent features but find themselves on a budget at the same time.
Plentyoffish does have an optional payment called “serious intent”, which doesn’t grant any extra privileges, but simply indicates a member is genuinely seeking a partner. This was introduced to tackle the major problem faced by free dating sites of separating those members who are there for genuine reasons, from scammers, time wasters and the cheats who are there to take advantage of a free service.
Plentyoffish is a very large online dating community and though the site largely caters to North America and the UK, one will find numerous members from around the world. To help make finding a compatible match easier, the site offers the chance to take a chemistry test. This unique feature uses carefully placed algorithms to analyze certain personality traits and characteristics. Upon completion, the results are then matched to members with balancing qualities. Once a week, compatible matches are sent to a member's onsite email account where he or she can then decide whether or not to make contact.
JustSayHi was "re-branded" as mingle2.com. This plain and simple website has plenty to offer those seeking a totally free dating experience. Everything on the site is absolutely free of charge. While the number of profiles on the site is not huge, most people living in larger metropolitan areas should be able to find others to date or hang-out with. To join the site, there’s a 60 second sign-up. Simply provide an email address and complete the details on the first page. You need a valid email address to activate your account and to be able to receive emails. Following this, you can enter further information about yourself on the next page, including your interests, marital status, and physical appearance. Finally just choose a username and password and you’re ready to go. Additional details and photos can be added to your profile at any time.
Locating people to meet in your area is a snip with the quick search tool. There’s also a more advanced search that allows you to refine your match to suite your tastes. As an alternative, the MutualMatch option presents photos of other members, one at a time, and you can choose yes, no or maybe. You need to have your own photo uploaded to use this feature. Each profile has interest tags listed at the bottom, and you can click these links to discover other members with similar interests and hobbies. The site also has a community forum where you can chat with other members.
OK Cupid is a leading free personals site, with thousands of members from across the world. On joining the site, you are taken one step at a time through a series of easy to follow pages. Just choose a screen name, provide a password and click on each question that is asked. Once you enter the site, there are several methods available to you to let you find people who share your interests or who may be romantically compatible. To improve your matches, you can also participate in an online personality questionnaire which takes about 5-minutes to complete properly. The questionnaire asks you twenty-five questions about yourself, your personal values, and your ideal partner.
A number of unique and advanced matchmaking features are available to use on the site. You can compare your profile to any other member you interested in and see how you compare on certain points of your profile or personality. The quick match tool lets you search for people by distance, gender, desired relationship and other criteria. OKCupid is fun to use and has a number of excellent features such as the Wiki tool which enables you to specify friends or relations who are allowed to alter your profile. You can moderate any changes or additions to your profile before they appear. There’s also a blog forum where you can write about your daily activity. Furthermore, if adverts really bother you, you can even make donations to the site to remove them.
The site is also available in French, Portuguese and English.
Although MatchDoctor does not have an enormous number of members, those living in large cities in United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, or those prepared to travel shouldn’t have any difficulties finding friends or romantic partners on this site. Signup requires a little patience as there are several pages of detailed questions to complete. The first page asks for a login name, a valid email address, your age and your city, while the following pages ask more specific details regarding your appearance, marital status, your education and ethnic background. You can also enter a headline and mini-biography describing yourself for other members to see, as well as adding a few lines saying what you are looking for in your preferred partner.
Once you’ve completed this, you are ready to begin exploring the site. Once you enter, as well as the possibility of finding love and romance, you’ll also find forums, blogs, event calendars, videos, quizzes and many other ways of participating in this friendly online community. The matchmaking tool allows you to identify people you are interested in, and allows you to set various search criteria such as appearance, education, profession, income and type of relationship. Unfortunately there’s no quick search, although you can choose to ignore many of these options if you wish. Distance searching is only available for the UK, US and Canada.
Person.com is much more than a dating site. It offers complete social networking with all of the tools and features you need to chat and make friends with others, or to catch up with old buddies. While many features on the site are absolutely free, some of the premium features such as hotornot, bidding to become more popular, or bumping up your profile cost money. Signup is fast and simple. Just one page asks you for your name, email, your country, and your city. You can add a photo at this stage, or choose to skip this step and do so later.
The first time you enter the website, the number of tools and features can be a bit overwhelming. There’s picture rating, blogs, forums, webcams, and of course search tools to let you find people you’re interested in meeting. You can even lookup your old school or college and see if you can track down some old friends or flames. You can refine your search to a country, region or specific town or city. The site has many advanced tools, however at times it can be a little slow and cumbersome. While Person.com is more of a social networking site, there are certainly many people there looking for dates and romance.
