An Educated Comparison of the Top Dating Sites

So, let’s recap:

• More urban women in their mid 20’s to early 30’s should take a look at Match.com, which showers you with hundreds, even thousands of cute guys. It’s raining men –hallelujah! 
• Better for long, committed relationships, Chemistry.com analyzes more thoroughly than when you’re trying to decipher an ex boyfriend’s text message. This will probably lead to a great match – but you gotta be patient!
• OkCupid is also good for younger women, as well as those of you who aren’t exactly sure what you want out of a relationship. Whether it is a long-term let’s-watch-a-movie-and-cuddle-on-the-couch thing or the casual let’s-get-a-drink-and-see-where-this-night-goes thing, you’re sure to find a large variety here. Definitely worth being on, OkCupid is the most advanced site we found – and to top it off, it’s free!
• If you’re a conservative woman who wants to get married RIGHT NOW, eHarmony is your bet for finding a man who shares your dreams of the perfect white picket fence.

Scam warning:

Although I didn’t experience this issue (probably because I’m female), this account from a writer at Mashable, is shocking:

“There are quite a large number of fake profiles throughout all of Zoosk. Considering it’s really easy to create one, anyone (and I mean anyone) can create a sham profile. And in that way, the online dating service is really easy to spam people with shady and phony users who advertise for free sex if you follow a link to another website or dating app.

It’s easy to lure someone with an attractive profile and then hit them up with spam for another service. It’s tough to scroll through numerous fake accounts to get to the real ones. Within one minute of creating a new profile, I was messaged eight times from people who seemed not to be real. Most of them simply viewed my new profile, but some wanted to meet or sent a generic message to elicit a response. It’s a red flag whenever you get that many messages from randoms after just signing up.

You may run into another problem with counterfeit or inactive users. However, just because you choose to ignore fake profiles, it doesn’t mean fake profiles choose to ignore you. The longer you’re active, the longer you’ll be susceptible to unwanted messages and sham views, winks, “wants to meet,” and requests to chat notifications you’ll see on an hourly basis.

Out of the 11 messages and notifications I received during my review period, it was difficult to tell which ones were real and which ones were not genuine. There are other dating sites like OkCupid and Tinder that are really good about scrubbing their platform free of false accounts and spam, but it was quite the undertaking to figure out [on Zoosk].”

A few important tips:

Whichever site you choose, make sure that you get as much as you can out of it in under three days (the federal government forces dating sites to give a refund within three days of purchase), because if you don’t think it’s worth your money, these sites have a strict “no refund” policy once they’ve gotten their hands on your money, and usually won’t budge.

Keep your real name and address private until you know that the guy’s not stalker-material. Correspond via a new, private email you only use for dating sites (you can always get his number, but be careful about giving out yours) and meet in public. He can pick you up on the third date.

Oh, and lest you show up at the restaurant and the man you ordered was clearly falsely advertised (hello, beer gut??), remember that drinks are always a better first date option. If all else fails, you can always excuse yourself and sneak out the back door… after all, online dating is anonymous…

Want more? Check out my fun and adventurous guide to speed dating or learn why you can’t find love.

What online dating experiences have you had?