Dating.com claims t be a popular dating site, supposedly with over 10 million members across the globe. With those numbers, you’ll expect to at least hear about how good it is, right? So we decided to investigate what this site is all about in our Dating.com review.
Online dating is hard enough when you need to create an amazing profile that’s going to attract women. It’s even harder when you need to figure out if the site you’re using is worth your time (and money). So we’re trying to make things easier for those who want to find a date online. In this review, we’ll outline everything you need to know about Dating.com–from its free and paid features to the number of responsive women to how easy it is to set up a date.
We have a standardized process for doing this, meaning we can make accurate comparisons between all the websites we test.
So I started with a blank profile to see if any bots would send messages. This is usually the case with scammy dating sites since no real woman would message a completely blank profile. I left my profile this way for 24 hours.
Next, I used the same stock photos, bio and demographical information that we use for all of our dating app reviews. I bought credits to send messages to 50 women from our secret file of tried-and-tested openers.
From the women who replied, I made an effort to build rapport and swap contact details with the understanding that we’ll be using them to arrange a date.
The ultimate verdict of this Dating.com review is based on how many women replied to my messages and how many agreed to swap contact details. This is the only data that will ultimately matter to a man using Dating.com, after all.
With that said, let’s discover how effective Dating.com is compared to other similar online dating websites.
This dating.com review begins with a basic summary, so you can quickly decide whether this site is worth it for you. I don’t want to waste your time if you’re not interested in learning about all the ins and outs of this website.
So, here are my ratings out of 10 for the most important aspects of Dating.com. We’ve compared this with eHarmony, one of the top dating apps of our time. Since Dating.com seems more like a site for finding relationships, we feel that eHarmony is the benchmark to compare it to.
Overall Our team rates each site objectively based on many hours of independent research, the features each site offers, and how it compares with other sites. The ratings are the opinion of our editors and their extensive experience. |
1 | 9.5 |
Quality of Women Our opinion of how attractive the typical woman is that uses this site and how easy they are to connect with compared to other sites. |
6 | 9 |
Popular How many people are using this site to actually meet people compared to other sites. |
1 | 9 |
Usability How easy is this site to use and how quickly can an average person begin meeting people compared to other sites. |
5 | 10 |
Privacy & Safety Does this site take proper precautions to safeguard its members, their identity, and their data. |
10 | 10 |
Effective Our opinion of how easily an average person will be able to achieve their dating goals with this site compared to other sites. |
1 | 9 |
Value Will the time and money spent using this site pay off for an average person based on the opinions and experience of our editors. |
1 | 10 |
Dating.com certainly looks like the real deal after you create an account. Once you’ve added a few basic details about yourself, you’ll be presented with a dashboard of options for beautiful women to message.
Of course, you won’t know for sure whether a dating website is the real deal until you start messaging women and seeing how many of them will respond.
So, let’s discover what happened after I did that.
When possible, we’ll always leave a profile blank for 24 hours before starting our tests. If our blank profile is bombarded with messages, that’s a reliable sign that a dating website uses bots to entice people into paying for memberships or credits. After all, what real-life beautiful woman would send messages to a blank profile?
After 24 hours, my blank profile had received no messages, meaning it’s unlikely dating.com uses bots to entice new members to spend money.
A good start, then.
It also helps that many profiles have a little blue checkmark that indicates their profile has been confirmed. Dating.com does this by asking users to pose in a specific way and sending over a photo. The site then compares this to the user’s profile photo.
Dating.com supposedly has more than 10 million users across the world, and there were plenty of profiles to choose from in the mid-sized American city we use to run our tests.
You can search for women using the basic search, where you simply add your desired age range and type in the name of the city you want. Or – if you’re feeling particularly fussy – you can open the advanced search and filter by hobbies, education, height, eye color, hair color, and a lot more.
There are 24 hobbies to help you search, from biking and camping to hockey and lying on the beach.
To appear in these advanced searches, you’d need to fill out your profile with as much detail as possible.
I checked out one of the live streams on the site to see if they were of real people who respond in real-time. I was totally expecting a feed from another site. But I was pleasantly surprised when the streamer would respond to some messages live, even going as far as to mention their usernames.
Dating.com gives you two main mediums to make contact with potential dates. You can send a direct message to users who are online, and it will pop on their screen immediately. You’ll be charged one credit per minute of conversation when you reach out this way.
There’s also the option to send an email. This is the only option available when your beau is offline. Your message will be forwarded to the email address that this person associated with their dating.com account, then you’ll patiently wait for them to log in and send a reply.
That was the plan, anyway.
After sending 50 messages to beautiful women in my local area and waiting for over a week, I received zero responses. Nada. Zilch.
I did notice some accounts were online during this experiment, so I tested to see if I’d get responses to DMs, but once again my inbox was as quiet as a graveyard.
Please remember that this is the same profile and messages that brought us great success on other websites. On Dating.com, we may as well have been messaging a brick wall.
What a disappointment. The credits I bought were put to absolutely zero use.
The mechanics between Dating.com and eHarmony are different. But while some might say that eHarmony is severely limiting (you only get sent a handful of matches a day), it’s better than what I got at Dating.com.
With Dating.com, I sent 50 messages in a span of a couple of days. I selected who to message based on my preferences, and yet none of them bothered to reply. Contrast this with eHarmony where they select who you might be compatible with. This selection is based on what you’re into, what you want in a partner, and what women want in a partner.
On top of that, based on track record alone, eHarmony works! Nearly 4% of married couples in the US alone met through eHarmony. And for those in a hurry to settle down, nearly 7 out of 10 users on the site met their future spouse within a year. Those are numbers that Dating.com can’t compete with.
So if you want a dating site or app that actually works, use eHarmony instead!
Overall, I think Dating.com isn’t a good site to use. But we try to be as balanced as possible in our reviews. So here are its pros and cons:
Dating.com has extensive profiles and regularly prompts members to fill out information about themselves. You’re given space to write a short bio. There are also sections in a profile to list your hobbies, demographical information, and what you’re looking for in a partner.
You can upload hundreds of photos for people to browse through if you so wish. You’re also given the chance to make them either public or private photos, which members will need your permission to access.
Most of the women on Dating.com are attractive, but that makes little difference when you get zero replies to your messages.
The Dating.com website is very well-designed. The profiles, search function, and messaging system all work very well. Despite being one of the older online dating brands, its website clearly has kept up with the times.
You’ll need to buy and spend credits to get in touch with other dating.com members.
For direct messages, you’ll be charged one credit for every minute of conversation. There is also an option to make video calls with online members, which are billed at the same rate as direct messaging. To send your first email, will cost 10 credits. However, you can send additional emails for free.
No matter what medium you use to message members, your messaging history will remain in your inbox.
No advertisements popped up during my time testing Dating.com. However, the website looks heavily reliant on the Facebook Pixel. Ads for dating.com dominated my Facebook and Instagram sessions throughout the test and for weeks afterwards too.
It’s free to create a Dating.com account, but you’ll need to buy and spend credits to send messages to people.
You can buy credits in the following batches:
If you’re still not sure about whether or not to use dating.com, check out this list of answers to frequently asked questions about the app.
Dating.com is an online dating website where you pay to message other singles from your local area and around the world.
Alternatively, you can call 1(888) 980-9770.
This is a real dating website, although our testing shows that there are far more unresponsive profiles compared to other dating websites.
It’s possible that Dating.com is not a legit dating website. After all, I found no proof that even one woman on this website is real.
However, there was no concrete evidence that this website is full of fake profiles. In fact, many of the profiles are packed with lengthy bios and dozens of photos, which is a reliable sign that it was created by a real person.
The jury is still out. Although there are plenty of signs that this website is legitimate, I wasn’t able to verify whether even one real woman is using the website.
Dating.com will take good care of your financial details, plus you can hide your private photos without any serious fear of them being leaked.
You can see our most highly-recommended alternatives to dating.com in our list of the best hookup apps and sites we’ve tested.
You can create a Dating.com account, but you’ll have to buy and spend credits to message other people on the website.
You can buy credits in batches of 20, 160 or 1,000. You can message other users via DM if they’re online (1 credit per minute of conversation), or by sending an email (10 credits).
Yes, it’s available on iOS and Android, as well as on desktop.
It’s free to create a dating.com account, but you’ll need to buy and spend credits to send messages to people.
You can buy credits in the following batches:
You can browse other people’s profiles on Dating.com for free, but you’ll have to buy and spend credits to send emails or direct messages.
Once you’ve paid the initial 10 credits to send an email to someone, you can continue to send as many messages back and forth for free. So, you’re essentially paying for the ability to reach out the first time.
If you paid for Dating.com credits using Google Pay, Samsung Pay or iTunes, you can cancel your account yourself using these platforms.
If you paid by debit or credit card, you’ll need to contact the Dating.com customer service team to cancel your account.
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