Review of

Dating.com

Reviewed by

Picture of Casper Schou

Casper Schou

Online dating expert and editor

Picture of Casper Schou

Casper Schou

Online dating expert and editor

Type:

Dating site

Target audience:

Everyone

Largest age group:

18-35 year olds

Number of members:

4 million (globally)

Price:

From $19.95

Our Verdict

3.2

Learn more about how we score here.

User-friendliness

3.0

The site is easy to navigate, but the overall experience is weighed down by numerous fake profiles and attempts at scams.

Features

3.5

Dating.com offers the features one usually expects from a dating site, like DM and video chat. While these features should be enough for most users, we would like to see more.

Activity

4.0

With more than 4 million users worldwide, there are plenty of singles to choose from.

Seriousness

2.5

We found lots of fake profiles on the site, and while Dating.com claims to be doing its best to remove these, they are still a big and immediate problem.

Price

3.0

Dating.com is reasonably priced at first, but depending on how you use the credit system, it might end up costing you a lot more than you expected.

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In-Depth Review of

Dating.com

Dating.com arrived on the scene in 1993 when the internet was still in its infancy, and the idea of online dating was unbelievable. Now, it’s a platform of choice for romantic hopefuls worldwide, with 4.4 million users in the U.S. alone.

Thanks to dating site pioneers like Dating.com and others, the online dating scene has become a safe place to meet other singles, chat, and go on dates. That was over thirty years ago—what’s Dating.com up to now? How does it stack against a crowded market full of diverse and nuanced competition?

We created a profile to find out! Read on and see if Dating.com is your ticket to love and romance in the world of online dating.

Table of Contents

Pros

Large global and diverse user base

“Let’s Mingle” feature

View profiles rather than swipe through

Modern interface utilizes social media-like navigation

Sign-up credits offered

Cons

Site riddled with fake profiles

Global platform makes it hard to proximity search

Need credits for most features

Signing Up for Dating.com

“Are you ready to discover joy?” That’s the opening pitch to sign up for Dating.com. From 1993 to the modern era, it’s done its best to keep up with the times—and, for the most part, it succeeds. When asked how the site has stayed relevant, vice president of Dating.com, Maria Sullivan, said the platform is focused on welcoming everyone to the world of love, whether those who identify as straight, gay, bisexual, or other orientations.

The first step to getting started on Dating.com is to enter your email address or link through Google to receive your sign-up link. This helps to remove some clutter of fake profiles as another means of security. In recent years, another security crackdown has also limited Meta connectivity through the site. 

Sign-up is fast and easy, asking for your age and what you’re looking for before moving forward. That being said, confirmation is required to truly access the site. You’ll able to peruse the main pages, but confirmation is needed to make contact with any members.

After that, it’s time to fill out your profile:

They’ll begin with questions about you, starting with a nickname or what you’d prefer to be called on the site. Past that, they’ll confirm your interests, birthday, and hometown to tailor potential matches to your location. As we mentioned, it’s a global site, so jotting down where you live helps them find more applicable matches—even if the world is open to you!

After the basics, they’ll ask about some interesting details and icebreakers. This is fill-in-the-blank and allows users to express what they’re looking for plainly on their bio. Sometimes, that’s an earnest “looking for a long-term companion,” and other times, it’s more straightforward with “looking to hook up.”

After that, you’ll be asked to describe your ideal partner. Who are you looking for? What are your hopes for the site and your future? Use as many or as few words as you’d like!

Following that, Dating.com asks you to click on as many or as few interests as you’d like, helping the algorithm to match you with like-minded potential matches. As with all the previous options, be as detailed or brief as you like—or skip it all-together.

Finally, the site will ask you to upload a photo before moving forward. This is a mandatory step and cannot be skipped in order to navigate the site. This functions as a security measure to limit fake profiles, but it isn’t immediately successful. For example, when signing up for the site, we used an AI-generated photo as the background. Moderators did address the image later on, but it was still allowed through security measures.

This is an important moment to address a problem Dating.com has encountered in the past is an excess of fake profiles and scams to users. In an effort to limit those encounters, security has been tightened, and full refunds have been offered, but it’s still something to note. Now, let’s get into the site!

Pricing on Dating.com

As dating expert Amber Lee says, “Dating.com runs off a ‘credit’ system where users pay to purchase credits, rather than a flat per-month fee. This can feel a little like flying a budget airline; The initial plane ticket may seem like a great deal, but when you actually take the trip, you find yourself paying additional fees for every little item.”

In many ways, the pricing structure of Dating.com is fantastic for most members, but it’s definitely a site that benefits far more from premium features. Without paying for credits, you’re limited to just a few messages per day.

As you can see from the image above, the initial pricing structure options are broken down into three tiers. The starting option is a subscription-based fee of $19.99 per month and includes 150 credits, which can be used to chat, send voice recordings, video chat, and enjoy some other fun site features like “Let’s Mingle”.

 

150 CREDITS

Per credit: $0.13
Total: $19.99

 

600 CREDITS

Per credit: $0.25
Total: $150.00

 

1,500 CREDITS

Per credit: $0.20
Total: $300.00

Try for free

Free Features

  • Create a profile with photos
  • Search for members and view base profiles
  • Send winks
  • Receive messages

Paid Features

  • View profile photos
  • Send messages or video chat
  • See who has viewed your profile
  • Send gifts and other add-ons

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Exploring Dating.com

The homepage of Dating.com immediately shows off its modernity. From Instagram-like “stories” at the top to an easily accessible DM chat and contacts screen on the right. Another thing you’ll notice right off the bat is a “Today I Am” button at the top.

Another thing you’ll notice right off the bat is a “Today I Am” button at the top.

This button allows users to express their mood of the day and shows others what they’re looking for. Given enough time and a few refreshes, it also offers more like-minded users in your continued search. Depending on mood or goals, users can search for something serious, a pen pal to chat with or feel romantic, flirty, or naughty.

Upon signing up and logging in to Dating.com, however, it’s important to really address the inundation of one thing—fake profiles. Within an hour, our review account had numerous requests to chat or video chat popping up on the screen. Reading through the content of the messages, it was clear they were copy/paste messages from bots or scam accounts trying to encourage potential users to start chatting.

Again, however, Dating.com is aware of this problem, and although moderators try their best to limit the number of fake profiles, they also offer refunds should the scam succeed.

All we’ll say on the subject is to go cautiously. Amidst the scam profiles are genuine people trying to make a connection, find a friend, or share in a romantic experience.

Who You’ll Find—A Global Dating Pool

Most of the 4.4 million members located in the United States are young males seeking relationships with young females. Most members are millennials, and 85% use the mobile app to browse singles and chat with them. That would indicate that this demographic is tech-savvy professionals who are ready to settle down and commit. However, there are members who use the site for casual flings and hookups as well.

Most members come from the United States, the United Kingdom, Ukraine, Mexico, and the Philippines. This indicates people become members of Dating.com to meet people of different races, cultures, and countries.

As we mentioned before, the platform is also a very inclusive environment, not only asking for your sexual preferences but also what you’re looking for in a relationship. It’s not always wedding bells on this site, sometimes it’s just a friend to talk to!

Love Stories & Simple Connection

Dating.com has no shortage of lovely stories where people find love. Among those stories, it says you don’t need to rely on algorithms to meet interesting people and go on dates. That may be true, but the site still utilizes algorithms to match you with like-minded, close-in-proximity individuals. While browsing through profiles, you’ll notice other singles that are around the same age with similar interests and hobbies.

If you’re looking for someone outside the singles Dating.com is recommending, you can narrow down your search results. You’ll be given the option to search by preference, age, and location. To further narrow down your search, you click on the “Add More Options” button to see more options. The search tool is a helpful function if you’re looking for a specific type of singles.

One key difference in communication and the matching process on Dating.com is that you don’t need to swipe right or left to peruse matches. You can search for potential connections at your leisure, and if you see a potential fit, you can message directly. This leads us nicely to how to make contact on Dating.com

How to Make Contact on Dating.com

If you like a lot of contact options in a dating platform, look no further than Dating.com. It allows you to email, chat, video chat, send introductory “Let’s Mingle” messages, winks, likes, and more. With all these communication tools, members can choose the medium they’re most comfortable with.

With the email chat option, members can send out introductory messages to get a conversation started. The Live Chat feature, on the other hand, allows users to let another single know they’re interested in meeting up. For a small fee, you can even video chat with another member if you want to get to know them faster. The most unique feature of Dating.com, however, is the “Let’s Mingle” feature.

The “Let’s Mingle” function allows you to send a mass intro message to singles that you have selected. You can include an invitation to meet up, chat, or meet over video. If you’re not into being that straightforward, you can simply like someone else’s profile or send a wink to get their attention. This will put the ball in their court to get things going.

One final communication feature is the “Delight You Match” add-on of sending a present to a romantic hopeful. This is where a majority of the scams take place, but it’s also a wonderful opportunity to express your interest in a potential match. This is an easy-to-find feature under communication options. However, like many of the premium features on Dating.com, it costs money—so let’s get to pricing.

The Expansive Dating.com Network & App

Since 1993, Dating.com has had time to grow, expand, and, quite effectively, take over the world. With members across the globe, the Dating.com platform is incredibly vast. In that way, the many sub-companies and connected platforms to Dating.com offer far more nuanced matchmaking opportunities.

In addition to that vast platform, however, Dating.com has also done its best to modernize with the times. Although the copyright doesn’t hold up well with modern naming conventions, Dating.com does indeed have an app for Android and Apple users. 

From what we could tell, the app is similar to the desktop version in terms of functionality. However, the payment structure is a little different because you need to pay for the premium service to enjoy some of the features. The premium membership will also get you 50% off in-app purchases, unlimited streams, and the “Let’s Mingle” feature.

What Others Have to Say—Reviews of Dating.com

The challenge with reviews on any dating site is the people it works for are usually off in a romantic, honeymoon-like stupor and don’t have time to leave reviews. Conversely, for those for whom a site doesn’t work, the reviews are pretty intense.

As you can see from some of these user reviews from Trustpilot, there’s a clear focus on spam accounts being at the forefront of the user experience. It’s an unfortunate problem because the site does have potential. The challenge with Dating.com is trying to modernize while being inexorably linked to the past. Dating.com is far less of a matchmaking site nowadays than it started out. In the world of Tinder-based swiping apps, it’s trying to compete. With that, the user base has followed suit. That isn’t a problem inherently, but if you go to the site searching for a matchmaking opportunity, you might be disappointed.

One final review we wanted to draw attention to is this one that ranks the site as five stars but then gives a scathing written review. From perusing other reviews, Dating.com HR offers a form response thanking them for the review—which they clearly didn’t read. This same form-response can be seen in other generous reviews. This isn’t necessarily a sign of negligence between HR and the community, but it does give a small sample behind the curtain should you experience a problem with scams on the site.

Finally, the BBB ranks Dating.com with 1.06 out of 5 stars after 18 reviews. That probably isn’t a fair pool of 4.4 million users, but it does show a downward trend from only a couple of years ago when it sat at 3.3 out of 5 stars.

With its global platform, Dating.com excels with adventurous singles who want to find friends or romantic connections to match with across the globe. The challenge is modernizing and expanding without security or a solid vetting process. That’s why it’s important to go in with the expectations of what Dating.com is now, rather than what it was in the 1990s. Times have changed, and not always for the better.

Is Dating.com Right for You?

While Dating.com has been around for ages, it still has a place in the dating app world—but it faces many struggles ahead. With millions of members across the globe, its appeal holds strong, but the question lingers as to how many of these millions are fake profiles.

In essence, Dating.com doesn’t try to be like all the other dating sites. Instead, they market themselves as a place for open-minded singles who are okay with meeting other singles outside their comfort zones. And you know what? Maybe they’re onto something. After all, “opposites attract”, and love can be an adventure. However, that only holds true if you’re confident you’re speaking to an actual person in DMs, rather than a bot or scam artist.

If you’re looking to make a connection outside your comfort zone or maybe even across the pond, check out Dating.com—but please, be wary, and be safe.

3.2/5

3,2

/5

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3.2/5

3,2

/5

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