A (thirty-something year old) Woman's Guide To A Bunch of Dating Apps vol. 1

I wrote these reviews back in 2015 so some of these apps may no longer be operational. If they are, I stand by my words so I'd love to hear yours too! Let's get into it.

These are just my opinions from my own experiences so if you’ve had success then share it in the comments so others can benefit.

Match.com

£29.99 per month

The Good

‍Name’s  become synonymous with online dating thanks to lots of mainstream  marketing so it’s becoming more and more acceptable to mention Match.com  as a place to go for relationship seeking. I found there was a decent  mix of yummy and scummy males on here, much more balanced than any of  the other sites.

The Bad

‍Without paying membership, you can’t see what most sites give you for free i.e. winks, favorites, email usernames, views.

Verdict

‍Little  known tip, Match merged with another dating site called Dating Direct.  Dating Direct still operates and the two sites are identical including  an identical userbase. Members of Match also appear on DD by default and  vice versa.

If you’re female, Dating Direct is free  for you to use including emails, winks, views, etc. Sorry lads, you guys  still have to pay your own way. But seriously, the two sites are  identical. See for yourself.

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See? You’re welcome.

eHarmony

£44.95 per month

The Good

‍I  joined eHarmony on a 3 month free trial and went on a total of 1 date.  We went to Winter Wonderland. It didn’t work out but it was a fun date.

The Bad

‍You  have no control over your matches as there is no search functionality.  The site presents you with 5-10 “matches” per day and you can choose to  start a convo or ignore. More often than not, the matches I got hadn’t  logged onto the site in months. When you do see a match who is active  that you like, you are not allowed to send them a message. You get to  choose from a list of over 100 questions to send to the match for them  to respond. They respond with answers and their own questions and back  and forth you go until the site reckons you can be trusted to send an  actual email.

Verdict‍

That price  is RIDICULOUS. Beware their periodic “free” weekend communication  offers, you will be allowed to communicate with matches but you can’t  see any of their pictures until you pay the membership fee in full.  Until they can guarantee that all matches you get are currently active,  there’s no way I’d ever use eHarmony again.

Tinder

Freemium

The Good

‍I’ve  mentioned Tinder on the blog before. I like that it’s free. I love that  the only people who can contact you are people who you have said yes  to. If only other dating sites could get on board with this premise!

The Bad

‍https://www.tumblr.com/search/tinder – Take your pick. Seriously.

‍Verdict

I have found that the ONLY people who love Tinder are my coupled up  friends, they can’t get enough and all at some stage or another have  said to me that if they were single they would love it. Well, I’m single  and I’m not that keen. It’s a little soul destroying to find a match,  start a decent conversation with someone seemingly normal, then have  them post a nude picture on their “moments” feed. The lack of image  filtering and the casual nature of the app itself means it is no place  for anyone who still believes in true love and fairytales haha.

Lovestruck

£39 per month‍

The Good

‍They  host free unofficial happy hours every other week at a random bar in  London. If you’re single and looking, you ask for a red straw when you  order your drink at the bar. It’s fantastic if you’re the shy type.  They’re always free and all are welcome.

The Bad

‍Quality of males wasn’t great I found and the price of membership is crazy high.

Verdict‍

I  like the idea of Lovestruck and their undercover red straw parties  sound like an awesome idea. The price of membership is a dealbreaker  though and I didn’t get the sense their userbase was particularly large  for the London area. Just my opinion though, maybe I was being very  picky.  

Plenty Of Fish (POF)

Freemium

The Good

‍There  are literally MILLIONS of people on the site. Millions. Everyone you  know who has been single in the last 10 years has dabbled with a Plenty  of Fish profile. You get a good chunk of functionality for free and you  can control who gets to message you to a certain degree (i.e. restrict  age, distance from you, potentially lewd users, etc).

The Bad

‍It’s  like trying to find a needle in a haystack. There are as many fake  pictures and fake profiles as there are real pictures and real profiles.  Trying to stand out from the POF crowd is like trying to stand out from  the crowd at a Justin Timberlake concert. Can be disconcerting to send  messages and not get a response but there have been lots of success  stories from the site so it is possible.

Verdict‍

It’s  good to keep a profile live as you never know who’ll stumble upon it.  The sheer number of users means standing out is hard but with what seems  like all of the UK on the site, you never know \n

So there you have it folks. Hopefully this little two part series has made you decide to give online dating a go. Just be safe, be smart, trust your gut instincts and you never know. You might just stumble across that special someone…….’s profile lol.