It’s fair to say that Match.com is very well-known as a dating site and platform. It’s the largest dating site and one of the oldest, so it gets a certain amount of attention just because of its sheer size. Naturally, to a lot of people, it seems like a safe choice in that respect. Amongst friends, it’s probably common that at least one of them has used the service at some point.
In this review, let us consider why Match.com may or may not be the best choice for a dating site and which alternative site might be preferable.
Do we recommend Match.com?
No, we do not, it is not the worst out there but it is far from the best and it is certainly not worth the money. We advise going with some of our other trusted platforms, our number one rated dating service right now is eHarmony.
Too Much Choice?
Like when trying to order takeout, when there are too many choices of dishes to order, it’s hard to make a good decision. It’s also more difficult to be satisfied that you’ve made the right choice – doesn’t your friend’s dish always look tastier than what you ordered?
The same dilemma is often true of dating sites. While clearly, it’s important to sign up to one that has enough members in your city or town to provide an ample choice of potential suitors, sometimes it goes too far.
With Match.com, the larger pool of potential dates makes it difficult to narrow down the choices. Often, this can make it hard to decide which person is the best.
Related: Best dating sites in the USA
Lost in a Sea of Recommendations?
When there are recommendations made by Match.com, this initially is helpful.
However, it is easy to have one of two types of problems with this:
Becoming Overly Picky
When you’re presented with too many matches or recommendations, it’s easy to start thinking you’re something special. At that point, there’s a risk of becoming nitpicky about every person.
Let’s face it – there’s always something wrong with everyone. No one is perfect. However, we can easily get into the mindset of looking for perfection because “no one is good enough for me” and just keep on looking. This results in not finding love and becoming frustrated at the service.
Being Indecisive
Another result of too many recommendations is that it becomes harder to make the final decision of whom to date.
Maybe you’ll decide to meet several people and see how they are on the date. Ok. Fine. But then it can easily get to the point of leading someone on because you’re seeing more than one person and cannot decide. And that’s not fair to anyone. People feel like they’re on a constant audition or a repeated first date when they know that you’re not yet ‘exclusive.’
While to be fair to Match.com, they should be faulted for this. They’ve done nothing wrong. It’s just a reality of any dating site that’s gotten so large that members can get lost in it.
Inundated with Messages
One problem many users have had is being inundated with messages from men after joining Match.
What some women might find to be a net positive, it can be a real turn-off. When the messages come in thick and fast to your inbox, you need to spend considerable time replying to say you’re not interested. Not every follow-up from the men will be happy because no one enjoys being rejected.
The reason this happens is that Match.com lets users message each other even before they have approved a profile and confirmed that they’re open to contact with you. Instead, people can dive in and send messages to a collection of women and wait to get replies (or visa-versa).
The approach might sound great, but it results in unwanted messages to the women and men who are being largely ignored.
It’s not the best system because of this unfortunate flaw.
Related:
Is eHarmony Worth it?
Less Committed Than Other Services
Not all dating sites are designed to offer the same type or quality of service.
With Match, because it’s the largest by far, the site tailors to the masses. Therefore, you get everyone from someone looking for marriage, to casual dating, to married men or women looking for “adult fun,” and everything in between.
For someone who wants something more serious, genuine, and real, this can be problematic. Trying to weed out the profiles and messages from people who aren’t what you’re looking for takes time. Also, people aren’t always honest in their profiles, which makes filtering out the bad matches difficult to do.
A dating site like eHarmony, which has a far greater emphasis on longer-term relationships, a detailed personality profile questionnaire, and strong filtering systems, allows members to eliminate more false positives. There are 80 multiple-choice questions included to build a realistic personality assessment to better match like-minded people together too.
Glut of Features
The list of features within the Match.com system is extensive. This is a reflection of how long they’ve been operating with new features added over the years and refined to improve them.
The glut of features may lead members to become frustrated. It goes beyond keeping things simple to potentially overcomplicating the user experience.
It is up to the individual member whether they prefer to have this many features available or not. Certainly, a simpler interface and fewer value-added features have benefits for members looking to avoid being overwhelmed.
Expiring Free Trial
Match.com currently offers potential members a free 7-day trial to give the service a spin and see how they like it.
One nice feature of the free trial is that you can send messages and see if they’ve been opened or not. This gives a good idea about the level of interaction and that the profiles are real and active too.
With that said, the weeklong trial is fairly short. By comparison, other services like eHarmony used to have a free trial system but found it was unpopular due to cutting people off suddenly after their time was up. Instead, they’ve since adopted a free membership at a basic level that doesn’t end. So, potential members get more time to decide. This might be preferable.
Choosing Match.com is popular because of its size. It’s always sensible to check the TrustPilot reviews for yourself to see what people are saying. These are independent customer reviews, so they provide a balanced view beyond the hype. Each dating service or site offers something a little different from their peers. They’re distinct enough that it pays to understand them clearly before deciding where to become a member. This way, you avoid disappointment or buyer’s remorse.