Looking for love online? Take a look at the top five dating services and see how they compare.
Match Maker
Monthly Rate: $8.33-$19.95
Membership: 8 Million
Communications: Email, IM
Forbes recently named MatchMaker one of the "Best Online Dating Services.”
MatchMaker two best features are its user-friendly site and the fact that they offer one of the most in-depth profiles on the web. The profiles start with a extensive questionnaire followed by an essay. Although the essay part is optional, it is actually the best way to share your core interests and values, and facilitates your match to singles who share them.
Match Maker also supports voice greetings, automatic little messages you can use to spice up your profile. A simple feature allows you to keep track of how many times your profile has been viewed.
Yahoo Personals
Monthly Rate: $7.50-$19.95
Membership: Over 5 Millions
Communications: Email, IM
Yahoo Personals is one of the leading online dating sites, particularly due to their refined search engine, which allows you to view and organize your search through a variety of options, such as age, living area, interests, etc.
For those looking for more than casual dating, Yahoo Personals Premier offers a more extensive character profile, a highly developed matching system (personality and shared values are two of the basis for matches), and a large database of singles that are also looking for a serious relationship.
Dream Dates
Monthly Rate: $9-$24.95
Membership: 3.5 Million
Communications: Email, IM, Chat, Voice
In addition to standard features such as online chat rooms and instant messaging, Drearmdates features an advanced option that allows you to talk with other members instead of only using text messages.
Dreamdates offers the standard Romance memberships, plus an Erotica option.
American Singles
Monthly Rate: $16.50-$24.95
Membership: 10 Million
Communications: Email, IM, Chat
Immediately after filling out a member profile form, AmericanSingles will provide you with a list of matching profiles you can further organize by age or location.
American Singles offers you the option to remain anonymous if you are not attracted to the person who contacts you. On the other hand, it allows you to establish a very private email connection to those people you do like. Their instant messaging service allows you to contact any member who is currently online. Or you can try their free chat room, open 24/7.
"Tease" message are a fun, non-commital way to get in touch with members you find attractive. Even if they don’t answer back, you have only invested a couple of seconds.
Match
Monthly Rate: $10.95-$24.95
Membership: 15 Million
Communications: Email, Chat
Match best feature is undoubtly its easy-to-use website, which allows you to simply type what you’re looking for and get an instant list of matches by profile details or just photos.
Match also gives you side-by-side comparisons of your own requirements and the requirements of potential dates. This allows you to consider (or quickly discard) profiles.