Uniform Dating Review
Uniform Dating Ratings
Summary: The only dating site we know that lets you search by profession so if you're into that you'll like this!
3.3
We love niche sites. Really we do. Even though we’ve given huge sites like Match.com and eHarmony our highest review scores, we have tremendous respect for smaller UK sites that brave the massive competition in online dating to give people a more targeted and personal approach.
However, Uniform Dating isn’t exactly your small little independent niche site. It was quite a popular, fast-growing site even before it was bought by Cupid.plc a little over two years ago and is now part of their ‘online dating factory’. Don’t get me wrong, it has it’s good sides – mainly the added membership numbers from other Cupid sites – but it’s also lost a little bit it’s unique charm.
Setting up your profile page
Anyone can sign up to UniformDating. Your profession will be asked but among the other options from pilots to nurses there’s also an option non-uniform, so you don’t have to worry about not fitting in.
Other than that there are no specific questions about your work and profession. If you want to, you can go into more detail and talk longer about your career – which, I imagine, would greatly play in your favour here, so we encourage you to do it. While on other sites it would most probably suffice to just state that you’re a nurse or police officer and it would get you enough attention but on Uniformdating it pays to be proud of what you do and brag about it too. You’ve earned the right!
Most other stuff you have to fill in is the same kind of information you’d put down on any other dating site – you get to talk about the things that you like to do and your favourites, and even though it’s all quite generic and not very original, we encourage you to do that. It’s not the questions that define you, it’s the answers you give. Your chances of making an impact are so much better if you give original and thoughtful answers.
You can naturally add photos – up to 20 of them – and the system also lets you upload them from Facebook or take one with your webcam. We’ve spoken a lot about photos on our site and how to choose a good pic for your profile but Uniformdating also lends you a helping hand and gives you some advice and tips on good profile photos.
Searching and getting in touch
We have to take our hat off to Uniform Dating where it comes to searching. There’s plenty of options and the results are impressive. First of all, you can, of course, search by profession – a very important feature on this site. The other search options are searching by new matches and members who are online at the moment, there’s quick search and advanced search, search by location and even search using keywords. Not all of them are available for non-paying customers though, but they used to restrict the non-paying customers’ search to profession only – at least now you can search by postcode as well.
Should this variety of filters not satisfy you (although we can’t see how it could disappoint anyone), you can have a look at a list of your “new matches” – or matches that the page algorithm has picked for you or “your admirers” to find if there’s perhaps anyone there that catches your eye. Paying customers can also see the list of people who have ‘liked’ their profile by pressing the like button on their profile page. Of course, you can always see the list of your favourites – those that you have liked – and the list of those who you have viewed or who have viewed you (the latter is, again, for subscribers only). I’m not a hundred percent convinced how authentic these results are, since even minutes after joining it will show you a bunch of members you’ve supposedly viewed in the last 3 months. However, it’s a minor detail and after all – it’s the thought that counts.
Getting in touch also has several options. First of all you can use ‘like’ or ‘wink’ buttons – and the latter also has several options: Say Hello, Flirt, Give a Hug, Give a Chocolate, Send Flowers buttons also appear under this option. You can send a message or use the site’s own chatting system, which allows you to get in touch effortlessly and without revealing your Skype details.
Extras
UNiform Dating has its own live chat system, which is very easy to use and quite popular, and now they’ve also come up with their own app – for iPhone, Windows and Android operating systems. These days it really pays for a site to have their own app or at least a mobile version – this way you can always stay tuned, even when you’re on the go.
Free vs Paid site
Signing up is free like any other dating site and similarly you don’t get much with the free membership. You can set up your profile page and upload photos, you can perform the search – but even then you can’t use all the options.
You can’t send or read messages that are sent to you. However, there is a way to “earn” free messages in this site. Any kind of activity is rewarded, be it filling your profile, uploading photos or liking other members’ profiles and sending them winks or flirts.
We’ve criticised some Cupid-owned sites in the past for dubious practices with fake profiles and fake emails but we didn’t notice any of it happening here. Still, bear in mind that while in some sites unpaid members can’t reply to messages, you won’t be able to read them here, even though you can see that you’ve been sent some mail. Paid members also get read receipts, which is handy.
Paid members can also use the chat, see members who have viewed your profile and see who’s added you as a favourite.
Uniformdating also gives you an option of getting a 3-day trial to test the site out. However, unlike some other Cupid-owned sites, it’s rather pricey here with a £9.99 fee.
Uniform Dating Review: Conclusion
If you’re someone interested in uniformed guys or girls, I suppose it’s the best place to find them – because you can perform a specific search based on profession. However, the other question is whether it’s worth signing up if you in fact ARE someone in uniform or if you could perhaps do better on a bigger, more general dating site like match or eHarmony.
It’s up to you to figure it out, just make sure you take your time to look around and get familiar with your options – you’d hate to sign up and part with your cash only to find out later it wasn’t the right step after all.
Pros and Cons:
Specific search by profession, which really helps you to filter out all the different professions and uniform-wearers.
Search for smaller towns doesn’t really come back with a lot of results.
You’ve reached the end of our Uniform Dating review, enjoy the site if you decide to join or check out our other Dating Site Reviews if not.
About the Author
Aet Suvari has been reviewing and writing about the world of online dating since 2008 and the launch of Online Dating Help. A stickler for promoting ethical practices within the UK dating industry she champions the sites that get it right while highlighting those holding it back. You can follow her on Google+
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