Reviews match.com

Last updated on July 18, 2018 | by Aet Suvari

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match.com review (UK)

match.com review (UK) Aet Suvari

match.com review ratings

Popularity
Trustability
Easy to use
Profiles
Search
Price & Value

Summary: By far the most popular dating site in the UK gives you the best chance of finding a potential match.

4.5


Lives up to the advertising hype with a huge number of active members, easy to use, well designed and a good value intro offer.

If you’re just signing up for one month then match.com isn’t the cheapest dating site around but the current offer of 67% off a 6 month subscription works out at just £9.99 a month. Considering the massive number of potential dates on match it’s a much safer bet than most of the competition we’ve tested. Continue reading our match.com review to find out why we believe it’s one of the best value dating options for 2018. Read on or skip ahead to our conclusion…

Who is match.com for?

Match.com is still our top recommendation for anyone looking for a serious relationship. It’s by no means perfect but the sheer numbers of people on match who’ve invested in a paid subscription, in the hope of finding someone special, makes it worth the occasional annoyances. If you’re after something more short term/casual then you’re probably better off on Tinder as match.com offers a bit more depth than you’ll probably need!

Creating your profile

One handy thing about creating your profile at match.com is you don’t actually need to write anything in order to start browsing and searching for a potential date. However, while creating your profile might take some time it’s worth your while as it highlights the kind of person you are and who you’re looking for. But if you’re not too crazy about describing yourself and a little unsure about how the whole thing works, browse around and get a feel for the site and read other people’s profiles before you start. Photos can be uploaded manually or imported from Facebook.

match.com homepage

As far as profile creating goes, it’s not one of those massive questionnaires that take ages to fill. It’s all pretty easy and straightforward, just keep ticking the boxes and choosing the appropriate answers. There’s not a lot you need to write yourself, but the more you put into it the more you’ll get out as potential matches get a better feel for who you are. See our profile writing tips.

match.com review – searching for a date

match.com review advertNext step after you’ve finished your profile is searching for potential dates. match.com has plenty of incredibly useful search features to choose from. You can do a standard search where it looks for someone who matches the criteria you’ve set – such as age and location, or you can use a whole variety of filters from values and hobbies to salary.

For example you could narrow your search to people within a 20 mile radius who’re looking for a long term relationship, want to have children and don’t smoke. If these are all deal breakers for you then you don’t have to waste time digging through hundreds of profiles that don’t match up. Imagine walking into a bar and instantly knowing not just who’s single but how many of them share similar values and goals to yourself. And people wonder why online dating’s getting more and more popular!

You can also search by how recently people have been online, religious beliefs, height and hair colour. In case that all sounds a bit picky you can also search by ‘Love Your Imperfections’ where people list their foibles from snoring to clumsiness! In any case, there’s plenty of members on match.com so the chances of finding someone who makes your heart skip a beat are about as high as it gets for a UK dating site.

Don’t like searching? All those profiles and options just make you feel dizzy? Don’t worry! Match has thought about that and has created a handy little feature called Shuffle which takes a leaf out of Tinder’s book and presents a daily list of matches that you simply click yes or no to and you can both see if you liked each other.

Another great feature is the ‘My saved searches’ button, which enables you to save certain details (from location and interests to height and body type) so you don’t have to keep entering all your requirements every time. It’s also really handy to see the last time the user has been active online in the search view. You can enter more than just one saved search – match.com lets you create your own list of saved searches, thus saving you a lot of time and trouble entering the details every time.

match-advert-big

Kudos to match for fixing the a gremlin in the system where profiles from outside a designated location wrongly appeared in search results. All seems to be working perfectly now.

A nice little feature is ‘hide profiles’ which enables the user to mark the profiles they no longer want to come across in the search. There’s also a contact filter every user can enable – keeping time-wasters away. If you like, you can keep from being contacted by those who are not looking for a relationship at the moment or those outside your age range. If you wouldn’t like to be contacted by people not in the same country as you, all you need to do is turn on the contact filter button. And you can even keep out those members who don’t have a photo displayed on their profile. However, we advise you to keep an open mind – by filtering you can also accidentally filter out someone who just might turn out to be a true gem!

Probably the best thing about searching on match compared to other UK dating sites we tested is the sheer amount of people online. match.com wins hands down in this department as its long history and ubiquitous TV and internet advertising gives them a huge advantage over competing sites. Search within any distance of your postcode and there’s usually lots of potential matches near or near enough to your area.

Should I wink or should I mail now?

match uk review - tv advert coupleIf you see someone you like you can either send them an email through the website (you get your own private match email address) or if you’re in a hurry you can send someone a simple wink which sends an automatic email saying you’re interested. One of the newest features in match.com is the IM – basically you can now safely chat online within the site, without having to reveal your MSN or Skype name as it uses their own instant messaging system. This can be switched off too if you prefer regular email.

Another, more subtle, way of showing interest is to add someone to your list of favourites and match will send that person an email notifying them that you liked their profile.

There’s also a feature called ‘my quiz’, which is basically another form of icebreaker. Putting your quiz together is simple – all you have to do is choose a bunch of questions (you’re allowed 20, but given a huge choice!) from a list. If you like, you can also write your own. Then you can ask potential dates to answer your quiz to see how ‘synced’ you are or can be purely a bit of fun.

If you’re a paid member, you can see a list of everyone who’s visited your profile, sent you an email or winked at you from your match.com homepage. Subscribing to match also gets rid of all those annoying ads so the site will always be ad free while you’re a member.

match.com mobile app

If you’re a signed up member you’ll also get access to the match.com mobile app. It’s current incarnation is actually really good as you can do pretty much everything you can on the main site. Here’s a video of it in action…

So you can send emails, view favourites, perform detailed searches and see profile images and info clearly too. It’s available for iPhone, Android, Windows and Nokia handsets. This all comes included with your paid subscription so you don’t need to pay any more to use the match app.

match.com review – Free vs Paid site

There’s not much to get from the free site – except for the chance to create a profile, search for matches and send winks and quizzes. You can’t read or write emails or even see who has viewed your profile. But at least you can view an unlimited number of profiles, giving you a clear idea what’s on offer before you part with your hard earned cash. You’ll need to upload a photo if you want to see other people’s large photos too.

<>There are now additional features you can buy such as going ‘incognito’ for 24 hours so other members can’t see you’ve visited their profile. You can pay to ‘boost’ your profile too so it’s featured higher up in search results.

How to cancel your match.com subscription

Lets say you sign up, meet someone you like and no longer wish to continue your match subscription, how do you go about stopping it? Like most paid for online dating sites match follows an auto renewal system so you have to cancel at least 48 hours before your renewal date to avoid starting a new 1 month, 3 month or 6 month subscription. Check our guide on how to cancel a match.com subscription for more info.

What’s new in 2018?

The overall design got a complete overhaul in the last couple of years and it seems to have ironed out a few bugs with the search and given the site a fresher, cleaner look.

match.com’s pricing plan has changed this year with different pricing tiers offering additional benefits and features. See the image below for details:

match.com uk prices 2018

The ‘Basic’ membership should be sufficient for most letting you message up to 10 members a day (remember you can still ‘like’ and ‘favourite’ members to show your interest too. Once someone’s replied to your message you can message them without limits.

Aside from the new Tinder-like ‘Shuffle’ feature replacing the ‘Daily 6’ you’ll see more Match Events in 2018 – a good way of meeting up with fellow match-ers via photography lessons to cookery classes in a city near you.

Conclusion

Okay, time for the match.com review summary you wish we’d started with so you didn’t have to read all of that! If you forced us to pick one site to recommend above all others then we wouldn’t hesitate to pick match.com. It just gets the whole package right and creates an ideal environment to meet and interact with potential matches. The recent introduction of the mobile app, Match Events and enhanced search shows it’s improving all the time too.

Those new to online dating will appreciate how simple and intuitive the site is to use while experienced online daters will appreciate the lack of fake profiles and time-wasters so prevalent on other sites. The current match.com 6 months subscription offer is a great deal if you’re more tortoise than hare when it comes to online dating – if you meet someone special within 6 months then you’ll be happy you didn’t need the full 6 months, and if you don’t… then it’s comforting to know that you’re only paying £9.99 a month so you can take your time and not rush into anything.

Match also offer a 14 day cooling off period for purchases of first-time subscriptions so if you decide it’s not for you then just contact customer care within the first two weeks for a full refund.

Pros and Cons

Good Incredibly popular, excellent search interface and informative profiles.
Bad Quite pricey for the 1 or 3 month options.

Visit website

Ok, we promise, you’ve finally reached the end of our mammoth match.com review, well done 🙂


About the Author

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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  • Visit website

    Membership Prices
    Free to Register & Browse
    Basic Membership
    - Message up to 10 people a day
    - See who's interested in you
    1 month membership £29.99
    3 months (£19.99 a month) £59.97
    6 months (£9.99 a month) £59.94
    Discover Membership
    - Message up to 25 people a day
    - See who's interested in you
    - Discount on Match events
    1 month discover membership £32.99
    3 months (£22.99 a month) £68.97
    6 months (£12.99 a month) £77.94
    Unlimited Membership
    - Unlimited messaging
    - See who's interested in you
    - Discount on Match events
    - No ads
    1 month unlimited membership £34.99
    3 months (£24.99 a month) £74.97
    6 months (£14.99 a month) £89.94
    Membership Features
    Email members
    See who's viewed you
    Last online status
    Search by postcode
    Block Unwanted Contact
    Chat/Instant Messaging
    Video/Webcam
    Mobile app
    Match Discount codes

    Unfortunately there are no current match.com voucher codes (they appear about as often as Nessie) but we'll add any promotions or free trial info whenever one comes around.

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