Overview

Match.com are one of the largest online dating company’s in the UK, and indeed the world. Launched way back in 1995, they are considered to be the original online dating company. Just like their big rivals, Dating Direct, Match claim to have the largest UK membership base.

The user-friendliness and ease at which you can navigate throughout the website is exemplary right from the very start and they offer a comprehensive yet not overwhelming set of features. Getting your profile created does take a bit of time though, so you need to be patient and prepared to put effort into getting up and running.

The list of compatible matches generated is very rich, and there are plenty of tools to use to compare yourself to potential matches.

For a top of the range service prices are also pretty acceptable and what you would expect with a large market player.

Everything about Match is good and so we would certainly recommend giving the site a go.

Who is it for?

Who is it for?

General online dating service; covers all ages and all of the UK.

Profile creation

How long to fill out a profile? Approximately: 1 hour

Getting started is very simple. Once you've registered with your email address and password you immediately dive into building your profile. It's definitely worth taking your time over this section and it should take you just short of 1 hour to complete the 3 main sections, which are:

• Me
• My Match
• In my Own Words

The first section is called 'Me' and as the name suggests, you are required to fill out your 'basic details', 'interests' and 'lifestyle' information. Like any other site you need to provide basic details, such as your features and appearance, before detailing your interests and typical lifestyle attributes. Some of these are drop-down menu or checklist style questions whereby you select the answer, with others being open-ended. For example, in the 'Interests' section you have the option to answer the following questions in 250 characters or less:

• what do you do for fun
• favourtie local hot spots or travel destinations
• favourite things
• favourtie book

The process is very easy, and if you don't like answering the questions that require you to write something, most of them are optional. If you do however answer all of the open-ended questions then the 'me' section should take around 30 minutes.

Next is the 'My Match' section where you start to detail what type of person you'd like to meet. The list of things is very comprehensive and it feels as if you're not leaving a stone unturned in what you want in your match. Everything from appearance and lifestyle interests to background and education is covered as well as a list of things that turn you on and off. The great feature here is that you can rank each attribute/quality you want in your match as either 'not very important', 'somewhat' or 'absolutely' which will help the system to recommend the most compatible matches for you. This bit should probably take around 15 minutes.

Next is the most daunting of sections, 'In my own words'. This is the part where you need to write your dating headline as well as your profile description, and you can't skip this section either. Your profile description is recommended to be around 600-700 words long and requires you to 'Describe yourself and your perfect match to our community'. However, Match have a great little advice window should you choose to click on it. This is a very concise, plain English guide, giving you some good tips as well as do's and don'ts on writing a profile description and headline. This takes the pain out of it somewhat. Once you send this for approval, match say it will take 24-72 hours for the text you write to be approved and shown on your profile. However, in our tests, ours was approved in just 20 minutes. If profile creation becomes too much of a chore see our partner site, www.PerfectDatingProfile.com to find out about hiring a professional writer to do the job on your behalf.

Features

Once you have gone through the initial profile creation, Match present you with the option of also completing their Personality Test. This is very comprehensive and asks you a whole variety of psychometric style questions. The test allows you to learn a little more about yourself and who you may want to look for, and yields better search results. It should take around 15 minutes to complete.

Searching

Searching for dates is one of the major benefits of using Match. They offer 6 different ways to search.

You can search Profile Matches which uses the data you provided in your inital profile creation in 2 ways. You can either search for 'mutual matches' where it returns matches that share a lot of common ground with you. Or, you can search 'reverse matches' whereby your profile information is what someone is looking for in their perfect match.

Moreover, there is the quick search function which not only allows you to simply search matches by age range and location, but you can go to advanced options and put in almost any search criteria you could ever think of.

Finally, you can search by username, keywords or matchwords. The latter 2 are good for narrowing down matches that have specific qualities or interests. For example, if you want someone who is loud and plays badminton, you can put in the keywords 'tennis' and 'loud' and see who comes up.

The search function on Match is right up there with the best of them.

Viewing Profiles

Again, like everything else on Match, this element is very comprehensive.

When you click on someone’s profile you can see the same information that you had to complete during your initial profile creation, so there’s everything from their appearance, interests and lifestyle to what they want in their ideal match.

If both of you have completed the Personality Test, Match include a very useful table which compares your major personality types in a coloured pie-chart, coupled with a brief explanation from Match’s dating expert Dr Helen Fisher about how the 2 personalities are likely to get on with each other or conflict. So, there’s an element of science in there too.

Another good feature is the comparison table. This shows up in the profile you are looking through, and has the list of interests and lifestyle choices you would have both had to answer during the profile creation stage. It compares how many areas you are compatible on, so the more green dots, the more compatible you are. A good visual aid to see where you are and where you are not compatible.

Contacting members

If you find someone you’re interested in, you can click on the email tab to get in touch with them.

Like almost all online dating sites you can also 'wink' at someone to let them know you’re interested.

Email alerts

You get email alerts every time someone messages your profile and Match’s 'daily insight' email will give you a list of people compatible with you based on your profile details and also your personality test data.

There is also the option of mobile phone text alerts. These cost 10p and are charged by your network provider (12p for Vodafone).

Value for money

Despite being the world's largest online dating site, Match are not the most expensive, although they are near the higher end of the cost bracket. But, you get what you pay for. The longest subscription is 6 months and that is £65.94 which isn’t bad at all. This comes with the protection of an additional 6 months for free if you haven’t found love after the first 6 months.

For the features you get from Match, the ease of use, and the extremely large membership pool, they are certainly good value for money. However, Dating Direct are very similar, and Match are more expensive than them in their 3 month and 6 month packages.

Best bits

There are a lot. Mainly the design and user navigation which makes the whole process very easy. The comprehensiveness of profile information and number of members is also a key benefit.

Worst bits

You can’t post a video profile unfortunately which is a popular feature to be omitted as it adds character to your profile in the most powerful way, as well as being a security feature (you can actually see and hear the person and cross-match these details with what is written in their profile).

Also, sometimes the banner ads can become a bit irritating.

Pricing

1 month: £29.99
3 month: £59.99
6 month: £77.94

Overview

Match.com are one of the largest online dating company’s in the UK, and indeed the world. Launched way back in 1995, they are considered to be the original online dating company. Just like their big rivals, Dating Direct, Match claim to have the largest UK membership base.

The user-friendliness and ease at which you can navigate throughout the website is exemplary right from the very start and they offer a comprehensive yet not overwhelming set of features. Getting your profile created does take a bit of time though, so you need to be patient and prepared to put effort into getting up and running.

The list of compatible matches generated is very rich, and there are plenty of tools to use to compare yourself to potential matches.

For a top of the range service prices are also pretty acceptable and what you would expect with a large market player.

Everything about Match is good and so we would certainly recommend giving the site a go.

Who is it for?

Profile creation

How long to fill out a profile? Approximately: 1 hour

Getting started is very simple. Once you've registered with your email address and password you immediately dive into building your profile. It's definitely worth taking your time over this section and it should take you just short of 1 hour to complete the 3 main sections, which are:

• Me
• My Match
• In my Own Words

The first section is called 'Me' and as the name suggests, you are required to fill out your 'basic details', 'interests' and 'lifestyle' information. Like any other site you need to provide basic details, such as your features and appearance, before detailing your interests and typical lifestyle attributes. Some of these are drop-down menu or checklist style questions whereby you select the answer, with others being open-ended. For example, in the 'Interests' section you have the option to answer the following questions in 250 characters or less:

• what do you do for fun
• favourtie local hot spots or travel destinations
• favourite things
• favourtie book

The process is very easy, and if you don't like answering the questions that require you to write something, most of them are optional. If you do however answer all of the open-ended questions then the 'me' section should take around 30 minutes.

Next is the 'My Match' section where you start to detail what type of person you'd like to meet. The list of things is very comprehensive and it feels as if you're not leaving a stone unturned in what you want in your match. Everything from appearance and lifestyle interests to background and education is covered as well as a list of things that turn you on and off. The great feature here is that you can rank each attribute/quality you want in your match as either 'not very important', 'somewhat' or 'absolutely' which will help the system to recommend the most compatible matches for you. This bit should probably take around 15 minutes.

Next is the most daunting of sections, 'In my own words'. This is the part where you need to write your dating headline as well as your profile description, and you can't skip this section either. Your profile description is recommended to be around 600-700 words long and requires you to 'Describe yourself and your perfect match to our community'. However, Match have a great little advice window should you choose to click on it. This is a very concise, plain English guide, giving you some good tips as well as do's and don'ts on writing a profile description and headline. This takes the pain out of it somewhat. Once you send this for approval, match say it will take 24-72 hours for the text you write to be approved and shown on your profile. However, in our tests, ours was approved in just 20 minutes. If profile creation becomes too much of a chore see our partner site, www.PerfectDatingProfile.com to find out about hiring a professional writer to do the job on your behalf.

Features

Once you have gone through the initial profile creation, Match present you with the option of also completing their Personality Test. This is very comprehensive and asks you a whole variety of psychometric style questions. The test allows you to learn a little more about yourself and who you may want to look for, and yields better search results. It should take around 15 minutes to complete.

Searching

Searching for dates is one of the major benefits of using Match. They offer 6 different ways to search.

You can search Profile Matches which uses the data you provided in your inital profile creation in 2 ways. You can either search for 'mutual matches' where it returns matches that share a lot of common ground with you. Or, you can search 'reverse matches' whereby your profile information is what someone is looking for in their perfect match.

Moreover, there is the quick search function which not only allows you to simply search matches by age range and location, but you can go to advanced options and put in almost any search criteria you could ever think of.

Finally, you can search by username, keywords or matchwords. The latter 2 are good for narrowing down matches that have specific qualities or interests. For example, if you want someone who is loud and plays badminton, you can put in the keywords 'tennis' and 'loud' and see who comes up.

The search function on Match is right up there with the best of them.

Viewing Profiles

Again, like everything else on Match, this element is very comprehensive.

When you click on someone’s profile you can see the same information that you had to complete during your initial profile creation, so there’s everything from their appearance, interests and lifestyle to what they want in their ideal match.

If both of you have completed the Personality Test, Match include a very useful table which compares your major personality types in a coloured pie-chart, coupled with a brief explanation from Match’s dating expert Dr Helen Fisher about how the 2 personalities are likely to get on with each other or conflict. So, there’s an element of science in there too.

Another good feature is the comparison table. This shows up in the profile you are looking through, and has the list of interests and lifestyle choices you would have both had to answer during the profile creation stage. It compares how many areas you are compatible on, so the more green dots, the more compatible you are. A good visual aid to see where you are and where you are not compatible.

Contacting members

If you find someone you’re interested in, you can click on the email tab to get in touch with them.

Like almost all online dating sites you can also 'wink' at someone to let them know you’re interested.

Email alerts

You get email alerts every time someone messages your profile and Match’s 'daily insight' email will give you a list of people compatible with you based on your profile details and also your personality test data.

There is also the option of mobile phone text alerts. These cost 10p and are charged by your network provider (12p for Vodafone).

Value for money

Despite being the world's largest online dating site, Match are not the most expensive, although they are near the higher end of the cost bracket. But, you get what you pay for. The longest subscription is 6 months and that is £65.94 which isn’t bad at all. This comes with the protection of an additional 6 months for free if you haven’t found love after the first 6 months.

For the features you get from Match, the ease of use, and the extremely large membership pool, they are certainly good value for money. However, Dating Direct are very similar, and Match are more expensive than them in their 3 month and 6 month packages.

Best bits

There are a lot. Mainly the design and user navigation which makes the whole process very easy. The comprehensiveness of profile information and number of members is also a key benefit.

Worst bits

You can’t post a video profile unfortunately which is a popular feature to be omitted as it adds character to your profile in the most powerful way, as well as being a security feature (you can actually see and hear the person and cross-match these details with what is written in their profile).

Also, sometimes the banner ads can become a bit irritating.

Pricing

1 month: £29.99
3 month: £59.99
6 month: £77.94