Finding the best International online dating site isn’t easy. I mean, there are hundreds – if not thousands – of options, and not every service offers quality. You may have come across Dating.com and wondered what the site is all about.
It looks pretty legit and everything, but honestly though, is Dating.com where you should sign up and spend time to look for the love of your life?
Spoiler Alert! Dating.com isn’t where you should be at. The service costs you an arm, a leg, and a hip joint, and there’s a bunch of other online dating red flags.
Stay here and read on if you want the full nitty-gritty Dating.com review.
Why Trust Doves-of-Love
- Faithfully reviewed over 1000 International online dating and matchmaking services.
- Experienced & dedicated team of dating bloggers and writers.
- Author of dating ebooks, including ‘International Dating Digest For Men: Finding Love Overseas’.
- Contributed in many publications including Notsalmon.com, Marriage.com, or Medium.com.
Dating.com Review: The Introduction
Dating.com was created in 1993. The platform is operated by Malta-based SOL Networks Limited, which is an internet company with fingers in many pies.
The company also managed several niche dating services: AnastasiaDate, DateMyAge, Tubit, ChinaLove, Promise, DilMil, ArabianDate.com, AfricanDate.com and more.
Psst …
There’s no information about the company on the Dating.com website; just the name and address at the very bottom of the About Us page.
Their aim is to be “at the forefront of the online dating world” by offering tons of international connections.
Just more than 32 countries have access to Dating.com. The company states that dating is a chance you take (but should you take a chance on Dating.com?).
The Signup Process at Dating.com
The signup process at Dating.com is quite easy. The form to start the process is front and center (so to speak) on the dating platform’s homepage.
Under “Your World. Your Love.” you enter your gender (male or female options only), what gender you are seeking (again, only male and female options), and what ages you’d like your love interest to be (18 to 80+).
Next, click on the red box that states “Take a Chance.” Alternatively, you can also sign in using your Google account.
Once you’ve filled in the box on the homepage, you need to fill out the “About You” part. Some of the info requested here is your name, nickname, date of birth, and location.
The next section isn’t mandatory, but if you want your dating profile to stand out, it’s best to have it be as complete as possible. This also helps you attract the right type of love interests you are looking for.
These non-compulsory sections include information about your interests, your profile photo, and anything else you’d like to share that makes you you.
Anything else? Nope. You don’t even need to worry about verifying your email address, whether you sign with your Google account or your (other) email address.
Services Offered at Dating.com
Dating.com offers various standard services:
- Dating profile creation
- Search and browse
- Like a profile
- Send winks
- Post photos
- View profile photos of other members
- See who has viewed your profile photos
- Send and receive messages (chat or email)
- Video chat
- Let’s Mingle: send multiple introductory messages simultaneously to potential love interests
- “Today I Am…” mood
- Send stickers, smileys, and offline messages
- Mobile app on the Google Play and App Stores
- Send gifts
Can I Try Dating.com for Free?
You can use Dating.com for free.
Essentially, the basic features are free:
- Signing up
- Creating your profile
- Searching for love interests
- Sending winks
- Add profiles to a Favorite list
- Posting photos on your profile
Dating.com Costs
Dating.com doesn’t have traditional membership plans where you pay a fee a month. Instead, the dating platform makes you buy credits so you can communicate with your love interest and make use of other services.
There’s an introductory offer for US$19.99. You get about 150 credits because the site lists that the offer works out to US$0.13 per credit.
Following the intro offer, Dating.com has 3 credit bundles you can choose from:
- 150 credits per month for US$49.99 (works out to US$0.33 per credit)
- 600 credits per month for US$149.99 (works out to US$0.25 per credit)
- 1,500 credits per month for US$299.99 (works out to US$0.20 per credit)
The bundle you choose auto-renews every month – on the day you subscribed. Kindly note that the credits you don’t use this month don’t get carried over to the next month.
So if you have 600 credits for this month and you only used 300 credits, you lose the 300 remaining and you’ll get a “new” 600 credits for the following month.
You can upgrade to a bigger bundle or downgrade to a smaller one; however, you need to get in touch with the service and “they will do their best to help you.”
Doesn’t inspire confidence, right?
The Dating.com mobile apps have different credit bundles and costs.
On the Google Play Store:
- 150 credits per month costs you US$29.99 for the first month and then US$69.99 per month thereafter
- 400 credits per month costs US$142.99
- 950 credits per month costs US$269.99
On the App Store:
- Pay US$9.99 for a Premium subscription (and chatting with regular members doesn’t cost extra)
- Pay US$24.99 for a Silver subscription
- Credit Pack 10: US$10.99
- Credit Pack 20: US$22.99
- Credit Pack 40: US$37.99
- Credit Pack 50: US$49.99
- Credit Pack 80: US$69.99
- Credit Pack 150: US$99.99
Yeah, I’m confused too. So many payment options.
Like WHAT?!
But what do the services on Dating.com cost?
- Let’s Mingle: 5 credits per minute
- Online chat: 1 credit per minute
- 2-way video chat: 6 credits per minute
- Offline chat (limited to 160 characters per message): 1 credit per message
- Send an email (limited to 4,000 characters): 10 credits per mail
- Read an email: 10 credits per mail
- Gift delivery fee: 49 credits (price of the gift depends on what you choose, so that’s extra)
- View a video on someone’s profile: 10 credits per video
- Send a photo via chat or mail: 15 credits per photo
- View a photo via chat or email: 15 credits per photo
- Send a smile: 1 credit per smile
- Send a sticker: 5 credits per sticker
- Send an audio file: 10 credits per file
Yip, my eyes are bulging out of their sockets too.
Dating.com is THAT kind of dating service, the one that charges you for everything. Just wondering when they’ll start charging you when you sneeze too…
Is Dating.com Easy to Use?
Dating.com is easy to use, whether you use their desktop version or the mobile app.
Once you’ve signed up and created your profile, you need to find a potential love interest. Find the “Search” button, which is located at the top of the website, and enter your search parameters.
Dating.com lets you know which members are online, so if you are looking to chat, hopefully one of these singles will reply to your message when you reach out.
Beyond the dating service, there isn’t a blog or relationship advice section. At most, the platform has a one-pager on dating safely. There’s also no company information available unless you Google the operator name you can see on the About Us page.
Review of the Profiles at Dating.com
There are real and fake profiles on Dating.com. Some of the ladies look real, some look real but they stole profile photos from elsewhere on the internet, and some reek of fakeness.
When you open a profile, there’s quite a lot of information – provided the person has completely filled in their profile.
You’ll see:
- A cover photo
- A profile photo
- A summary of the person, and you can click “continue reading” to learn more
- The person’s interests
- About Me information - location, profession, education, languages, relationship status, whether they have kids and drink, their height, and their hair color
- What kind of person they are looking for
From a completed profile, you learn a lot about someone – if you know what to look for. Remember, what a person doesn’t say is often more important than what they do say.
User Experience on Trustpilot.com and Sitejabber.com
Users of Dating.com have taken to Trustpilot and Sitejabber to share their experiences.
On Sitejabber, the dating platform has 956 reviews and a 3.58 star rating. There were 37.6% positive reviews in the past year.
476 members rated Dating.com with 5 stars and 341 gave it 1 star.
The picture on Trustpilot looks similar. Dating.com has 1,856 reviews and a 3.9 star rating. 66% of members rated the service as excellent, while 28% rated it as bad.
Most of the negative reviews on Trustpilot and Sitejabber recount:
- How the profiles are fake
- How you get tons of messages the minute you’ve signed up
- How expensive the service is
- How there was no response from customer services
- How the company falsely advertise you don’t pay for communication when you are a Premium member
Dating.com Contact Options
There are two contact options:
- Call the customer support number (listed at the end of the About Us page)
- Email the customer support team - but it ain’t easy finding their email address
- Trusted dating service since 2008
- Manually checked profiles
- No subscription, no obligations
Our Dating.com Verdict: Not to Be Recommended
The final Dating.com verdict?
Not to be recommended. Here are our reasons for this negative Dating.com negative verdict:
- Dating.com doesn’t offer any company information.
- There are many poor customer reviews on sites like Trustpilot and Sitejabber.
- You can’t even find the customer support email address or phone number easily.
- There are various complaints about the customer service support.
- There are many fake profiles (even though you can report these).
- No email verification or member verification to ensure Dating.com users are real.
- Exorbitant costs to use the dating platform’s services.
Check out my detailed guide on how to choose the best online dating site for you!
Alternatives to Dating.com
I bet you are still looking for love, right? And now that you know Dating.com isn’t a good service to sign up for, check out these – safer and better – alternatives:
Loveme.com (A Foreign Affair)
You may know Loveme.com as A Foreign Affair. The matchmaking service has been around for almost 3 decades with 32,000 members.
- Singles or romance tours
- Access all videos at no extra cost
- Phone translation service
To access Platinum services, you’ll need to pay a once-off US$95.00 and then your monthly subscription costs US$29.95. Read also: Loveme.com Cost: Pricing Options in 2023
Depending on the services you use, you need to pay for them via a credit system (1 credit = US$1.00), but a Platinum member unlocks a discount.
There’s also an Executive Plan, which is a personalized matchmaking service ideal for professionals or those looking for a personal consultant to find you love.
- Commitment to excellence
- Reputable and award-winning dating and matchmaking service
- Adheres to IMBRA regulations
- Easily to find info about the company and whom to contact
BeHappy2Day
Established in 2004, BeHappy2Day has been around for nearly 2 decades. The service has about 250,000 members.
- Filter profiles according to nationality
- Phone introduction service
- Gift delivery
BeHappy2Day works on credits; there’s no membership fee.
You need to buy credits in bundles and then use the credits to pay for services:
- 20 credits: US$2.96
- 80 credits: US$52.00
- 320 credits: US$171.00
- 500 credits: US$236.00
- 1,000 credits: US$379.00
The cost of some services:
- 2-way video chat - 5 credits per minute
- Send or read a letter - 10 credits
- Send a virtual gift - 15 credits
- Easy to find About Us and Contact Us information
- Has an anti-scam policy
- Adheres to EU data rights and is GDPR compliant
- Helpful FAQ page
eHarmony.com
Created in 2000, eHarmony is one of the top online dating sites. A US-based company operates the service that has 29 million members (Read also: eHarmony for International Dating: How Does it Work?).
- VideoDate to meet your true love via video
- “What If” gives you 30 additional matches
- Detailed personality quiz so you can get high compatibility love matches
eHarmony.com has 3 subscription option on offer:
- US$395.40 for 6 months on the Platinum Light (US$65.90/month)
- US$590.80 for 12 months on the Platinum Plus (US$45.90/month)
- US$861.60 for 24 months on the Platinum Extra (US$35.90/month)
- RelyID helps verify members
- Reputable service
- Affordable
- Most members are educated
- Can block people
Wanna find out how to meet an amazing foreign woman and have experience in International dating, but you have no idea how to start it. Keep calm, we are right here to help! ☝️ Ask Krystyna
