Match.com Review (2020): Is it Worth The Money?

Earlier this year I was a single guy looking for love.

And I was getting nowhere. Tinder and Bumble were definitely not working for me. Given my two left feet, the dance floor wasn’t either.

So, I decided to give ‘real’ online dating a try (the type where you strike up proper conversations). I tested out a few platforms, but Match.com was the one I eventually signed up to.

Within a month of being on Match, I found my girlfriend. It sounds cliché, but I couldn’t been happier.

Knowing there are a lot of people out there who are in a similar spot to what I was, I figured I’d write an unbiased review of Match.com based on my own personal experience of using it.

This Match.com review will tell you absolutely everything you need to know about using their website and app. No fluff. No hyperbole. Just the essential information you need to decide whether Match.com is right for you.

Let’s get started.

About Match.com

Match.com launched its website in 1995, making it one of the oldest online dating platforms around. They’ve now been in business for nearly 25 years, and some things have changed since they first opened their doors.

They’ve grown to 24 countries, meaning that you could find love all around the world if you wanted. And while that wasn’t a huge determining factor for me, their size was.

Match.com has 9 million users. Surely out of 9 million people I could find someone that I would match with.

When dating sites have fewer people, there’s a smaller chance of meeting someone. I decided on Match because of the sheer number of people on there.

And it worked.

Rise of online dating

According to the New York Times, online dating is the number one way people meet these days. On average, we pick up our phone 58 times a day. Whether it’s to text, answer a call, or browse social media, we’re all on our phones.

So, it’s no surprise that online dating sites are using that to their advantage. All of these online dating sites, including Match.com, have apps that you can use. Honestly, it makes it pretty easy.

You may think you’re going to meet someone while sitting down at a bar or going out for work, but the chances of that are relatively slim.

It makes much more sense to use your phone (that thing you’re spending more than 23 full days on a year) to find someone that you are compatible with.

I’ll be the first to admit that I was nervous. There used to be a stigma that surrounded online dating, but now, it’s no longer there. Even if people do think it’s strange, they’ll probably get off of their high horse once they’re single again.

Online dating is the future.

It’s practical, easy, and it weeds out everyone you’re not compatible with.

Maybe you have certain interests that you’re not willing to give up. Well, list them on your profile and find profiles that have similar interests.

It makes finding someone you’re compatible with quicker, without all the hassle and heartbreak.

Why paid online dating is worth it

There are so many different dating apps. And many of them are completely free. Like Tinder, which has millions of users as well.

But, Tinder has a few downsides. Though some people meet on there and end up with their happily ever afters, there are far more people looking to hook up.

Here’s the thing: You get what you pay for.

If someone isn’t willing to pay for a dating site, how invested are they really? Anyone can make a profile on Tinder. It’s easy, which is exactly why that’s where I started.

But then I realized…

It wasn’t getting me anywhere. I needed people who were invested as I was, which is why I chose paid online dating.

Here’s why I think paid online dating is worth it:

• If you’re willing to pay, you’re more invested
• You’re more willing to take each date seriously
• When you find someone, you’re quicker to stop paying for the dating service and get off of it
• There are more advanced features, like showing compatibility
• It’s easier to find people who are serious
• You won’t have to pay for it too long
• You can always stop paying for it if you don’t like it

Paid online dating vs free online dating

According to Consumer Reports, paid online dating really is better. 48% of people voted Match as the number one dating website.

However, that changed when it got to second place. In second was Plenty of Fish and eHarmony for a tie. Plenty of Fish is a free service and eHarmony is a paid service.

That being said, Plenty of Fish also offers an upgraded version, and many people are paying for that as well.

How much does Match.com cost?

Match.com costs $59.95 for a one month subscription. However, they price on a tier. The longer the subscription, the cheaper the price. With a six month subscription, you’ll pay $39.95. A 12 month subscription will be just $18.95 a month. And a 24 month subscription is a mere $9.95 a month.

However, there are also paid features and “power-ups” where you can purchase each thing individually—like a message reply or a boost.

Does Match.com offer a free trial period?

Yes, Match does offer a free trial period. Match’s free trial is seven days

You can also use a free account option, but you will be limited in what you can do with that. .

How Match.com works

Match.com is a paid service, so you will have to pay $50 when you sign up. However, they do offer free trials so that you can see who is around you and check out a few different profiles.

Once you view a few different profiles, Match will limit you. As long as you’d like, your profile can stay active and you won’t have to pay. But you won’t be able to see profiles or look at more than one picture.

The free trial option is mostly just to see who is in the area and whether or not you’d be interested or if it’s worth the money.

After you’ve decided to sign up, then you need to set up your profile.

Setting up a profile

The one thing about Match is that it’s much more in depth than other dating websites. So, you’ll have to spend a little bit of time on it.

The first thing you’ll do is sign up with your email, set your password, and follow the other prompts on the screen.

This is the easy and quick part.

Qualities and characteristics

Once you’ve followed the on screen prompts, then you’re led to an area where you’ll fill out your qualities and characteristics. It’s going to need a lot of information about you.

For me, this was a little overwhelming. But it was also exciting. I knew that all of this information would lead me to potential matches.

It asks you:

• Gender and the gender of future matches you want
• Zip code/postal code
• Email for the account
• Password to login
• Birthday for your age
• Username to show others
• Height
• Body type (slender, average, athletic/toned, or heavyset)
• Ethnicity
• Religion
• Salary
• Relationship status (never married, currently separated, divorced, or widow/widower)
• Do you have any kids? (no, yes: away from home, yes: sometimes live at home, or yes: live at home)
• Do you want kids? (no, definitely, or someday)
• Education level (high school, some college, associate’s, bachelor’s, graduate, or PhD/post-doctoral)
• Do you smoke? (no, occasionally, daily, or trying to quit)
• How often do you drink? (never, socially, moderately, or regularly)

My biggest piece of advice with these questions is to be completely honest. You’re trying to find someone you’d be compatible with—not someone you have to hide your life from.

Some of the questions, like whether or not you want kids, can be a bit overwhelming. But, don’t stress out about it all.

You can always change your answers later in your account.

Filling out your interests

Match is then going to ask you for your top five interests. There are more interests that you can add to other areas of your profile later on, but these are supposed to be your main ones.

Truthfully, they’re a bit random. Some of them include:

• Alumni connections
• Business networking
• Hobbies and crafts
• Movies/videos
• Political interests
• Religion/spiritual
• Museums and art
• Book club
• Camping
• Music/concerts
• Shopping/antiques
• Travel/sightseeing
• Coffee and conversation
• Exploring new areas
• Cooking
• Nightclubs/dancing
• Video games
• Dining out
• Volunteering
• Fishing/hunting
• Performing arts
• Watching sports
• Wine tasting
• Playing sports
• Playing cards
• Gardening/landscaping

One thing I thought was really cool during this process is that as you fill out your profile, Match shows potential matches at the bottom. So, there are already people you can match with!

What’s most important to you

Now, remember those questions you answered about yourself above? Well, now you get to answer them again, but for someone else.

Basically, Match is going to ask what your deal breakers are. So maybe you don’t want to be with someone who wants kids. You would put that and it would eliminate all the matches that want kids.

Maybe you don’t want someone above a certain height or weight. Whatever it is, put in your preferences and deal breakers.

Just remember, don’t be too picky. There are amazing people you may never meet if you put too many things down.

Essay Questions

Ever fill out a college application? Well, Match is about to ask you some similar essay questions. It’s time to tell the world about yourself.

In your own words, you’ll put down the things that everyone should know about you. Use this section to talk about your interests and desires, what you enjoy, and anything else that’s important.

Get started

Once you’ve filled out all of the information, you can look at your potential matches and view other profiles. Start talking to those who interest you and go from there!

Search tips

• Look at the distance between you and the potential match
• Find those with many common interests
• Don’t go based solely on looks
• Read their profiles and really get a feel of what they’re like
• Expand your search beyond a few miles

Daily matches

Every day, Match sends you your daily recommendations. It’s a little bit like Tinder. You swipe on them and decide whether you want to talk to them. If you hit ignore, it’s no big deal. It just goes to the next match.

But if you click yes, it tells that user you’re interested in them. This isn’t always the best approach to getting to know someone, and truthfully, the daily matches never seem to be the most compatible.

Definitely look at them closer and don’t get caught up in the ease of swiping right.

The most important part: The profile

In online dating, your profile is everything. You can’t just expect to upload a photo, type three words, and get matches.

It won’t work.

People want to get to know you. Because online dating is so different than meeting someone in person, a profile helps people find out whether you’re legit or not.

Definitely do not make your profile a joke. You’ll attract the wrong people, and when you’re paying for this, that’s the last thing you need.

What should I put on my Match.com profile?

When filling out your Match profile, you want to sound like yourself. But, you also want to stand out and impress people.

On Match, each person is viewing potentially hundreds of profiles. They can get monotonous and boring. So, you need to stand out from the crowd and make someone notice you.

How do you do that?

Be real

First, be yourself. You know how frustrating it is to expect one thing and get another. It seems like all advertising today is like this.

Dating shouldn’t be.

Be yourself and be real. Don’t exaggerate your characteristics. Think of what other people would say about you. Who are you?

Be fun

The short description about yourself is one of the top things people see. And when you’re viewing a lot of profiles, it’s a big deal.

The ones that stood out to me the most were fun. They weren’t a joke, but they showcased some of their personality and were short and sweet.

Don’t make your description extremely long, but don’t make it three words either. Write just enough about you in a fun way that people want to find out more.

A photo

If you don’t have a profile picture, no one is going to view your profile. It legitimatizes the whole process, and it’s a must if you want to have potential matches.

When choosing your profile picture, find one that shows you alone. If your picture is with anyone else, matches are going to wonder who you are.

The last thing you want is for a match to like the other person in the photo with you and accidentally match based on that.

Make sure the picture is clear, simple, and shows a bit of personality. A headshot is pretty cut-and-dry, and this isn’t a resume.

More about you

Write in the essay questions, fill out all of the questions, and upload as many photos as you can. Think of your potential matches.

You’re going to hope that they did the work of uploading photos and filling out the questions. Which means you need to as well.

Less “I”

Here’s one of the tricks to creating a great profile: Talk about yourself, but lose the “I.” Think of it like this…

“I am a cool person. I like to hang out with friends. I laugh a lot. I like to travel. I also consider myself a foodie.”

Boring, right?

How much better does this sound:

“In my spare time, hanging out with friends, laughing, traveling, and finding good food is what excites me.” 

It doesn’t have to be a long, drawn out thing. Two or three sentences is all it takes, and when you take all the “I” away, it sounds a lot better.

But not everything about you

You don’t want to tell everything about yourself on your profile. While you do need enough to let the other matches know a bit about you—don’t put your whole life story on there.

Be flirty and coy, but genuine and not long-winded.

What not to put on a Match.com profile

While there are a lot of things to put on your profile, there’s also a lot of things you shouldn’t put on there. It’s these red flags that turn people away from your profile and make you seem less than genuine.

You don’t want to turn off a potential suitor because your profile is full of red flags. Take note of these tips for creating a good Match profile.

Don’t call out your exes

Believe it or not, your online dating profile is not the best place to error your grievances.

Surprised?

You shouldn’t be. If you’re saying things about your ex on your profile, that’s a major red flag. Even something like, “I was married for X years and never thought I’d be divorced. Look at me now,” is a turnoff.

Just don’t do it. It doesn’t matter who your ex was, what they did, or why they did what they did. If you’re still talking about them on your profile, you’re not ready for a relationship.

Don’t be too romantic

There’s nothing wrong with being a storyteller, but if you’re talking about “finding your king” or “courting your princess,” it’s a little over the top.

It can make people think you’re dishonest, seeking a lover, or a number of other things. While romance isn’t a bad thing, too much of it can be overwhelming for people.

If you’re a romantic at heart, keep it light and fun. They don’t know you yet, so you don’t want to scare them off.

Keep your shirt on

Match gave some advice on what not to put on your profile, and one thing was a photo of your abs. Women don’t usually want to see that upfront because it makes the man look extremely vain.

Even if you have a six pack that rivals the body builders that you know, keep it for the people who see you in person.

Don’t put personal information

Because strangers are reading your profile, make sure you’re not listing personal information. You don’t want to put where you live, work, or personal contact information.

Anyone could find this, and it can only lead to trouble. Keep yourself protected and save that information for people you have met in person.

Don’t put money desires on there

There are plenty of sites out there to connect singles looking for money with men and women who will give it to them.

Match isn’t one of them.

When filling out your profile, don’t say that you’ll only date someone who makes a certain amount of money. Not only does it make you look vain, but it could lead to people lying about their income just to impress you.

Don’t lie

The thing that has given online dating a bad reputation is that people have lied. From catfishing to small white lies, it’s not going to lead you where you want to go.

Anyone who lies on their profile is not going to find a true partner. Though you may be tempted to stretch the truth (you’re only six months out from that big promotion and salary increase), it’s really not worth it.

You want to find someone that likes you for you, not for the fake lies you’re putting on your profile.

Dating by demographics on Match.com

Imagine that you walk into a bar—there are all kinds of people. So, once you narrow it by gender and other preferences, you’re not left with many options.

But with online dating, this is different because you filter out those you’re not interested in to start with.

Match makes it incredibly easy to date by demographics. When you fill out your profile, you get to choose what it is you do and don’t like. They use that information to curate what you want.

Gender/Sexual orientation

The first question that Match is going to ask you is whether you’re interested in men or women. If you’re a man looking for a woman, they will filter the results for other women who are also looking for men.

The same thing applies if you’re a woman looking for a man, a man looking for a man, or a woman looking for a woman.

And if you’re looking for both men and women, it will show you those results!

Whatever your sexual orientation, Match will filter for it so you aren’t wasting your time trying to contact people who aren’t interested.

Age

Are you looking for older men and women? Younger men and women?

In online dating, you don’t have to put your age-goggles on. The birthdate filter is going to do it for you.

I put exactly what age range I was looking for, and Match filtered my results to show that. This is great for those who are only interested in a certain number of years from their age.

Religion

Are you a religious person? Or, on the opposite end, are you an atheist?

Maybe you want to date people with similar views to your own. Considering difference in religion is a top reason for breakups and divorce, this is important.

You’re not going to sit down at a bar and say, “Hey, before we talk, what religion are you?” You could get pretty deep into wooing someone before this is talked about.

Online dating on Match makes this convenient because you can know from the start what their religion is.

More filters

No matter what you want the filter to be, Match does it.

Whether you’re filtering by race, number of kids, political views, or more, Match has an option that makes it easy to find who you’d be most compatible with.

The pros of Match.com

For me, I found that there was a lot on Match that I liked. Some of the pros of Match.com are:

• Millions of members around the world
• Lots of people nearby that you can meet
• Easy to use and understand (after the initial learning curve).
• Comprehensive features
• Mobile app and website makes it easy to access
• It works—I found my girlfriend on there and have read many success stories

The cons of Match.com

There are also a few things I didn’t like very much about Match:

• It’s really hard to delete your account
• They can advertise your photo for as long as they want to (they own the profile even after your subscription ends)
• Blocking people isn’t as easy as it seems
• You continue to get emails
• Customer service isn’t always responsive

Match.com vs other dating sites

Match isn’t the only online dating site I’ve tried. Before then, I tried quite a few of them (many of them free).

So, what is it that made Match better? How does the competition hold up when compared?

Match vs Tinder

I talked about this a bit in the beginning, but Match and Tinder isn’t a fair comparison. Tinder is free, most people are on there to hook up, and it links to your social media.

Tinder has gotten a lot of popularity in the media, and it’s definitely known as a hook up app. While there are people who meet on Tinder, it’s mostly for younger people (like college-aged) and most people aren’t looking for a serious relationship.

Match vs eHarmony

eHarmony is more expensive than Match.

Though both of them are paid services, eHarmony is more like a match-making service. It’s a much more in depth process to get you to find a date.

They are the ones who match you up, which is interesting. There is an algorithm they use, and you also get to see the data behind it. However, I’m a firm believer that love isn’t completely scientific, and so it can’t be solved with an algorithm.

Match.com gives you much more freedom to choose your potential matches. You can browse more people and talk to them. eHarmony is more private.

Match vs OKCupid

OKCupid is another paid online dating site that’s really popular. With over 10 million users, there are a lot of people to choose from. In fact, these are both really similar platforms.

The only true difference between these two services is that Match is available in more countries and languages than OKCupid is.

This is a really big deal as a dating platform has to have as many members as possible for you to cast a wide net.

Match vs Zoosk

Zoosk can give Match a run for its money. With over 38 million users, it’s one of the largest dating sites. Most people enjoy Zoosk because it’s easier to understand than Match. There are fewer features, so less to learn.

But, Zoosk is also known for being more of a hook up app as well. Because it’s been around for so long, Zoosk caters to all. That means a lot of people are on there solely to find someone to hook up with.

Match has multiple sites

One thing to consider is that Match.com is owned by Match Group. Match Group owns Match.com, Tinder, Hinge, OKCupid, and Plenty of Fish. So, a lot of these are going to be fairly similar.

My verdict: Is Match.com worth it?

I’ve tried a lot of dating sites, and in my opinion, Match.com is worth the money.

Though it does suck having to pay for online dating, I realized that it made it a lot easier to find someone who was invested.

Had I not joined Match, I wouldn’t have found my current girlfriend. It’s been a great experience. There are a lot of success stories like mine, and I think that online dating just makes finding someone a lot easier.

What can I say? It’s convenient! We all love to be on our phones and while you’re binging Netflix, you can be browsing single people.

Instead of spending my money at the bars hoping to find someone new, I spent it on a subscription to Match—and it paid off. If you want to try online dating, it doesn’t all have to be about hooking up. There are real people wanting serious relationships.

I’m proof that online dating on Match.com can definitely be worth it.