Plenty of Fish vs Match.com

Table of Contents

Homepage - Plenty of Fish
4.7/5
Homepage - Match
4.9/5

There is no denying dating can be tough, especially for those who weren’t fortunate to meet and marry their high school crush, way back when. So, you’ve attended every university party, dressed in everything from eighties Rockstar’s to the lion from Wizard of Oz, you’ve haunted every pub within 60-yard radius of your house.

And have even joined your local pottery club in the hopes of meeting a romantic partner, to mimic the famous Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze Ghost scene with, to absolutely no avail. This is where the ever-evolving online match making applications and websites come in, enhancing your chances of meeting someone special and alleviating those dating woes.

With a surplus of dating websites and applications available, each offering a differentiating approach to dating and targeting various demographics, from millennials to the older generation, identifying which dating application is best suited to your specific needs can be overwhelming.

Two of the top contenders on the market are Plenty of Fish and Match. When it narrows down to which one is better for you, it really depends on what your personal preferences are. This article aims to compare and contrast the various components of these platforms to aid in your selection process, ensuring your needs and wants are adhered to.

Plenty of Fish vs Match.com

Key Features of Both

Homepage - Plenty of Fish

Plenty of Fish and Match are both equipped with many key features to cater to their targeted demographic to ensure searching for a suitable match is more tangible for its users.

Plenty of Fish provides a range of options to narrow down your dating scope. Unlike other online dating apps, Plenty of Fish allows its users to specifically select what they are after in a match, whether it’s a friendship or a long-term partner, this option narrows down the dating pool for each person, to avoid any time-wasting and unnecessary filings.

In addition, the site provides a relationship chemistry predictor, which enables you to search for the education level you require, ethnicity, location, and the ideal age of your partner to ensure you are compatible in more ways than general aesthetics.

Plenty of Fish aims to get people talking as quickly as possible, enabling users to chat to each other without a subscription or a match. If that isn’t enough, users can also categorize results from those last online to their newest users.

This is brilliant if you are dying to talk to someone and want to get in quickly before either of your inboxes gets filled up with messages. Using the last online option saves energy talking to people who haven’t been active in a while, like waiting for rain in a drought.

Homepage - Match

Match is a paid site it really does pull out all the stops to keep its users happy. One of the standout features of Match is that the site sends personalized matches to your inbox, on a daily basis.

You can expect around 10 matches every day, sending you well on your way to true love town. It also features not one, but seven games that are designed to gauge how compatible users really are and also boost interaction between users.

If that doesn’t sell, Match hosts live events so that its users can find their happily ever after in real life rather than behind the screen of your phone or computer.

Comparison of the Sign-up Process

Account Information Plenty of Fish

When it comes to signing up to either site, both claim to be a really simple, quick process, but each has its quirks.

Plenty of Fish and Match both require its users to provide a valid email address, in addition to other personal details, before you can commence with creating an account, so if you aren’t comfortable with providing such information it’s probably best to look at a different dating site option.

Match also provides users the additional option of signing up through Facebook which can speed up the sign-up process as Facebook generously pre-fills some of your personal details for you. So, if you are starved of time it’s very handy.

Match.com sign up page Looking for

Once you have filled in personal details, Plenty of Fish asks its users to create an appropriate username and a password, followed by an onslaught of questions to gauge your dating preferences, but once you have completed this task you are registered and can get matching and messaging, all in all it takes around 15 minutes.

Match is targeted towards those who are searching for a long-term relationship therefore its sign-up process is much more of an arduous task. You need to be prepared to spend at least an hour sitting behind the computer screen because that’s how long the registration takes to complete.

The registration includes a long questionnaire to complete and though the answers are used to find you the most compatible match, it can be a bit draining to endure and if your patience was getting thin at this stage, waiting 72 hours for your application to be manually verified will be enough to send you mad.

Though there is the option of creating a trial account on Match, to give you a taste of what is available on the site, matches and messages are explicit to those who subscribe.

This means you have to pay money to register. The fact you need to pay demonstrates how serious you are about your quest for love, but then it can also be a slight deterrent for those on a budget who are eager to meet an ideal partner.

While you may find that the quality of the matches you find on Match are more compatible, those who are starved of time might find the fast registration at Plenty of Fish registration more suited to their needs.

User Base

Happy CoupleIf the user base of Plenty of Fish vs Match was a competition you would think that because plenty of fish is free it may be way more popular than a dating site that you have to pay money for, but you would be shocked to realize that this isn’t so. Though Plenty of Fish gains 3.5 million visitors per month and has many more members than Match, many of the members are not active on the site.

Match has gained a following of 35 million visits per month, though similar numerically, a big difference in placement of the decimal point.

Match is popular, not only because it is the OG (original gangster) of the online dating world, but because it has many success stories, with many couples claiming to have found their true love whilst using the site, which is exactly what singles are after when using a site.

Additionally, the paid subscription instigates more trust from users because they have signed up to a service and trust they’ll have their needs and wants met, to the best of the site’s abilities. This isn’t to say that Plenty of Fish does not boast success stories, but as the old saying goes, you get what you pay for.

Ease of Using each platform

Match.com phone app

When it comes to the aesthetic appeal of Plenty of Fish and Match, Match certainly makes an impression. Match is designed for your computer screen, is fitted with very up-to-date visuals that are also very sleek and appealing to look at.

Communication Plenty Of Fish

Plenty of Fish unfortunately lucks out in this department with its home screen being a little more outdated and in need of an update. Though the home screen of the Plenty of Fish website is on the older side of the spectrum, it is much easier to explore than Match. This is because Match contains a plethora of features for its users which can be slightly confusing.

Homepage - Plenty of Fish
4.7/5
Homepage - Match
4.9/5

Pricing of each

Prices Plenty Of Fish

Plenty of Fish boasts a free membership in contrast to Match which is a subscription online dating website. Plenty of Fish does, however, also offer a premium membership for its users. The Plenty of Fish free membership allows its users to create their profile, search for other users, and message.

If a user decides to upgrade to the premium membership, there are two options. A user can pay a year in advance at a cost of $5.95 a month or if the user would rather ease into their plan, they have the option of paying every three months at a cost of $9.80 per month.

The benefits of the premium option are that it increases your profile’s visibility to other active members with a designated golden star on your profile.

Match offers a variety of subscription offers to its users. There is the full price plan which values at $35.99 if a user would like access to the site for one month only. The Standard plan on offer is divided into two options.

The standard plan of three months comes at a cost of $19.99 each month and then there is the standard plan paid on 6-month intervals which costs $17.99 per month.

Woman holding moneyThe third payment option for Match users is the Value Plans which equate to $23.99 per month if paid for 3 months and $19.99 per month for 6 months.

This Value plan grants bonus benefits for its users, such as getting a notification when another member reads your email, increasing user interaction and your profile visibility is also increased for other members.

If that’s not enticing, Match also offers an additional 6-month membership if you do not meet someone within 6 months of signing up on the 6-month membership to keep up customer satisfaction and increase chances of finding love. Terms and conditions do apply so it’s important to read the Match agreement.

If you are deciding which of the websites, Match or Plenty of Fish upgrade, to go with, Plenty of Fish is cheaper, but the price difference isn’t hefty if you select the minimum membership period.

Pros and Cons

KissNo dating website is perfect, each contains advantages and disadvantages of signing up to it, but it depends on what it is you are after when it comes to a dating site.

Plenty of Fish is easy to sign up to, taking 15 minutes to create a profile, and though you are bombarded with a heap of questions, it’s not half as time consuming as the process of signing up to Match.

The registration also allows the user to be super selective with what they are after in a partner, inclusive of the type of relationship you want, whether it’s a friendship or marriage. Once you have finished your registration you are able to match and message other users on the platform freely.

The cost of signing up to Plenty of Fish is cheap, with a free membership on offer as well as a Premium Membership for users, both of which are cheaper than Match. Though the cost of signing up is cheaper than Match, the number of inactive users on the site is much higher.

Paying for a subscription for Match lowers spam users and it also illustrates how serious a user is on their quest for love, as people looking for a quick hook up would hardly pay for a subscription.

The additional features on Match outshine Plenty of Fish by miles, again due to being a paid subscription, the site has to pull out the stops in order to attract users and keep the ones it already has satisfied. Plenty of Fish has some work it needs to do in the features department to increase interaction between its users.

Though the cost of signing up to Match increases the quality of the matches that users acquire, it can be a deterrent for those on a budget or for those who aren’t quite sure what they want from a dating site.

The cost of $35.99 might seem a bit too steep to explore for one month, therefore the three-month option is more viable, otherwise choosing a site such as Plenty of Fish, grants free membership.

Bottom Line

Plenty of fish and Match both boast a variety of advantages and disadvantages in the way they function, but it really depends on what the user is after in their dating experience.

If you live somewhere with a small selection of single people and you can’t afford, or do not want to pay for a subscription Plenty of Fish is a great option in that it is free and allows you easy access to others who have similar interests to you and if you don’t require an increase in profile visibility by other users, you don’t need to pay for an upgrade as it’s still a very operational dating site.

If you are up to the task of paying for a subscription on the quest for love, are interested in playing dating games and don’t mind answering a lengthy questionnaire or taking time to navigate the site, if it increases your chances of love compatibility with someone, then Match could be exactly what you are after.

There isn’t a right or wrong when it comes to which dating website you choose you could even sign up to both sites to explore options, or you can scope elsewhere entirely in order for you to come to a conclusion on your own accord. It’s important to find what will work best for you because at the end of the day it’s your love life and no one else’s.

Visit the Perfect DM homepage for more expert information & dating advice.

Homepage - Plenty of Fish
4.7/5
Homepage - Match
4.9/5

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