Articles : [ Dating Guides ]


Free Access: What Dating Sites Will and Won't Give You



By: CupidsReviews Staff

Online dating sites range when it comes to quality and information access. These are web businesses after all, and generally online dating sites aren’t very keen on giving completely free access to their personals. It would be like any other business venture just giving their product away all the time. However, most sites do try to give away some free info access; just how much access depends on the site, but at the very least they want to give a preview of the content that’s available to paying customers. You have to do some looking to find some truly worthwhile dating sites, and hopefully with our reviews at CupidsReviews.com you’ll be able to spot the winners.

Some of the stingier dating portals will give free access to portions of their sites, but key features, such as search capabilities, are disabled for the non-paying public. Yes, you can check out some of the eligible singles on these sites but you can forget about actually contacting most of them without paying for admission first. Some of these paysites can be downright infuriating. By barring access to most of the content, such as additional pictures, last login dates and geographic proximity, you have no idea what you’re actually paying for when you cough up the admission fee. Again, this is all info that’s crucial to deciding whether or not a site’s worth the subscription price.

There are many other sites that have plenty of free features however, which is good for their business and great for the casual Internet surfer. Key free features to look for are access to precise geographic searches, in-depth profile queries and free chat options. Generally the only feature that’s forbidden to the casual user is the contact info, although some superb dating sites allow interaction to take place between casual users and paying members; for these sites, as long as at least one of the parties is footing the bill, there is no problem with limited free access. If you know what to look for when it comes to free access, you can spend your time more wisely when looking for love.

Our reviews are a good barometer of sites of interest. If you see a site that scores a 75 or up, that usually means it offers many of the options listed above for free to casual, nonpaying members. Sites scoring 50 to 75 aren’t bad either, and they may feature some of the free access options that I’ve mentioned, but they probably aren’t as user friendly or as busy as better-scoring sites. As you can probably guess, one should proceed with extreme caution when one is exploring sites that score under 50. These sites are most likely the bigger rip-offs that we’ve come across, and they will give very limited amounts of free access, if anything at all.

Most online dating websites are not absolutely free, but the better sites will have impressive access to info which should give you an idea of how to best spend your subscription money. It never hurts to be discerning, and a great dating site will be more than happy to show off its wares before demanding a subscription fee. Be shrewd, and have a good time! After all, happy couples and satisfied customers are the reasons why these sites exist!


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