Cupid’s Reviews’ ratings are structured so consumers can make educated decisions on a dating site’s value before paying for a membership.
Major emphasis is also placed on a sites’ popularity with minor focus on some of the features that allow members to communicate with each other and the
aggressiveness of a sites’ marketing tactics. Here’s how the criteria breaks down:
POPULARITY (20 Points): Popularity is the most important factor for a dating site. The more people online, the more chances you have to connect. Cupid’s Reviews bases its popularity index on Quantcast.com's US traffic estimations. Although imperfect, they are helpful in determining a general level of popularity for a site. Here is how Cupid's Reviews assigns points based on Quantcast scoring:
| POPULARITY POINTS AWARDED |
| 5,000,000 and up |
20 |
| 1,000,000-4,999,999 |
19 |
| 900,000-999,999 |
18 |
| 800,000-899,999 |
17 |
| 700,000-799,999 |
16 |
| 600,000-699,999 |
15 |
| 500,000-599,999 |
14 |
| 400,000-499,999 |
13 |
| 300,000-399,999 |
12 |
| 200,000-299,999 |
11 |
| 100,000-199,999 |
10 |
| 90,000-99,999 |
9 |
| 80,000-89,999 |
8 |
| 70,000-79,999 |
7 |
| 60,000-69,999 |
6 |
| 50,000-59,999 |
5 |
| 40,000-49,999 |
4 |
| 30,000-39,999 |
3 |
| 20,000-29,999 |
2 |
| 10,000-19,999 |
1 |
Visit
Quantcast.com for more information on how their rankings are tabulated.
LOCAL SEARCH (15 Points): Finding your perfect match may take a global search, but Cupid’s Reviews believes that most users want to know who’s online locally. This criterion rewards sites that allow users to conduct concise searches before being required to pay for a membership.
| Allows free searches within 25 miles or better or by city, zip | 15 |
| Allows free searches within 100 miles or better | 10 |
| Anything else | 0 |
LAST LOGIN (15 Points): A dating site could have a database of millions of members, but there is little value if only a handful visit regularly. Showing the date a user last logged in allows users to see how many people visit on a regular basis. Sites that allow this get full points. Those that don’t show the last login date, or only show it after a membership has been purchased, receive zero.
CONTACT (15 Points): Many dating sites allow those who haven’t paid for memberships to respond to communications that paid members send them for free. If a dating site allows this, it receives full points. If it requires both parties to possess paid memberships to open dialogue, no points are awarded.
PROFILES (10 Points): The ability to view profiles is an essential element in the decision-making process. If you can’t see what members have to offer, it makes it difficult to determine if there are enough people of interest to warrant the price of membership. Ten points are awarded to those sites that allow full access to profiles before paying for a membership. Five points are given to sites that allow partial access, while those that require a paid membership before viewing profiles receive zero.
COST (10 Points): Dating sites generally price memberships
in two ways: by the month or per contact. When a dating site allows members
both options, we’ve chosen to list the monthly membership fee for the
sake of comparison. For those sites that charge per contact, we’ve broken
down the pricing to determine the cost to the user of sending one email. Sites
that require a multi-month membership are scored based on the price of the total
initial purchase, not on the average cost per month. The breakdown is as follows:
| Points | Monthly Cost | Cost Per Email |
|---|
| 10 | 0-4.99 | $0-$0.50 |
| 9 | 5-9.99 | $0.51-$1.00 |
| 8 | 10-14.99 | $1.01-$1.50 |
| 7 | 15-19.99 | $1.51-$2 |
| 6 | 20-24.99 | $2.01-$2.50 |
| 5 | 25-29.99 | $2.51-$3 |
| 4 | 30-39.99 | $3.01-$3.50 |
| 3 | 40-49.99 | $3.51-$4 |
| 2 | 50-59.99 | $4.01-$4.50 |
| 1 | 60-69.99 | $4.51-$5 |
| 0 | 70+ | $5.01+ |
Trust Rank (5 Points): This category is determined by the amount of signs of interest our profile received over the first month as an unpaid member. All profiles were of a 30-year-old male with no photos and an unremarkable essay that requested he not be contacted. All things being equal, Cupid’s Reviews believes that a profile of this nature shouldn’t receive any attention whatsoever. Therefore, those sites, where signs of interest have been received, could be utilizing questionable marketing practices. A dating site receives five full points when no signs of interest are sent in the first month. A point is deducted for each sign of interest received in that time period.
CHAT BOARD (5 Points): A dating site receives five points for having a chat board.
INSTANT MESSAGE (5 Points): A dating site receives five points for the ability to instant message people on the site.