In this day and age, it’s hard to ignore the popularity of online dating. While online dating in some form or another has been around for a relatively long time, the popularity of dating sites and apps has grown exponentially in the last several years.
It seems like everywhere you look, whether in the physical world or the world wide web, you see people who have met their partner online. With this many people finding success your odds look pretty good, but which site is worth your time and effort. With over 2,500 dating sites online, your head could be spinning trying to chose.
Luckily, we take some of the guesswork out of choosing the perfect site for you. OKCupid vs POF are a couple of the biggest names in online dating, but is all the popularity legitimate or just hype? Between pricing, scammers, and other members there are a lot of things to look at with every dating site. So, which is better for your wallet, your preferences and your heart?
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OkCupid vs PoF: Overall Review
Both OkCupid and PoF have a lot of interesting features. They are trying to stay relevant, interesting, and trendy. While a lot of sites that are put head to head tend to be very different, these two seem very similar. OkCupid vs PoF are geared towards younger audiences and more casual dating, as opposed to serious long term relationships. While both have amazing reviews, they do seem to have an obvious pattern of shorter term relationships. While these are fun in their own right, if you’re looking for a soul mate, maybe trying another site first may help.
OkCupid Rating: 8/10
When you use OkCupid you need to be fairly open. This is important because most of the features on the app are based on what you want and what your preferences are.
If you are looking to be reclusive, this isn’t the site for you! OkCupid uses the swipe to match style of dating app, which makes it a very trendy choice. This app has proven to be very popular with a younger demographic and has introduced all kinds of interesting features to help captivate this younger user base. This app is also free to use a lot of the important features such as messaging and liking other members. It also has lower prices as compared to Plenty of Fish for its premium membership.
PoF Rating: 9/10
Plenty of Fish has proven time and time again how impressive their features and options are. Most of the features of the site or app is completely free, whether that be for messaging or looking through other users info you can do it completely free. Plenty of Fish also gives you the opportunity to answer a lot of information to answer when signing up. This helps the sites
Winner: OkCupid
OkCupid algorithms determine who you would be most interested in seeing and potentially matching with. You also may add more and more information as you wish so that you can personalize your profile as much as you see fit.
This was a hard choice, but overall OkCupid is just easier to use, cheaper (or free) to use, and has a plethora of positive testimonials and reviews. One of the most important factors in many of the positive reviews whas that the site offered a very diverse user base, and few, if any, scammers present. This does not mean it is the end all be all of dating sites, or even in all of these categories, but overall it is a very strong, well liked site. However, does it hold up as well when we look closer at specific aspects of the site? We will look over pricing, demographics, amount of scammers, and features to see how Plenty of Fish vs OkCupid compare to each other.
OkCupid vs PoF: Pricing
The cost of the dating sites is always very important for users, no one wants to pay a whole bunch of money for nothing in return. Very few dating sites are actually free, as most will at least cut features out until you pay for a membership. The bright side with this is that both offer free versions that are actually pretty reasonable, and both have inexpensive pricing packages. So which site has the best value for your dollar?
OkCupid Pricing: 8.5/10
OkCupid has plenty of its features that are available for free to use without having a premium membership. However, if you want more of the features and fun of the site paying for a membership is the easiest way to do that. Just like with most things in life, buying in bulk tends to be cheaper, so the more months you buy at one time the more money you will save per month.
The A-List membership will cost you $9.95 for a one month membership, and $6.65 per month when you buy a six month membership. The A-List Premium membership will cost you more per month as it unlocks even more features. This membership will cost you $24.09 a month of the one month membership, and $19.90 a month for the six month membership.
If you decide to pay for a membership you have plenty of options to choose from, or even not paying at all. This just goes to show how useful this site can be at any price point.
PoF Pricing: 8/10
Plenty of Fish is a very similar situation to OkCupid. You can use the site easily without having to pay at all. It doesn’t have as many pricing options as OkCupid, but it still has very inexpensive options. It also has the same “buying in bulk” discounts as OkCupid which makes it very easy to just pay a few months up front and get on with using the app.
A three month premium membership with Plenty of Fish is $12.33 a month, a six month membership will cost $10 a month, and a twelve month membership will cost $7.50 a month.
These memberships are very inexpensive and reasonable. You would probably pay more on a lunch out than one month of a Plenty of Fish subscription. If you spring for the year membership you are looking at spending $90 for the entire year of the dating service.
Winner: OkCupid
Both of these sites are very inexpensive for dating sites and both offer an impressive amount of features for free. That being said, OkCupid just has more pricing options and more options at lower price points. Overall, however, if you decided you wanted the A-List Premium membership, you might as well just go for Plenty of Fish as their paid membership is indeed cheaper than the A-List Premium membership of OkCupid.
OkCupid vs PoF: Demographics
Both of these apps offer fairly young and diverse users. This doesn’t mean that older adults don’t have luck with finding relationships on these apps, in fact there is a good deal of evidence to the contrary. Since both Plenty of Fish and OkCupid are very popular among college students and other young adults they do tend to make up a lot of the members, but not necessarily the majority of members.
OkCupid Members: 7/10
OkCupid has over 50 million users, and has been around for 15 years! This means that not only has it stood the test of time but at least 50 million people believe in the site. Out of these 50 million users, 5 million utilize the site every single day. These seem like fairly good odds, especially considering how much competition all dating sites face. When going through the sign up process, users are given many options for gender identity, and sexual identity. Because of this many users are able to find their best match and be their most authentic self. Most users are under 30 years old and tend to be liberal. Since this app offers many options for gender or sexual identity it attracts many people from the LGBTQ+ community. In fact, many members identify as LGBTQ+ or identify as an ally.
PoF Members: 8/10
Plenty of Fish has even more members than OkCupid, with over 150 million users. There certainly are plenty of fish in that sea. This site had also been in operation since 2003, and has steadily continued to increase its user base. Most users are between 35-49 years old as they make up 40% of all users while the younger age group of 18-34 year olds are in a close second as they make up 35% of all users.
There certainly are plenty of fish in that sea. This site had also been in operation since 2003, and has steadily continued to increase its user base. Most users are between 35-49 years old as they make up 40% of all users while the younger age group of 18-34 year olds are in a close second as they make up 35% of all users.
Even though they do clearly appeal to younger people, 35% is nothing to turn your nose up at, they do have a higher average age than that of OkCupid.
Winner: Plenty of Fish
With nearly triple the members of OkCupid, Plenty of Fish is the clear winner when it comes to their demographics. You may just have three times the chance of finding someone you would like to have a long term relationship with.
OkCupid vs PoF: Who is better at being Scam-Free?
As with anyone you meet online there are always risks. The only thing you know for certain about someone you meet online is that they have a computer/phone/tablet to access the site. The internet is filled with people looking to scam you out of your money, time, or emotional energy.
However, when it comes to PoF and OkCupid they have done a phenomenal job at keeping their users safe and honest. Since both have such good reviews, reliable sites, and happy users, neither one is really a “winner” or “loser” when it comes to being scam free. Both are reliable and safe dating sites to use.
PoF vs OkCupid: Features Comparison
PoF Features: 7/10
Plenty of Fish certainly has plenty of awesome features, a lot of which are available in some form in the free app. What is lovely about this app, is you don’t need the upgrades to enjoy the app and meet people. Plenty of Fish offers
- Private messaging
- Seeing if and when someone has read your messages
- The ability to search and look through profiles
- The Chemistry Predictor which is a way the site helps you figure out if you will like who you have been matched with
OkCupid Features: 7.5/10
OkCupid also is one of those sites that you’re able to really enjoy even if you don’t spring for the membership. While some features are “locked”, you pretty much at least get the bare bones version of many of the features. OkCupid offers
- Swipe-style matching
- Large questionnaire designed to help you meet better matches
- Ability to receive messages only from people you’ve matched with
- In depth search filters
Winner: Plenty of Fish
Even though OkCupid has their giant questionnaire, it just doesn’t seem to match up with the Chemistry Predictor (and the Chemistry Predictor will probably take less time to use). With that being said, Plenty of Fish is the winner!
PoF vs OkCupid: Dating Success
Both OkCupid and Plenty of Fish have had their fair share of success. Regardless of where you look you will find all sorts of dating success for both of the sites. It was so hard to choose the winner and that is because there is no clear winner.
With thousands of people finding their happily ever after with these sites, it just seems that both have the ability to be winners in this regard. Some good places to look for success stories and advice from neutral sources are r/okcupid and r/PoF.
Verdict: Which is Best?
The argument about which is best can be made for both OkCupid vs POF. The truth is both of these are awesome sites, can be used for free, have diverse members, and are safe sites to use. These sites both have a lot of awesome qualities, with all of these laid out here go choose the best site for you and live your happily ever after!