Match.com Premium Pricing

Match lets you sign up for free. However, as with most online dating services, the free plan works more as an extended trial with limited capabilities. You can create a profile, search for or receive matches, and use Match’s mobile apps. If you want important features like the ability to talk to your matches, though, you’ll need a paid subscription.

Match gives you two types of subscriptions to choose from. There’s the Basic package, which gives you all of Match’s core features like instant messaging and advanced filters. The Bundle package adds perks that you’d normally have to buy separately, including profile highlights to boost your chances of finding a match.

What's the Verdict on Match.com?

A Must Try

Here’s a quick look at what each package gets you:

FeatureBasicBundle
3-Month Term$12.99/mo$14.99/mo
6-Month Term$9.99/mo$11.49/mo
12-Month Term$7.99/mo$8.99/mo
Match SearchYesYes
One-Click SearchYesYes
See who’s viewed youYesYes
Screen and hide membersYesYes
Email & Instant MessagingYesYes
Email Read NotificationsNoYes
Priority Profile Delivery to MatchesNoYes
Highlighted ProfileNoYes

Are Match’s paid subscriptions worth it? Yes.

Match offers some of the more affordable prices when it comes to dating websites. The Bundle package isn’t bad, considering it only costs a few dollars more per month. The perks that come with the Bundle plan aren’t essential to a great dating experience, but they do offer helpful enhancements. If you feel like your chances could use a boost, it’s a good step-up that won’t break the bank.

The Basic package is a good buy too, considering how much cheaper it is compared to other big online dating services. You get access to Match’s core features, including important services like communication systems (email, phone, etc.) and improved search.

Bear in mind that Match takes all payments as lump sums, so you’ll have to pay the full value of your subscription upfront. Match also lets you buy add-ons as you go. You’ll run into suggested supplementary modules throughout the site, be it the Profile Pro module or the Boost packs that power up your visibility. These all involve separate charges from your subscription, so if you’re wary of sinking too much money on online dating, steer clear of Match’s occasional attempts to upsell.

You Can Get 6 Months Free at Match.com

Match’s “I Met Someone” Guarantee offers you an additional 6 free months if you don’t find a satisfactory match within your first 6 months. Take note, though, that this guarantee only applies to 6-month-term subscriptions, and you must have been in contact with at least 5 matches every month.

How Do You Find Matches at Match.com?

Match used to welcome users with an exhaustive profile assessment that required at least half an hour to finish. Match has streamlined the process: now it takes less than 10 minutes to sign up and create a new profile.

Match partner preferences

While not as extensive, Match’s onboarding questionnaire still gives you plenty of opportunity to let other users know about you, as well as indicate your preferences for potential partners. Unlike its old approach—and many of its competitors’ style, too—Match now skips over meticulous personality trait measurement. Instead, it focuses on more concrete details like your physical attributes and location, plus key considerations like smoking/drinking habits, marital history (divorced, widowed, etc.), and your particular deal-breakers.

Match relationship preferences

Match uses this information to come up with users whose profiles meet your criteria. You’ll get a new batch of suggested matches each day. Match also alerts you if other users signal their interest when you pop up in their daily list of matches.

If Match’s suggestions don’t work for you, there’s always the option to do some manual searching. Match lets you tailor your searches according to different filters like location, different physical attributes or key habits, and so on. You can then sort results according to various criteria, like age, location, how well they fit your custom preferences, and more.

Expanding Your Dating Pool with Match International

Match homepage

By default, you’re registered to the Match version that corresponds to your country. If you want to venture into other territories, though, you can sign up for a separate account on Match International. This version gives you the option to find matches internationally, with users hailing from 5 continents and more than 24 countries and territories.

Conveniently, Match International accepts your choice of currency as payment.

Can You Build a Great Profile at Match.com?

There’s a downside to Match’s streamlined registration questionnaire: your initial profile isn’t as detailed. You can answer open-ended questions about yourself, but for the most part, Match’s profile sections don’t expand far beyond what you already cover in the intro questionnaire.

Match profile creation

If you’re unsure about your ability to craft an attractive profile, Match gives you the option to hand the task over to professionals. The Paid Profile Pro add-on enlists a team of professional writers from Match who will whip up a cohesive, appealing profile for you.

How Do You Talk to Matches at Match.com?

Match edges out the competition when it comes to communication options. There’s the usual email system, but you’ll also find real-time alternatives like instant messaging and even private calls.

Email still forms the heart of Match’s system, though, and their version checks all the usual boxes: attachments, forwarding to your external (non-Match) email address, notifications for new messages. You can send messages to any user you’re interested in, regardless of your match status.

Once per week, paid subscribers can also send a VIP Email. In this case, VIP stands for “Very Interested Person,” and it gives you a way to signal your interest to your top matches. VIP Emails stay at the top of the recipient’s inbox until your match reads and responds to it. You’ll also get a notification when it’s read—yes, even if you don’t have a Bundle subscription. You’ll also receive highlighted VIP billing on your match’s page: when your profile appears in their list of connections, for example, or when they’re browsing any group of users that includes you.

Aside from email, you can use instant messaging. This lets you chat with your matches in real-time, as long as they’re also online and signed into Match. You’ll find indicators that let you know if someone’s online or recently active.

If you’re a paid subscriber, Match also lets you set up private, secure calls and texts with someone. The matchPhone feature works by assigning you and your intended contact unique and private numbers. You can then use these to text or call each other without having to disclose your personal phone numbers.

All this activity sounds like a lot to keep up with, but luckily, Match gives you a handy newsfeed. Your feed collates all the important activity for both your account (e.g., if someone has replied to your messages) and your network (e.g., if someone has viewed your profile or invited you to chat). It’s a quick way to get up to speed with what’s been happening since you last signed into your account.

Is Match.com Safe to Join?

Match has a number of security measures in place to protect users. First, there’s profile and photo screening: Match checks new user sign-ups and evaluates each uploaded photo to filter out offensive, fraudulent, or otherwise suspicious material.

All users also get the option to verify their profiles, usually by confirming their ownership of any linked social media accounts or email addresses. It’s a cursory check, but it does help weed out any bots or dummy accounts that could mess with your pool of potential matches.

You can toggle the visibility of your profile anytime, switching from publicly visible to hidden with a few clicks. If you’d like to remove certain profiles from your search results or block particular users, Match gives you handy, ever-present buttons to do so. You can also report any abusive, offensive, or suspicious users to the Match staff through similar means.

If you’re willing to spend a bit of cash to ensure greater privacy, you can buy the Private Mode add-on. This gives you more granular control over your profile’s visibility, so you can have your profile appear to select users while staying hidden from everybody else. Other users also won’t know when you’ve visited their profiles. Private Mode can be toggled on or off as you please, so long as you’re paying the requisite $9.99/month.

Match.com Customer Support

Match has an easily accessible Help Center and FAQs section to help you with DIY troubleshooting. Unfortunately, like Match’s main interface, these resources tend to look cluttered. Finding relevant information can take a few more steps than would be convenient, and browsing the cramped text doesn’t make for a pleasant experience.

Match help center

For more specific questions or issues, you can email Match’s support staff. The company guarantees replies within 24 hours.

LGBT+ Dating at Match.com

Match LGBT dating profile sample

Match supports any mix of genders for its potential couples, so LGBT+ singles won’t have a problem searching for dates here. You can specify your preferred gender/s for your partner, and Match takes care of the rest: your options and search filters automatically shift to take your choice into account. There are no LGBT-specific bonus features, but all of Match’s features are available and ready for any LGBT+ users looking for their next match.

Over-50 Dating at Match.com

Match’s questionnaire asks about key issues that are particularly relevant for over-50 singles, like marital status (e.g., divorced, never married, etc.), whether you live with kids, and so on. You can also specify preferences about issues like this and indicate if certain answers are deal-breakers. If you’re not interested in dating someone who’s got kids living with them, for example, you can tell Match’s system that. Match automatically applies your preferences as filters for your searches. Tweaking these filters takes a few simple clicks, so you can customize your searches and results as often as you’d like.

The user interface can be a bit cluttered, which could be a challenge for over-50 users, especially those who aren’t tech-savvy. Some options need some navigation-bar digging to find, while other pages present a ton of controls (the profile editor comes to mind) that can easily overwhelm new users.

Match also has the unfortunate habit of peppering each page with related upsells: you’ll find buttons for upgrades like Profile Pro or Private Mode, which take you to payment pages if you accidentally click them. These can make for a frustrating experience, especially if you keep being redirected to upsell pages while you’re feeling out the busy user interface.

What's the Verdict on Match.com?

A Must Try

Can Match.com Help You Find The One?

Match is one of the more affordable dating websites out there, and it’s a big enough name to guarantee a sizable pool of potential matches for you. Its streamlined intro questionnaire makes for a quick sign-up, which is great if you’ve got no patience for the extensive psychology profiles that other services like to build.

That doesn’t mean Match lacks nuance, though: you have a lot of leeway for indicating preferences and filtering match results according to your personal criteria. You’ll also be free to run manual searches for matches—a great alternative if your daily suggested matches aren’t satisfactory.

Match’s variety of communication options trumps many competitors without sacrificing your safety and privacy. You’ll have plenty of ways to interact with the matches you’re interested in; however, your profile is also open to other users by default, so you might get messages from people even if you haven’t matched with them.

Overall, though, Match presents a solid set of features that work to give you a good chance at finding interesting people. If you’d like a great online dating experience without having to pay exorbitant fees, give Match a try.