Should you pay for online dating?

A lot of us believe that the more expensive something is, the better it must be in providing what we want or need. Whilst this is true for some things, aspects related to your health and happiness shouldn't have a price tag. Often, those aspects don't cost anything at all. I've spoken to a lot of online daters to try understand how they perceive the online dating world and surprisingly, a general trend is emerging. Ten years ago, it was believed that online dating sites that charged a subscription would provide a better level of service than sites that were free. So what is this "better level of service" exactly?

There are actually very few free dating services online in comparison to paid ones. The most successful free dating sites are those that have survived many years in a very competitive industry. In an age where people are more frugal with their cash, some free dating sites such as Flirthut have just managed to survive. It would not have been as easy ten years ago as a lot of other sites that have come and gone have proven. A lot of what makes a dating site successful are how its members perceive the level of service and this starts with member numbers.

The number of members is key

Many of the larger, well established, dating services are seeing a decline in numbers because of a change in the perceived level of service. Online daters are now more understanding that meeting someone online isn't related to how much you pay for the service. Like a real life situation, it all depends on timing, chance, effort and opportunity. None of these factors are really affected by how much you're prepared to pay for them. They are all down to the number of members available. If we take a paid dating site with 50,000 members around the world and compare it to a free dating site with 500,000 members, the likelihood of meeting someone is far higher on the free site. However, there is a perceived element in all this; quality. Some people I have spoken to refer to the 'quality' of the people available. Of course, you cannot label people or quantify them into categories of 'quality' as relationships are very personal and unique. So if we take away this perceived 'quality', you're left with the basics, the fundamentals, of how people meet other people... Timing, chance, effort and opportunity.

It doesn't matter whether you've paid hundreds of dollars for a perceived level of service or quality. At the end of the day, because you're dealing with people's emotions, money shouldn't be a factor. I was very surprised to hear that more and more women in particular are joining free dating sites because they are finding that the perceived quality is not different on a paid site. Therefore the benefit of using a free dating site is that the chance of meeting someone is the same (or better) than it would be if you paid for it. So, you're probably asking yourself right now, why are we telling you this when we also offer a premium service? Well, Flirthut's philosophy is to enable people to meet other people, and we allow you to do this for free. What we also do is give members features that help this process better and more efficiently. We make no claims that paying for membership will increase the chances of you meeting anyone. It will however make your experience more convenient but the likelihood of you meeting someone online is just the same as it would be otherwise, providing you spend a bit of time and make the effort.