Why do modern people prefer to get acquainted on the Internet, and not offline? There are actually many reasons. But one of the main ones is saving time and money. Few people want to spend hours with a person who may turn out to be completely different from what they expected, and even spend money on them in a cafe or restaurant. We have become more pragmatic, and this is a positive tendency.
When we talk about online dating, not everything is clear here either. The fact is that dating sites and applications today have turned into platforms for extorting money. Using them for free is either inconvenient or sometimes impossible. For example, on some sites you cannot send messages without a premium account. On others, you can’t even view the profiles of other users. While on some, you can’t see who liked you. And so on.
Today we will look at what dating services offer for an additional fee, how much access to premium features costs, and how those who want to get acquainted on the web can save money doing so.
Paid features on dating sites and apps
For clarity, let’s look at the paid functionality on specific dating services in order to understand what you have to pay for:
- Bumble — a paid feature called Bumble Boost. It provides several benefits at once: a return to the previous account if you accidentally swipe left, unlimited swipes, five superswipes per week. You can also use the Spotlight feature, thanks to which your profile will temporarily be at the top of search and many people will see it.
- Match — a premium plan for a selected period. For free, you can register, fill out a profile, like users, and view member profiles. But without a premium account, it is impossible to send messages, see who visited your profile, use invisible mode, etc. The cost of a premium subscription is from $40.41 for 3 months. The longer the period you pay, the lower the cost per month.
- eHarmony — offers full access to all features in the premium plan. eHarmony has three pricing plans depending on duration — 6, 12 and 24 months. The functionality available in them is identical. The only difference is the duration and cost. The longer the plan you pay for, the lower the price per month goes. The developers advise to follow eHarmony news, because the site regularly hosts promotions and sales of premium subscriptions, allowing you to save up to 50-60%.
In these examples, we see that for comfortable and efficient use of dating services, you still have to pay, otherwise, you’ll be faced with a lot of restrictions. For example, you simply won’t be able to reply to an incoming message. What then is the point of using a dating platform?
If you want to get all the features of the selected site or dating app, but not spend a large amount, we’d like to offer some useful recommendations.
5 ways to save money on online dating
- Use promo codes
A lot of dating sites and apps periodically issue promotional codes that give either a good discount on premium access or temporary free access. The only question is where to get these promo codes? They are often sent to former owners of premium accounts, and are sometimes shared on themed forums and public accounts. You can also go the simplest way and look for promotional codes for the site you are interested in on Google. Just enter the appropriate query and see what the search engine will offer you. Unfortunately, this way you’ll find many expired promotional codes, but among them there may well be still active ones.
- Sign up for a 1-month trial subscription
We do not recommend immediately paying for premium access for 3-6 or more months if you are not yet sure a dating site is right for you. If there is an opportunity to buy a premium for a month or even less, use it. Remember: on a quality dating site, you can meet your love quickly enough. And you don’t need premium for six months. If you use a dating service week after week and month after month, maybe it just doesn’t suit you? And there is no need to pay a premium for six months in advance if it does not give any results.
- If the site offers a free trial period, use it
There are dating services that offer a free trial period with access to all features. A striking example of this is the CooMeet platform. All new users can utilize premium features completely free of charge to experience the benefits of the service for themselves. But https://coomeet.com/omegle is not a classic dating site/app. This is an alternative to Omegle — an anonymous video chat for communication with strangers. But unlike Omegle, CooMeet has a gender filter, convenient mobile apps, high-quality moderation and 24/7 support, as well as a built-in message translator. It is very convenient if you want to meet foreign users, but do not know the language.
- Buy package subscriptions
This recommendation partly contradicts the second point, but not completely. If you like the site, easily find new friends there and are ready to devote time to finding a soulmate, then it is quite possible to pay a premium for a long time. Almost all dating sites have a rule: the longer the term of the premium subscription, the less the amount you pay per month. Therefore, in some cases it is quite reasonable to buy a subscription for half a year, and not to renew it monthly. But only if you are sure that you will still need the premium in a month or more.
- Keep track of promotions and special offers
Each dating site is a project that needs to attract a new audience. For this, proven and well-established methods are used — discounts, promotions and special offers. We advise you to regularly look into the news sections of your favorite dating site or application. Most likely, sooner or later you will see a message about a discount or sale of premium accounts. You can save very well and get all the functionality at your disposal much more cheaply.
Money is not the most important thing in life
Online dating can only be expensive if you approach it thoughtlessly. You should not buy premium access on several sites at once. And especially, you do not need to renew it if you see that your chosen platform does not suit you at all.
This might lead you to a logical question. Perhaps you should not use paid sites and dating apps at all, but limit yourself to free ones? This solution is simple, but not particularly efficient. Remember that any site should generate income for developers and receive funds for development. If there is no money, then there can be no question of implementing modern pair-selection algorithms and high-quality moderation, and updating site functionality. Therefore, completely free dating services are also a rather controversial subject.
Choose one or two dating sites with the features and tariff plans that suit you, explore their capabilities and use them with pleasure. We hope our tips will help you save you time and money.