It can be difficult to find love on the Internet and even harder to find a sustainable, long-term relationship. It is even more challenging if you are a single gay man or lesbian woman who hasn’t had much success in real life with the dating game. You can now try to find love or a relationship through a ‘niche’ online dating website that caters specifically to the gay and lesbian community.
Note: Compatible Partners website is eHarmony now.
While there are plenty of online options out there for gay dating, there are only a few websites, which really focus on putting together singles who are compatible and similar to each other in a variety of ways. If you haven’t had much luck yet with meeting people through social circles or by doing group activities, your next best option is to go ahead and join CompatiblePartners.net, an online dating website which puts your similarities and commonalities with other members first.
Compatible Partners may be the gay dating website you’ve been waiting for if you’re focused on long-term relationships. There are some gay dating websites and mobile applications out there but they are pretty singular minded in their focus. The majority of these same-sex dating websites focus solely on hook ups and casual dating such as Grindr, for example.
However, that can get old for most singles after a while which is where Compatible Partners comes in. If you want a long-term relationship, you’ve come to the right website for that purpose.
Compatible Partners is one of the oldest online dating websites on the Internet and is also one of the most well known ‘niche’ websites when it comes to the gay and lesbian community.
Compatible Partners was founded in March of 2009 and is both owned and operated by eHarmony Inc. Compatible Partners has a very large and growing membership base with the official estimate of total members at around five hundred thousand members who have registered and signed up for a profile.
There are also thousands of members who are active and using this website each and every day. Right now, Compatible Partners is only available for use in the United States and Canada but due to the website’s popularity, it is likely to expand its’ accessibility to other countries internationally in the near future.
Because this dating website is only accessible in the U.S. and Canada, the only language that is used on Compatible Partners is the English language. However, it is possible that there will be more languages added to the website for member usage in the future as well.
When you join Compatible Partners, you’ll be getting a very similar experience to what is being offered on eHarmony, the sister site.
The means of communications are the same for members as well as the fact that the matching system is based off your compatibility with other users.
Contrary to eHarmony, the matching system will focus more on the gay and lesbian lifestyle and the different questions and answers that could be proposed based on that difference.
You can either choose to join and enjoy a free membership on Compatible Partners or upgrade to a paid membership subscription in order to get access to all of the features and the benefits that are included in the upgrade.
Compatible Partners Review
Main Features
- Registering and Signing-Up
When you are ready to begin your Compatible Partners experience, start by registering and signing-up for your profile. In order to register, you’ll need to create both a personal username which is how you’ll be recognized by other members of the website in lieu of your full name as well as a personal password.
You will also need to give Compatible Partners your gender and current zip code so that the website’s matching system will be able to show you matches who live within a certain radius from you.
- Relationship Questionnaire
Your profile on Compatible Partners compared to other websites is quite unique in the fact that it’s made up almost entirely of a detailed relationship questionnaire. This will help assess your potential compatibility with other members of this site.
There are over 200 total questions in this questionnaire and you are not required to answer all of them but the more questions you decide to answer, the more compatible matches you’ll receive in your results.
Luckily, it only takes an hour or so to complete the whole questionnaire and the answers to these questions will only be made available to other users if you decide to make them ‘public’ instead of ‘private.’
- Sample Questions
There are multiple types of questions that appear on this relationship questionnaire. The most common questions are of the ‘scale’ variety, which asks you to rate the importance of something from a scale of 1 to 7 with 1 reflecting ‘not important, none, rarely, etc.’ and 7 reflecting the opposite end with ‘very important, always, strongly agree, etc.’
The next type is known popularly as ‘multiple choice’ where you can choose one or more answers to reflect your views and opinions.
In addition, there is also ‘true or false’, questions as well as short ‘text’ questions, which require you to write a short answer of around twenty words or more.
- General Questions
When it comes to the actual questions, you will want to start with those ‘general questions’ of which there are 15 total. These particular questions will mainly focus on your physical appearance so you will be able to describe in more detail aspects of yourself such as your hair color, eye color, height, weight, body type (athletic, average, overweight, thin, etc.)
In addition, you may be asked about your current marital status (single, in a relationship, married, divorced, etc.), if you have any children or would like them in the future, your education level. You can also give your preference regarding a potential partner’s age range, education level, income, racial and/or ethnic background.
After that, there will be 6 questions that focus mostly on your religious and personal beliefs in the ‘personal characteristics’ section. In this section, you can detail what your religious background is in terms of what religion you belong to, and how important it is for a potential match of yours to have similar religious beliefs.
- About You Section
There is an ‘About You’ section of about 20 questions about your personality traits and characteristics focusing mainly on your emotions and such (happiness, anger, love, sadness, etc.)
- Self Descriptions
The ‘self-descriptions’ section is the biggest in terms of questions at around 55 total. It dives into which words describe you best on a scale of 1 to 7. Some examples include descriptive words such as adventurous, kind, disciplined, hard working, loyal, etc.
- Personal Characteristics
‘Personal characteristics’ is another large section of the questionnaire at around 35 questions, which ask detailed questions regarding statements that may or may not apply to you in terms of personality. Some examples of these questions would be, “Do you think you are funny?” and “How extroverted would you consider yourself to be?”
- About Your Feelings
Your feelings are important to the questionnaire, which is why there is a ‘about your feelings’ section at about 20questions.
These are scale questions rating how you feel different emotions from least to most in terms of presence in your life.
- Relationship Orientation and Values
‘Relationship orientation and values’ is another important part of the questionnaire that is about 13 questions total where you can rate statements that assess what kind of romantic partner you’re looking for.
- Important Qualities
The ‘Important qualities’ section goes over the kind of characteristics you would like to see in a partner as well. You can rate these characteristics from most important to least important in your opinion. This is a pretty big section overall at about 30 questions or so in total.
- About Your Personality
‘About Your Personality’ section is around 20 questions where you must decide if these different statements are true or false in your opinion. One such example of a question in this section would be, “I like people.”
- Your Personal Interests
An even bigger section that focuses on ‘Your Personal Interests’ at around 30 questions total. This section is where you can go into a lot more detail about the hobbies and interests you have. You get to specify about what you really appreciate when it comes to spending your free time.
Unlike other sections, this one has an essay question regarding what you are passionate about and what you truly enjoy doing which you can write a few hundred words total.
- Living Skills
Another important section of the questionnaire is the ‘Living skills’ section, which contains about 15 questions total. This section is for describing which life skills you are competent at and which ones you deem as being important to you.
- Communication Skills
Another small yet important section focuses on ‘Communication skills’ at around 10 questions. The website will want to know about your communication style and how open or closed off you are to others.
- Matching Information
The last section of this large questionnaire is called ‘Matching information’, which has also around 10 questions. These questions mainly focus on your personal habits such drinking or smoking. You can also be asked about your preferences when it comes to your potential match’s personal habits.
- Pictures
No individual profile would be complete without the ability to upload pictures of yourself. You can upload these photos from your computer files or you can use e-mail to send them to your account.
It should be noted that these pictures should be mainly of yourself and not your pets, family members, friends, etc. They can be in the pictures with you but they shouldn’t be in them by themselves.
- Personality Profile
Compatible Partners will also create a ‘personality profile’ of yourself after you complete the questionnaire about yourself and the answers may be displayed on your profile for other members to see.
- Icebreakers
Compatible Partners can also suggest certain conversation starters known as ‘Icebreakers’ to help you form your first message if you’re feeling shy and are not sure about what you would like to say.
Additional Features
Unfortunately, as a free member you will not be able to get access to every feature without upgrading to a paid subscription. For some examples, you won’t have the chance to view photos of other members, you can’t send e-mails to paid members of the website, and you cannot see everybody who has viewed your profile as they may have the option to stay hidden from view.
- Basic Plan
The first of two options when it comes to upgrading to a paid membership subscription is to sign-up for a ‘basic plan’, which allows you access to some of the advanced features that free members are not able to access.
You have an unlimited ability to send and receive messages from other basic plan members and free members through e-mail and other communicative outlets.
You can ‘FastTrack’ the communication process in order to get into touch with other members quicker and without going through the basic steps.
There are no limits or restrictions when it comes to viewing the photos of other members regardless of their membership status.
You can also view their profiles without any problems to see who they are and what they are like.
- Total Connect Plan
If you are willing to splurge a little bit more money, you can upgrade even further by going with the ‘Total Connect’ plan.
The ‘Total Connect’ plan is the highest level of membership that you can achieve on the website. In addition to having access to all of the advanced features that come with the ‘basic plan’, you’ll also be getting access to a few extra features that are pretty unique and useful.
‘RelyID’, a feature where you can get your membership information verified and to see other members who have also been verified is quite an important feature to make sure you’re talking to a real person.
‘Secure Call’ is a cool feature, which will allow you to make anonymous calls to other members from your personal phone number but without the other person knowing your number or location.
If you’re not satisfied with the basic personality profile, the Total Connect plan allows you to have access to a premium personality profile which is even more in-depth and extensive giving you the chance to receive matches with an even higher level of compatibility.
Costs of Membership
For the Basic plan, there are four different subscription options:
- 1 Month Membership
The first and most expensive plan is a one-month membership subscription at $60 total.
- 3 Months membership
The second option is a three-month membership subscription at $40 for each month for a total of $120.
- 6 Months Membership
The third option is a six-month membership subscription at $30 for each month for a total of $180.
- 1 Year Membership
The last and cheapest option is a one-year membership subscription at $20 for each month for a total of $240. This plan gives you the most bang for your buck and will allow you to save over 66% when you compare it to the one-month membership.
When it comes to the ‘Total Connect’ plan, there are three payment options:
- 3 Months Membership
For three-months membership, you’ll pay $45 a month for a total of $135, which is the most expensive yet shortest option in terms of commitment.
- 6 Months Membership
For six-months membership, you’ll pay $34 a month for a total of $204.
- 1 Year Membership
The last subscription option is also for a one-year membership, which is the cheapest in terms of price but is also the longest-term commitment. For one-year membership, you’ll pay $24 a month for a total of $288. You can save up to 50% on this plan when compared to the three-months membership.
Positives and Negatives
Positives:
- Free to Check Out Your Matches
You can check out your matches without obligation to join the site.
- Extensive Matching System
Compatible Partners is a great online dating site that offers a lot of features, a big membership base, and a very extensive matching system based on compatibility.
Negatives:
- Pricey
It costs more than other popular dating sites.
- Can’t Search for Your Own Matches
You can’t browse your own potential matches, you get matches based on the matching algorithm.
Conclusion
While it can be an expensive investment and is only focused on a particular ‘niche’ of people, Compatible Partners has built up a good reputation over the years due to its’ reliability, customer service, and innovation.
If you’re having trouble with searching for love in the LGBT community, Compatible Partners may be the solution to your problem.
You may also like our ManHunt dating site review.
Have you ever signed up for CompatiblePartners.net? Did you have a pleasant experience with this dating site?
