It can be challenging to find a good website that deals with casual dating and hookups. There are numerous online dating sites that advertise themselves as focusing solely on casual relations but instead, they deliver on a little bit of everything including serious relationships when you’re expecting something else from your dating life.
There’s no reason to be discouraged though as there is indeed an online site that specifically caters to those people who know what they want from their love lives: casual dating and hookups.
On the title of it’s main page, Fling.com advertises itself as ‘The World’s Best Free Adult Dating’ website and it aims to back those words up with its’ features, navigability, and its’ growing database of users from around the world.
There are no official membership numbers to be found when it comes to Fling.com but it is estimated they have over a million registered members and thousands of members are signing-up for accounts on the website each day.
The official Twitter account for Fling boasts a couple thousand followers, which is an indication that it has some popularity on social media websites as well.
Fling may not be the most flashy online dating site with only its’ sign-up form taking up part of the main page as well as a bunch of thumbnail photos of real users who have registered for profiles on the website.
The design and layout are simple and easy to navigate and the lack of flashiness doesn’t distract the users from the true purpose of the website. Fling may lack in overall style but it more than makes up for in its’ substance, which begins with different and unique features.
There are no obnoxious advertisements that bombard you after you sign-up and you won’t have to deal with huge images that distract you from signing-up and checking out the different pages of the website.
The website’s growth in both membership and overall popularity may be due to the fact that it puts more emphasis on the features than just the images, the layout of the website. Perhaps most importantly, before you even sign-up, you can check out a few of the profiles that are active on the website.
Fling.com Review
Background
Flirt.com is an international website with members coming from many different countries. However, the mass majority of the membership is focused in countries such as the United States, Canada, and United Kingdom.
The website garners a lot of unique visitors each month with the average being around 3.5 million. Instead of new users being referred to Fling from other dating websites like OKCupid or PlentyofFish, most of the visitors come from pornographic websites like YouPorn and PornHub, where Fling is advertised on some of those websites’ pages.
Fling is also one of the earliest casual dating websites on the Internet having been active since the late 1990’s and for almost two decades total now. It consistently ranks high as one of the best dating sites on the Internet as well.
Fling continually adapts each and every year to meet the changing desires of its’ user base especially when it comes to the innovative features that they request in order to make their search for love and lust easier.
In addition to English, Fling’s website is available in other languages such as Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, French, and Dutch making it a truly international site.
It’s important to remember that you must be eighteen years of age or older to use this dating site because it is ‘adult’ in nature and you may encounter explicit photos, videos, and links to other websites that may be pornographic.
Make sure to use common sense and take precautions when using the Fling website, you never know who you’re chatting with and it’s important to build up trust and confidence first before you divulge personal information to them.
Main Features
Signing Up and Registering
In order to begin as a member of Fling.com, you first need start and complete the registration process in order to sign-up as a user of the website. Luckily, this process is very quick and only should take about one to two minutes.
First, you will need to choose your gender, which can be man, woman, or even couple if you are registering with more than one person. You will then create a unique username, personal password, age, and zip code.
Before you complete this sign-up process, you’re going to have to express what you’re interested in sexually in terms of gender whether that is for ‘a man, a woman, or a couple.’ When all of those items have been filled in, you can begin filling out your profile and using the features of this website. Please note that this basic information about yourself is mandatory and you will need to complete all of these items in order to start.
- Creating your Profile
The actual profile you’re given on Fling.com is pretty basic for free users when compared to other dating websites. Most importantly, you can express to other users on your profile as to what you’re looking for personally whether it’s a new hookup, a casual relationship, group fun, meeting in person, chatting online by flirting, short-term relationships, and even long-term relationships, etc.
Your personal profile is designed for you to show what you’re looking for and who you are as a person. For example, you may describe your appearance to other interested members in terms of like your height, weight, body type (athletic, overweight, average, thin), hair color, eye color, etc.
You can also write down your lifestyle in terms of your habits such as whether you drink, smoke, or gamble as well as if you would like to have children in the future or have them already.
In addition to all of that, you can discuss both your hobbies and interests such as going out with your friends, checking out a movie, playing football weekly, and preparing for a marathon.
Lastly, you can get into further detail about the kind of partner you’re looking for in terms of age range, location, gender, physical characteristics, and personal habits as well.
All of the information on your profile can be left blank but you’re attract more interest from other members in terms of both views and visitors if you fill it out to the fullest extent. However, it’s understandable that you may not want to divulge certain information about yourself if you feel that it is too personal. In that case, you can decide to leave that section blank and focus on another section instead.
- Uploading your Photos
It’s a fact that no personal profile on any online dating site would be complete without uploading a few pictures of yourself.
Fling allows all of its’ free and paid users to upload a few pictures of themselves from their personal computer files or by linking your Fling account to your Facebook account.
Your profile pictures should mainly be of yourself and not solely of your family members, friends, and pets. It’s important to remember that these profile pictures will be ‘public’ to the rest of the membership unless you have the desire to deem them as ‘private.’
If you do decide to post explicit pictures of yourself, make sure they remain ‘private’ and only viewable to those members whom you have talked to, and trust deeply. Uploading photos to your profile is not mandatory but it’s clear that you’ll receive more attention, views, visitors, and messages if you decide to do so.
- Messaging Options
There are many options when it comes to the ability to communicate freely with other members on Fling.com. While e-mail messaging is not available, there is instead a very useful and quick instant chat messaging system.
Online members can send each other messages if they see that they are available to talk. There is also a group chat option where you can use audio or video to communicate with a number of different users in unique rooms that cater to specific interests, hobbies, or dating needs.
- ‘Search’ Function
When it comes to using the ‘search’ function, the members have a great chance to have different criteria when selecting what they’re looking for in the user database.
You can use the ‘search’ to cater to your preferences such as age range, location/distance from you, sexual preferences, etc. If you want to be even more specific, you can search by username, members who have been verified, members who have uploaded photos, members who are currently online and active, etc.
You can also filter out certain members based on personal differences such as their income and education levels. If you are looking for a member who wants a hookup and nothing more, you can specify that with the Fling search function too.
You can choose certain keywords and phrases to narrow down your results to a few users who may be more compatible with you as a result. The basic search function is available for free members while you’ll have to upgrade to a paid membership in order to get access to the advanced search function.
- List of Members
When you sign-in to your profile, you’ll be able to see a number of users’ pictures displayed within nine different categories. At any time when you’re active and online, you can see “Who’s Online, Members on Video Chat, Hotties In Your Area (due to geo-location), Featured Members, Premium Live Cams, Who’s Viewed Me, My Friends, Popular Member Photos, and Popular Member Videos.”
There’s a streaming ticker of images and notifications, which you can use to keep track of what other members are up to and which categories they are being highlighted within.
Users can keep track of what other members in their network or favorites list are up to through the status updates that will appear in their live ticker of events.
In addition to text, these status updates also support video, and photos.
Safety and Security
If you’re worried about the privacy of your profile information and wish to secure it from unknown members, you may limit it to a certain degree.
You can use your ‘account settings’ to change the visibility preference options. You can turn on what’s called a ‘safe mode’ to prevent yourself from viewing or being sent sexually explicit, adult content which will be prevented from showing up in your live ticker.
‘Discreet mode’ is another option that you can enable when it comes to the privacy of your profile and photos. By activating this mode, you can only have certain users who are on your friends list or are favorite members of yours viewing your profile rather than the entire user base.
If you wish to take a break from using Fling but without deleting your account fully, you have the option of deactivating the account for a period of time without needing to cancel your membership or getting rid of your profile and photo completely.
Your safety is Fling’s number one priority, there is a 24/7 profile review team, which will make sure that your account and personal information is secure and hasn’t been stolen or leaked out to other members.
Fling has been verified and is protected by an online security group known as Norton Secured and you can make secure payments for your account through Epoch or SegPay if you have registered for a paid membership.
Costs of Membership
Unfortunately, not all of the features available on Fling are for free or are included in the basic membership. In order to get access to more features and experience everything that Fling has to offer, it may be worth it to consider upgrading to a paid membership with either the Silver or Gold subscription options.
There are two subscription options in a Silver level membership with Fling:
- 1 Month Membership
The first option is the shortest in terms of time commitment but is the most expensive on a monthly basis. For one-month only of a Silver membership, you’ll pay $25 total.
- 1 Year Membership
If you’re looking for a cheaper option that’s longer term, you can enroll in the one-year membership commitment for $100 total, which is less than $10 per month. This will save you over 66% total compared to the first option of a one-month membership for the Silver option.
The Gold membership includes all of the main and advanced features of the Fling website and also has two subscription options:
- 3 Months Membership
The first option is more expensive but is a shorter-term commitment when it comes to membership length. For a three-month commitment to the Gold membership, you’ll pay $35 total with each month costing around $11.50.
- 18 Months Membership
For an eighteen month Gold membership subscription, you’ll pay $120 total, which is about $6.66 per month. You’ll save 80% total if you choose the second Gold membership plan when compared to the first option.
Positives and Negatives
Positives:
- Large User Base
Fling has quite a large user base to draw from as well as a number of useful features that will help each member find what he or she is looking for on the site.
- Security Features
They also take your security and safety seriously with a good amount of privacy setting options as well as 24/7 customer support network that’s there to help you out.
Negatives:
- Matching System
Fling does not really have a sophisticated matching system to bring compatible members together so you’ll have to do most of the matchmaking work yourself as the user.
- Pricey
The website’s paid options are also more expensive than most other dating sites.
Overall, if you’re looking for a quick ‘fling’ or a ‘hookup’, Fling.com may be the website for you.
You may also like our Chemistry.com review.
Have you ever signed up for Fling.com? Did you have a positive experience with this hookup site and did you find what you were looking for? Any feedback is appreciated.
