Some users of online dating website prefer those sites with a bigger membership base due to the amount of features and the amount of users you can access by signing up for a membership. Compared to a smaller and less well known website, there are a lot of advantages to signing-up for a bigger and more popular online dating site. If you’re not looking for a ‘niche’ website either, it may be worth to look into a dating website on the same level in terms of popularity and membership as Match, OKCupid, and Plenty of Fish, etc. When it comes to another option on the level of those other websites, you’re going to want to take a look at Mate1.com.
When Mate1 describes its’ membership base, it’s a point of pride for this site based on how many users they currently have. It is estimated that Mate1 has over 30 million total users registered on the website with thousands of members logging in and staying active every day.
There are a number of things that set Mate1 apart from other dating sites but none that is more apparent than the fact that Mate1 has a very favorable gender ratio if you’re a man looking for a woman.
There are many more women than men who are active on Mate1 and that’s due for one main reason alone. The fact is that women who join Mate1 are allowed to sign-up and register on this website for free while having access to all of the features including the upgraded ones.
However, if the single men of the world want to take advantage of this fact, unfortunately, they have to pay some money. Because of this setup, there are a lot more women on the website than men and it’s a good incentive for the men to join this website.
Women save money by joining this website, and men are able to have their choice of single ladies to talk to and meet up with.
It’s important to be careful when it comes to this website because there are scammers, spammers, fraudulent users who will take advantage of the free memberships offered to women.
You have to be on the lookout as a single man or a single woman on this site and make sure that both your privacy and security settings are up to a high standard.
Anyone can join Mate1 and if you want access to all of the features but don’t want to be tied to a long-term paid membership, there’s a three-day trial that’s 5 dollars total. You can sign-up in order to get a feel for this website. If you find that you like this dating site, you can continue using it for free or sign-up for a paid membership that’s longer in its’ subscription period.
Currently, Mate1 is only available in both the United States and Canada but it is possible that it could expand to other countries in the near future. Because of its’ sole availability in the English-speaking world, the language of use on the website is the English language but that could change soon as well.
You have the option as a male member to choose either a free or paid membership for this website while female members get total access to Mate1 for absolutely free.
You need to be 18 years or older to access Mate1.
Mate1.com Review
Main Features
- Signing Up and Registering
When it comes to signing up and registering for a membership on Mate1, it doesn’t take a lot of time or effort to get it done, which is a real treat when you want to focus on creating and building your profile.
In order to register, you need to specify your gender, either male or female, as well as the kind of relationship that you’re looking for whether it is casual dating, friendship, a serious relationship, or even marriage.
You can also highlight the age range of the single men or women you would like your potential matches be. You should also enter in your ‘zip code’, which will tell other members and the website itself about your current location which helps you get the potential matches near you.
In order to have an identity on Mate1, you can create a personal username and password in order to ensure your security and privacy on this website.
You’ll need to enter in your date of birth to verify that you are indeed eighteen years of age or older and should be allowed to use Mate1 for dating purposes.
By giving your personal e-mail address, you’ll be able to confirm that you want to begin your free membership and you can finish your registration and sign-up process.
Lastly, if you have a nickname, you can enter that in as well if you would like an alternative to your username on Mate1.
- Profile Information
Once you’re done registering your information, you can begin entering in your profile information. It’s important to note that after registering by inputting some basic information about yourself you can choose how much personal information you would like to make available on your public profile.
Since it’s publicly available, you should be careful as to what information you share with other users. You need to consider what you would like others to know about you and what things you would like to keep to yourself.
- About Yourself
The ‘About Yourself’ is the biggest section when it comes to your personal profile and you’re allowed to discuss different aspects of yourself that make you who you are.
Among the things that you can mention are your physical characteristics, which could be describing your body type (athletic, average, overweight, thin, etc.), hair color, eye color, height, and weight, etc.
Beyond that, you can give details about your personal habits such as when it comes to smoking, drinking, gambling, and how often you partake in these different activities.
You can also talk about your current relationship status and whether you are single, in a relationship, divorced, separated, etc.
If you feel comfortable enough to divulge your religious beliefs, you can explain your background when it comes to religion and if you’re observant or not.
Lastly, you can describe your current level of education as well as your income level if you feel comfortable discussing that aspect of your life. If you’re currently working, you can describe your job or career and what kind of industry you’re in.
- Headline
An opening line or headline is a good way to catch the interest of those members who decide to give your profile a try and are curious to learn more about you if you can come up with something entertaining or intriguing to get them invested in reading your actual profile.
- Paragraphs
The ‘About yourself’ section also allows you to write a paragraph or two where you can talk about your personal background as well as your hobbies and interests to show other members what kind of things you’re into and what you enjoy doing.
- Who I’m Looking For
Beyond yourself and your background, you can write an essay regarding the type of romantic or relationship partner you’re seeking on Mate1. This section is called ‘Who I’m Looking For’ and allows you to go into some detail on what you would like from your partner and what they should expect from you too.
- Lifestyle and Interests
In the ‘Lifestyle and Interests’ section, you can describe a lot of your personal preferences on a number of things. These preferences can range from food to travel to humor to work and exercise routines.
If you feel okay with it, you can also detail your sexual preferences when it comes to you and your partner along with your political views if you don’t feel that these topics are too personal.
- Favorite Things and Least Favorite Things
The last part of your profile is quite simple and doesn’t require for you to disclose very personal information about yourself. This section is titled, ‘Favorite Things’ and ‘Least Favorite Things’ where you can make note to other members regarding your favorite or least favorite sports team, food, movie, music genre, book, hobby, etc.
This section is not mandatory and you don’t need to share it if you don’t want to.
- Pictures
No profile on Mate1 would be complete without having the ability to upload some profile pictures. These pictures can be uploaded from your computer or linked directly to your Facebook account.
Your pictures should mainly be about yourself and not your family members, pets, friends, unless they are in the same photo with you.
If you want to do so, Mate1 allows you to print out some of these photos on your profile and you can have them mailed to you from the website.
- Search Function
The ‘search’ function is very important on Mate1 and there’s a lot of usability due to the amount of criteria that you’re allow to specify in order to get the desired results from when you start searching.
For example, you can narrow your search down based on your preferred gender in a partner to have, a certain age range that they must fall within, certain keywords that you can enter in, as well as if these profiles you’re searching for have profile pictures or not.
If you want to be even more specific, you can search based on that person’s ethnicity, body type, and height / weight.
- Hot List
Lastly, there’s a “hot list” where you can check out those profiles which have garnered a lot of interest from other users and who are known for having a lot of popularity. The chances are good that these ‘hot’ profiles have users who display really attractive profile pictures which help to raise their popularity and make them stand out.
- Hi Button
Once you’re ready to actually begin a conversation, you can do so pressing the “Hi!” button on someone’s profile, which is located below his/her profile picture in a prominent location.
This “Hi!” button is most similar to the ‘wink’, ‘flirt’, ‘favorite’ buttons that are popular on other online dating websites and are used by members to indicate a more direct kind of interest.
If you decide to press ‘Hi!’ on another member’s profile, they will be notified immediately and can decide if they want to respond or ignore your interest. If they decide to say ‘Hi!’ back, it’s a clear signal that this particular member is interested in you as well.
Additional Features
Unfortunately, free members of Mate1 do not get access to all of the cool features that are offered by this website. In order to receive the advanced features, you’re going to have to upgrade your membership to a full subscription.
There are a number of benefits involved when it comes to upgrading, which can make this paid membership worth it if you’re ready to take advantage of these additional features.
- Unlimited Messages
You can send and receive an unlimited amount of both e-mail and private messages between you and other members regardless if they are free or paid users.
- Live Chat
There is a live online chat system available to full members who can use that platform to communicate freely with other full members of this website.
You can also keep track of every member who has visited your profile if they are not hidden from your view.
- Voice Recordings
In addition, you can also send and listen to voice recordings of other users to hear what they sound like and get a better sense of who they are.
- Additional Pictures
You can view additional profile pictures of different full members if they have decided to make those photos available for public consumption.
- Advanced Search
Lastly, you have full access to the option of doing an ‘advanced search’, which allows you to be even more specific when it comes to appearance, background, lifestyle, location criteria. This feature can be quite a key in narrowing down your compatible matches.
Costs of Membership
A full, upgraded membership is obviously not going to be free so it’s important to let you know the costs of this paid membership.
There aren’t that many options when it comes to the subscription periods that you can choose from.
- 3 Day Trial
The first option is a paid three-day trial which costs only $5 total. This will allow you to try all of the website’s features out and see if you enjoy using the site as a whole.
- 1 Month Membership
If you decide that you want to continue after the three-days, you can sign-up for a one-month membership of $50, which is quite an investment but is only a short-term commitment.
If you decide to go with the three-day trial first, it’s important to remember that you will be automatically enrolled in the one-month full membership unless you decide to manually unsubscribe from this commitment in the ‘account settings’ page.
You can also cancel your membership at any time by changing the settings yourself or by asking customer service for help. When it comes to payment, you can do so through all major credit and debit cards as well as checks if that’s your preference instead.
Positives and Negatives
Positives:
- Free for Females
Women can get the full membership for free.
- Men Have Favorable Gender Ratio
A single man has a favorable gender ratio if he signs up and is looking for a woman.
- Customizable Search Function
The search function is quite customizable in terms of criteria.
- Block Members by Country
This is a useful feature is you want to block members by country.
- Many Features
There are a huge number of features that make it easy to communicate with other members, add photos to your profile, and also meet people in person through the website making it a worthy investment if you’re willing to spend the money needed to get the full experience.
Negatives:
- Quite Pricey
It’s quite expensive for a full membership. If you’re a single man, you have to pay for an upgraded membership whereas women can use this website for free all the time.
- Difficult Navigation
The website can be difficult to navigate to the confusing text and design layout as well.
You may also like our BookOfMatches dating site review.
Have you ever signed up for Mate1.com? Did you have a pleasant experience with this dating site? Help other readers out by commenting below.
