Zoosk.com has become one of the most popular dating websites and applications out there on the Internet. Unlike most other online dating sites, Zoosk started off as a simple web application that was tied to Facebook.com. Founded in December 2007, Zoosk has since expanded into becoming its’ own website but also has found a place in different social networking websites as well as mobile applications making it one of the most versatile dating platforms on the Internet today.
With the growing popularity of social media and mobile applications, Zoosk has been able to grow and adapt to these changes to become the popular application that continues to gain more members and a larger following.
Because of the versatility that comes with using Zoosk, members of this dating website and application are able to talk, get to know each other, and meet across a wide ranging number of platforms. Due to its’ multiple platforms and the fact that Zoosk has been around for almost a decade now, it has one of the largest total memberships in online dating.
There are over 50 million people using Zoosk in over 70 different countries making it widely popular and useful. The millions of members who use Zoosk on the different kinds of platforms are known fondly as ‘Zooskers.’
Zoosk is unique in that members can contact each other through the Internet, social networking platforms like Facebook, as well as any of their mobile devices and tablets.
Zoosk has been able to grow exponentially in popularity and has not slowed down since the dating platform was founded back in 2007.
Because it can be accessed in over seventy countries, the website is also available in over 25 languages making it second only to Match.com in terms of its’ overall capacity to reach an international audience.
In addition, Zoosk gets the second highest amount of traffic to its’ website and application among online dating platforms in the United States per month and is also only second to Match.com in that ranking.
Part of Zoosk’s overall popularity comes from the fact that it was one of the first applications launched by the extremely popular social networking website, Facebook. Zoosk was first launched on May 24th, 2007 and has become over the years the largest dating application in terms of total users that Facebook has ever initiated.
There are over five million unique users who use Zoosk each month and the official Facebook page for this dating application has over twelve million active followers.
Over 70% of the users who have Zoosk have been able to use the application because they have connected it to their Facebook account. More than just on Facebook, Zoosk is currently the number one rated dating application along with the most downloaded dating application in the Apple store for iOS users.
According to the popular Google Play store, Zoosk is also the most downloaded and used dating application for Android users. Because of being accessible through Google and Apple’s mobile platforms, more than thirty percent of all Zoosk users use the dating application through a mobile device compared to a computer or tablet.
For the reason of the wide range of platforms and easy accessibility, Zoosk has been able to stick around in the online dating world and has emerged as both a popular and reliable option.
Zoosk Review
Behavioral Matchmaking Engine
It is not just the widely available number of platforms that Zoosk can be downloaded and used on which has contributed to its growing success and popularity. There is also another key factor, which is the formula and implementation of Zoosk’s ‘Behavioral Matchmaking’ engine that has been found to be very successful with its’ millions of users.
The Behavioral Matchmaking system is designed to help match like-minded Zoosk users together who demonstrate similar physical, emotional, other characteristics and who would seem to be a good match with each other based upon their many similar traits.
Each user of Zoosk is asked to cite their preferences when it comes to behaviors, traits, and qualities that he or she would like to see in a potential match.
The more information that a user puts in to the behavior matchmaking system, the likelier it will be for them to match up with someone who fits more of their emotional and physical needs to be found in a romantic partner.
The algorithm is also able to advance and become better over time as it models the behavior, information, and the preferences that the millions of users put in to the matchmaking system each month and each year.
The reason of this data gathering, more accurate potential matches are better able to be generated by the system especially after the individual user starts to narrow down more with their preferences what they would like to see from their matches.
Each day, Zoosk uses its matchmaking service to introduce you as a user of the website or application to a potential match for you to approve or disregard.
You can also assess your matches by using ‘Carousel’ which allows you as the user to look at many profile pictures rather quickly in a rapid-fire way.
Any user can also use the ‘search’ function to browse through millions of profiles that are all apart of the Zoosk system even if they aren’t considered to be potential matches of yours.
Since Zoosk.com has been around for almost a decade, it has garnered a lot of accolades and recognition which has allowed it to keep its’ following and current membership base.
Zoosk has been recognized by many different media outlets: both online and offline, regarding its behavioral matchmaking system, unique features, and its wide usability across different online platforms.
Zoosk has been recognized by About.com in its’ Reader’s Choice Awards as being one of the best dating applications in the world. Zoosk also has gained acclaim from websites like AppAppeal and mainstream news media outlets like The Wall Street Journal.
The innovation, creativeness, and accessibility behind Zoosk have helped contribute to its continued success.
Main Features
When it comes to Zoosk, the main feature of them all, which is available to all users whether they are free or paid is the ability to create a full dating profile.
- Basics of the Profile
For the necessary basic information of your personal dating profile on Zoosk, it’s important to include all of it or as much as you can because it’s likely that the basic information will be required to be filled out in order to have a profile to begin with.
This necessary basic information should include your full name, e-mail address, current location, what you’re looking for exactly whether it is casual dating or a serious relationship, and your date of birth.
After that information is entered in to your profile, you will be asked to create a unique username on Zoosk.com. You’ll also have the option to include more personal details about yourself but this won’t be required information.
More intricate details such as your height, weight, children or marriage status, race / ethnicity, level of education, religious beliefs, smoking and drinking habits, etc. will also be asked of you to get the full basics of who you are.
Each user has the freedom to choose which information they want to share with other users and which information they want to remain private.
- Profile Photos
In order to make your profile complete, it is important to add the important asset of having your personal pictures up for other Zoosk users to see.
Any user can upload photos to their profile and you can upload as many as six photos total. You can take these personal pictures from your own computer files or you can upload them to Zoosk from your Facebook account if that is easier for you.
- About You and Compatibility
In addition to entering in basic information about yourself as well as uploading some personal pictures, any user of Zoosk will have the chance to personally introduce themselves in the ‘About You’ section so that other users can get a better sense of who you are and what you are about.
- Your Story
The ‘About You’ section is divided into three sections: first there is “Your Story” – talking about who you are and your background up to 150 characters total.
- Your Perfect Match
“Your Perfect Match” – discussing what you would like from a romantic partner and some of the characteristics of what you’re looking for.
- Your Ideal First Date
“Your Ideal First Date” – describing what you would like to do for a first date with somebody and what would your best idea(s) be such as a walk in the park, a trip to the ice cream store, or going for a hike, etc.
- Multiple Choice Questions
To assess compatibility, your profile will also give you multiple-choice questions about your lifestyle and hobbies, interests.
The more of these questions you answer, the higher level of compatibility you will be able to get from potential matches based on the algorithm. For example, some of these multiple-choice questions could be: “Do you enjoy traveling?” and “What’s your favorite thing to do on a Saturday night?”
- Verification and Likes Feature
In order to be able to have other members of Zoosk trust that they know who you are to be true, it’s important to consider going through the ‘verification’ process to gain more interest and a bigger following of your profile on this dating site.
There are a couple of different ways for someone to get their profile verified on Zoosk.com. You can use your methods to verify your profile such as using your personal phone number or linking your Facebook, Twitter account to your dating profile as well.
If you decide to link your Facebook account to your Zoosk profile, you will also be able to connect your ‘likes’, which can be imported or added manually. These different ‘likes’ from Facebook will be able to show up on your Zoosk profile if you decide to connect to the social networking site.
There are many different types of ‘likes’ such as involving music, movies, books, TV shows, games, sports, and other subjects of interests to people. By demonstrating your ‘likes’, you will be able to connect with other members better by being able to see what you have in common with each other based upon similar ‘likes.’
Other Main Features
In addition to having your own profile, uploading photos, verifying yourself, showcasing your likes; there are some other main features that are available to all free and paid members.
- Winks
As a member, you can send ‘winks’ which is basically a means of flirting with other users to express an interest in getting to know them better.
- Virtual Gifts
If you want to take it a step further, you can also send out virtual gifts to grab the attention of other users and to show them that you care about them.
Zoosk has its’ own currency specific to the website known as Zoosk Coins which allows any member to save up and buy virtual gifts for other users.
- Friends List
Each member’s profile comes with a ‘friend list’, which you can add other members to with whom you would like to get to know better in the future.
- Search
The ‘search’ function is a feature that’s crucial to all members and allows each user to seek out potential matches and to find visitors who have piqued their interest.
- Carousel
There are also certain games like ‘Carousel’ available for all members to play too.
- Behavioral Matchmaking algorithm
The ‘Behavioral Matchmaking’ algorithm and system is available to all users and its’ important for each member to use the data gained from their answers to questions as much as possible in order to get more compatible matches than before.
Free members can rest easy knowing that they will be able to stay in touch and chat with other members regardless if they are free or paid users. Any member can reply and send ‘winks’ back as well as being able to receive or send messages to ‘premium’ users.
- Instant Messanger
There is also the Zoosk Messenger system which functions as a ‘live chat’ feature letting any member get the opportunity to strike up a conversation with a potential match or an interested visitor when they decide to break the ice.
Additional Features
Unfortunately, not all members can get access to every feature offered on Zoosk.com. Only paid members will be able to get access to the premium, additional features that would make the cost of purchasing a membership worth it on Zoosk.
If you’re looking to get the full experience out of Zoosk, it’s necessary to get a premium membership because then you’ll get access to all main features along with the additional ones that will help you as a member to have a complete experience on the dating platform.
- Full Access
One of these basic additional features include having full access to be able to send and receive both messages and winks to all members regardless if they are free or paid members.
When you form your friend list, you will be able to chat with all of these members regardless of their membership status.
You can also view who saw your profile and see if you might be interested in them and get access to the full behavioral matchmaking system that will lead to better and more improved matches.
The premium membership will allow any user to stay in touch with the other fifty million users who use any of the Zoosk platforms online for dating purposes.
A premium member will get full access to the messaging and chat systems making it easier to meet a potential date or romantic partner for the future.
- More Profile Visibility
A premium profile will also be more widely viewed and gain more notoriety than a regular user’s profile. It will be featured more prominently in the site’s search engine and profile listings.
Non-premium and other premium members will still be able to contact you for free so you will be able to stay in touch with anybody who wants to.
You can view any profile on the website too without any issues giving you a wide variety of people to choose from and go out with.
- Lively
The ‘Lively’ feature is unique only to Zoosk and can only be used by premium members for profile purposes. Lively allows users to put photos and videos into nice collages that can tell something about you and your life.
You can display these collages on your profile to showcase who you are as a person. By taking your photos from the camera rolls and social networking sites along with high-quality videos, you’ll be able to make your profile more visually appealing than it was before. You can really capture the visitors’ attention for a longer period of time.
The best thing about this unique feature is that you have the option to both edit the videos and the pictures that you would like to use for this collage.
In addition to the editing feature, you can also crop, filter, and re-size the photos and videos to fit to your liking. Users of the ‘Lively’ feature have compared it to the popular mobile dating application, Tinder, but which Zoosk users consider it to be more in-depth and useful.
Zoosk Costs
Obviously, Zoosk like most other online dating websites is not always free and to get the most complete experience, it’s important to shell out a little bit of money to get all of the features available.
There are only two kinds of membership available to Zoosk users: a free membership or a paid membership. Depending upon on what you’re looking for out of Zoosk, you may find it useful to spend the extra money to get the most out of this dating platform.
The costs of a premium membership were last updated in February of 2016, which is quite recently. You can check the Zoosk website’s ‘pricing’ page in order to keep up to date with the latest changes in membership prices. Zoosk isn’t exactly cheap for a premium membership and ranks up there with Match.com and eHarmony.com in terms of monthly price offerings.
For a one-month membership, it will cost the most at about $30 per month, which is the most expensive subscription plan option.
There are longer subscription plan options, which are cheaper such as $20 per month for the three-months total with one-time payment made at a total of $60.
The cheapest option for the premium membership is a six-month membership at $12.50 per month for a total one-time of $75 for the six months. This is the most affordable option for the long-term if you’re looking at paying for a premium membership with Zoosk.
- Zoosk Coins
For some additional costs in dollars, you can buy an online currency from Zoosk known as ‘coins’, which can help users to do various things on the dating platform.
These coins can be used for various additional features as well such as being able to know whether or not your messages have been confirmed as being sent and read by the other users whom you’re communicating with.
You can use these special coins to buy gifts for another members who you are attracted to and are interested in getting to know better.
These gifts are virtual but can range from simple flowers to exotic pets. When you buy these virtual gifts, they will show up for display on the user’s profile of whom you sent to them originally.
With these coins, you can highlight certain messages that you send out as ‘special’ and will gain more attention from those users when they are highlighted.
Zoosk coins can also be used for a ‘Boost’, which will allow your profile to appear at the top of other users’ search results or on a special place on the homepage of the Zoosk website.
If you don’t want to pay for Zoosk coins on top of your premium membership, there are certain ways you can earn them for free.
You can get coins by inviting friends to join Zoosk and sign-up, like and become a fan of Zoosk’s Facebook page, install the Zoosk dating application on your Facebook profile, and show your willingness to participate in surveys, paid subscriptions, and trial memberships.
Whenever you purchase these Zoosk coins, you will be billed in one payment and you can by credit card, debit card, or through the PayPal system.
Positives and Negatives
Positives:
- All users are able to reply to emails sent by paid members (paid members are able to contact any user and receive a reply.
- Easy to create a profile using Zoosk integration with your Facebook account.
- Huge member base (More than 50 million users).
- Multiple language options (25 languages)
Negatives:
- Your profile has pretty basic information, meaning that you can’t specify what type of relationship you are looking for.
- Limited search options.
You may also like our Mingle2 review.
Have you ever signed up for Zoosk.com? Don’t be shy, share your experiences with us by commenting below.
Burt Andrews says
This article reads as though it was written by a Zoosk paid shill. This site absolutely does not work for me. Reading the profiles of the people it matches me up with, these are not the sort of people who would be interested in me at all, and so far all I have interacted with are catfish and people who want to take their trolling offline and into a real life “dating” situation.
Malcolm Chadbourne says
I want to remove myself from this web site (Zoosk) and get a credit on my Visa for a 11/10/19 charge of $63.76.