FriendFinder Review: How to Use This Site and Why It’s Worth It
With over 225K monthly visits, FriendFinder is a popular dating site where you can meet both friends and romantic partners, which is not common. To see what the online dating platform has to offer, our team of experts decided to dig a little deeper into what the site has to offer in our FriendFinder review.
Best Alternative Sites
secure
trusted
verified
updated for
December 19, 2024
Best for
newcomers
Our score
Best for
sugar relationships
Our score
Best for
dating married people
Our score
Friend Finder Overview
FriendFinder is a legit dating site that was established way back in 1996, so it has been around for 27(!) years. Don’t confuse it with Adult Friend Finder, which is an adult dating site for casual encounters of any sexual orientation. Though both platforms are part of the same FriendFinder network, FriendFinder.com specializes more in social networking and traditional dating. There are users who seek friends, casual flings, online romance, and even more serious relationships.
FriendFinder has a 76% male to 24% female gender ratio, but guys on the site get enough attention as women tend to be very active. All male users can register and have a free account, but as on other dating apps, premium services require an upgrade.
Female members have a great advantage, as the gender ratio is to their advantage, and they have less competition. Women can use all the same services as male members and have the same cost for a premium subscription.
Who Is FriendFinder for?
- People who want to grow their social circles and make new friends
- Singles searching for romance and love
- Individuals who want to find dates nearby
THINGS WE LIKED
- Free standard membership for both male and female members
- You get many matches right after you sign up
- Members are diverse and open-minded, and it’s easy to find someone nearby
- Free members can communicate, unlike on many other dating sites
- The variety of search and interaction services that make FriendFinder similar to a social media app
THINGS WE DIDN'T LIKE
- The interface needs modernization
- Many fake profiles
- Free membership is limited
| 📈 Visits per month: | 105K |
| ✅ Profile verification: | Yes |
| ❤️ Reply rate: | 91% |
| 🌍 Most used in: | US, UK, and Canada |
Public Opinion & Sign-Up Process
Though the dating site has been around for quite a while, we haven’t found many Friend Finder reviews online. There are some discussions on Quora and Reddit, but they barely pass for a proper review. All the comments we’ve read were that it’s just another online dating site or one of the hookup sites. Which was quite confusing.
But as you know, we trust only what we see, which is why we created a male profile that took us around 5-7 minutes. It would be faster, as there are not that many fields to fill in, but for some reason, the site is a bit slow. There is a 5-step registration process for all free members that includes the following:
- Indicate your gender and dating preferences
- Add your age, country, and zip code
- Fill in your active email, username, and password
- Share your race, body type, sexual orientation, and marital status
- Write an introduction title and tell others about yourself
The whole process was quite standard. There was no need to add a phone number or ID to join. We used the site as a free member first and later upgraded to the one-month Gold premium membership to use all the online dating services like chat rooms or watch full-length videos.
Tips for Creating a Popular Dating Profile
During our research, we gathered some effective tips on how to make an eye-catching profile and attract more users, so here are our tips:
- Add 3-5 high-quality photos of you (one of them should be full body pic)
- Fill in all the fields of the profile and communicate your dating goals clearly
- Use profile highlights for search and email (there is a paid subscription that costs $9.90 a month or $8.30/mo in a 3-month paid membership)
Make an effort while creating your profile, and you will see a popularity boost.
Popular Dating Profiles
-
Prices for Online Dating on FriendFinder
An important part of our FriendFinder review was to see if free features are enough for online dating and whether premium membership is good value for the buck. Let’s remind you that we’ve bought a 1-month Gold membership, which is the most expensive one and costs $34.94.
Read on and see if we regret it.
| Gold | 1 month 3 months 6 months | $34.94 $19.98/mo $15.82/mo |
| Silver | 1 month 3 months 6 months | $22.94 $13.31/mo $10.82/mo |
| Highlights | 1 month 3 months | $9.90 $8.30 |
The cost varies depending on the length of the subscription, and if you plan to use the site for a few months, it’s more cost-effective to go for longer subscriptions as they end up costing less. Overall, the prices are quite affordable and, compared to Adult Friend Finder, lower, as 1 one-month Gold membership costs $39.95.
Golden Subscription Members Get
- Viewing and contacting members through instant messaging
- Showing up in top searches
- Being the 1st to contact new members
- Watching video intros
- Viewing extra-large photos
- Free private chat room
- Creating blogs
- Advanced search (searching by body type, sexual preference, etc.)
Silver Subscription Members Get
- Viewing profile photos
- Contacting new members
- Viewing video intros
- Partial community interaction
- Showing up after Gold members
So, do we regret paying for a FriendFinder membership? No. It’s reasonably priced, and we had a great time testing the site as paid members.
How to Look for Matches on FriendFinder
FriendFinder can be a bit confusing for first-time users, so let us guide you through the initial steps of searching for potential matches.
Searching for Matches
If you click the blue Search button on the home screen or choose Advanced Search from the dropdown menu, you can set your preferences. The options include preferred gender, age range, distance, join date, and last login date, as well as profile-specific filters, like the presence of photos or videos, VIP, Gold, and verified status. These filters are available for all non-paying members.
The advanced filters unlock after an upgrade and include race, sexual orientation, body type, height, hair and eye color, lifestyle choices, marital status, as well as religion, education, and even willingness to relocate. Predictably, the more filters you engage, the fewer options the search results will return, so we suggest adding them one or two at a time.
You can also sort search results. For example, you can only view members currently online, those newest to FriendFinder, or those closest to your location. The Hot or Not feature works similarly to Tinder, though instead of generating matches, it adds members you like to your hotlist.
Member matching your search filters will appear in a grid, and hovering a mouse over their photos will open a summary of their profiles, which will help you sort through the options faster.
User Profiles
All FriendFinder members can access profile information, though full-sized photos and videos are only accessible after an upgrade. Although the profile pages look a bit cluttered, they boil down to a few critical sections:
- Profile information. A short personal introduction precedes a list of standard fields, ranging from sexual orientation, age, and appearance to astrological signs.
- Compatibility chart. FriendFinder calculates your compatibility on a 100-point scale, accounting for matching age, gender, race, body type, and other preferences.
- Interact. The action buttons let you add members to your hotlist or friends, send flirts and tips, or upgrade them to a premium membership.
- Social activity. These sections include the lady’s friends, her recent activity on FriendFinder, as well as testimonials, and Bling.
We found plenty of detailed profiles, but a fair share of users don’t bother adding photos or telling much about themselves. Thankfully, search filters work great to screen unwanted profiles, and there’s always an option to report and block suspicious members.
Communication Tools
Email is the primary means of initiating contact with members, and you can find the text field in each profile right under the photo and interaction buttons. Aside from a standard message, the email feature lets you:
- Attach photos or send private album access
- Send flowers (50 points each) or virtual gifts
- Add links to members, photos, or posts
- Send bling
- Receive a read receipt
- Attach your profile or signature
- Attach a friend request
The messages tab includes all sent and received texts, and it’s organized like a typical inbox. There are folders and tabs on the left for easy navigation, with a list of all conversations in the chosen folder in the middle column and a full text of the message on the right. We were especially thankful for a detailed guide that appeared upon our first visit, as it was a great help for navigating the interface.
FriendFinder Unique Features
The FriendFinder dating website comes with many standout features and tools we haven’t seen elsewhere, but these three caught our attention:
- What’s popular. You can switch between popular photos, videos, posts, and members to see who is extra active on FriendFinder. You can also use their success to tailor your profile and actions to get noticed.
- Cupid preferences. The list includes basic parameters, like age, gender, and sexual orientation, and is used for calculating compatibility scores when you’re browsing member profiles, so it pays to fill out all fields that are important to you.
- Privacy preferences. There’s a long list of settings, but you may want to exclude your profile from showing up in search engines, newsletters, and social media posts, especially if you don’t want to advertise your online dating activity to your partner.
As you explore FriendFinder, we’re sure you’ll discover more unique features that set it apart from other dating sites. Still, we encourage you to consider the three we mentioned to make your experience safe and comfortable.
