Active Audience | 59% |
Quality Matches | 82% |
Popular Age | 24-30 |
Profiles | 10 700 |
Reply Rate | 68% |
Ease of Use | 6.5 |
Popularity | 8.2 |
Fraud | Very Rarely |
Rating |
8.4
|
Registration | Free |
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As our lives get busier and the professional sphere gets more competitive, we turn to the internet in search of love. No shortage of dating websites promises to match you with your love interest. Some of these websites are great, with a good pool of prospects. Some, not so much. BookOfMatches is one dating service that falls in the former category, and we’ll tell you why.
The trouble with useful dating websites is that most of them charge a premium for their services. They reel you in with the promise of hundreds of prospects. What’s funny is, most of these websites heavily advertise free membership.
BookOfMatches does what it promises and does it well. It is a free dating site that offers a good set of features and a good pool of users. There are no hidden charges or micro-transactions and no premium membership that puts paying members at an advantage.
The world of free dating websites is a small one, saturated with sites that are either a scam or just plain useless. BookOfMatches breaks this norm, which is why it attracts a lot of attention and following every year.
We believe that your love life shouldn’t cost you money even before it has started. This is why we are always on the lookout for free services that offer a decent level of quality. The trouble is, once you register, you find that the website is full of fake accounts or that it provides limited services on its free subscription.
Hence, when we come across a website like BookOfMatches, it is a breath of fresh air. When the website advertises that it is completely free, you can trust that it lives up to its claim. The country dating website is entirely devoid of any hidden membership fees or any upgrade options that unlock those advanced features that other dating websites are so fond of the offering.
Another aspect of BookOfMatches, which we appreciated, is that it does not require any kind of payment details to verify your identity. You do not need to give the website your credit or debit card number, your PayPal account ID, or details of your bank. This immediately adds a degree of trust.
BookOfMatches isn’t a new entrant to the world of dating. Granted, when it first came to the scene in 2002, online dating services had already had a while to establish themselves as the new norm. The website has put a lot of years behind it since then. In that time, BookOfMatches has refined its core offering to gives users an experience tailored around them.
Since the beginning, BookOfMatches has operated to connect people with similar preferences and attributes. The website works on an attribute matching model. It compares a selection of personality and physical traits to find users who are most likely to be compatible with each other.
The biggest downside is its limited availability. BookOfMatches is only available for residents of the UK, USA, Canada, and Australia. Although anyone can register regardless of their country of residence, the website only officially supports these four countries. This is a shame considering that it is a free website that is not limited by payment platforms, so it can quickly expand its area of influence.
There are close to 21,000 users registered on BookOfMatches. Our deep dive into the user pool revealed that BookOfMatches has a higher percentage of males than females. The ratio can be estimated to 4 male users for every female user. This makes BookOfMatches an ideal website for female users to find a partner.
At first glance, you will find nothing special about the BookOfMatches. The aesthetic is clean yet straightforward and not instantly attractive. However, its users don’t expect it to provide beautiful design and don’t choose the site for its visual attraction. When we evaluate a free site, we assess it for its performance and not its appearance.
Probably one of the first things you will notice about the website is that it is plastered with a good number of ads. Since this is a free website, BookOfMatches uses ads to keep the service running. A lot of sites use ads to pay for hosting and other expenses and offer a paid version that removes these ads. Since BookOfMatches does not charge you for anything, users don’t get the option to remove the ads.
The overall navigation left us impressed. All the main features are visible and easily accessible. Everything is right where you would expect it to be. Users will not have to go looking for a particular element. We noticed some lapses in loading speed when searching for prospects, but such minor issues can be overlooked when navigating a free service.
For a free website, BookOfMatches offers an impressive number of features. It would not be a stretch to claim that the website provides just as many features as a paid service, maybe even more. It has a few paid services beat.
The website offers two primary modes of communication. In addition to an instant chat feature that is relatively common on dating services, users can also contact prospects via email. The only caveat is that you have to use BookOfMatches’ dedicated mailbox, but that is a small price to pay. The mailbox has a simple and dated interface, but it doesn’t have to look shiny to get the job done.
As there are a lot of features to get excited about on BookOfMatches, we will list them in a correct order below so that they are easy to keep track of:
Bulletin – Keep your friends updated with the happenings in your life. The newsletter will be added to your profile and can also be emailed to your list of contacts.
On BookOfMatches, it all begins with a search. You can start a search even before signing up. This will give you a sense of the results you can get around your area. BookOfMatches will put together a brief list of prospects and ask you to register for a free account to view the rest. Registration takes less than a minute.
Once you land on the search page, the real fun begins. Full disclosure, BookOfMatches does not employ any intricate algorithms that paid websites to boast of connecting you with your perfect match. The website uses a simple straight-line matching system. You are matched with people you have similar traits with. The more attributes you share with a person, the more compatible the search engine will consider you to be.
The list of attributes BookOfMatches uses to match prospects is massive and keeps growing. Therefore, you can expect some pretty useful hits. The search engine is an excellent way of finding people you share the most similarities with. Drinking habits, smoking preferences, travel history, pets, hobbies, work routine, social outlook, stress level, physical appearance, and cleanliness are just some of the attributes BookOfMatches will match.
When you are presented with a list of prospects, you can choose your approach. You can opt to take it slow and send your potential love interest a wink. You can then add them to your favorites and go for a more direct approach later. Or you can send them an email right off the bat. If the user is online, you can also choose to connect with them via instant message.
Registration starts on the website’s landing page. As we have already mentioned, the website has a dated aesthetic, but it is clean and user-friendly. You can start the registration process by choosing a username and entering it in the Join & Meet FREE textbox. This will kickstart a swift and easy registration process that involves entering an email address and selecting a password.
Third-party adverts and banners are a common occurrence on BookOfMatches, so you will have to navigate carefully. Even during the registration process, links to external websites are placed in such a way that they can be easily mistaken for the website’s own. Clicking on any of these will take you off BookOfMatches’ registration page and transfer you to that of a third-party website.
Following your registration, you will be taken to an attributes page. This is a basic questionnaire that asks roughly ten to fifteen questions about your habits, physical characteristics, and ethnic background. Your answers on this page show up on your profile and determine the users you will be matched with. All users are awarded with a Quality Membership Score from zero to hundred.
The Quality Membership feature assesses how users use the website and its features. As users undertake specific activities, the score increases. These activities include posting more pictures, sending messages to users, and filling your profile in detail. Completing your profile with relevant information boosts your score quite a bit. This score is publicly visible on your profile.
Users who achieve a score of 100 are awarded with a Certified Seal. Like the score, this seal will also show up on your profile. Through this seal, the website highlights you as a Quality Member.
Achieving the Quality Member ranking has a couple of benefits. Such members can share their contact details, such as email address and phone number, with other Quality Members.
BookOfMatches does not currently have an app. However, the website is optimized for mobile devices. This is a lightweight website that does not overburden your phone’s browser. The navigation menu adapts itself to mobile usage. Overall, the website retains its clean aesthetic and simple navigation on both Android and iOS devices.
If you are interested in BookOfMatches, you might also like the following websites.
MySingleFriend
PlentyOfFish
eHarmony
Mingle2
BookOfMatches is a completely free dating service. There are no hidden charges or premium benefits to be purchased. The website offers the same user experience to all members. Users can only avail added benefits by completing specific activities. BookOfMatches does not charge for any of its services. The developers pay for hosting through ad placements on the website.
All the features on BookOfMatches are free. Following is an overview of the website’s basic features:
BookOfMatches does not give users the option to pay for a premium membership. Premium membership is earned by completing certain activities on the website. Upon completion of all the activities, users receive a Certified Seal. Following are the benefits achieved with a Certified Seal:
Normally, you would not expect a free dating website to put a lot of emphasis on security and privacy. BookOfMatches, however, does a good job of making users feel safe and comfortable. The website displays ads, so it asks users if they want to opt into its cookies policy.
The privacy features on BookOfMatches include reporting inappropriate pictures and blocking users from contacting you. You can even report profiles that are harassing or bothering you. Blocked users will not be able to contact you or view your profile.
Users can also switch off the instant messaging feature to prevent other members from sending them messages. Such members will only be contacted through email. BookOfMatches also gives you the option to become invisible and browse profiles without alerting the users.
BookOfMatches is not the perfect dating website, and it does not claim to be. What it is, is a great free alternative to paid dating. The website delivers a lot of value and does not disappoint with its features. We love the fact that BookOfMatches does not subject you to paid-only premium features.
The only real complaint we have with the website is that it covers only four countries. It will be good to see BookOfMatches expand its reach and offer its services in other countries as well. With a set of promising features, it should be an instant hit.
BookOfMatches gives you the option to deactivate your profile or delete your account. Both options can be opted for through the settings menu. Deactivated profiles can be reactivated, but deleted accounts cannot be recovered.
Users can be contacted through their profiles. You can send other users a wink, an instant message, or an email. Do note that some users may have the instant messaging feature turned off.
Users who add you as a favorite or view your profile will appear in the ‘See who liked you’ and ‘See who viewed your profile’ sections respectively.
Users can be blocked through the relevant option on their profile. Blocked users will not be able to view your profile or send you an instant message.
BookOfMatches does not offer any paid subscriptions.
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