PlentyofFish (POF) Review

With your friend hung up on that one relationship that just didn’t work out, what do you tell 'em? Most likely that they'll have more chances if they keep the swiping up, or that "there are plenty of fish in the sea.” Well, it’s from that saying that the name of PlentyofFish was born, and it’s certainly a cute reference. 

The site, launched in 2003 with an accompanying app version now in play, has one big thing working to its advantage: it was sold to Match Group, the same company that owns online dating options like Tinder, Match. and OkCupid in 2015. It's in a position to take advantage of top-of-the-line expertise, and it shows in its recent millennial-friendly redesign. 

That said, can POF actually back up its claims of having all those “fish” when mobile-first apps like Tinder, Bumble and Grindr dominate the market? 

Key Features

• Token use
• Phone number verification
• Extensive search filters
• Priority messages
• Meet Me swiping
• Lengthy sign-up process
• My City 
• Live video chats
• Blind Date

PlentyofFish Review

Eighteen years after it was founded, POF is 100% still kicking and looks younger than ever thanks for a forward-thinking, millennial-friendly redesign. Unfortunately, the cutting-edge look and feel of PlentyofFish is one of the only things it has going for it. 

Without a clear gimmick or killer feature, it feels like a cobbled together version of features other apps do better. Like every site and app these days, it has a Tinder-like swiping mechanism, and though the POF version is (unsurprisingly given they have the same parent company) pretty similar, its somewhat sparse user base means you’re likely to be swiping left and right on people nowhere near you. 

As well, its lengthy sign-up process (more on that below) is much more focused on basic details than ones to do with personality, meaning that, while its search function gives it a clear advantage on pure swipe-based apps (you can search for all users within a certain radius of you who are 5’2” and have red hair and green eyes and drink socially, for instance), it also doesn’t get you any closer to knowing if you’d actually click with the people you’re physically attracted to. 

Ultimately, there are much worse designed sites out there, and if you’re looking for one that’s more about long-term relationships than hookups, POF is a solid option. However, it’s unlikely to have a ton of appeal for younger singles with a preference towards the critical-mass-of-users approach of a mobile-first app. 

Signing Up

Signing up for PlentyofFish is a somewhat time-consuming process compared to many other contemporary sites and apps which try to speed users through the process rather than deluge them with text forms to fill out. Clearly, POF isn’t scared of losing some prospective users midway through their lengthy signup process, as there aren’t any shortcuts to be found. 

First, you enter your first name, then a user name, email address and password. Next, you provide your country, state/province, city, and postal/zip code. Then, you note your gender — you can choose from the traditional “man” or “woman” options, but you can also click “more options” if you want to identify yourself as trans or non-binary — and whether you want to show your gender on your profile or not. Next, you enter your birthdate, your ethnicity, and whether you’re looking for men or women (bisexual users should note that they can’t choose both, for some reason; non-binary users are still asked to slot themselves into either “man” or “woman” for the purpose of being displayed to users who are looking for that gender). 

You're promoted to indicate what kind of relationship you’re looking for by stating it two different ways in response to the questions “What kind of relationship do you want? and “What is your intent?” The site then asks you whether you date smokers, people with kids, or people with “a few extra pounds” body types. 

Next, it gets you to open up about yourself, asking for your occupation, your education level, your ambition level (you can choose between not ambitious, somewhat ambitious, ambitious and extremely ambitious on a sliding scale), your income, your religion, and a second language you might speak. 

On the next page, you record your marital status, the length of your previous longest relationship, your eye color, hair color, height, and body type. When choosing a personality type, you're given options like “Animal Lover,” “Brogrammer,” “Poet,” “Tattooed / Pierced,” “Daredevil,” “Fashionista” and “Coffee Snob,” which follows with the choice of whether you consume alcohol, cigarettes and drugs, whether you own a vehicle, whether you have or want to have kids, whether you have any pets, your parents’ marital status, how many siblings you have, and where you are in the birth order. 

That's followed with short-answer portion of the test, er, sign-up process. Here, you’re invited to write down a “Headline” that might sum you up, the “most important thing people should know about you,” some favorite topics of conversation, and your interests. After verifying you’re a real person by getting you to input your phone number and texting you a six-digit code, you can upload some profile photos directly from your computer or from your Facebook account. 

Finally, you’re asked to take the PlentyofFish pledge: you “acknowledge that on PlentyofFish I am free to be myself. With that freedom comes the responsibility to respect others on PlentyofFish for who they are. In engaging with others, I will: BE KIND. BE REAL. BE RESPECTFUL. BE SAFE.” By clicking on “I pledge,” you’re through! 

What it costs: $19.99 for a single month, $12.90 per month if you sign up for three months, $12.75 per month if you sign up for four months, $9.99 per month if you sign up for eight months, or $6.99 per month for a whole year — paid by Visa, Visa Debit, Mastercard, Discover Card, American Express, Diner’s Club, or PayPal.

Sign up for PlentyofFish here

How Does PlentyofFish Work - Searching for Matches

As noted above, POF has an extensive and relatively straightforward search function that can easily narrow down its user base to show you just the members who tick off certain boxes. If you’re dead set on finding the Catholic singles near you, you can do that; if you have a weakness for blondes, you can find them, and if you have kids and want to find someone who does too, that’s an option, too. 

Pretty much anything that you noted about yourself during the sign-up process is something you can search for in other users, making the search function — which is available both on desktop under the “Search” heading and on the POF mobile app under the icon that looks like a rectangle between two lines — one of the site’s big strengths. 

How to Start a Conversation on PlentyofFish

Unlike many paid online dating options, you can message other users without paying to upgrade to a premium profile, and unlike many free apps, you don’t need to match with the person to message them. To send a message, you simply navigate to a user’s profile and click the message icon on mobile or type your message into the “Send a Quick Message” field on desktop. You can also toggle the message to be “priority.”

Safety & Security

PlentyofFish uses a phone number verification process during sign-up to ensure that users aren’t bots, and reviews profile pictures to ensure that you’re not using ones that violate their TOS. Because POF is owned by the Match Group, it benefits from what should be top-of-the-line digital security, but the site did acknowledge a data breach as recently as last year that was leaking users’ postal codes. You can read more about the site’s privacy policy here.