With the rise and subsequent spread of the Internet around the world, beginning in the mid-2000’s emerged online dating websites and applications where single men and women looking for relationships or even true love could sign-up to these pages, view pictures, and send messages to those members of the opposite sex (or same sex) who they were interested in getting to know better. The main point of online dating is to get offline and actually meet those men or woman who you are interested in meeting and maybe starting a relationship with. Plenty of Fish is one of those online dating sites that have gained prominence and popularity over the years.
Plenty Of Fish Review (POF)
Background
Plenty of Fish was one of the first online dating sites and has been around for almost fifteen years. Markus Frind, who is a German entrepreneur and the founder and CEO of Plenty of Fish, started the online dating website in 2003. Since the founding of Plenty of Fish in 2003, the company has seen exponential growth in both memberships and revenue. The headquarters of the company is located in Vancouver, Canada and there are about seventy-five employees who work in marketing, customer service, and programming. Most recently, in July of 2015, Plenty of Fish was sold to The Match Group for about $600 million dollars. This is notable because Match Group Inc. is an internet-based company that also owns other popular online dating sites such as OKCupid, Tinder, and Match.com. It is estimated that Plenty of Fish is the 2nd most popular online dating site on the Internet after Match.com with about 23 million unique members using the website each month. It is estimate that there are about 32 million members registered to use Plenty of Fish as well.
In addition to its millions of registered users, Plenty of Fish gets over two billion unique page views per month. Plenty of Fish isn’t just for serious relationships but can also be used for casual dating as well as building new friendships. Plenty of Fish was started in the United States but has since spread over the past decade to other countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, Spain, and many more nations. Also, a useful aspect of this dating site is that it comes in multiple languages such as English, French, Spanish, Italian, and German. If you’re looking to meet men or women in other countries outside of your own, Plenty of Fish gives you that opportunity to do so.
Costs of Membership
Another positive aspect to the website’s background is that most of the features are free. With a free membership, you can still take advantage of setting up your own personal profile, searching for other members, and communicating with them if they peak your interest. You can also view your matches, see who views your profile, and change and add to your profile pictures. A paid upgrade will allow you to access additional features such as ad removal, accessing gifts to purchase for interested members, and being able to buy Goldfish credits, which are unique to Plenty of Fish.
An upgraded membership to POF will cost about $7 a month for a one-year subscription, while six months will cost a bit more at $9 a month, and a three-month membership will cost about $13 a month. Ultra Match, adding profile themes, and getting your profile highlighted are other attractive reasons why certain POF users decide to upgrade their membership. Goldfish credits can cost between $10-$40 for anywhere from 90 to 700 credits which can be billed to your credit card for a one-time purchase. Goldfish credits can be used to buy gifts for members whom you like or are interested in, and be used for accessing ‘Ice Breakers’ if you are not sure what to say to prospective dates or friends.
Main Features
- Basic profile information
For a mainstream-dating site like Plenty of Fish, it has a lot to offer its users in terms of popular and useful features. It has everything you could need even if you decide to go with the free version instead of the paid version. For its users, Plenty of Fish makes sure to include having basic profile information available in order for members to better match with each other for dating and relationships if they have a lot in common.
- Matching based on interests
POF makes sure that they ask you what you’re looking for when you sign up whether it is simple friendship or a deep relationship. They ask all users about their marital status, children, interests, hobbies, place of living, smoking and drinking habits, religion, profession, salary, family background, relationship preferences, etc. By answering these questions, a user of POF will obtain better matches based on their individual preferences and answers to these personal questions.
Many dating websites like Plenty of Fish rely on algorithms in order to match their members with other members for dating and relationship purposes. Every user can then make their profile unique by adding more information with an essay introducing themselves to other users along with stating their favorite movies, music, books, foods, etc. Each profile also comes with a headline and an option to add profile pictures in order to stand out more and garner more interest. Perhaps most unique to Plenty of Fish is the option for members to state what their preferences would be for a “first date” and what they would like to do.
- Relationship chemistry predictor
Another main feature of Plenty of Fish is the ‘Relationship Chemistry Predictor’ where POF will suggest questions for its users to answer based on assessing compatibility with other members for dating or relationships. The ‘Relationship Chemistry Predictor’ comes with about seventy-five unique questions designed to match like-minded and similar uses with each other based on their answers. These questions are often statements where the members will have to answer “Agree”, “Somewhat Agree”, “Disagree”, and “Somewhat Disagree.” Five different aspects of one’s personality are measured by this test on Plenty of Fish and then your answers will reflect which members you are most likely to be matched with afterwards by the algorithms by the programmers of Plenty of Fish.
- Relationship needs assessment
In addition, there is also another unique feature to Plenty of Fish known as the “Relationship Needs Assessment.” This algorithm is made in the hopes of assessing each individual member’s overt and hidden needs when it comes to having a relationship with someone else. In order to get accurate results, each member must complete the assessment. There are different questions and topics that are addressed in this assessment in order to get more accurate and compatible matches. Each member is then presented with an action plan, which highlights the personality qualities and attributes that they should be looking for in a romantic partner. Some examples of the questionnaires that are used to assess compatibility are “Is Your Love Interest A Keeper?” “Psychological Assessment”, and “The Sex Test.”
Additional Features
Besides these main features such as the ‘Relationship Chemistry Predictor’ and the ‘Relationship Needs Assessment’, there are a number of additional features that are unique to Plenty of Fish. Some examples of these features include Goldfish credits, login points, virtual gifts, testimonials, and roses. Perhaps the most popular of these additional features would be the ‘Goldfish credits.’
- Goldfish credits
By using your own money, you can buy Goldfish credits in order to purchase virtual gifts, more popular icebreakers to begin conversations with potential matches, and the ability to see if the other person has read your message and when they’re in the midst of sending you a reply. The virtual gifts that you send and receive as a member of Plenty of Fish will be visible for up to a month on your public profile. A POF user may find it useful to have their gifts on display for the profile to have other members see that they are highly desired and are popular in general.
- Login points
The more you log-in to your profile at Plenty of Fish, the more points you will accumulate each time you are on the website. Each time you login to your account, these points are automatically added and can be used to purchase virtual gifts or icebreakers. If you decide to buy gifts with your login points, they will not be displayed on your profile but you will instead be notified of your purchase by e-mail.
- Testimonials
If you have been added as a favorite of another user, they may choose to write a testimonial about you talking about your time together, your personality, and your attributes. You can also write testimonials about any users who you add to your own favorites list. If you’re not happy or are wary of any testimonial that is written about you and appears on your profile, you do have the option to remove it. After you write and publish a testimonial about another user, you can always edit it later or even delete it if you are unhappy with what you have written about the user in the past.
- Roses
Another unique and interesting feature of Plenty of Fish is that each member gets two virtual roses when they sign-up to the website. You can only have two roses at a time and if you send one to another member, regardless if they are male or female, then you will have to wait a total of one month before you receive another rose. It’s important then to be careful and choose wisely as to which person you give your two roses too because you have a very limited supply and you won’t be able to re-stock as easily as you would like to.
Gender-Specific Features
When it comes to certain features, they may only be accessible to you depending on whether you are a man or woman. Users of a certain gender will have access to specific features but the other gender will not. For example, men can access a list of female members who are cited as being the ‘Hottest Girls’ based on their ratings and how often they respond to messages from potential suitors. Women also have access to a specific feature just for them known as “Most Attracted” which highlights those men who have the highest chance of being attracted to them based on their profile, answers to questions, and personal attributes.
Lastly, Plenty of Fish also come with general features that are popular across a wide spectrum of dating sites that can be access by all members. These general features include a chat option, discussion forums, ‘meet me’, and a mobile application for iPhone, Android, and other mobile phone operators. Given these wealth of features that can be used by both free and paid members, it’s easy to see why Plenty of Fish is the 2nd most popular dating website in the world.
Plenty of Fish Costs: Free v. Paid Membership
If you don’t wish to pay money to an online dating website, you’re in luck with Plenty of Fish. With a free membership, you can still have full access to all parts of the site. You can search for other members; view your testimonials, your favorite members, and the messages you have exchanged with other members in the past. However, in order to get the full experience of Plenty of Fish, it would be best to upgrade to a paid membership especially if you take online dating seriously. When you upgrade, a paid member gets access to highlighted profile results when they search for like-minded members.
Only paid members can use the advanced ‘Ultra Match’ option, which is a ‘Behavioral Matchmaking System’ that can make the process of finding a romantic relationship much easier. Paid members can see which messages they’ve sent have been read or not and also if they have been deleted or not too.
You can also design your profile to have themes and colors too if that’s what you want from Plenty of Fish. Perhaps most appealing is the ability for paid members to have unlimited gifts to give out to other members that they’re interested in. Lastly, paid members don’t have to see any advertisement with the ‘ad removal’ option and you can see who viewed your profile and at what time or day they visited it.
POF free membership includes the following features:
- Create a profile.
Add your information, birth date, gender, ethnicity, and country. You can change your gender and birth date within 2 weeks of signing up. After two weeks has passed by, you are unable to correct it. This algorithm prevents users from trying to trick the matching system with different results.
- Add location, gender seeking, and physical information.
Just add where you live, what gender you are seeking and any physical information about yourself.
- Add what are you looking for such as:
Marital status, children, longest relationship you’ve had, list of interests, smoking and drinking habits, drugs, profession, pets, income, family situation, and optional essay on first dates.
- Add pictures.
You can add up to 8 pictures (with free account) or 16 pictures (with paid account). You have the option to make your images private. Moreover, you can download your images from Facebook or Instagram.
- Relationship chemistry predictor.
You can answer 73 questions about you and your personality. It’s easy to answer these questions, simply answer: disagree, somewhat disagree, agree or somewhat agree. Additionally, you can answer questions like: My religion is very important to me, I can resist temptation easily, I have high standards for myself etc.
Once you complete this questionnaire, it measures 5 broad dimensions of personality and matches you with users who have taken the same test and have similar answers.
- Relationship needs assessment.
This questionnaire consists of 100 questions about what you need in order to make your relationship successful. There are 4 answers you can choose from such as: much like me, somewhat like me, somewhat unlike me, not at all like me. Additionally, you can answer questions like: I feel very possessive toward my partner, I like my partner compliment my achievements, I am living the life I want. These questions help you with any hidden needs in your relationship.
Once you have completed the relationship assessment questions, you are given an action plan of how to better communicate and understand your matches.
- POF seduction guide.
This is a guide you can use to send to other users on how you would like them to seduce you. To be able to create the guide, you need to answers numerous multiple choice questions.
When you have completed the seduction guide, it presents you with a three step seduction plan that consists of: How to date me, approach me, and how to sexually seduce me.
- Other profile related questions.
Your Fish Personality. You are required to choose from 30 fish. What describes your personality and looks the best. These questions are fun but don’t really mean anything.
- Free search.
- View photos and profiles.
- Add favorites.
- Read testimonials.
- Communicate with users.
- Rate profile photos.
- Check users who viewed you.
- Check your matches.
POF paid membership includes the following:
POF paid members can use all of the above mentioned features plus additional features such as:
- Access ultra match.
- Your profile will be highlighted in search results.
- Check if your emails were deleted or read.
- Get Goldfish credits and login points.
- Able to turn off ads.
- Change profile themes.
- Ability to see who checked out your profile and when it was viewed (the date and time).
- Earn credits (depends on your membership). You can earn 100/150/200 credits to send gifts.
- Listed before free members in the feature Meet Me!
- Ability to view all members extended profiles.
- Ability to view your previous interactions with any member.
- Ability to update your username.
- Ability to check who has viewed your profile and you voted yes or maybe on.
- Ability to send 3 virtual gifts via email per day.
- Able to receive a list of the hottest girls in your local area who reply to messages.
- Ability to upload double the pictures (16 images).
- Able to check when a user was last online.
Positive and Negative Aspects
Positives
- Multiple features with a free account
Like any online dating website, Plenty of Fish is going to have both positive and negative aspects to it. The positive features involve the fact that as a free member of POF, you’ll still have access to multiple features that will make it worthwhile to sign-up for an account and join the online site. You can still create a profile, search for other members, and communicate with interested members without paying anything.
- Goldfish credits
If you would like to have access to Goldfish credits or have a paid membership, you can do so on Plenty of Fish and it’s not that expensive at about $7 – $11 per month depending on how long your membership is valid for.
- Large pool of fish (users)
There’s also the fact that Plenty of Fish is the 2nd largest online dating website in the world and has millions of members making it a good option for single men or women who are looking to have multiple dates to see whom they are compatible with.
- Relationship tips
Lastly, Plenty of Fish tries to help you as a member with giving you tips on its website about constructing a better profile, which openers work the best, and how to write a good message that will gain a lot of responses.
Negatives:
- Have to pay for extra features
When it comes to negative features of Plenty of Fish, there are a few of them even when compared to the abundant amount of positives. Most people would see it as a negative that you have to pay per month in order to access the advanced features of the site.
- No online customer support
Plenty of Fish also does not have any online customer support whether it’s by phone call or by e-mail so you’re basically on your own if something happens to your profile or you get banned from the site unfairly.
- No video or voice recordings
You also do not have the option to upload videos or voice recordings to the website and there’s also no ‘group chat’ feature in case you would like to talk to more than one man or one woman at once.
- Too many advertisements
Some users of Plenty of Fish may also be annoyed by the sheet amount of advertising on the website whether it’s on the main page, on your profile, or in other parts of the site which may make it more difficult to navigate and find what you’re looking for. You also must pay money in order to get the advertisements removed, which is unfortunate for most users.
- Scammers
Since Plenty of Fish is accessible to all for free unless they wish to pay for an upgraded membership, there is a higher likelihood that you could run into scam artists or fake accounts due to the sheer easiness of signing up for a free membership. Future Plenty of Fish users should be on the lookout for warning signs of scam artists, and fake trolls. Without a doubt though, the number of positive aspects when it comes to POF outweigh the negatives especially given the popularity of the site.
Relationship Types Allowed
- Straight
- Lesbian
- Gay
Relationships You Can Search For
- Friends
- Penpal
- Activity partner
- Dating
- Long-Term
- Marriage
Status of Relationships
- Single
- Separated
- Divorced
- Widowed
- In a Relationship
- Married
Tools To Use
- Photos
- Profiles
- Private messaging.
This feature can limit who can contact you based on what type of relationship you are seeking for, your location or smoke preferences etc.
- View the status of your sent message (paid membership).
- Your Matches
POF’s matching system based list created according to your preferences.
- Meet Me
Check out pictures of of local members and select if you want to speak with them or not.
- Instant messenger
Chat in real time with other users. You can also turn it off. This feature is not available in cellphones.
- Favorites list
Add users into your favorite list and check who has favorited you or updated their profile.
- Testimonials
Write testimonials (you need to be in that members favorite list to be able to write a testimonial). You can remove or edit any testimonials you have written or the ones that are written about you.
- Send virtual gifts
You can send public or email gifts. Email gifts can be purchased with Login points. Many different images can be sent as gifts.
- Send roses
Two roses are available to you when you sign up. You need to wait 30 days to get another rose.
- Hot girls
This feature is only available for men. This list is created about women who constantly reply to messages.
- Most attracted
This is a feature available for women. This is a list of users created who most likely be attracted to you.
- Ultra Match
This feature is available to paid users. It’s a“Behavioral Matchmaking System”.
- Personality tests
This test includes: seduction style guide, the sex test, relationship needs assessment, psychological assessment, is your love interest a keeper, relationship chemistry predictor.
- POF mobile apps
You can use the app with Android, Windows phone or iPhone. The mobile app includes all of the sites features. It also includes voice calling if you don’t want to give your real number to a user you don’t know yet.
- What is not allowed
Communication with a user who is under 14 years old is not allowed. Also, first messages that contain sexual references or photos.
Easy To Search Users By
- Who viewed your profile
- Who is online at the moment
- New users or users in your city
- Users who’s preference is to get married
- Your matches
- Basic search (age, your gender, what gender you are seeking, what you are looking for, ethnicity, relationship type, last visited, astrological sign, photos, city, and country).
- Interest based search
- Chemistry. This list is based on compatibility.
- Advanced search
- Will respond (list of users created who most likely will respond back to you if you check out their profile page).
- Zip code search. Simply search members by specific zip codes.
- Username search
- Needs. This list is matched with users based on what you want in a relationship.
- Date night list. You can add yourself in this list weekly which indicates that you are available on this Friday and are seeking for a date. The list get scleared out every Friday.
- Meet Me. This is kind of like rating images. You will view photos of local users which lets them know if you want to meet them or not.
- Tell users if you want to meet them or not by viewing individual photos of members local to you (like rating images)
- Which members are displayed to you is influenced by their location, age, your search options, and whether or not they are a paid member
- The Mutual Meet Me option allows you to see who you want to meet and if they want to meet you
- Ultra Match. Use Behavioral Matchmaking System to match better with members. This is a feature for paid users only.
How To Delete POF Account?
It’s always a shame when a user of a website like Plenty of Fish has to go ahead and delete their account. You may be doing it because you’ve met someone special off the website by now or it’s because you don’t think that you’re having much success with online dating through Plenty of Fish.
Unfortunately, it happens sometimes but thankfully the process is pretty painless and fast when it comes to getting rid of your personal account on the website. It should only take a few minutes but there are some steps that you’ll need to follow in order to finish the job.
In order to formally delete your account, you’ll need to log in and click on “HELP” and then “Delete Account”. Enter in some information that will confirm that the process has been completed. If you are still having problems in deleting your profile, use this direct removal link.
As a current member of the website, you’ll need to enter in your current username, your current password and your reason for leaving the website.
This is all mandatory information so make sure you don’t leave any of the form blank. You may also leave Plenty of Fish with a ‘testimonial’ regarding your experiences using the website regardless if they were positive or negative for you.
Remember that after you delete your account, that action is permanent in nature. You won’t be able to re-activate that same account in the future if you decide to change your mind later on.
Plenty of Fish will try to encourage you to stay by giving you access to some tips and advice about boosting your profile but the final decision is up to you and you alone.
If you didn’t have any dating luck on POF and want to sign up for another dating site, check out our Tinder review here.
Conclusion
Plenty of Fish is an ideal online dating website to start your journey in finding a good relationship or partner. In addition to its’ millions of members, its’ number of accolades, its’ sheer popularity around the world, Plenty of Fish has a lot to offer to both its’ free and paid users. POF offers its’ free users a number of features that you won’t be able to have access to in many other dating sites.
It’s also a more affordable option when it comes to upgrading to a paid membership as it only costs $7 – $11 per month, which is the same cost as two cups of medium-sized coffees. If you continue to struggle in your dating life and don’t have the time to meet people in real-life due to a busy schedule, Plenty of Fish may be the best option for you to change that. Plenty of Fish could change your life for the better and it’s free to sign up; why not give it a try and see how you like it?
Have you ever used Plenty Of Fish before? If yes, what was your experience with POF dating site? Don’t be shy, leave your comments below.
