Our Verdict On Zoosk
Summary
Zoosk is certainly not the worst dating site we have ever reviewed, but there are not enough positive things about it to make it stand out from the rest. We found the functionality of the website to be rather basic, and the fact that the most essential features are hidden behind a paywall is even more discouraging to potential members.
The Zoosk dating platform has been around since 2007. Unlike most other dating sites that haven’t gone through any major changes, Zoosk today is hardly recognizable compared to its original functionality. Back in its early days, Zoosk was a Facebook app for meeting other people, and it took it several years to become a standalone dating platform.
These days, Zoosk enjoys an impressive level of popularity with over 40 million website users from over 80 countries. However, not all Zoosk reviews so far have been glowing, and many members believe the website is lacking the functionality that other dating services have. We decided to do our own Zoosk review to see whether it’s a good option for your online dating goals.
How it works
The homepage of Zoosk is where your journey starts, but it’s rather generic and unimaginative: there is no introduction to the main features and benefits of the service, just a registration form. You can fill out the form in a couple of minutes, or sign up via your Google or Facebook account if you want to speed things up.
Once your account is created, you will need to confirm it by following the link sent to you via email. The next part of the registration process is answering a few questions about yourself and the things you are looking for at Zoosk. There is an option to skip those questions, but they are then used to find your matches, which is why it’s recommended to answer at least some of them.
Zoosk offers not only a desktop version, but also a mobile app available both for iOS and Android, which we consider to be a significant advantage over other services — after all, you likely already spend a few hours a day on your phone, so you might as well use that time to find your ideal partner.
Zoosk boasts its proprietary technology called Behavioral Matchmaking. According to the service, this technology uses your answers to the questions, your likes, your views, and other types of your behavior on the website to analyze your preferences and offer you the most precise matches. However, this level of monitoring can certainly make you uncomfortable. Plus, we haven’t noticed any real results from the matching system.
The fastest way to discover the women’s profiles on Zoosk is to use the Carousel feature. It functions similarly to Tinder and displays one woman’s profile photo after another. You need to like or skip the current profile on display to get to the new one. If you like a profile and the woman behind it likes it in return, you will receive a notification and will be able to move the communication further.
The women’s profiles at Zoosk are rather brief. Here you can see the woman’s additional photos and learn the information she chose to share about herself. From here, you can also smile at her, add her to your list, send a gift or send a message, although most of these features are only available to paying members.
Who can you find there?
If you didn’t find the selection of women in the Carousel to match your preferences or you simply enjoy having more control over your potential matches, you can try the search function offered by zoosk.com. The search here is rather detailed and allows you to specify a number of parameters, including the age range, location, romantic history, and tastes of your potential matches.
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The results of your search will be displayed in a gallery, and we have to say that this gallery is one of the most inconvenient things we have encountered during our time on Zoosk. Instead of neatly arranging the search results in a grid, allowing you to browse quickly and efficiently, the service instead shows you only one profile per line, meaning you will have to scroll for minutes before you see someone you like.
Prices
Unlike many other dating services we have reviewed in the past, Zoosk does not offer too many features on a free basis. As a non-paying member, all you can do is view women’s profiles and play the Carousel game. The rest of the functionality, including sending messages and seeing who liked you, are only available to paid members.
There is only one type of paid membership available at Zoosk, and it costs $29.95 per month if you are only looking for a 1-month membership, or $12.49 per month if you are ready to commit for 6 months.
Another way for you to spend money on Zoosk is the Zoosk coin system. With this system, you can purchase virtual coins in packages and then spend them on virtual gifts that you can send to the members you like or boost your profile to make it more visible. You can purchase 180 coins for $19.95 or 1800 coins for $99.95; plus, there are some ways to earn coins by completing the assignments on Zoosk.
Safety
Zoosk seems to take the security of its users rather seriously: the website is encrypted and features a variety of safety guides for the members. There is also a verification system designed to give the members even more trust in the people they meet, but we didn’t see too many profiles with the Verified badge while exploring Zoosk. Plus, we have come across several profiles that were obviously fake, which is why we believe the safety at Zoosk could use an improvement.
