In order to help you get a better picture about the functionality and user experience of the site, we present this detailed and honest Adam4Adam review.

— Pros and Cons of Adam4Adam —

Pros

• 100% free
• Basic, but reliable internal messaging
• Ability to create “travel” profiles
• iPhone and Android mobile apps

Cons

• Large number of fake profiles
• Presence of standard display advertising and escort ads
• A lot of spam sent to your message box

— In-Depth Adam4Adam Review —

Adam4Adam.com is an online dating site aimed at gay males seeking casual hookups. It has been in operation since 2003 and has gained popularity within the gay community. Since 2007, it has continuously ranked in the top three for the most popular gay dating site in the U.S.

Unlike other dating sites, Adam4Adam is completely free to use. It is funded entirely by display advertising. That means that its members can make use of its full set of features without restrictions. This, we must say, is quite a refreshing thing to find in modern dating sites.

The atmosphere that is cultivated on Adam4Adam has been equated by several of its members as that of a night club. Current and past members describe it as a place for open minded individuals to meet up and hook up. While it is not the best place to find a long-term relationship, it does create a fun and energetic community. If a casual encounter is what you are after and you are a gay male, Adam4Adam certainly holds many possibilities.

— Registration —

Adma4Adam uses a simple registration process. In our testing, basic registration took less than two minutes. All that is required to register is your selection of username, password, date of birth, geographic location and a valid email address. Once you complete your basic registration you may provide additional details about yourself and the sort of match that you are looking for. You can also upload a profile picture to let other members know what you look like. This extended profile is reviewed by Adam4Adam screeners. It may take up to 48 hours for them to approve your profile and make it visible to other members. In the meantime, however, you can browse other member profiles.

One thing to keep in mind as you browse profiles is that Adam4Adam does not pose any restriction on the type of profile pics that members can post. Expect to find a few pics that are rather graphic.

— Display Advertising and More —

In addition to display advertising, Adam4Adam also monetizes its site with ads from male escort services and shopping modules dedicated to adult sex toys. The escort ads are segregated from the normal display ads and are placed by third parties not directly associated with Adam4Adam.

Adam4Adam has been criticized in the past for allowing these types of escort ads. During our evaluation we found these ads to be clearly identified for what they are. As such, they never soured the overall experience. Basically, for members that are seeking such services, it is a convenience. For those seeking real encounters, the escort ads do not distract from the real profiles.

— Adam4Adam Features —

Adam4Adam offers a set of features that are pretty much on par with other gay and straight dating sites. The user interface is aesthetically plain, but simple to navigate. The search functionality on Adam4Adam allows you to filter the results to suit your criteria for location, age, race and other variables based on the biographical data posted by the members.

The site also offers a unique feature that is focused on members that travel. It allows them to create “visitor profiles.” These are profiles aimed at specific cities that they are visiting. This allows users to have their “home:” profile” and additional “visitor profiles. They are perfect when you want to hookup in a new town. In the search function, one of the parameters allows you to search for those who are just visiting or passing through your city.

You can communicate with other members via the site’s messaging system. You can also send images within your messages. This is how members make contact and can setup in-person hookups. During our testing, we received a large number of messages in our inbox. Most of these messages seemed “spammy.” Most were looking for online encounters, many from people quite far away from us geographically.

There is also a live cam section where you can interact in real time with other men. Unfortunately, this section is tied into the paid escort section and most of the people online with web cams are professional cam models. They usually require payment through a third-party to engage you in a “private session.” Again, this feature is not intrusive as the user has to actively enter the live cam section.

— Fake Profiles on Adam4Adam —

Unfortunately, one of the drawbacks of having a site that is entirely free is that it is going to attract a large number of trolls. In spite of the profile verification process implemented by Adam4Adam, there is still a large number of fake profiles. By our estimation 40 to 50 percent of the profiles during our test were fake.

Adam4Adam states in its terms and conditions that it actively seeks out and removes fake profiles. Due to the short duration of our evaluation, we were unable to confirm if fake profile removal is, in fact, an active practice. However, by interviewing members that have been on the site for more than six months, they did concur that fake profiles are removed quickly.

Another tool that Adam4Adam uses to remove fake and abandoned profiles involves them reconfirming your registered email periodically. Normally, this is done after they detect that a profile has without activity for an extended period of time.