Two of our dauntless reviewers spent several days on the site to bring you this wide perspective on the user experience that you can expect from C-Date. Here is our latest C-Date review.

— Pros and Cons of C-Date —

Pros

• Well built and stable site
• Women get full membership for free

Cons

• Navigation for expanding profile and search criteria is difficult to find
• Requires a three-month paid membership for men to get any functionality from the site
• Presence of fake profiles

— In-Depth C-Date Review  —

Hookups, no-strings-attached flings, casual encounters — there is a myriad of ways for referring to the act of hooking up with someone for casual sex. Whether you prefer to say “booty call” or “discrete affair,” that is entirely up to you. The fact remains that informal hookups have been around since time immemorial — and will continue to do so. Encounters such as these require discretion, mutual willingness, and opportunity. Over the years, we have come across many websites that promote themselves as being the ideal tool for finding these types of hookups. Some are effective — others not so much.

Recently, we came across an online hookup site that identifies itself as an “upscale and premium” dating site focused on discreetly bringing consenting adults together for what comes naturally. The site in question is C-Date.com. It promotes itself as being the place where you can find “sensual encounters for your pleasure… more than just a date.”

It also makes mention that it adds over 25,000 new members per day to its already 36+ million strong user base. Overtly targeting both the single hookup and discrete married affair market, C-Date was ripe for the picking to be added to our bushel of sites awaiting review.

— First Impression of C-Date —

We must admit that the first impression that you get from C-Date’s overall design and aesthetics is quite positive. The site’s welcome page looks slick and modern. It is able to achieve and inspire trust by looking professional. Visually, it draws you in by looking a step above most other hookup sites.

— Registration —

Initial registration on C-Date is free. Starting the process is as easy as selecting your gender, and that of the person that you are looking for, from a drop down menu in the registration box on the welcome page.

That gets the ball rolling on the assisted registration process. You are redirected to a series of pages, each which requires you to provide additional information. The first one inquires about the sexual experiences that you are looking for. Your choices are between flirting, watching, long-term, chatting, games or single dating. Mind you, you can choose more than one category. As you advance through the registration screens you will be asked for your location, body type, eye and hair color. The final step of the registration process requires you to enter a valid email and to select a password to access the site. When you click on the green “Create Free Account” button, you are officially registered.

One important thing to note when you are at the final screen — if you have a promo code offering a discount to a paid membership, you can enter it at this stage prior to clicking on the green button. On the right-hand column, there will be a text link that reads “use a promo code (optional).” Clicking on it will open a text box where you would enter your promotional code.

The first time you access the site after registering, you will be reminded to check the email address that you used to sign up. You must click on a link that was sent to that email to validate your account. Failure to do so will result in your account being closed within 72 hours.

— Building a C-Date Profile —

When you first access the members’ area of C-Date you will be prompted to build a personal profile. This starts by stating your profession, level of education, whether you have any body art, as well as your drinking and smoking habits. For all of these questions, you have the option to select “ask me personally” as a response. You must also choose a nickname that will be used to identify your profile to other members. Following this step, you will be prompted to upload a profile image.

C-Date does a poor job of informing its members how to expand their profiles. There is a way to add information, such as your astrological sign, erotic type, and sexual preferences — as well as adding personality attributes. This, unfortunately, requires you to hunt around for the link to update your profile. It is buried within the “My Profile” section of the site — which in turn isn’t even properly labeled. You must hover your mouse over your account nickname in the upper right-hand corner of the page to see it. By clicking on it, you will be taken to the section for editing your profile. In our opinion, profile updates should be made intuitive and easy to access.

 

This aggravation is compounded by the fact that the section for fine tuning your search criteria for matches is also hidden in the same manner. If members were not aware of this function, they would easily overlook it and just accept the default search values. C-Date fails massively in this regard.

— Cost of C-Date.com —

The main page to your account will always list the newest members that match your search criteria — the same search criteria that required a team of scouts and explorers to find in the first place. On the right-hand column is a simple list of members that are currently online, irrespective of your search preferences. Up to that point, all looks in order, until you notice that your “mailbox” icon on the upper navigation bar starts indicating that you are receiving messages — likewise, with the icon that represents your profile “views.” You might think, wow, cool! Unfortunately, when you click to open your messages you will realize that you must have a paid membership in order to reply or send messages.

The cost for a one-month membership on C-Date is $49.90 per month, with a three-month commitment required up front for a grand total of $149.70. If you are a woman, however, no need to worry — women get full membership benefits for free.

— Fake Profiles? —

Due to the fact that membership is free for women, there is a decent balance in the gender ratio on C-Date. It is roughly 60 percent men to 40 percent women. However, of those 40 percent, we’d venture to say that half are from inactive profiles and that one-quarter of them belong to “facilitator” profiles. That is a fancy way to say bots and fake profiles.

These facilitator profiles are not as numerous, nor as bothersome as those found on other hookup sites, but they are present nonetheless. In our testing, we only received responses to less than five percent of our outgoing messages and less than 10 percent of our replying messages. Engaging with other potential hookup matches wasn’t impossible, but it sure as hell wasn’t easy either.