Having a niche target demographic — one that may not be too familiar with online dating — we felt it was a good idea to evaluate ChristainMingle. Does it really provide a platform for single Christians to meet? Does it deliver results while still remaining wholesome? These questions — and more — we answered in our ChristianMingle review.

— Pros and Cons of ChristianMingle —

Pros

• Large volume of users
• Healthy male to female ratio
• Easy and intuitive to use, even for dating site novices

Cons

• Requires a paid membership to get any real benefit out of it
• Limited to one profile picture
• Feature set is too basic

— In-Depth Christian Mingle Review —

ChristianMingle.com is a dating site that focuses on helping members of the Christian community find each other for purposes of establishing long-term relationships. Constructed around the idea that a lasting relationship is more easily found among members of a community with shared values — ChristianMingle brings faith and technology under one digital roof.

In its marketing material, ChristianMingle claims to be responsible for the largest number of Christian marriages compared to any other online dating site in the U.S. The site makes this claim based on an independent survey that they do no cite directly by name. While we were unable to independently confirm ChristianMingle’s claim, we were able to ascertain that the site is highly popular — averaging 2.4 million unique visitors per month.

— First Impression —

One thing that holds true about online dating sites that focus on long-term relationships, is that their effectiveness is heavily reliant on the gender distribution of their user base. In the case of ChristianMingle, the gender ratio is 46 percent male to 54 percent female. Having more women than men enrolled on the site is a positive sign. This is normally seen as an indicator of increased interaction among members.

— Christian Mingle Registration —

The registration process is routine for those that have experience with other dating sites. It would also be seen as a simple and intuitive process to those of you that have never registered on a dating site before. All that is required is to fill in the information found on the registration widget of the homepage. It asks for your gender, zip code, the country you reside in, and a valid email. You submit the information by clicking on the orange button labeled “Browse Free Now.”

Immediately upon doing so, you are redirected to a page that opens a brief questionnaire. You are asked to answer a few multiple choice questions regarding your denomination, your physical attributes, how often you attend church, marital status, etc. You are also asked to choose a username and password for you to access the site. It literally took us less than two minutes to complete the whole thing.

Upon completing the questionnaire, you may enter the site to start browsing other member profiles, or you may choose to start building your profile and establishing your match preferences.

— Match Preferences —

We found the interface used to allow members to establish their match preferences to be very user-friendly and thorough. You can fine tune your search parameters by age range, distance, body style, education, marital status, religion, church activity, smoking and drinking habits, height and ethnicity.

In our opinion, this establishes a solid foundation for conducting effective searches. When dating sites do not offer this degree of detailed filtering, it results in search results that are filled with incompatible matches. That creates a frustrating user experience. Fortunately, throughout our testing, the match results that we obtained from ChristianMingle were always true to our scope of compatibility.

— Building Your Christian Mingle Profile —

We were impressed by the choice of complexity that users are given in building their profiles pn ChristianMingle.com. You can function on the site with a minimal profile — or you can choose to construct one with a myriad of detail. On your member dashboard, ChristianMingle displays a visual representation of how complete your profile is as a percentage. While having a profile that is 100 percent built-out is not required — in our opinion — the more robust your profile, the more compatible matches that you are going to find.

ChristianMingle allows you to upload a profile picture. Originally, we were under the impression that users were allowed multiple picture uploads. However, we were never able to upload more than one. The support and FAQ sections of the site did not enlighten us on how to upload any number beyond that.

Nuance and complexity can be added to your profile by answering a series of questions that appear on your profile page. These questions revolve around religious and relationship themes — such as “what good past relationships have taught you” and explaining your favorite Bible passages, among others. You can also add a favorite general interest quote that will be predominantly displayed on your profile page. You can also select as many as 12 activities from a list of over 30 indoor and outdoor activities that you like to do for fun.

Our advice to you would be to fill out your profile from the beginning. Don’t fret over it, just fill it out. In our case, it took us approximately 15 minutes to complete our profile — inclusive of uploading our profile picture. In case there is something that you wish to change later, ChristianMingle allows you to modify your profile as many times as you want.

— Features of ChristianMingle.com —

ChristianMingle does not offer a wide variety of features. To be perfectly honest, we found that ChristianMingle relies almost entirely on its search function — definitely more than algorithmic based matchmaking. That means that if you are active in conducting and fine tuning your match searches, you will derive a good user experience from it. If, however, you take a passive approach, wanting to rely on suggested matches, etc., ChristianMingle may disappoint you.

The site does have a messaging function that allows members to communicate with each other. There is also a “smiley” system, which is a way that allows more timid members to let others know that they are thinking kindly of them without making direct contact. Again, if you have experience on other dating sites this feature set may seem routine and elementary. For dating site newbies, however, it would probably be ideal in the sense that it doesn’t overwhelm you.

— Cost of Christian Mingle —

The free trial membership of ChristianMingle offers you the opportunity to build a complete profile and navigate throughout the site, It even allows you to conduct match searches. It does not, however, allow you to send or respond to messages. Also, the search parameters that you can use are limited. A paid membership removes all of these limitations.

A paid membership costs $29.99 per month, but this cost can be lowered to $19.99 per month if you pay for three months in advance, or $14.99 per month if you pay for six months in advance.