DateHookup.com is a decent choice for anyone that is unable to afford a premium dating site. We took a closer look to bring our readers this detailed DateHookup review.

— Pros and Cons of DateHookup—

Pros

• Genuinely free to use (search and communication)
• Decent search engine
• “Let’s Meet” game effective for meeting local singles

Cons

• Display advertising can be distracting
• Not much detail on member profiles
• “Premium” membership only removes ads, doesn’t offer much else

— in-Depth DateHookup.com Review —

Finding an online dating site that delivers results when you are on a tight budget can be difficult. Most dating sites require a paid membership in order to deliver the matchmaking results that you are seeking. That is why a site such as DateHookup.com can be a useful resource to have in your dating arsenal. This online dating site offers premium level features for free. It is not a fly by night outfit either — it has been in continuous operation since 2002. In fact, it is the third largest free online dating site in the U.S., behind only OkCupid and Plenty of Fish.

With DateHookup — by initial appearances — seeming to be a viable free solution for online dating, we dug deeper and performed this DateHookup.com review to determine how effective the site actually is.

— First Impression of DateHookup —

When you first visit DateHookup, you are not greeted by some ostentatious landing page designed to lure you into signing up immediately. If anything, the site is rather plain and neutral. Yes, there is a simplified match search box in the middle of the page which gets your registration process underway, but the design does not bring about a sense of urgency to join. It establishes a sedate mood. From our perspective, this was reassuring. Usually, the sites that put on the gloss and glitz up front tend to disappoint you after you join.

— DateHookup Registration Process —

In the initial stages of our DateHookup.com review, we found the registration process for DateHookup to be a hybrid of that used by “fast and easy” registration sites and those used by sites that apply personality assessment as part of their registration. You must provide basic information, such as your gender, age, location, the gender of the match you are looking for, and a valid email address.

A confirmation link is sent to your email which you must click on to verify your new account. A large number of sites end the mandatory part of the registration process at this point. DateHookup, however, takes it a few steps further. After you finish the first stage of registration, you are presented with a series of ten questions that relate to your physical and personality attributes. After that, you are requested to upload a profile picture. This image cannot contain nudity.

— Features —

Some online reviews of DateHookup criticize it for being “bare bones.” We found such criticism to be extreme and unwarranted. While the feature set for DateHookup is not as varied or as glitzy as other sites, it does offer a sound search platform for matches and offers a decent variety of communication options between members.

Users can search by age range, gender, and geographic location. The results obtained can then be filtered further to find those who are currently online, those that offer the best match to your profile and those that are closer to you by location. From our point of view, that is more than sufficient, especially when the service is free.

When you find a member that you want to communicate with, all of the communication options are available to you. For many of the other dating sites that offer free versions, it is the communication features where they draw the line. Most allow you to use their search functions, but not the communication functions. Fortunately, DateHookup has free and open lines of communication. You can send potential matches a message or request an instant message chat directly from their profile page. You can also store all of your conversations for as long as you want.

Another interesting feature of DateHookup is its “Let’s Meet” game. It is a swiping poll game in which you are presented with the profile pics of potential matches. You are then requested to click, yes, no, or maybe with regards to whether or not you would be interested in meeting that person. If both participants click “yes” on their images, then you will appear in your respective “meet me” sections. We found this feature to be fun enough to draw us in on a daily basis. It also seems to be an effective way to do some initial vetting of potential matches.

— DateHookup User Experience —

While we were impressed by the features of DateHookup, we did have some issue with the overall user experience during out DateHookup review. Being a free site, it uses display advertising for monetization. The ads were not plastered all over the place, but they were obtrusive enough that it did get on our nerves — especially when their placement was such that we accidentally clicked on an ad at least once each time we were logged on the site.

There is an option to pay $6.95 per month for what DateHookup brands as a premium membership. The monthly cost can be reduced to $4.90 if you pay for six months in advance. The only substantive benefit that you get out of the premium package is that all display adverting is removed. Honestly, we have mixed feelings as to the value that this delivers. Yes, the ads can be irritating, but if you only use the site occasionally, the membership price would seem like a waste of money. If you intend on being a power-user, then the premium cost might be justified.

— Mobility —

DateHookup offers mobile apps for iPhone and Android devices. Android users have a choice of downloading the app either from the Google Play Store or the Amazon App Store.