Recently we joined Gay Cupid in order to evaluate its features and the user experience that they offer to their members. This is our Gay Cupid.com review.

— Pros and Cons of Gay Cupid —

Pros

• Operated by an established online dating company
• Fast and easy registration process
• Ability to post videos (platinum members only)

Cons

• High number of inactive and fake profiles
• No native mobile apps; relies on mobile pages
• High monthly membership

— In-Depth GayCupid.com Review —

The number of online dating sites for the gay community has been outpacing the growth of generic dating sites for the past five years. GayCupid.com is an example of one of those sites. Owned and operated by the Cupid Media Network (a pioneer in online dating since 2000) it has the backing of an established internet media company.

Gay Cupid is primarily geared toward members of the gay community seeking to meet like-minded individuals for the purposes of casual hookups, dating and long-term relationships. In this regard, it is what is referred to in the online dating industry as a “catch-all” site. Its members consist of the curious, those seeking no-string attached hookups, as well as those interested in serious relationships.

— First Impression of GayCupid.com —

The first impression of Gay Cupid comes from its sign-up homepage. It consists of a landing page with a large image of a young gay couple. The only interaction that visitors can have on the page is to either log in to their existing Gay Cupid account or register if they are new to the site. In general, the layout of their homepage is very similar to what is the current trend in all online dating sites — steering visitors toward a quick account setup process.

— Setting Up an Account —

Setting up an account on GayCupid is fast and simple. You start by entering your fist name, age, a password for your new account, and a valid email address. Then you click on the red button labeled “View Singles Now.” Within minutes you will receive an email with a verification link. Once you click on that link you are redirected to Gay Cupid and enter as an active member.

An alternative method to register on Gay Cupid is to link your Facebook account and use your Facebook credentials for the initial registration. This skips the step of having to verify your email address. The terms and conditions indicate that they may use non-identifying information from your Facebook account to help in generating suggested matches for you and for marketing purposes.

— Broadening Your Profile —

As we observed earlier, GayCupid uses a registration process that is designed to get you in the door, fast. This means that you are accepted as a member with next to no content on your profile. It is up to you when, and if, you flesh out your member profile. Users serious about finding matches on Gay Cupid are strongly urged to take the time to fill their profile as much as possible.

A logical first step in building your profile is to upload a profile pic. GayCupid allows you to upload as many as five pictures to your profile. Afterwards, you should fill out the in-depth questionnaires about your personality, personal preferences and what you seek in a relationship. Completing a full profile took us approximately 35 minutes. However, you can do this incrementally. Provided that you save your profile as you go along, you can continue where you left off at any time.

One result that we did notice from this tolerance for “lean” profiles by GayCupid, was a large number of empty, inactive and fake accounts circulating on the site.

— Search Functionality —

The features found on GayCupid.com are what can be described as standard for all dating sites. It has a search function that uses the data provided by members on their profiles to find matches. There is no dynamic matchmaking algorithm — GayCupid relies entirely on coordinating similarities in the user-provided data to make match suggestions.

It is perhaps for this reason that we found the matches that were generated for us by Gay Cupid to be rather broad in scope. Of the matches that were suggested to us, it was necessary to comb through them to find that roughly just a quarter of them were well suited for us. It seems like the dominant parameter that Gay Cupid uses in generating suggested matches is geographic location of the members.

— Communication Between Members —

Gay Cupid offers communication between members via email, instant messaging and online chat. It allows all members to receive communication from others but requires users to subscribe to a monthly membership in order to respond to messages and to initiate messages. Again, this is fairly standard among modern dating sites.

— Other Features —

In addition to the search function and the automatic suggested matches section that appears on the homepage of your membership page, GayCupid.com offers other features. These include the ability to appear as “offline” when you don’t want other members to see that you are connected. It also allows you to create lists of other member profiles that you found interesting. There are also “quick access” links so you can locate the newest members and the latest photos posted on Gay Cupid.

For members with “platinum” membership, they have the option to post videos on their profile as well as to attach them to emails, instant messages, and online chat threads.

We were disappointed to discover that GayCupid.com does not offer any native apps for iPhone or Android. It does allow you to access the site on a smartphone, but you must do so via the mobile version of the site on your phone’s web browser. This can cause performance issues depending on the capacity of your phone.

— Cost of Gay Cupid —

Gay Cupid has two price levels — “Gold” membership and “Platinum” membership.

Gold membership opens up all of the functions of Gay Cupid for the exception of online chat and the ability to post videos. Platinum membership opens up these two remaining features in addition to the rest. Gold membership costs $24.99 for one month, platinum membership costs $29.99 for one month. The monthly cost can be lowered to $8.33 and $10.00 respectively for gold and platinum memberships if users pay for one year in advance.

In our opinion, the one-month memberships are a bit expensive when compared to other dating sites. However, the discounted yearly plans are quite reasonably priced.