OKCupid Review - Feeling the Arrow of Love? [2024]

📝The TL;DR on the OKCupid dating site

Before I give you all the juicy details on the OKCupid dating site, here’s a little bite-sized version if you’re feeling impatient:

• The OKCupid sign up process was easy and thorough, but maybe a little long.

• It’s free to sign up, but if you really want to make the most of the site, you’ll need to upgrade to OKCupid Premium or Basic.

• There’s an OKCupid app available for iOS and Android (plus the desktop site).

• It’s got a lot of interesting features that other sites didn't have, including filtering by profile questions and a Pro-Choice dater badge.

Setting up an OKCupid profile: The OKCupid sign up process was easy and straightforward. It starts out asking your email, name, date of birth, and all the other standard stuff. It continues into setting up your OKCupid profile, though, which is 15 questions, each on a separate page. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad they’re making an effort to show you actual matches based on something real, but I was really ready to dive in by the time I reached the end. As a heads up, the OKCupid sign up process requires you to prove you’re “you” by providing a phone number for 2-factor authentication, so keep your phone next to you for a verification code.

How to delete OKCupid account: The steps to delete your OKCupid account are pretty simple, too. Click your profile pic to go and go to the “Settings” tab. You can scroll to the bottom and easily find the link to disable or delete your account. It asks a couple of questions that feel pretty standard (why are you leaving, would you recommend OKCupid, and if they can reach out via email marketing in the future). Then you’re given the option to disable or delete. Disabling stops you from showing on OKCupid but restarts your account the next time you log in. Deleting will permanently remove your profile and everything attached.

Can you temporarily deactivate an OKCupid account?: Yep, you can. Peep the spot above for a full rundown, but basically you can follow a few quick clicks and be given the option to disable your OKCupid account temporarily. It’ll restart the next time you sign in.

Hiding and unhiding OKCupid profile: This one was interesting. Unlike so many other places, the OKCupid dating site doesn’t have a free way to hide your account other than disabling it temporarily. They do give you some options though, like hiding your last login timestamp, reply times, or reply likelihood from other users. For paid members, you can choose OKCupid Incognito to hide your account from everyone (more on that one later.)

OKCupid profile verification: The OKCupid dating site doesn’t require any selfie verification or anything, but I did have to provide my phone number and submit a verification code they texted me. So that makes me feel a little better about people being legit and not scammers.

OKCupid dating site match game: You know I’m a big fan of dating match games on these kinds of sites! The OKCupid app and dating site actually show you their version of this as the default main page. That was great for me because it meant I could start matching with people immediately.

Is OKCupid free? Yep, there’s a free version you can use, but choosing the OKCupid Basic or OKCupid Premium subscription is needed to really experience the site and connect with people. I saw some offers for the OKCupid free trial linked on other sites, but not on the OKCupid dating site itself. If you want to try it out without paying full price, you might consider one of those, but I recommend making sure it’s legit before you click on anything.

Okay, ready for some more info about the OKCupid dating site? Let’s go.

Is OKCupid legit?

This is always the first thing on my mind any time I sign up for a new dating site so I know you’re probably wondering too: is OKCupid legit? Being such a big name in the world of online dating, I expected it would be, and it didn’t disappoint. The lengthy (though easy!) OKCupid sign up process plus requiring you to confirm you’re real with a phone number put me at ease knowing it made it less likely scammers would want to go through all that.

I saw some reviews online questioning if OKCupid is legit or not, but my experience was that everything looked good to me. Given I’ve checked out a lot of dating sites, I feel good about my skills clocking the fakes from the real deal.

What was the OKCupid sign up process like?

As I mentioned in the tl;dr section, the OkCupid sign up process was a little lengthy, but not too bad considering the time it takes for some other dating sites. Plus, if it’s too quick, sometimes it makes me question if all the profiles are real or if the matches that have been suggested to me are legit. That’s not the case for the OKCupid sign up process.

The OKCupid homepage looked great and it always gives me more confidence when the site looks well thought through. Plus, the images that scrolled showed a great mix of different types of couples, which felt very inclusive.

First up, I clicked “Join OKCupid” and followed these steps:

1. Who are you?: I got started on this screen providing my email address.

   

2. Password: Next up, the OKCupid dating site had me set up a password to use for my account.

   

3. What’s your first name?: Time to give them my name! (Sorry, you can’t know that 👿)

   

4. Date of birth: The all-important step to make sure you’re legal. I popped in my date of birth – you’ll be good to go as long as you’re 18+.

   

5. City and zip code: The next screen is short and sweet — I gave them my country and zip code. This is to bring up local profiles for you as you complete your OKCupid sign up so you can match with people nearby.

   

6. About me: This one was pretty cool. It asked my gender, which is typical, but it gave so many options and felt super inclusive. In today’s world, that goes a long way with me and makes me feel like the site is more legit. They even had one I hadn’t heard of before called “Two-Spirit”, which is described as a gender option coming from Native American culture.

   

7. My ideal person: This one was the same as the screen before it, but I got to say who I was looking to meet. The nice thing here was there’s also a toggle switch for “Open to everyone” so you’re not limited.

   

8. Desired relationship type: This section asked about what kind of relationship I want. I selected long-term dating, but it also allows you to check out non-monogamous relationship types, too, which was interesting. And if you’re not sure exactly what those might be, they have a link to an explanation of the options!

   

9. Age range: Now we’re getting a little more into who I’m looking for. I was able to set the age range to filter out profiles I’d see.

   

10. Profile photos: Every OKCupid profile has to have at least one pic, which I appreciated. It helps prevent people from signing up without one and staying picture-less.

    

11. Tell us about yourself: They asked me for a paragraph to describe myself. This one was where I showed my personality because it’s a spot to write a full response instead of just picking a box.

    Ok, at this point, the OKCupid sign up process kinda felt endless as I was brought to another screen letting me know they now had 15 questions. You can skip these, but all it does is give you a different question to answer. The questions were one to a page and ones like:

    1. Do you think it’s important to have an emotional connection before a physical one?

    2. About how long do you want your next relationship to last?

    3. What word describes you better: carefree or intense?

    4. How important is religion/God in your life?

    5. Are you ready to settle down and get married right now?

    6. Do you enjoy discussing politics?

    7. Would you date someone in considerable debt?

    8. Is astrological sign at all important in a match?

    9. What best describes your political beliefs?

    10. Could you date someone who is really messy?

    11. Which would you rather be: normal or weird?

    12. Are you currently employed?

    13. Which is better: Kissing in Paris? Or kissing in a tent, in the woods?

    14. Do you want to add the Pro-Choice badge to your profile demonstrating your support of reproductive rights?

    15. Do you like scary movies?

    If you want to refine your matches, you can also go into your profile afterward and answer more questions. It also lets you see your “Highest Possible Match” percentage here which is pretty neat.

    

12. And finally we got to them asking me for my phone number to verify I’m real with a code.

    

    So that’s the OKCupid sign up process. It’s long, but at least it helps weed out fake profiles and scammers while adding factors for matching me with other people. That’s important.

How does OKCupid work?

Once I finally had my OKCupid dating site profile up and going, it didn't waste any time taking me right to other users. The way the OKCupid app and site work is by taking all the answers to your profile questions and running it through their algorithm to select users you might match with.

They make it super easy and simple to use. Each profile tells you how many things you agree on, how many you don’t, and the OKCupid review of how likely you are to match with them (as a percentage).

To be honest, I really liked the way their profiles looked and thought it was cool that they took a lot of the guessing out of it. It helps me know who I’m most likely to click with before I even start a conversation.

Is there an OKCupid app?

Like every site I check out, I wanted to see if there’s an OKCupid dating app. Being such a huge name in the dating site world, I wasn’t shocked that there is.

There’s an OKCupid app for iOS and Android users, so nobody misses out on the chance to meet their person (or persons—you never know!)

Unlike some other sites where there’s a tab that says Search and then you can filter down profiles however you like, the OKCupid dating site changes things up a little. They have you search by OKCupid Stacks. There are Stacks for Recommended, Match %, Pro-Choice, Passport (international users, in case you want to meet someone from another country—who doesn’t love an accent?), and more.

During my OKCupid review, I also noticed you can search through profiles based on answers to their questions during the profile setup. So you can search for people who respond a certain way to things like “Do you like scary movies?” and others.

It takes a little getting used to, but I think this is a cool way of seeing how OKCupid works to match people up based on their algorithm, instead of just leaving you to click on profiles of people who may have nothing in common with you.

Is OKCupid free?

Going through the OKCupid sign up process, you’re not asked to enter any credit card information or anything like that. So setting up your OKCupid profile is free. But using it to really meet people? That really requires upgrading to a subscription.

Free vs. paid subscriptions for OKCupid

Getting signed up for a new dating site gets you pumped to see who you like and who’s interested in you. To see who liked your profile, however, you’ll need an OKCupid Premium account. But don’t worry, there are plenty of free features, too, before you decide to subscribe.

What are the free features of OKCupid?

If you’re on a free account with OKCupid, you can…

• View profiles: Look around and check out profiles.

• Match game: You can see who comes up in the Match Game (which is the default opening page).

• Filter searches: You can use filter users based on all the preferences I mentioned above.

• Messaging: Totally free with mutual matches.

• Stacks: This essentially groups potential matches into stacks related to their answers for things like “Passport”, other stacks like “Recommended” and “Online”, plus “Cupid’s Picks” that OkCupid picks for you.

One of the big surprises for me on the OKCupid dating app was that messaging is completely free between mutual matches. Most dating sites tend to limit messaging to a certain number each day to encourage you to sign up for a premium account. +1 for OkCupid.

How much does OKCupid cost & what are the paid features?

There are actually three levels of paid monthly subscriptions to OKCupid. There’s OKCupid Basic, OKCupid Premium, and OKCupid Incognito.

OKCupid Basic

An OKCupid Basic subscription costs:

• 6 months at $17.49 / month

• 3 months at $23.33 / month

• 1 month at $34.99 / month

Features of OKCupid Basic are:

• Send unlimited likes: Increase your matches with unlimited likes.

• Dealbreakers: Filter out the people who don’t fit exactly what you’re looking for.

• Unlimited rewinds: Undo your passes as many times as you want.

• Unlock your intros: Skip the wait & view all the intros you’ve received at once.

• Never see ads: Like and match without the ads. We love an ad-free site obvi.

OKCupid Premium

The price for an OKCupid Premium subscription is:

• 6 months at $22.49 / month

• 3 months at $29.9 / month

• 1 month at $44.99 / month

The OKCupid Premium subscription allows you to have access to all the OKCupid Basic features plus extras like:

• See who likes you: Get the full list of people who like you! We’ll also point them out on Profile and Discover.

• 3 free SuperLikes every week: A SuperLike increases your chances of matching up to 4x!

• See all question answers: See responses to questions you haven’t answered yet.

Because the savings are so big for multi-month subscriptions, I went with the OKCupid Premium 3 month plan.

OKCupid Incognito Mode

The OKCupid incognito mode was only available to see once I was logged into my account. So sneaky! Or should I say… incognito. 😏

The pricing for Incognito Mode at the time of this OkCupid review is,

• 6 months at $9.99 / month

• 3 months at $14.99 / month

• 1 month at $19.99 / month

You can also downgrade or cancel at any time, which I love. Like the other subscriptions, the longer the subscription, the higher the discount. Incognito Mode allows you to hide your profile and only have it visible to people you like or message.

PLUS… if you block them for whatever reason, it’ll revoke access so they can’t get a hold of you again.

If you’re worried about privacy or getting contacted by spammers, this is a great subscription to use.

OKCupid Boost

In addition to the OKCupid Premium and Basic options, you can also get your profile seen by more people using the Boost option. This lets you be a top profile and get shown to more people for 30 minutes.

You can buy Boost credits in bundles or individually:

• 6 months at $6.99 / month

• 3 months at $5.99 / month

• 1 month at $4.99 / month

I wasn’t sure I’d use it just yet, so I decided to wait before purchasing any OKCupid Boost credits, but I might soon!

Additional a la carte features for OkCupid

Some additional items you can pay for are things like,

• Read receipts

• Certain “OkCupid Stacks” like New and Popular

• SuperLikes

These are nice if you don’t necessarily want a full subscription but certain features. I stan.

What sets OKCupid apart from the rest?

Some of my biggest impressions around what set OkCupid apart from other dating sites were:

• Free messaging: Honestly, I’m still surprised that they really mean it when they say messaging is free for mutual matches. It impressed me.

• OKCupid Premium pricing: I expect every dating site to have premium subscription options, but the OKCupid Premium and Basic plans were priced really well and gave you lots of access to useful features to meet new people.

• Match game: I like that the entire site is kinda set up to be a Match Game. You view profiles one at a time instead of being bombarded by a giant page of endless faces. It makes it feel more personalized. I’m a fan.

• Rewind feature: I’ve mentioned this before, but the Rewind feature on dating sites has saved me so many times from my impulsive “no” which I suddenly regret after.

Pros and cons of OKCupid

It didn’t take any time at all for me to decide how I felt, so let’s dive into it and start with the positives.

What’s good about OKCupid

Some of the features for the OKCupid dating site I thought were great were:

• Match Game design: Everyone knows how much I love a good dating site Match Game, so the fact that it's the basic design of the entire OKCupid app? I’m sold!

• Lots of profile details: Even though the OKCupid sign up process went on for a long time, I could see how it was going to make the site work better and show me people I may actually have something in common with. I also like that they didn’t just show you profiles with exact matches. Sometimes opposites attract, ya know?

• Profile verification: Safety and security are super important for us gals, so I liked that they required a phone number verification before finishing the OKCupid sign up process.

• Huge dating pool: Being one of the biggest sites out there, the OKCupid dating site has tons of users all over the world. I liked that because it puts the odds in my favor that I’ll find someone I click with.

• Pro-choice badge and stack: I loved that the pro-choice badge was an option!

The downsides of OKCupid

No place is perfect, and it’s the same with the OKCupid dating site. Sure, there’s more good than bad, but I gotta be fair in my OKCupid review so here are some of the things I wished were different:

• Limited SuperLikes: I get it that the free accounts might be limited (they get 1 SuperLike) but even with the OkCupid Premium subscription, you only get 3 per week. Maybe that’s to help avoid overuse or something, but I was hoping for a little more.

• Signup process: This one is good and bad. The OKCupid sign up process was very easy, it just kinda went on forever. I think it’s good because it helps with the matching and weeding out fake users, but honestly, it might weed out some real people who just don’t want to spend that long to get started.

So, final thoughts for my OKCupid review

As a gal who has been on a lot of dating sites, OKCupid really stands out. I felt safe and secure signing up, the profiles look legit, and the prices for OKCupid Premium and Basic subscriptions felt in line with most places. Even if the sign up process was a little long, it was super easy and well thought out.

The unique way OKCupid works using their algorithm to predict your match percentages makes me feel like I’m more likely to connect with someone. Plus the size of their user base doesn’t hurt! I suppose only time will tell, so I’ll use my 3-month Premium subscription to see if I get hit with OKCupid’s arrow. 💘

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