Costs:

• FREE to basic members.
• Premium membership is offered at:
  
  • 3 day trial: $1.95*
  • 1 Month:    $ 49.95

*This trial membership was available at the time of writing.  Unless canceled, this teaser rate will expire on the third day after you initiate it.  You will then be charged $49.95 per month thereafter until you cancel.
Please check the site for the exact details of this an any other available offers.  

Features:

• Create your own profile and upload your pictures for FREE
• Search for other members within your local area for free
• A list of your best Matches is formed and stored on site for future use.
• Wink at other members for free
• Browse other members' profiles, look at their pictures and check out any video greetings they have posted.  (You must be a premium member to do this)
• Email other members using Mate1's internal e-mail system (you must be a premium member to do this)
• Instant message other members (you must be a premium member to do this)
• Access to private chat rooms. Private message other members in the chat rooms.
• Create your own hotlist of members you like
• Create your own blocklist of members you wish to ignore.
• Ability to store your searches.
• Search by:
  • Who's online
  • Who's in the area
  • New Members
  • Who's got photos
  • Your Matches

 

Performing a Search:

• A full search facility is available, allowing members to search by:
  • gender
  • age range
  • location to within 10 miles of where you live
  • whether the member has pictures posted
  • ethnicity
  • smoking
  • drinking
  • height
  • body type
  • hair and eye color 
  • lifestyle preferences
  • religion
  • occupation
  • income level
  • exercise habits

Editor's Verdict: 

As one of the more aggressive marketing mainstream dating sites, Mate1.com is looking to crack into the big leagues as a major player in the world of website dating.  It is the parent to several other specialized dating sites directed at specific niche markets.  Its approach is typically commercial, with a structured marketing operation.  But is it a worthwhile dating website? 

Our initial impression is not favorable. Our registration was simple but  we were directed to the Upgrade pages right from the get go. This is not what we like to see.  When we attempted to initiate our first search, we were pretty much confined to dealing with the site's defaults until we learned how to get around that obstacle. This is an example of "marketing friendly"  and not "user friendly" software. If you put your relationship plans to work on a site that has this 'marketing-friendly' approach you will be sadly disappointed with your results. The cheap teaser trial (described below) is worthless if you can't find suitable matches. Be warned , because the results that we generated by our benchmark search were dismal. We got pages of results within our area. But the list had just 11 live members (who were online within the past 3 weeks). To us, that's an immediate red flag for a site that is dead/stale for lack of membership interest. You won't have a good chance of finding "Mr. or Ms. right" on a site with low activity levels among members. 

We were also dismayed by Mate1's approach to pricing and billing. The only thing that was prominently mentioned on the Premium upgrade page was the 3 day trial, with no mention of the costs of monthly or longer subscriptions. To find the renewal terms you must scroll down the page, well below the 3 day offer, and read through a few sentences of fine print. In a nutshell, after your 3 day trial has expired, you will be charged $49.95 per month until you cancel it before it expires. The devil really is in the detail! We can't help wondering if Mate1 are intentionally trying to capitalize on many people's tendency to not read the fine print. It does seem strange that Mate1 don't (at the time of writing) seem to promote a monthly and longer subscription rate somewhere, for the existing members to renew. Our recommendation is not to take up the teaser membership (unless you are happy to pay $49.95 per month) as you may forget to cancel it, but Mate1 won't forget to bill you repeatedly, until you satisfy their terms for cancellation. There are, of course, many other dating sites out there that are doing a good job of being up-front and serving their members well.

In fairness, we need to comment on Mate1's Contact options for members.  You can send a flirt , but no e-mail options exist.  You can chat with others online as a free member. That would seem like a good thing.  Unfortunately, our experience with this during our first visit found us being approached by a procession of twenty something year olds looking for a sugar daddy.  While the site isn't directly at fault for this, they do set the stage.

What about on-site activities?  Aside from the private chat option, it seems that nothing else is offered. Photos and profile viewing options don't exist without paying for them. This is part of the tactic with the trial teaser.  It's cheap but don't be fooled by it. 

Value is another of our considerations for judging a site's quality.  At their prices for monthly membership, the value is the lowest we have seen in mainstream dating.

Our best recommendation is for you to check other sites we have reviewed. There are some great Premium members' websites out there.  Also, surprising as it may be,  there are some good sites reviewed that are 100% Free to members, offering good potential for relationships.  Please check our top ten reviews to become better informed of what's available.

Click on the button below to check out Mate1.com for yourself...