Match.com vs. Consumating.com

The first thing that I would like to say before we get into the nitty gritty of this article is that my bad luck with online dating has very little, almost nothing at all in fact, to do with the rant which I want to go into today. I may very well rant and bemoan my ‘bad luck’ but today I promise that my ire is purely from a professional standpoint and I very much have my tech hat on.

I have had the hump about Match.com for a while now, for many reasons which I can assure you do extend beyond my ability to find a ‘match’ and for context I wanted to cross reference it with the new Austin-based dating site Consumating.com, which is just as good as its name suggests.

Match

I have so many issues with this website and none of them are technical per se, the site works fine actually I would say that their interface is very smart and easy to navigate, that however is where the bonus points stop. I appreciate that the guys at Match truly believe that an algorithm can replace actual conversation, feelings or stirrings of the soul, something which even as a tech-head I would vociferously dispute, but there is no need for them to be so authoritarian with what they demand from you. No sunglasses on your photos, questions which they pretend to be relevant which in reality just aren’t and frankly the ask you to jump through hoops and in doing so ruin the customer experience completely. More often than not I felt on trial as a human rather than doing something jovial.

Consumating

The first thing I want to say about this relatively new service is what a fantastic name they have come up with, it spells out who they are, there is a touch of double entendre and it is very memorable, top marks there. What this site does very well, and very different to the draconian measures of Match, is to make this a far more community lead service. What  they have managed to do here is to blend social with dating (what a revelation!) and the results are very enjoyable. What I think is the positive about this site when compared with Match, is that you can be human, you may wish to fill out certain answers using rude words or phrases which may possibly make you sound like a sociopath, but at the very least you can show off who you actually are, and not just try and fit into the box where the pretty girls or handsome men are.

Match are still popular but I would suspect that the majority of that comes from their early success when there weren’t really much competition for them, as soon as that changes, expect these dating nazis to be out on their ear. Have you used either of these services? What did you make of them? As always , hit me up in the comments.