1. Match South Africa review: summary

Match was one of the first online dating sites ever and it continues to hold its own in an ever more competitive market place. Longevity does give you experience and Match certainly has a good track record of helping singles get together. Tried and tested, it is still a great place for flirting and fun

We have conducted tests and reviews of the site so that we can bring you a rounded view of how it well it works for you:

2. Features and profile quality on Match South Africa

The registration procedure is speedier than you might think. It only requires a handful of minutes to complete the process, though you do have to submit a photo, so make sure that you have a good one ready(Note: You are obliged to upload a pic at the end of the reg process). The vast majority of information in your profile is requested after the initial sign up process and when you are constantly encouraged to enter more information and say a little more about yourself.

Having finished this easy registration, you are at liberty to look through  the profiles and make use of all the features. These include:

Search

There are many different ways of searching through the database. On top of standard selections around location, education, income etc there are some interesting search buttons like 'reverse Match' and 'It's their birthday' button.

Picture: Search functions - Match.com

Daily 6

The 'Daily 6' takes you beyond your own search criteria and presents Matches to you that it thinks are suitable. These are 6 Matches recommended to you every day that you can like or dislike.

Picture: Daily 6 - Match.com

Match Affinity

Match Affinity is an upgrade available to you if you are interested in getting as more scientific approach with personality profiling. You can take the profiling questionnaire free, but eventually there will be additional fees for this extra service.

Picture: MatchAffinity - Match.com

Starting the conversation

Making that first move can always be a little nerve wracking for all but the most hardened daters. That's why it's a good idea to make fulll use of all the differing communication options avaialble on match. The traditional approach is to send out a carefully worded email, but match now has an instant messaging service so you can really get flirting with someone straight away. You can also 'like' a match or 'wink' at them, then wait for them to do the talking.

3. Match South Africa User Test

The Match South Africa test thoroughly explores all elements of Match. To produce a complete overview of the quality of the product we created a profile on the site and made use of it as a standard user (man looking for woman). Following this we went through all features on the site and started some first communications.

We also tested Match South Africa’s online reputation, going through comment boards and forums to get an idea how customers respond to the product.

First ideas about Match South Africa

Match looks precisely like the traditional kind of dating service it is. The format is clear and easy to understand and the process is very familiar. Soon you are provided with a page of suitable Matches and you can show your interest by winking or chatting to the ones that catch your eye.

Match has been around longer then nearly all of the brands out on the market. It is in this sense a trusted provider and one that has created a lot of successful partnerships all over the world.

A new service offer from Match is their Events programme that is being rolled out. This should bring an offline element to the service and ensure the offer is much more unique.

Picture: Landing Page - Match.com

Activity Test

To ensure an estimation of the amount of members online, we undertook an interaction score. Dating sites come in umpteen diverse shapes, but always the most meaningful issue for the punter is how many contacts he or she gets involved with. How many individuals get in touch and how many people answer to conversation openers. Our contact ranking creates a grade against this essential metric for every firm we review. Match South Africa did really well in this test. There were stacks of members online and it looked like a reputable spread of users over the region.

Match South Africa profiles

The quality of profiles seem good on Match. They are nicely presented, every member must submit at least one image of themselves, and there is usually a fair bit of personal information visible. The type of people on Match differs substantially, but generally you can see that most are searching for something serious.

Are there any fake users or Scammers on Match?

People pretending to be other people is an issue for nearly all dating firms and often the test of a service is not whether they have a problem, but how bad it is. However, our impression of Match South Africa was quite positive in this regard. Match runs a really robust routine of profile checking and most of the profiles seemed real. 

4. Customer Friendliness at Match South Africa

Customer friendliness is an important issue with dating sites. The degree to which dating sites deal effectively with the anxieties and problems their customers have, changes a great deal from one site to another. How simple is it to get in touch with customer services? How swiftly do they deal with customer concerns. Does the company operate automatic renewal of subscriptions and how easy is it to cancel this?

Getting hold of Customer Support with Match South Africa

There is a good and useful FAQ area on Match that walks you through nearly all the processes on the site and questions you might have. However, it is hard to find an email address to write to and there is no phone number. Not brilliant.

Match South Africa design

The design is straightforward and clear with an emphasis on usability as opposed to showiness. One area of note is the profile sections which are very well laid out and shows off your Matches in an appealing manner.

Mobile use at Match South Africa

Match is equipped with both good mobile browser compatibility and good apps for iPhone and Android. The apps are nicely designed and feature a more modern layout.

Picture: Mobile app - Match.com

5. Is Match South Africa a good deal?

Most dating sites offer a - free of charge - introduction to their product, but to get full use of the site and really make contact with your Matches you have to pay for Premium Membership. Match South Africa is not an exception and to communicate with your contacts, you have to pay. We are not going to quibble with the need for this. Customers always need to pay if they want to use a decent service. Rather, we focus on how Match South Africa does on a ‘value for money’ equation. Is it good value relative to other sites on the market?

*these prices were current at the time of writing, but may change

We suggest you choose the six month package. It’s a large up front price, but once done you’ll be able to relax and take your time to use the service well.

Final tip: Have you considered Lunch dates? If your looking for a relaxed way to test the waters with a new love interest then you could do a lot worse. Lunchdates are essentially business like affairs and unlikely to be very romantic or - lets face it - drunken. This gives you are real advantage when it comes to making a clear headed decision. With evening dates, one thing can lead to another. With lunch dates there is no question of a sleep-over and you can really assess a persons personality before you get attacted to them.