Online Dating: Plenty of Fish Vs. EHarmony

As older singles strive to find a soul mate, they often turn to online dating, which is increasingly becoming more and more popular every day. There are several different sites to choose from, two of which are eHarmony and Plenty of Fish. Today, these are two of the most popular dating sites. Which one should you choose? To help with that decision, a compare-and-contrast on five key topics is listed for your convenience.

Cost:

You can purchase a one-year subscription on eHarmony for approximately $240. If you don't want to commit to a full year, you can go on a month-to-month plan, but that will cost you around $50 per month. On Plenty of Fish, you can get one year of service for free. Creating profiles, sending and reading emails, live chatting, and web cam exchange are all free features on Plenty of Fish. EHarmony occasionally offers "free weekends" as trials for potential new users, but aside from that, the site is one of the most expensive dating sites on the web. For the older members that are on fixed incomes, every penny counts, so Plenty of Fish definitely has its advantages in this area.

Ease of Profile Set-Up

One of the major complaints among eHarmony users is how long the set-up is. In order to set up your profile, you are required to answer countless essay questions. The set-up process is very time consuming on eHarmony and when all is said and done, you may only get 3 or 4 "compatible" matches. As some of our "older" friends lack computer savvy and like to keep it "old school" by spending a minimal time on computers, this could put a damper on things. When setting up your profile on Plenty of Fish, you just need to fill out some basic info (sex, age, location, etc.) and provide two short paragraphs, one of which describes yourself and one describing your ideal date. You can have a profile set up on Plenty of Fish in under five minutes; that's not the case with eHarmony.

Number of Users

As eHarmony is more recognizable, they understandably have a large number of profiles (~30 million members), although, Plenty of Fish is certainly no slouch, as this site consists of roughly 19 million members. Keep in mind, though, of the commercials that you see on TV for eHarmony-many of the couples that they show on these commercials appear to be in their late 20's or 30's, or early 40's. They don't often highlight too many of the folks in their late 40's or older. Plenty of Fish on the other hand, is notorious for containing countless profiles of the 40 and over crowd. Another thing to note about eHarmony is that more members can also mean more competition. If you have found that "perfect girl" on eHarmony, then chances, about 1,000 other guys found her as well.

Activities and Gatherings

Plenty of Fish has gained a reputation for creating meet-ups and gatherings for local users. Majority of the attendees of these gatherings are 40 and over. Rarely will you see an 18- or 21-year old at a Plenty of Fish gathering. These gatherings often involve meeting at local clubs or bars where dancing and/or karaoke is involved. Also, there are many events set up for beaches, road trips, camping, and picnics. In contrast, eHarmony focuses more on one-on-one encounters and is not very big into promoting group meet-ups. True, your ultimate goal is to meet just that one person, but it is also fun to take a break from date night every now and then and join fellow singles in your area to exchange tips and stories . . . or perhaps to meet a potential new date, as there will surely be a number of site members at these events that you have not met or emailed yet.

Success Stories

Do not be fooled into thinking eHarmony is the only site that leads to marriages. Due to the heavy amount of advertising, both on TV and radio, many people make the assumption that this site is the No. 1 site for online dating success. Truth be told, Plenty of Fish has been responsible for countless marriages, as well . . . they just don't publicize as well. If you refer to the success stories page on the Plenty of Fish site, you will find a list of success stories that seems never-ending.