eHarmony     CompareDating Site Review/eharmony/

One of the biggest sites on the web

Eharmony was one of the pioneers in online dating, and is one of the biggest paid dating site on the web. According to the New York Times, its matchmaking is responsible for about 2 percent of the marriages in America, or nearly 120 weddings a day.

Scientific approach to dating

Neil Clark Warren, founder of eHarmony, is a clinical pscychologist and has a scientific approach to dating. He has counselled thousands of couples and conducted research on why people marry, why they stay married, and why they are happy or unhappy in their relationship. He conducted over 500 "divorce autopsies", interviewing the former spouses and their kids.

His key discovery: 70% of the divorcees were experiencing problems from the very beginning. As a result, Neil went on a quest to help people select a life mate in a more modern, sophisticated way –and the result is EHarmony.

A controlled environment

Eharmony features a more controlled, regulated environment than most sites. This is a website for grownups, and for those who are serious about finding love. You are guided along a path for most of the experience and cannot deviate too much from it. There is good and bad in this, as we’ll see in our tests.

The first thing we liked on Eharmony is its nice, modern interface, which is very Facebook-like and clean. This is a welcome change compared to many dating sites, which seem stuck in the 90’s when it comes to site navigation.

Without a subscription, you cannot see profile pictures or send a message to members, which means eharmony is a website where you must pay to play. Once subscribed, you can email members directly or use the “Guided Communication” feature, where you answer first a series of question chosen by the person you are interested in. This is a popular option on eHarmony, and you will receive quite a lot of messages asking you to break the ice this way.

The “secret sauce”: eHarmony’s compatibility questionaire

When you register, you have to go through the eHarmony compatibility questionaire, which we found takes quite a while (about 60 to 90 minutes depending on your pace). You can do this at your own pace though, saving your answers and continuing later. But you can’t access the site until you are done.

This is the “secret sauce” of eHarmony, because it feeds a complex algorythm (which received a US patent), working behind the scenes to match you with people whose answers closely match yours. The questionaire is based on factors which predict relationship success and analyze areas critical to happiness and a fulfilling relationship/marriage. It features tens of questions on your character, intellect, hobbies, values, etc.

Upon registering, you get a nice help guide showing you tips on what to do and how to complete a good profile in your own words.You also get to updload your pictures, and again it is quite controlled. We found you shouldn’t try to upload anything too crazy or too creative or it won’t be approved. Eharmony wants a simple, clean-cut picture…of you.

You can also read your personality test, which is a detailed and informative analysis what makes you tick, based on your answers.

Time-saving?

One particularity of eHarmony is that you can’t openly browse through members profile. You can only see the profiles that eharmony suggests for you, based on the personality tests. This obviously won’t please everyone, as you lose quite a bit of freedom, and some see browsing profiles as fun. However, the positive side is you’ll only talk with people who are quite likely to be a good match with you. You are not wasting time browsing profile who are not good for you, and your inbox is not clogged by one-liners from people mass-messaging hundreds of profiles.

Within 2 days, I had received 36 matches in my area, so there is certainly more than enough to keep busy (Update: I've now seen hundreds of profiles this month!). The matches were quite accurate; in other words, they were people who had much in common with me in terms of values and outlook in life. The algorythm took a lot of the guesswork out of the equation. When a match has previously seen your profile and expressed interest, you’ll see a “Match Requests Communication” icon to suggest you give them priority.

Recommendation

eHarmony is a solid option for those looking to save time, and/or those looking for serious relationships or marriage. It has our recommendation.