SpeedDate     CompareDating Site Review/speeddate/

Speed Dating for the web

SpeedDate is a website that specializes in, you guessed it, speed dates. What that means, translated online, is that you get 5 minutes chats with members. This gives you a chance to see if you hit it off, and you can take it from there.

A pretty neat idea, but does the site delivers? We tried to find out in this review, so read on.

The website looks promising, but…

We found that registration to SpeedDate is quick and easy. You first enter your own details (age, height, location etc) then your requirements for a date. As you point out what you look for, you have the option each time to say how important this is for you, by clicking either one of two boxes, either “nice to have” or “must have” (see pic) .

In “what are you looking for”, SpeedDate gives you a lot of options, from Casual Encounters to FriendShips to Marriage (see pic). We liked this as new users will not feel boxed in any particular need, and they have the freedom to find people with the same goals.

SpeedDate quite impressed us with the quality of its interface. Little help screens pop up here and there to tell you what to do next and where to go. Navigation is simple and the site looks clean and sleek.

Search is very much focused on pictures, as that’s mostly what you see as results, a big page full of profile pictures of various members. This can feel a bit shallow, but at least you cut to the chase and can choose someone you feel attracted to. From there, you can visit their profile, or invite them to a SpeedDate. When the person is online, you can go on a SpeedDate with them instantly, which means a little window opens and you can start chatting with them for 5 minutes.

Again, this is pretty sleek, and you get “Icrebreakers“ suggested to you in the chat window. (see pic) You also get another little window in the bottom right corner of your screen with options for more people to chat with (see pic)

So far, so good, unfortunately the good part stops here.

The site is an empty shell

While browsing profiles, our alarm bells started ringing. We quickly realized that many profiles are completely empty of personal information. As professional reviewers of dating sites, we recognize this as a bad sign. Usually, it means that most of the profiles have been automatically set up, in other words, that they are fake.

The people who show up to chat with you either do not reply at all (which again, suggests they are not real), or try to lead you to another (paid) site to see sexy webcams.

You also get quite a lot of people who suddenly 'like' you… but you can't see who it is until you pay (see pic). You get people offering to chat with you…but you have to pay first. How many of these “interested” people are real is anyone’s guess, but based on our experience with such practices, it didn’t look good to us.

Beware of unauthorized billings!

Conclusion

We suggest you to be careful and NOT give your credit card details to SpeedDate. We recommend you check our top Editor Ranked websites, such as Match, Chemistry or eHarmony, which are more reputable sites with real users and real perks.