Match Doctor Review

Match Doctor is an (almost) free dating site that can pass as one if you want it too.

*** 2019 update – This website is now sold to Friend Finder ***

It is a no-frills site with a lot of emphasis on demonstrating that real people sign up to use it. That can be off-putting because real people look…real…and not like the stock photos we are usually shown as profile images. It is free, but there is a small option to pay for a few special features that you could really take or leave.

First Impressions

The first thing that stands out about this site is that there aren’t a lot of bells and whistles. This is a low-tech site that is free because it hosts ads. The other thing that will leap out at you is the fact that the front page is full of what truly appears to be profile pictures of real people.

• Real people are featured.
• Low tech isn’t bad, it is not a slow site.
• There are tabs at the top of the page that easily let you take a tour, find the FAQ, and get started.

The next thing that you notice on Match Doctor is that the site seems to be geared equally towards men and women. The age range looks to be older than the average website with a fair representation of foreign populations and middle America, in both location and age.

Another thing that supports the perception that this is a good free dating site to use is its Alexa score.  Match Doctor scores 67,937 in the US and has a global score of 179,487. In the past six months, it has dropped in its ranking by almost 25,000 places. While the US is heavily represented in the profiles, there is also a good representation of international profiles. It has also dropped in its bounce rate and the average fewer sticks around to at least look at 4 pages a day. What is also unusual is that the demographics score high in the US, but the next highest country is India. This goes far to explain the diversity in the profiles pulled for the front page, but doesn’t really explain the odd geographic specificity of the users.

Features

For a simple site Match Doctor has a lot of typical features that you will find on any standard dating site You can contact people via email or IM and you don’t have to pay extra for that. If you purchase a gold membership then you are allowed two additional features –

1. See who viewed your profile
2. You can view when your email is read

With the purchase of the optional “gold membership” the site will send you an email notification when your message is read. The search options and filters offered are also standard, which for many people is all that they really need for their connections are made in the talking to – not the reading of. The site and features are basic, but they are well executed and planned – which makes Match Doctor a welcome relief from the endless parade of template sites..

Price and membership

Match Doctor is completely free. There are no hidden charges. You can opt to pay for a “gold” membership which costs less than $9 a month that will open a few advanced features to you, but you can use the site fully without paying at all. When you want to disable your account the option to do so is right under the choice of your setting. While it is free, you should expect that it in some way is managing to capitalize on your presence and information. This means that there will be some data scraping going on to try and target ads to you that may be of interest.

Conclusion

Match Doctor is a struggling little site with all the right ideas, it just lacks the understanding that real people don’t want to see other real people when they are considering joining a dating site. Visitors want to see an ideal. Real can happen later, but the use of real member profile pictures on the landing page may be why Match Doctor isn’t getting the use it should in cyberland.