Our Zoosk Review Bottom Line:
- GOOD: It’s kinda fun.
- BAD: They’ll nickel and dime you.
- TAKEAWAY: Spend your money on eharmony. There are hardly any Christian filters on Zoosk.
Maybe you’ve seen the ads in your Facebook sidebar…
If other online dating site formats don’t work for you, Zoosk offers a slightly different approach than a lot of the others. Oh it still has some of the same traits that make it a typical online dating site, but it feels a little more whimsical than some of the other sites we’ve reviewed. Partially because it has a little bit more color and flair and a logo with a heart, but for more reasons than that. Read on…
Zoosk Review :: Why is it telling me that I’m not popular?
From the initial interaction on the site, you can see details that set Zoosk apart from other online dating sites. For instance, we’ve never seen one that tells us our level of popularity when we got to our dashboard. Zoosk has a colorful little meter that tells you your rank in others’ searches.
We thought about how that could kinda hurt the ol’ self-esteem until we looked next to it and saw that you can buy coins to boost it. Yes, coins. Like Chuck E. Cheese coins. Basically, paid or free members can purchase coins for all kinds of reasons on the site: boost your profile in the searches, purchase gifts, receive a delivery confirmation on your email messages, etc. You can purchase coins at various levels, starting at 180 coins for $19.95.
See? Zoosk is different. And we have no problem with different–until we realized the coin pricing was in addition to a monthly membership fee that begins at $29.95 a month. Of course, like other sites, you can save money if you pay for more than one month at a time, but if you want just one month, it’s around $30.
So back to the coins. From what we can tell, the coins aren’t that necessary and are extra options that are available to people who want more out of their Zoosk experience. And again, we have no problem with that. But when we searched for profiles of people age 25-40 within 100 miles of our Dallas/Fort Worth zip code and came back with over 1000 results, we could see how some coins might be advantageous for boosting one’s profile over the crowd.
For those who don’t want to shell out money to buy coins, Zoosk has offers from business partners that allow you to earn coins. But these are no small tasks like giving out your email address or taking a survey. They include applying for credit cards or signing up for subscription services. All of this leads us to think that the whole coin thing is simply another way for Zoosk to make more money, just like other online dating sites that offer premium services or help you with your profile.
Zoosk Review :: Is it for Christians or not?
But for the reason we’re all here: online dating for Christians. You’re really reading this Zoosk review to find out if the site can deliver, right?
We’re sure it’s possible for two like-minded Christians to find true love via Zoosk, which is not a specifically-Christian site, but we don’t think it’s going to be as simple as it would be on other sites. Here’s why: When you are filling out the initial profile questions, you are asked about religion. Christians have 2 choices: Christian or Christian-Catholic. So while we think it’s great that they let people differentiate, they don’t delve any further.
Now, to be fair, once you get into the site and are able to do an advanced search, you can search for profiles of people by religion. But the problem, as we all know, is that the terms “Christian” and “Christian-Catholic” are both very broad and mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people.
Even when you’ve whittled profiles down to the ones that say they are Christian, it’s still no small feat to determine which ones are committed to their faith and which ones are not. Mainly because the search results just give you a name and a profile picture. There’s no introductory information given, and essentially no way to judge a book by its cover. So that means when we did the aforementioned search of matches from ages 25-40 within 100 miles of our Dallas/Fort Worth zip code, we would have had to go through hundreds of profiles individually to surmise whether or not they would be a good “Christian” match for us. Ain’t nobody got time for that. (Sorry. We had to say it.) While the number of match options are great, the time it takes to cull through those profiles can be frustrating.
A few other quick notes to add to our Zoosk review:
- When filling out your profile, you have the option to choose “married” as your relationship status. Do we need to even explain why we don’t like that?
- You are able to see which members have been online recently, which is something we always appreciate in a dating site. So many profiles lie dormant on other sites and users have no way of knowing if they’re a current member.
- Similar to mobile-only dating apps, Zoosk offers members the option to connect with their Facebook account in order to upload pictures. That will terrify some people, but others will love it. So, it’s worth noting.
- A chat feature is offered, but it requires you to download the Zoosk Messenger to your desktop in order to do so. Other sites offer chatting capabilities but do so within the website. We think having to download messenger services seems Old School.
- Not all online dating sites offer mobile apps, but Zoosk does. (Kinda helps cancel out the aforementioned chat download.)
Zoosk Review :: But does it beat eharmony?
We’ve ranked eharmony as the best option for online Christian dating, so it makes sense that our Zoosk review would address how it measures up. And we have to say that, for us, eharmony still ranks as #1. While Zoosk boasts pretty good numbers, it still doesn’t offer the ease of use and the ability to screen for like-minded Christians the way eharmony does.
However, if you’ve been in the online dating scene for a while and you’re looking for a little different experience than the rest, then Zoosk might be an alternative for you.
Current Online Dating Deals:
Last Updated: 9/19/2023
eharmony (USA Offers):
eharmony (Canada Offers):
Zoosk:
ChristianMingle.com:
Christian Cafe:
Best Christian Dating Sites Rankings
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