Plenty of Fish Dating reviews
What users love and hate, from real reviews
Once one of the best free dating apps, POF (now under Match Group) locks almost everything behind a paywall and infuriates the veterans who remember it free.
What users love
Despite everything, some people genuinely meet someone — and the search plus message-before-matching is valued
A share of users praise being able to message before matching and the handy search, see plenty of active people and quick connections. There are real stories of meeting, relationships and even marriages through POF.
I really dig that they have a search function and that you can message before matching.
I met a woman off of here. we spent 5 years together after the first meet. she was from Ireland would've never met her with out this.
The app is straightforward, with plenty of active users. I liked the free messaging feature and the live streams. Matched with interesting people quickly. Works well with no major bugs.
What users hate
The paywall has grown absurd: you pay for premium and still pay extra for likes and messages
Premium stopped unlocking anything: to see likes, message first, or send more than one message a day, you must buy each feature separately. Users feel conned by a "misleading" subscription.
you have to pay for everything. Get the premium? well you still need to buy messages and likes and ability to see your likes...
the premium membership is misleading people into thinking they can message without restrictions
somebody likes you, have to pay to see it. want to send one message, have to pay to see it
Overrun with fakes, bots and scammers — almost no real people left
Female profiles are mostly fake, conversations die after a couple of messages, and fake-account moderation is essentially nonexistent. Many are convinced likes and matches are bot-generated to extract payment.
Service is completely overrun with scammers. Little is done to filter out fake accounts. Zero Stars!
yea the matches are all scammers and the premium features don't even work. trash app
Every single "like" is a bot. The app gives you one message per day and it's a waste of time.
A cap of one first message per day makes the free version pointless
Without paying you can message one new person every 24 hours — and if the app "deletes" that one message "for your safety", you're left with zero contact for the day. Swiping is useless because matches almost never happen.
your restricted to 1 first contact per 24hrs, so when they delete that 1 message on you it means 0 messages for that 24hrs
you only get to send one message as a first contact. which you get every 24 hrs for non payment anyway
you can only message one person every day thats not a match
Selfie verification is broken — real people can't pass, yet scammers get through
A clear photo gets rejected 10-15 times in a row, selfies come out "blurred" even on a good camera, and you can't create a profile without passing it. Meanwhile scammers sail right through.
complete garbage review verification! no matter how many times I do it fails and can't go forward without it! yet scammers always managed to get through!
cant even create a profile because selfie verification wont recognize a clear photo
Took ages to get verified, even with 2 phones still getting blurred selfies despite good camera?
Bans with no explanation — often right after you pay, and appeals are ignored
Accounts get banned for no reason, frequently days after a premium purchase, and requests for a reason or an appeal go unanswered. Money is not refunded when you're banned.
banned my profile and wouldn't give a reason after they took my money
paid for premium and they banned my account
This company banned my account without giving any clear reason or explanation. They ask users to submit a ban appeal, but they never respond.
Billing as a trap: charges after cancellation, double/triple charges, a yearly bill instead of monthly
The subscription is nearly impossible to cancel — the "Cancel Premium" button is hidden, it doesn't show up in Google Play, and the card keeps getting charged after the account is deleted, pushing people into overdrafts and bank penalties.
they make it impossible to cancel so you're constantly getting charged big scam never again
Plenty Of Fish is hiding the 'Cancel Premium' option.
I cancelled my membership several weeks ago, AND YOU JUST CHARGED ME ANOTHER MONTH and now I'm overdrawn and got charged an extra $30 penalty from my bank
Location and filters are ignored: it shows people thousands of miles away and outside your age range
Set a 5-mile radius and it shows profiles from another country; set an age range and people twice your age message you. The app keeps resetting your location to the wrong place and respects none of your search settings.
Constantly tries to show me people on the other side of the country/world. Search doesn't work, constantly tries to select random locations, distances, age ranges.
i set it 5 miles now it doesn't even show people in my area
Kept getting people double my age and far outside the age and distance range I set. Defeats the whole purpose of a preference range.
Phantom notifications: "you got a message/like", but the inbox is empty
The app fires notifications about new messages and likes that don't exist: you open them and get an error or nothing. People read it as a desperate trick to make you open the app and pay.
tells you that you have a notification that doesn't exist. tells you that you got a like but your "like inventory" is empty
I keep getting message notifications but when I go to my inbox there's never any messages!
a recent change to the app has resulted in multiple notifications every day saying "sent you a message". no person there and opening it gives an error.
Login and password reset are broken: verification tied to an old number and reset emails that never arrive
Password reset is dead — the code email never arrives, and login demands a code on a phone the user hasn't had for years. Support points you to a dead page that just tells you to make a new account.
I can't reset my password because you don't send me anything to my email address and I already have a active account.
I'm locked out of my Account because I can't receive a verification code on a phone I haven't had in 3 years.
now its still trying to access my card to continue a subscription
Customer service is effectively absent: copy-paste replies and tickets with no answer
Inquiries get the same copy-pasted "go through Google Play" reply, and tickets go unanswered. No one will look up your account or help with a refund — you're left on your own.
the team just sent the same copy and pasted response- go through Google play
they dont have an actually customer service.
Customer service is crickets.
A ghost town: it surfaces profiles inactive for months, and nobody matches
The feed is full of accounts that haven't logged in for 3-10 months yet are labeled "recently active". You message everyone in range for months and get zero replies: people are sure the app is dead.
most of the ladies I'm being shown haven't been online for up to 10 months, so it's a pointless exercise.
For over a year now, nothing at all despite messages to every single user within 50 miles of me. No return messages.
Im seeing nothing but profiles that have been inactive since April or mor
Veterans remember the free POF and resent the "complicated" Match Group redesign
Long-timers remember a simple, free app for years; after the Match Group merge it became confusing, paywalled and, in their words, a "flaming pile of garbage". Nostalgia for the old POF is a constant theme.
Since the merge with Match, this is now a flaming pile of garbage.
This app went from being simple to being the most complicated app I've ever seen.
it used to be, that we could actually meet people who live near us for free. but now it seems to be just one giant scam