Editor’s Note: This product has been removed from our side-by-side comparison because it has been replaced by another product. You can still read our original review below, but Top Ten Reviews is no longer updating this product’s information.
This website takes pride in their lowercase logo, “udate.” But just because the “u” is small doesn’t mean that you will be treated small on their website. udate is big on service.
udate is the only website we reviewed that provides detail about its members’ habits so that you can judge which of your matches has the most potential. For example, you can check the status of every member profile you’ve kept in your Favorites folder. You can tell exactly when they’ve last been on udate.com and if they’ve read the email you’ve sent. These and other details allow you to judge the interest level of each person you contact.
udate’s search options are different from most other sites. First, you can pick preferences from an extensive list and then rank the importance of each. This is a good way to find people with similar profiles without eliminating those that don’t exactly match. However, the process isn’t intuitive and takes patience to learn.
Also, the geographic search tool is misleading. udate lets you initiate a search, but only within your own state. Our first impression – it’s too restrictive. However, the search engine returned people from four nearby states. So, the expectation of receiving only matches from your home state is not entirely accurate.
Like many dating sites, completing the basic profile is simple. But you will need to put more time into filling out detailed profile questions and preferences. It took about 15 minutes to complete the entire profile.
One pet peeve—this website doesn’t let you select your own password. udate selects it for you, and it isn’t an easy one to remember. Later they send you an email with the password so you can keep it in case you forget.
This site has some of the more important features that you will need for online dating success; but the naming strategy is unique. For example, instead of clicking on a Search button, udate calls its search button Match. People who have “viewed” your profile are Encounters, and their member spotlight area is the Gallery. The new names take some time to grasp.
One feature udate offers that most other sites don’t—the ability to see everyone who has taken a close look at your photo. Another plus— you can tell if the recipient has opened mail from you.
In the Encounters folder, you can tell how someone found you—was it through a specific type of search or from browsing the website? You can also see if they have sent you an email. In Encounters, you see a thumbnail view and information for each member, including when they were last on udate, how they found you, how you found them and the date and type of your last contact. All this valuable data is together on one page.
To track your matches, udate helps lists them in order of compatibility. And when you click on an individual, you can see where the match or the clash may be.
udate is an average site with great potential. The Encounters page gives you a level of detail that will help you track all of your online relationships at a glance.
One final plus—you won’t receive stale profiles from udate. No one that appeared in the searches had abandoned udate; all were active within 29 days. udate keeps their profiles updated constantly, and that alone is worthy of respect.
Click here for more info on udate.com or to search members for free.
