RapiDating OnLine Dating

Since going to church is already a great way to make friends, find a future husband or wife and become active in your community, it might explain why Catholic Cupid doesn’t do so well for traffic. It simply doesn’t garner enough visitors, despite having a professional and inviting place to make safe online connections. Still, building a thriving online community is never easy at first, and this site certainly has provided a base for future success.

The CatholicCupid profile process is ultra quick. That said, you do have to include a written essay describing yourself and your potential match. These are carefully screened for appropriate language and just general quality overall. That means that at least one is spared from the usual curiosity seekers that simply type gibberish into the description field so they can start browsing profiles straightaway.

Nevertheless, one issue that quickly becomes apparent is that the searches cover too broad an area. Free searches are limited to a wide 200 miles and even paid members can only narrow down result to within 50 miles. If one lives in an urban center, that could prove rather impractical, and it might be a bit far to travel even in rural settings.

When you do find your possible matches on Catholic Cupid, you’ll only be able to see their last login date if you’re a premium subscriber. You can send a free wink or add the member to your favorites. If said subscriber has gold membership status, he or she will be able to see that you added the profile to your list of preferred members.

Other benefits of upgrading on CatholicCupid include seeing who in general viewed your profile, while conversely preventing others from seeing when you’ve looked at theirs. It also allows you to initiate rather than only reply to emails or online messages in the chat rooms.

Premium profiles are also displayed first within search results, which could prove quite beneficial considering the size of the minimum search radius. As a premium gold member, you can also communicate with free members that can’t contact you but may reply in turn.

However, that doesn’t mean there aren’t still a few interesting features open to everyone regardless of membership status. The blog section and the forums seem surprisingly active despite the limited traffic overall. I only glimpsed a few of the latest postings on each, but found that what I read was insightful and well written.

It might not be the most popular as of yet and that could make limit your potential to meet “the one” since he or she might be hard to find if you’re looking for someone right next door. However, the community aspect of Catholic Cupid seems appealing since the chance to meet other Catholics outside your home parish is a valuable way to expand your circle of friends.

SingleC.com is a place for single Christians to meet online. I find that although the name is pretty hip sounding, the site is a little less slick in its presentation. Whoever designed it appears to have a less than a healthy attraction to the color blue in all its many subtle shades and hues. Thankfully, the blue is offset occasionally by magenta, which is a color I personally think should be banned entirely as it’s clearly offensive in any form. Despite feeling agitated from the overexposure to the amateurish looking interface, the site itself had lots of good qualities. Before going further, I must state clearly that this site is dedicated exclusively to sincerely Christian people. The content is regularly monitored and anything deemed offensive will be removed and the contributing member suspended or even permanently banned. I gave the presentation a 6/10.

You can start your visit by signing up for a free ten-day trial. The creation of a profile doesn’t take very long, but it will be a few hours before it is actually posted since each one is carefully reviewed first. Until your profile is online, you can’t sign into the site. That also means that your trial period hasn’t started until your first login. One thing I found surprising in the information you’re asked to give is that the categories for which church you belong to are fairly general. Other sites are very specific about not only denominations, but even the branches within them. Having grown up in a small town where the Red Lutherans (their church was red brick) never spoke to the White Lutherans (their church was sandstone), it seems odd to treat such a distinction lightly, but you could always write more specifics in your bio.

There is instant messaging available simply by clicking on the profile of someone else online at the same time as you. The online members are divided into users with slow and fast modems, which is a feature I really haven’t seen anywhere else, so far. Every day you can find the people who are having a birthday right on a special link on the homepage and even send them an e-greeting card. The search feature is not overly detailed but that’s mostly because the profiles themselves don’t ask for specific information. I found while I was visiting that a good majority of the people online had pictures, though, so that’s worth a thousand words right there.

Some Christian sites seem less about Christ and more about just being safer and cleaner than regular dating sites. I get the distinct impression that from the profiles I read, most members seemed to be very concerned that they connect with other true believers. I appreciate the fact that they give you ten days to completely try out the service and once your trial is over, the membership works out to only about 66¢ a day.

Visit Single C if you are sincere in your love of Christ and are looking for someone with whom to share that devotion.

CatholicMingle.com is a site meant exclusively for Catholics to meet online. Despite ever changing times, the issue of interfaith marriages has always remained the same, if your future spouse isn’t Catholic than he/she would need to convert to Catholicism if you want a church wedding. Wouldn’t it be easier to just meet people with the same religious beliefs and traditions? It’s as good a premise as any for finding someone with like values and spiritual experiences resembling your own. I must emphasize that unlike some sites that are similarly targeted to one group of interest more than another, this site does not have options for non-believers to indicate that they’re aren’t Catholic. Here, you can only be Catholic who is unsure of the future direction their devotion is taking.

The profile process is quick and easy. No one is “forced” to provide too many details. You always have the option of filling out extra questionnaires providing more illuminating information, but they are 100% optional. You can also participate in a personality test that will colour code your description to aid in finding a more compatible match based upon more than arbitrary physical attributes or interests. Respecting the church’s ideology you can only be looking to meet someone of the opposite sex. The overall tone of the experience is conservatively safe and secure. Many of the members appear to be marriage-minded and generally people are looking for more meaningful connections.

Always free on this company’s network of sites, you can send a smile or an e-card to show your interest in someone’s profile. Beyond those basic ways of getting in touch with someone, you’re going to need to sign up for a premium membership. Once you’ve upgraded you can send/receive e-mail, participate in a live chat or go one-on-one with someone special using instant messaging. It’s also free to read the message boards, but of you want to post any of your own thoughts you’re going to need to pay for your subscription first.

There is another compatibility feature separate from the personality testing. It’s called “Ideal Match” and consists of filling out a list of criteria for what you’re looking for in a potential mate. Besides simply selecting characteristics of your perfect person, you rate the relative value of each chosen detail on an overall scale of importance to make your matches description that much more personalized and precise. Once you’re done explaining what you need and want in a match, the system will go through the database and e-mail you profiles that correspond with the information you provided.

It is not obvious as near as I can tell, how many members actually belong to Catholic Mingle. It costs just under $20 US to become a member and definitely provides a super safe and clean online experience. Since before committing you can always look at the profiles online, I suggest doing a localized search to find out if there are members of interest in your area. The site loses points on it members’ stats (6/10) since every search returns a maximum of 1000 members making it impossible to even estimate true membership levels.

Visit Catholic Mingle if being Catholic is important to you or if you simply want to meet good people with traditional values.

Big Church is one of the most popular dating sites that specialize in catering to people of faith. Some may recognize the look and feel from the Friend Finder family of sites. Friend Finder has a very big-name and they have the resources at their command to reach a broad body of people. We took a look inside Big Church to see what it was all about…

Dating sites are usually made or broken by the size of their membership base — or just about. The more people you see online, the more people you can reach. Big Church scores well when it comes to popularity. This has a lot to do with the marketing network that they have in place, and the fact that they’ve been around for years. This means that no matter what follows, this dating site is probably worth a look.

Having said that, the worst notch against BigChurch.com is that they won’t let you see full profiles until you’ve paid for a membership. How can you tell if a dating site is worth the price of membership if you can’t see the members? Big Church is asking for a big leap of faith in this regard. We recommend that you proceed with caution but keep in mind that even though you can’t see profiles, Friend Finder is a large company with the resources to put a decent dating site on the market.

“…if you’re looking to meet people who share your beliefs, this isn’t such a bad place to start.”

Being able to see the date that a given member last logged in is equally as important as being able to read a profile. On this point, the site delivers. The last login date is easily visible in search results. Even if you can’t read profiles, at least you’ll be able to see how many people logged in during the past day. That’s usually a good indication of how popular a site is in your area.

When it comes to conducting searches, Big Church gives new users a few options. The first two, allowing you to search by country or state, aren’t really all that helpful if you’re looking to rate this site on the amount of members in your area. The third option is to search by zip code, which is a little more useful – but only for US residents. The site could clearly do more for new users in this regard.

If you wish to communicate with other members, there are a number of options available to you. There is a chat board where you can take part in various discussions and an instant messaging client for those who prefer the immediate connection. The site also allows users to create their own blogs and take part in groups. One of the other nice features on this Christian site is that it allows users to search by denomination so you can make sure to connect with people that share your beliefs.

Pricing starts at about $16 a month or you can buy three months for $30. This is less than the average cost of a dating site and there are a lot of features that you get for that price. They do offer a premium membership that gives you preferred placement in search results and gives you extra storage for your mail folder. This will run you about $20 a month.

Overall, BigChurch could be more user-friendly for those who have never seen or experienced one of the Friend Finder sites before. I’m always skeptical when I can’t see members’ profiles. It’s easier for dating sites to pad the database. However, as I’ve said before, BigChurch.com has a big name, so if you’re looking to meet people who share your beliefs, this isn’t such a bad place to start.

ChnLove.com is not your regular online dating site. Instead it is more along the lines of the now old-fashioned concept of mail order brides. I say such a concept is outmoded merely because things have come a long way during the last 10 years as far as to how a man can meet a potential wife from halfway across the globe. This site works in conjunction with 17 local marriage agencies in 13 major cities in China to facilitate connections via the Internet between Western men and Chinese women, many of whom would not otherwise have the computer skills, language knowledge or access to computers and the Internet to meet someone online. There seem to be many stories of successful matches that have led to long-term relationships and happy marriages.

As a man, the profile process is relatively brief. However, you will be required to provide personal information that you normally wouldn’t on other dating sites such as your real full name, home address and telephone number. The site promises that this private contact information will be held strictly confidential and will only be used with your permission when you engage one of their full services.

“ChnLove is for Western men who want to meet sincere, marriage-minded women from China.”

Currently there are over 3200 profiles of Chinese women looking to meet Western men for long-term relationships on ChnLove. In China, the affiliated marriage agencies which the women make initial contact with forward a photo and personal details to the website. They provide the women with help in translating their descriptions into clear and precise English, so the online information about each female member is well written and easy to understand. It definitely seems to help create a more complete idea of each woman beyond merely a pretty photograph.

On the Western side of things, ChnLove offers several unique services. You can have flowers delivered to the woman that interests you if she lives in one of the major cities serviced by the company. The affiliated marriage agencies will also forward your emails to the women by phone or by standard post after translating them into Chinese. The agencies will also collect the women’s reply and translate them to English and email them back to Western men. Additional services available include advice on helping your new love immigrate to your country from China and help with planning a visit to China to meet your potential partner in person.

Some services, like sending flowers, have a specific additional cost associated with them but most of the communication options are charged against a system of credits on a per-use basis. For example, it costs one credit for each mail sent or received through the marriage agency phone/post mail forwarding system. Credits cost between $4.25 and $6.25 depending on how many are bought at one time.

ChnLove is for Western men who want to meet sincere, marriage-minded women from China. It offers a different way to make lasting connections online.