Zoosk

Zoosk is an online dating service designed to help you make a longterm match. The site claims to use Behavioural Matchmaking™ technology to learn from the actions of over 35 million members to give you better results the longer you subscribe.

The app is currently available in 80+ countries.

Our analysis of this dating service will help you decide whether it is worth your time and money.

How Does Zoosk Work?

Signing up for Zoosk requires you to share your age, gender, dating preferences, location, and other details like your physical build, highest education level, religious affiliation, whether you have kids, and more.

There are three main ways to look for matches:

1. Basic Search

Zoosk lets you view other members in your area for free. This means that you can see their pictures, bio information, and general location. You can narrow your search by age and geographic region.

However, you won’t be able to contact anyone unless you sign up for a paid subscription.

You can help others find you by filling out your own profile with photos, a background story, your favorite interests, what you’re looking for in a match, and what your ideal date would look like.

2. Zoosk Carousel

The Zoosk Carousel is a feature available for both free and paid accounts that lets you take a glance at other members and decide whether you are interested in meeting them. You can consider it to be the “Tinder” portion of the dating service.

The Carousel will display a member’s age and profile picture, and you can select “yes,” “no,” or “maybe” on them. If that same member choses “yes” for you, you will gain access to each other’s full profile and can message either other if your subscriptions allow for it.

This bonus subscription feature lets you tag up to five people a day as crushes on the Zoosk Carousel, which is a stronger sign of interest than the standard “like” option.

You will also receive unlimited “un-dos” for the times you accidentally swipe no on a match. Instant Crush costs $9.49 per month and will automatically renew until you cancel.

You won’t be able to message matches with this upgrade unless you also have a premium subscription.

3. SmartPick

Every 24 hours, Zoosk will show you one profile chosen for you specifically based on your match preferences, the kind of people you’ve liked and messaged, and more. If you click “like” on the SmartPick and they do the same to you, Zoosk will let you connect.

What Comes with a Zoosk Subscription?

Though it’s possible to browse Zoosk for free, you’ll need to pay for membership if you want to connect with anyone in a meaningful way.

A paid Zoosk subscription comes with the following benefits:

• Unlimited messages
• Full access to SmartPick introductions
• The ability to see who’s viewed you
• The ability to chat with your connections

The longer you commit to a membership, the lower the price per month will be.

You can add Premium Messaging to your order for $9.99 per month. This allows anyone to respond to messages, even if they aren’t a subscriber.

Each subscription will automatically renew unless canceled beforehand.

How to Pause or Cancel Your Subscription

You can pause or cancel your Zoosk subscription at any point, either through the app store that you purchased it from or through the “my account” section of the website.

Once you cancel, your account will no longer be visible to other Zoosk members. All purchases are nonrefundable, which means you won’t be reimbursed for any unused time or coins.

Zoosk Coins

In addition to a paid subscription, you can enhance your experience by using Zoosk coins, which are the site’s virtual currency.

You can use them to access premium features and make yourself stand out to other members. 180 coins cost $19.95, and you can purchase 480 coins for $39.95 or 1800 coins for $99.95. It’s possible to buy coins as both a free member and a paid subscriber.

Some of the most common uses for coins include the following:

• Zoosk Boost: Gain the attention of other Zoosk members by using coins to purchase Boost, which highlights you in the search results, inbox, and Carousel. You can get 75 boosts for 150 coins.

• Message Confirmation: Once you message someone, you can use 35 coins to find out if they read it. (Only paid subscribers can use coins for this feature.)

• Buy Gifts for Other Members: You can get attention from other members by gifting them coins in increments of 10 to 100.

• Unlock Matches in Carousel: If you like someone on Carousel, but they haven’t liked you back, you can use coins to unlock their profile. (You won’t be able to message them directly unless you are a paid subscriber.)

• Buy Gifts for Other Members: You can get attention from other members by gifting them coins in increments of 10 to 100.

Analysis of Customer Reviews

Over 65 Zoosk members submitted reviews on our website for a combined average of 1.3-stars. Here are the key takeaways:

Many Matches Felt Like a Scam

A log of reviewers felt like Zoosk was a scam. They wrote that their attempts to connect with gorgeous singles in their area were ignored or met with robotic responses that made them question whether they were real people.

One member paid for a subscription to read a message from an attractive woman, only to have the message be an ad from the company to buy coins.

Others were upset that they never got messages that people were viewing their profile, even after they sent them gifts, smiles, and messages. This led them to believe that there weren’t always genuine people on the other side.

Some Users Found Love

Some reviewers stated that they made good friends or even met their fiancé through the service.

Too Expensive for the Features

Many members who paid for extra Zoosk features reported that they were too expensive for the benefits they got. Some wrote that they didn’t appreciate having to pay for coins in addition to the monthly subscription cost to get noticed and that they connected with few serious matches over a month, despite paying for boosts and gifts.

One user wrote that their biggest complaint with the app was that most people didn’t pay for premium, meaning that it was hard to connect with anyone without paying the additional monthly fee for Premium Messages to let them message back for free.

Complicated Cancellation Policy

Some Zoosk users struggled to cancel their accounts. They reported that the site offered them a discounted rate when they attempted to cancel but didn’t honor it during the billing process. These users ended up disputing the charge through their bank to get their money back.

Difficult to Navigate

A few users wrote that the Zoosk website and app were challenging to navigate. Some noted that they struggled to use the advanced search features to find people near them, while others took issue with the fact that the site logged them as “viewing” members even when they were merely trying to skip over their profile as a suggested match.

This made it difficult for them to determine which of their views were from members doing the same thing.

Others didn’t like the lack of information on the carousel feature, as they often matched with people who lived too far away to be a viable prospect.

Zoosk vs. Elite Singles and Match.com

Zoosk has the most extensive member base and is available at the lowest monthly price if you commit to a six-month membership.

However, these stats are deceiving because you may feel pressured to purchase coins or subscription add-ons to get the full benefit from this service.

Likewise, a significant portion of Zoosk users never transitions to a paid account. This means that it will be impossible for you to contact them unless you pay for premium messaging.

Unlike Zoosk and Match.com, Elite Singles has an involved signup process based around the Five-Factor model of personality. The purpose of this quiz is to give the site key information about what you are looking for in a match so that it can suggest members with a seemingly higher chance of compatibility.

Zoosk, in contrast, only asks for your basic information when you sign up and doesn’t let you specify what you want in a partner.

In fact, you can only search for potential matches by age and location. Other sites often allow you to specify details like race, education level, religion, whether they smoke, and more.

Something nice about both Zoosk and Match.com is that you can view photos and full profiles with a free account. Elite Singles blurs out photos until you commit to premium.

Key Takeaways

If you’re choosing between these three services, we think you need to consider what you most want out of a dating service. If heavier-handed matchmaking and taking a personality test appeal to you, Elite Singles are better options than Zoosk.

Likewise, if you want to set up an account quickly and scan through lots of profiles before committing to a straightforward paid membership, then Match.com makes sense.

The most significant advantage of Zoosk is the larger membership base, but you might struggle to contact a lot of users. To address that, you will need to sign up for paid membership and premium messaging.

The Bottom Line

Zoosk is a full-featured online dating service with a unique virtual coin system that essentially allows users to pay for the features they care about a la carte.

This makes sense in theory, but in reality, the majority of reviews indicated that Zoosk members were disappointed in the app’s value and lack of viable matches.

Your experience might be different, but we think there are less expensive dating services to experiment with that give you a better chance of connecting with someone genuine.

For this reason, we suggest users start with a free Zoosk account and browse the profiles of nearby singles before committing to a long-term subscription.