Dating sites

NZDating

According to Nielsen/Netratings NZDating has around 250,000 unique site visitors in New Zealand every month. The age of members is evenly spread among the 20 to 50 age group and the site offers free membership. This gives you the ability to communicate with other members via email; to create a personal profile with photos; use content and contact controls to decide the types of photos, content and members you'd like to see; and participate in discussions and real-time online chatting.

Full membership of the site is free, but upgrading to premium Gold membership - the best deal is $59.95 for a year - gives users more features including enhanced profile and search options, info on which other members have viewed their profile, and additional blocking and content-control features.

Daters that we spoke to liked NZDating's honesty - the site caters for people who just want sex, as well as those looking for friendship and romance. NZDating lets you set your limits about what you want to see on the site. There is adult content.

FindSomeone

This is a moderated site, which means that all photos must be approved and members can report offensive behaviour. FindSomeone also offers free membership. This is at a more basic level than NZDating: you can "smile" at other members, but you can't email someone you fancy unless they email you first (they can only do that if they're a Gold member).

Our female daters said they never needed to upgrade to full Gold membership, as most male members of the site had gone for Gold. And the males did most of the contacting. Upgrading to Gold membership is more expensive than NZDating at $29.90 per month.

FindSomeone has a good mix of active members, especially in the 21 to 45 age group, but the biggest part of its membership - over 13,000 members - are aged 46 to 55.

Dating site prices

Notes:

A No minimum term. Credit card is charged monthly.
B Minimum term applies. Full amount is charged upfront.

Other sites

Other sites worth looking at include:

• www.socialise.biz - is a virtual dating site where members and guests can meet and interact virtually. It's a middle ground, between online interactivity and real life meetings. Members can go on a "virtual outing" with other members and behave and interact almost as you would on a real life outing.
• www.match.com - is an international dating site with over 8 million members.
• www.facebook.com - is a social networking site described as "Bebo for adults". Not technically a dating site, but who knows who you'll connect with.