Academic Singles

I needed somewhere to meet people who understood why I'd rather talk about archaeology than football at a first date. Signing up took about ten minutes and I've had a couple of nice chats already.

Worth paying for if you want to meet people who work in universities or research, and I think the price is fair compared with the other sites I looked at. The only thing that annoyed me was that the verification step took about four days before my profile went live. Once it did, I got a few decent messages within the first week.

It's decent if you're after people from universities, and the subscription was simple to buy from my phone on the train. Messages come through quickly and the app doesn't crash, which is more than I can say for some. I'd say it's worth a try for a few months.

I'd been out of the dating scene for ages after finishing my PhD and wanted somewhere to meet people who understood the hours I work. Signing up was easy and I was looking at profiles within ten minutes.

Signed up on the train on my phone between stops, took about five minutes and the subscription was charged straight away. Messages load fine and I've had two replies already.

Compared to the big general dating sites I used to pay for, this one feels far less cluttered and the people on it seem to actually be graduates or working in academia, which was what I wanted. I've been a member on and off for about six years now. The profile questions are a bit more thoughtful and the messaging hasn't changed much, which I quite like. I've met two people through it and would happily renew.

I signed up for the standard plan first and then upgraded to premium after a month, which I'd recommend if you want to see who has read your messages. The filters are good for narrowing by institution and subject. The support reply took nearly three days when I had a login issue though, and the premium price feels steep compared with a couple of rivals I've tried.

Compared with the app I was using before, this one feels a bit clunky, with menus that take a couple of taps more to get to. The matches are fine but I've had fewer people reply than I expected. It's not bad for the price, I suppose, but I'm not sure I'll stick with it.

The first thing that stood out was how many questions they ask when you sign up, about what you want from a relationship and how you spend a weekend. It took a good twenty minutes to fill in but the matches I got were noticeably closer to what I'd put. The app is a little slow to load photos on my phone, which is the only niggle. Otherwise it's been a decent first month.

Paid for a six month plan and the total came out a fair bit less than the big general sites were asking me for the same time, which is the main reason I stuck with it. The profiles are mostly lecturers and postdocs so I'm not wading through people who think a PhD is a type of mattress. Messages were slow to get a reply some weeks but nothing that bothered me much. Would use again.