Spark.com—“a fun site for serious daters.” This dating site does a number of things right. Firstly, all new members must post a photo within 72 hours of signing up. All members are also required to take the Color Code Personality Test, which is designed to help you decipher not only your own traits but the characteristics of other Spark members who you may be interested in. And because photos are required and there is a personality test, member profiles tend to be more complete. These features make for a higher quality dating experience!
Spark.com allows free members to read and respond to emails. Unlike other popular dating sites, likeMatch.com or eHarmony, Spark doesn't require both members to be paying for a subscription in order to communicate. This way, paying members can communicate with anyone on the site, not just other paying members.
This dating site also includes important information about who is checking you out. It is one thing to be able to search for singles, but it is nice to know that people are also viewing your profile and adding you to their hot lists.
Spark offers all of the functionality needed by singles to search and communicate with potential matches. It is by no means a perfect dating site, but it is definitely worth signing up as a free member to see if they have members living in your area.
Positive Features
- Free members can read and respond to emails for free
- Qualified member – each new member has to have at least one photo in order to appear in your matches and other search results; all new members must take the Color Code test, giving you more insight into your potential dates
- More than 10 different hot lists
- Discover out who has been viewing your profile
- Easy to spot active members; the profile shows when the member last logged in as well as when the profile was last updated
Negative Features
- Too much advertising in the members’ area
- You must be a member to post on the message boards
- The user interface, while just updated, does need further refinement (too many icons)
At a Glance
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Average User Reviews & Ratings
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| Dating Site: | Spark.com |
| Members: | 1,000,000 |
| Cost per Month: | From $11.99 / month |
| Membership Types: | Free - Basic + Contact
Paid |
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| Free Membership |
- Yes (standard membership)
- Included:
- Create a profile
- Personal info
- Your gender and the gender you are looking for
- Type of relationship are you looking for
- Your current relationship status
- Country, zip code
- Basics
- Lifestyle
- Your smoking habits and drinking habits
- Your education level, occupation, ethnicity and religious background
- First and last name
- Describe yourself and your personality (at least 2-3 sentences)
- Physical information (not required)
- Height, weight, body style, hair color, eye color
- Is appearance important to you
- Background (not required)
- Languages, education, religious, ethnicity, schooling and occupation
- Describe the person you'd like to meet (short essay question)
- User Account
- Username, birth date, email address and password
- Username and birth date
- Personality test
- The Color Code Personality Test, answer the questions which best reflect you as a child (instinctive answers)
- The first 30 questions ask you to pick from a set of four attributes that describe you best. Example: proactive, nurturing, objective, insightful
- The next 15 questions ask you specifics; you can choose 1 of 4 answers. Example: In social situations, I was most often: followed because I am assertive and on task, admired because I am caring and quality based, etc.
- More about you (not required)
- Your personality & interests (multiple choice)
- How would you best describe your personality type
- What are your favorite physical activities
- What do you like doing in your free time
- Where do you like to go in your free time
- What types of food do you enjoy
- What are you favorite types of music
- What do you like to read
- Relationships (short essay questions)
- What is your idea of the perfect first date
- What is your perception of an ideal relationship
- What have you learned from past relationships
- Add up to 12 photos (you must upload a photo within 72 hours of registering in order to continue using the site)
- Searching
- Read and reply to email
- Test the waters with Flirts
- Find secret admirers with Click
- Review your matches by mail
- Not included:
- Cannot use instant messenger or web chat
- Cannot initiate contact with members via email
- Cannot read the message boards
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| Costs |
- Membership costs last updated September 25, 2010. Please check Spark.com for most recent pricing
- Three subscription types - free, standard and premium
- Standard membership:
- All features of a free membership plus:
- Initiate email conversations
- Connect with instant messaging
- Full access to message boards
- Create customizable e-cards
- Costs in US dollars:
- One month for $24.99
- Three months for $14.99 per month. Billed in one installment of $44.97
- Six months for $11.99 per month. Billed in one installment of $71.94
- Premium membership:
- Member spotlight - get more attention being spotlighted on different Spark.com pages
- Highlighted profile in search results
- Costs in US dollars:
- One month for $29.99
- Three months for $17.33 per month. Billed in one installment of $51.99
- Six months for $12.99 per month. Billed in one installment of $77.94
- Pay by all major credit cards, phone, check and money order
- Your subscription automatically renews after its term expires. Renewals can be stopped by logging in as a member and clicking on "Member Services" or by going to: Cancel Subscription
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| Relationship Types |
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| Relationship Status |
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| Looking For |
- Activity Partner
- Dating
- Friends
- Long-Term
- Marriage
- Penpal
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| Regions |
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| Languages |
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| Viewing & Communication Tools |
- Profile & photos
- Inbox
- Send and receive email messages
- Can save messages to work on them later (drafts)
- Organize your messages into custom folders
- Auto reply available if you have gone away for a week or two
- Flirts
- E-Cards
- Send an E-card and choose from over 50 different categories and over 500 cards
- Instant messenger
- Message boards
- 12 different forums to discuss everything from relationships and dating to news and current events
- More than 25,000 topics in the forums with more than 800,000 posts and counting
- Chatting (web chat)
- Includes smileys and the ability to change the look of your message text (colors, bold, etc.)
- Click!
- Helps you determine if a mutual attraction exists with another Spark member
- Click ”yes,” “no” or “maybe” on members in search results or profile views to tell Spark if they pique your interest. If the other member also clicks “yes” on your profile, Spark.com will send an introduction email called a Click! Alert to start off the introductions
- Color Code Personality Test (created by Dr. Taylor Hartman)
- The Color Code is a fun and accurate personality profile that helps build stronger relationships by teaching you more about yourself and your matches
- To take the test, simply choose the answer that best reflects you AS A CHILD. Your answers are private and will only be used to tabulate your test results
- After the test, you'll have access to your 15-page Color Code Personality Profile. You'll also see other members' core Colors when viewing their profiles, learn the pros and cons of how your personalities match, and learn how to communicate with them best
- The Color Code is not a matching system; it’s designed to help you build stronger and more meaningful relationships by understanding what drives the behavior of yourself and others. To see how you match up with other daters, take a look at the Color Code information on the “Color Code” tab located at the top of their profile
- Privacy tools and settings
- You can modify most features under member services including:
- Control what messages you want to receive from Spark.com
- Hide your profile from certain members
- Remove your profile from hot lists (like who have you viewed)
- Block other members from sending you instant message requests or emailing you
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| Search By |
- View any search in a list or gallery mode
- Quick search
- Your gender and the gender you are looking for
- Age range and location range
- Filter by newest, most active, closest to you or most popular
- Matches
- Basically an advanced search that allows you to specify your match preferences
- Match preferences can be on any part of the profile
- Filter by newest, most active, closest to you or most popular
- Members online
- Filter by gender and relationship type, location, age range and language spoken
- Recently uploaded photos
- Keyword search
- Include keywords that describe your ideal match (smart, funny, enjoys dining out, etc.)
- Can also specify your gender, relationship type, age range and location
- Photo gallery
- View new photos
- Can specify gender, how new they must be, country and age range
- Look up member by name or number
- Members you've viewed or have viewed you
- Members you've hot listed or that have hot listed you
- Members you've flirted with or have flirted with you
- Members you've emailed or have emailed you
- Matches sent to you via email
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| Other Info |
- Owned by Spark Networks
- Spark.com is a rebranding of the Date.ca and AmericanSingles.com dating sites
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Related Categories
InformationDid the dating site contain all the features you were looking for? Things like chatting, instant messaging, searching, video, etc...
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
I started Spark.com with an open mind - but it was almost instantly closed. I regret having paid for one month's membership. Virtually all of my contacts were scammers. If I politely declined their request, they tried to push with sweet talk. I clearly stated in my profile that I was only interested in individuals in my local area and even stated that scammers need not try because they would never get any money out of me - that showed that they didn't even read it or could not read it since most of them are in continental Africa. It was the biggest waste of time and money.
If you are a woman over 30 + all i can say is Watch OUT !!
I posted a comment in January and for some reason it went missing. Someone signed up with my email address as a gay 67 year old guy. I have been trying to get Spark to delete the account-they refuse!!! I got the password mailed to me and tryed to delete the account and they won't let me do that either. I have repeatedly explained to their "customer service" that I never signed up, in fact had never heard of the site and they DON'T CARE. If I know of anyone interested in signing up for a dating site, I will sure tell them this Spark site is a scam. I cannot believe how extremely poor and unresponsive they are!!!!!! DO NOT USE THIS SITE!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I joined the site 2 days ago and started to explore it. after I uploaded another pic of mine my account has been suspended already. anyone here knows the reason behind? I did not violate the terms of the site either.
some of my pics were rejected and right after that my account got suspended too... i'm a bit lazy to call them and ask them why though. i have no idea what happened, pictures were just like any other pictures and i don't know if meeting the specs requirement (350x350 pixels, 72dpi or whatever) could be the reason, although that was close too
I have to say that I am the first one to bash these online dating sites but to my surprise I have met the love of my life on Spark.com AKA Americansingles.com. I've been on so many dating sites prior to spark.com and nothing has ever come out of it. The weird thing about it is I never even paid spark.com, I just simply opened a profile and searched. I was only on spark.com for about 2 months until I received an ecard from him. I responded with an ecard back and then he sent me a message. The weird part about it was I didn't pay for my account but at that point in time I was able to message him right back without any charges. I don't know what to make of it....call it faith but now we are together and crazy in love with each other. I give spark.com 2 thumbs up. You just have to have a little faith, & patients. That right one will come along when the time is right.
Yes. Spark.com is full of scammers. I have purchased a month subscription and within 4 days, all replys I received from were scammers. It all starts with that they say they cannot e-mail you because they are not paid subscribers. That was not true, since Spark allows even free subscribers to e-mail the paid members. There are so many instances I faced. At the end, recently I got a mail from one respondant (after my suspicious conversations with that respondent, whose address was given as Dania Beach, Fl) that the person was held up in Barcelona, Spain and needs $ 2,500 to come back and meet me:---))). Beware of scammers all over.
I have joined multiple on line dating services and for the first time felt the majority of the communications were from scammers. Each time I opened a communication I had a very uncomfortable feeling about the site, needless to say, not using it anymore even though I paid for the month. Be careful of this one!!!!!!
I have submitted twice the last two months and "dating site reviews" will NOT publish my comments--so I'm going to try this-someone signed me up for an account using my email but signing me up as a gay 67 year old--Sparks WILL NOT DELETE MY ACCOUNT when I ex[plained what happened, I emailed them to get the password to try and delete/change the account and Sparks WILL NOT LET ME DO THAT EITHER!! They have been absolutley unresponsive to this. I am not 1) a male 2) gay or) in my 60"s But I am having to deal with all the crap from Sparks people. I wasn't aware of this website until I wanted to give people the heads up on this sleezy dating site and now even THIS site blows me off--the Jan. 30th post regarding the American cheese was mine-I've been waitng that long to get something posted regarding the very sleezy and unresponsive Sparks "dating site" Cusomer service is important- it helps the site/business run and addresses any bugs. Sparks has NO CUSOMER SERVICE AT ALL!!! and I question "Dating Sites Reviews"
I can't say that I've actually tried Spark.com but knowing them under the names American Singles and Date.ca, I would not recommend it. both sites were plagued with scammers. Just doing a free search of my area (on Spark.com) I saw at least three scammers online. I would steer clear of this one.
I haven't tried it either--American singles sounds like something in my cheese drawer in the frig! Waiting for my complaint with this "spark" to get posted-now there is a farce!!!
Dear Anony :
Scammers, like ne'er do wells and the poor we have with us always. The customer service took care of them fast and permanently. I tried E Harmony and got hit with the chippies there too. I cannot pretend to know what their goal is and I don't want to know since I never meet them off site. At least on Spark you can tell the difference.
- Jerome
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what the heck is a chippie lol?
After trying twice to get 'americansingles.com' online and getting the Spark.com website, I realized that the new had taken over the old. I wanted the AS.com because my brother met his gorgeous, sweet wife on it. I was surprised to learn I could go on for free and SEARCH for ladies in my area. I could not contact them without signing up but I found out that they were there. I had some issues with the signon because I use win98 (no I'm not going to upgrade so knock it off). They solved most of them pronto. The customer service is quick - even on a holiday weekend.
After choosing a plan, which is much less expensive than others, I was put through a barrage of exams for compatabilities. I didn't care for it but it was optional after all. They encouraged me to upload a pic and I did. After logging on and doing a little search I soon got a hit from a chippie. I am 67 and she was 32 from a foreign country. I clicked on the 'concerns' button and their speedy service got rid of her in a flash. I have had several nice email letters from members and am waiting now to see when I get a date.
So far I have been on this for 2 whole days and the rating they have earned is 5 stars. These people are serious and trying hard!
- Jerome - a 67 yr. retired engineer in Huntsville, Al.