Dating Site Review | Plenty of Fish

Can you find fetish with a Plenty of Fish search? Is Plenty of Fish filled with kink? It might not look like it at first sight, but in the spirit of serving our vision and be the most trusted BDSM and Fetish community, we put in the research to find out if POF is the place to find kinksters into the fetishes you love.

POF Overview | Can you get your kink on from Plenty of Fish?

Plenty of Fish cites itself as the largest online dating site in the world, and claim they create more dates and relationships than any other dating site. POF launched as the first free dating site in 2003 and now with over 90m registered users and 55,000 sign-ups every day, POF isn't showing any signs of slowing. POF now boasts an impressive 1m new relationships every year. So how well does all this stand-up and can you find that someone special who is into the same kinky activities as you with a simple POF search? Let’s find out!
 

POF Visual Appeal | Looks aren’t everything

Sign up can be done either online at pof.com or you can download the POF app and use that instead. Once signed up, you can use both the POF app and sign in online, which I found convenient. Registration is easy, straightforward, and very quick, but only if you choose not to fill out the in-depth personality tests, which pop up almost immediately.

When through registration, I found POF to have a simple look and feel as does the POF App. It’s light, bright and uncluttered (as you’d expect from a vanilla dating site) as well as uncomplicated and easy to navigate. Though for poly kinksters who are in a relationship, be aware - Plenty of Fish doesn’t let married people sign up! I was also required to pick from just ‘male’ or ‘female’ for gender which isn’t very helpful for non-binary folks.
 

POF dating on mobile

POF User Experience | Search for the filter

I started my POF search using ‘Meet Me’ - though the results show up from all over the place and might not be very close to your area. Instead, I used  the ‘My City’ tab to refine both the age range and distance range of the profiles shown to me. If you go down to the bottom of the page, you will find an ‘advanced search’ option. Here you can pick specifics, such as if a person is a non-smoker or wants children to refine your searches even more.

As a female user, I wanted to find out if I can filter potential unwanted messages. There is a cog at the top of the message inbox and when I clicked on it I found ways to filter messages, with handy options like how long a first message needs to be, how far away people can be located to message you and even if I want to let just let males or females message me. It is possible to report a user, I have used the feature to report particularly rude and inappropriate messages and used the block feature to cut out persistent messagers whom I wasn’t interested in.

POF Community Feel | A numbers game

You can make a POF search work for you, but it's a numbers game. Being a mostly vanilla dating site,  I didn’t find it easy to discover people who are fetish and kink-friendly. However, there’s a considerable number of people on Plenty of Fish and the POF app, and if you’re not all about the kink, it’s a good site to make contact with a variety of people. I didn’t find any particular community feel to the site, as it’s all about the private messages. There’s no way to chat with a group of people, instead you talk with those who you are interested in via private messages.
 

POF Level of 'Kinkiness' | Fetish or Fet-ish?

POF and the POF app aren’t specifically for fetish dating. I discovered that it’s not possible to use sexualised language when writing my profile, and on doing a POF search, nor does it allow nudity or pictures that are overtly sexual. However, it’s possible to hint at your kinky nature if you’re smart with your words, like I did. Or you can upload photos of you in fetish wear and recognisable poses to signal what you enjoy. You can look out for these hints in the profiles you look at too.

Another effective way to express your love of bondage or your gender-bending inclinations is by completing the Plenty of Fish Seduction Style Guide, which you can find under the ‘chemistry’ tab and is listed as ‘sex test’. The questions take you through the various fetish, bondage and gender-bending activities, asking you to rate which ones you find appealing or not, which is a great way to let your kink flag fly and attract like-minded kinksters. However, if you’re new to kink and want to find out more about the lifestyle, there are no resources for this on POF.
 

POF Membership | Free? really?

Remember I said that Plenty of Fish launched as the world’s first free dating site? Well, it is true...but not entirely. It currently operates on two levels; it is essentially free; you can register, take the personality tests, search and message the matches that take your fancy with relative success. However, I came across a plethora of options to pay for an upgrade to increase your chances of finding a match.

I will admit to initially feeling the upgrade option was rather heavily pushed (it describes upgrading as 'the way to get the most success out of POF'), but it’s left to the user to make the decision, so I don’t see this as a big problem. It’s also possible to purchase ‘tokens’ which can be used to highlight your profile or activate more advanced tools; what POF calls ‘attention-grabbing technology’. It is perfectly possible to use the site or POF app without upgrading, though.
 

POF Help & Support | Err, can anybody hear me?

A very frustrating POF Search is trying to find customer support - and what’s on offer leaves little to be desired. The Help button at the top of the page takes you to a FAQ page with a sidebar for (slightly) more in-depth information. Although all the basics seem to be covered, this is by no means comprehensive, and the real issue arises when you need more dedicated support, from real people. There is no telephone support available at all. Further assistance can only be obtained via email which you can only do if you find the ‘I’m still stuck’ button at the bottom of the FAQ.
 

POF final thoughts

Plenty of Fish is all about setting up dates, it feels, as you’d expect, very much like a dating site. It’s not a place people go to make a group of friends, POF is a place to find people to date, simple as that. 

• POF is for you if... you’re looking to widen your social circle.
• POF is not for you if... you are non-binary, non-monogamous or you are only looking for other kinksters for fun.

This article was originally published on 11th May 2017 and was updated on 18th March 2020.

Have you tried a POF search yourself? Do you agree with our review? Tell us in the comments below. Spanks for reading!
 

Image: cover image released from Shutterstock.com