Ashley Madison Review: A Site for Discreet Dating

Ashley Madison is an adult dating site with a very niche target audience. It is specifically dedicated to those who want to have discreet extramarital relationships. The website caters to a broad audience for those who are interested in polygamous, monogamous, or open relationships. Because of their unique niche market, they have gathered users from all across the globe. It is certainly not an adult dating site for those interested in an honest relationship because it is an example of dating sites for married people and those already in a relationship.

Audience structure

This website’s target audience is vast, and they have millions of users from all over the world, with recent figures hitting the 20 million mark. Because this is one of the first websites to break this niche market, they have become famous for being an affair website. It is not the place to look for a serious, committed relationship if you are single. The site has a pool of open-minded users, and a lot of people are online, whatever the day you visit the website.

Is There Any Specification? (Gay Dating, Adult Dating, Christian Dating Etc.)

The company provides a dating website for both married and single men and women who are not looking for casual relationships and one night stands. This is almost a prerequisite because otherwise you will be disappointed to use AshleyMadison services. The founders decided to create a platform for affairs and are quite vocal about this.

Geographical Structure

Users come from all over the world. Most of the traffic comes from the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States, and Western countries. More and more people join the community every month, with the latest figures showing around 100,000 new members a month. Because of the wide range of geographical locations, the only drawback is that you may engage in someone who has a low level of English.

Ethnic Structure

All sorts of people are using this website. The ethnic structure is very well rounded. Even though most of the members come from Western countries, there are people from all creeds and ethnicities. You will be spoilt for choice.

Age Structure

The website is excellent if you are a young married person because the disparity between young and old users is significant. People have been marrying later and later historically. As a result of this, the vast majority of people are young married people, around the age of 25-40. The average age for a user is 30.

Gender Structure

Because conventionally, men need to pay to message people, which leads to a very imbalanced gender structure with more women than men on the website. The latest figures have shown at least 80% of the users are women, which is very imbalanced when taking into account the usual gender structure of dating websites.

Sexual Orientation

The website is very inclusive for both heterosexual and gay users. You can easily state your gender and gender of your desired partner in the registration process. Even though this is not an example of a polyamory dating site, many Ashley Madison reviews and testimonials from people online indicate that the website has been very inclusive of polyamorous dating. Despite this, we would probably recommend you to look at other polyamorous dating sites if this is what you are after. We say this because the services advertised on this website are specifically for people who are looking to have an affair.

Getting started: Ashley Madison sign up

The Ashley Madison login and sign up processes are rather straightforward. Registration is direct, and only necessary information as required to create an account, including your relationship status and what you are looking for. Because people are generally discreet, it makes sense that they do not require much information from you initially. The website does an excellent job of this.

Information You’ll Have To Provide

The amount of information that you have to provide is minimal. All you need to do is specify your email, relationship status, and some general information such as ethnicity, height, and weight. The website allows you to make some simple edits on this picture, either by blurring out the image or adding masks that cover sections of your face, which helps keep things anonymous and discreet.

Verification Process

The website does well to keep things anonymous and discreet, not bombarding you with a million emails and questions. As mentioned, you will not need to provide many details to become a user. Photo verification will not take longer than a couple of hours, and this is very fast compared to other dating websites we have reviewed.

Time It Takes To Get Approved

Signing up takes less than five minutes from start to finish. It is a quick process compared to a lot of dating sites out there. In our opinion, it is fast and effective.

Ashley Madison adult dating Account

Creating a profile is incredibly easy to use and is free of charge for both women and men. You need to supply five categories to the profile. However, you can skip ones that you do not deem to be important. Users can provide their relationship status, intimate desires, perfect match categories, and also a photo.

Ashley Madison Profile Structure

Every person who creates a profile can put several details into it, including their location, age, and up to 13 photos. There is also an activities field where you can let people know your favorite types of activity. In the “about me” section, you can also purchase just about anything you want others to know about you. It is a clean and straightforward layout that works effectively to show who you are and what you want from other users.

Ashley Madison Search

This is not like other websites where people are open about every aspect of themselves. When you search, the vast majority of photographs are blurred. However, you can reach out to someone to attach their pictures in a private message. People also don’t share much information about themselves because of the discreteness, and this is understandable. Therefore, you can only really search the bare bones. The great thing is that you can do a lot of searching for free.

Basic Search Features Available

It is possible to easily find compatible individuals, i.e., people that have matched the same preferences that you have searched for. The basic search features encompass a wide variety of choices, from age and location, right up to star sign. We find that the basic features provide a lot of what you need to find a potential match. In terms of affair-based specifics, you can also search for all sorts of aspects, from personal desires to gender. Ashley Madison allows secure communication with members. You can communicate via instant messenger or by email. Talking directly to people online is also possible.

Advanced Search Features Available

Searching can be quite advanced. You can even search for people who live between 1 to 500 miles away, although you probably want to select someone near you. Advanced searching allows users to refine their searches completely and to eliminate anyone who has not been active on the site for a long time. This is a cool feature because many people on this site are concerned about time-wasters. As the website does not offer any monthly membership, all of the advanced features are available for everybody to make use of.

The Adult Dating Matching Process

In terms of finding their match, women can contact anybody for free. The male user will need to purchase credits to use the services. However, sending messages is not the only way to initiate conversations. Members of the website can also send gifts to different people, as well as emails. You will also be able to communicate with like-minded individuals and a chat room. One of our favorite features is the “wink”, which is pretty self-explanatory and it’s also completely free.

Getting in Touch

Getting in touch is a little gender biased, seeing as men have to initiate communication. It is all about action-based payment systems. To communicate, you will have to buy credits. After you have purchased this, you are free to exchange via the website, through text messages, emails, and live chatting. There are no options to engage in video chat between a match, and although this is disappointing, it is probably for the best in terms of offering a discreet service.

Chat Features and Interface

The website’s interface and chat features work well, and we did not encounter any problems using them. The interface is slick and works well with the color scheme of the site, plus the pink color fits in with the general mood, i.e., that sexy and naughty appeal that most people using the service will be into. The only problem we’ve found is that you need to scroll down the page a lot to get to the features and most important parts.

Is Ashley Madison a safe site to use?

The company became widely publicized in 2015 when they were involved in a hack. The hackers were able to leak details of those on the website successfully. Nowadays, they have managed to rebuild their image and their address security concerns with the new and improved digital architecture, which protects their users. When you are using the site, make sure you do not share your personal information with others.

Data Privacy and Protection

For those concerned about having marital affairs and being spotted using cheating sites, the Ashley Madison website facilitates anonymous and discreet billing. You can also easily browse through profiles anonymously. If you email them, they asked to respond and tell you more about their privacy and protection regulations.

Are There Many Scam Profiles

In the past, the company came under attack as it was revealed that many bots were creating fake male profiles. Since then, they have undoubtedly learned their lesson and ramped up moderation to ensure that scam profiles are removed swiftly. We did find many scam profiles, but the number for a dating site is rather average. However, because of the large number of users online, we could not carry out a comprehensive test of a large sample. There have been testimonials on the Internet attesting to a large number of fake female profiles, so we advise you to use this website at your own risk.

How Does Ashleymadison Deal With Scam Profiles

If you look at how ashleymadison.com approaches security, there seemed to be no problems. They do boast a high level of protection, especially since they were hacked in 2015. One of the things that makes the website easy to moderate is that you only pay for your actions, such as initiating conversations. This certainly helps to keep scammers at bay. The website has a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to disseminating obscene and dangerous information, including threatening behavior towards users. Members of staff are quick to enforce shutting down profiles and deleting scan profiles when necessary.

Help&Support

The customer service team is somewhat lacking, and they only offer barebones customer support, which is mainly to ensure the anonymity and safety of the dating environment. There could be more done, for instance, a phone number to ring or live chatting options. However, they do an excellent job of discussing the issues surrounding their unique service in a blog. You can also quickly report scamming attempts on their website.

Website usability

We found that both the layout and design of this site are simple and user friendly. Compared to other married dating sites, they do a great job showcasing a sleek and sexy color palette and look. It does have a professional feel to it, being very comfortable and relaxed on the eyes. We like how it uses pink to highlight any critical details. However, the menu bar is a little off as it is almost halfway down the page, which means that you have to scroll a lot to get what you want.

Is There Is A Ashley Madison App Available

The Ashley Madison app is easily available for both iOS and Android. It is very similar to the desktop version and creates an environment that is great for people on the move. One of the best things about this app, which stands out from other dating sites apps, is that it does not take up much space on your phone memory. It is also designed to be discreet and not suspicious, with an icon that doesn’t look like it comes from a dating app.

Membership options

Women who are looking for men are free to use every feature of the site. For anyone else, they will have to buy credits so that they can initiate communication and use the rest of the features. The website provides its services based on the credit that you top up, so you will need to purchase credits to use it. Unlike other sites that offer monthly subscriptions, the service is all based around paying for credit. Therefore, you get what you pay for.

Ashley Madison Free Version (or Free Trial)

In the free version, you will be able to create your account, plus a few other profiles. You can also create a favorites list, send winks, and create discrete photos. The three features are rather limited, and you will have to pay for most of the services. We recommend paying if you want to say what is in store for you.

Premium Features

There are several paid features available. You can boost your profile, send a quirky range of virtual gifts, and most importantly, you will be able to send personalized messages. If you do not pay for the website, you cannot initiate a chat! The Travel Man feature is available for premium users, allowing you to find partners and hook-ups on the road.

Ashley Madison Pricing: Plans and Prices

We find the pricing to be relatively expensive on the whole. There are three different packages on offer, namely Basic (100 credits – 59 USD), Classic (500 credits – 169 USD), and Elite (1000 credits – 289 USD). None of the features are offered on a monthly subscription basis.

There are different prices for different features. A priority email, opening messages, and email initiating cost five credits each. Once you have applied to a person previously contacted, you do not need to spend credits on emails. Chatting will also cost you 30 credits for half an hour. You can pay between 20 and 50 credits for virtual gifts.

The website offers an “Affair Guarantee” whereby users can receive a full refund if they have not had an affair in three months. This option is based on terms and conditions that need to be fulfilled, including creating a profile, uploading photos, leaving your profile visible for 3 months, sending five gifts a month, and other terms and conditions. A user can then have all of their money refunded to them as long as they have met the criteria. It’s an exciting feature but demands a lot from the user.

Cancelling Ashley Madison subscription and deleting profile

It is effortless to cancel your profile on this website. We had no significant problem when we tried it for ourselves. This particular dating site makes the whole process very quick, and they will remove your account as soon as you click the option to do so. There isn’t much else to it – it is safe and easy to do.

Conclusion

In concluding our Ashley Madison review, this site is an excellent choice for people who are interested in engaging in marital affairs. Does Ashley Madison work if you are looking for an affair? Absolutely. It is an easy-to-use and well laid out website, with an interface that goes along with the general mood. You should not be surprised if you have to contact individuals to see pictures, and this is a slight drawback, yet it does make things discreet and safe. We would recommend this website to anybody interested in marital affairs and polyamorous dating, especially since browsing for users is free. However, we would also advise people to be careful because many online reviews have pointed to many fake female accounts. That said, if you are into what’s on offer and like married dating sites, we think this is probably one of the best places to meet for affairs online.