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When I first kicked off our iHookup review I didn’t know what to expect. Any dating site with ‘hookup’ tends to be a bit sketchy in my experience. But something about the ‘i’ in the name made it sound classy, like it was related to Apple computers or something. This is a site that’s been around since 2011 so it’s isn’t exactly new but still isn’t an OG dating site. I’m giving it another shot to see if it is worth including in our annual review of the best hookup sites that are actually worth your time.
Your reading this now because you realize how important finding a good hookup app is. Too much social distancing is still happening to be able to rely on meeting other singles in public. So many people are only using hookup apps that you can’t possibly avoid it now. You just need to find the right one for you.
When we review sites and apps like this we’re trying to determine if it’s an option the most people are going to have a good experience with. That means it’s easy to use, has a lot of singles using it, and that the site actually helps singles meet up (not just message endlessly).
This is how we conducted our review of iHookup.com:
We spent a lot of time sending out dozens and dozens of messages over a couple of months to a lot of different women. We message women of all levels of attractiveness, race, and interests to get a really good idea of what kind of response rates guys will get. We have a lot of success on dating apps so we know what a quality app feels like.
We try to set up dates with as many women as possible and then take all the experiences and results we’ve seen to write this review.
How we review dating sites and apps is the only REAL way to get a sense of how useful they are. The vast majority of “reviews” you see elsewhere were conducted by people who never even tried the free version of the app, let alone the paid version. If you’re reading a review that doesn’t go at least this far you really can’t trust it.
Below is our full-length review of iHookup as well as our recommendations for how to use the site.
This review wasn’t for the faint of heart. Read on to find out more! First, a quick overview of what we found and a comparison to what we think is the best option for most guys to meet women looking for casual fun or hookups, AFF (which you can try for free). This is the easiest way we’ve found to quickly show just how useful a new app is:
Overall Our team rates each site objectively based on many hours of independent research, the features each site offers, and how it compares with other sites. The ratings are the opinion of our editors and their extensive experience. |
2 | 9.5 |
Quality of Women Our opinion of how attractive the typical woman is that uses this site and how easy they are to connect with compared to other sites. |
2 | 9 |
Popular How many people are using this site to actually meet people compared to other sites. |
1 | 10 |
Usability How easy is this site to use and how quickly can an average person begin meeting people compared to other sites. |
5 | 9 |
Privacy & Safety Does this site take proper precautions to safeguard its members, their identity, and their data. |
2 | 9 |
Effective Our opinion of how easily an average person will be able to achieve their dating goals with this site compared to other sites. |
1 | 9 |
Value Will the time and money spent using this site pay off for an average person based on the opinions and experience of our editors. |
1 | 10 |
If you look at our overall ratings above it is pretty obvious that we didn’t think much of iHooup.com after spending time using it. This was one of the absolute worst apps we have tried and would never recommend that anyone try it. You’re better off just watching TV.
If you want a quality hookup app you should go with AFF instead (you can try them for free with the links above).
There were a lot of things wrong with iHookup but the big three were:
Any time we click on something, even just navigating around, we would get redirected to the paid subscription page. Once you get there they make it really tough to navigate away so we were constantly hitting the back button.
To make matters worse they hide the cost in very, very, tiny small print below the credit card info. It would be very easy to assume you are getting the membership for free instead of havig to pay $39 a month!
Even before we had a chance to complete a profile we were getting bombarded with messages. This is almost always a clear signal that the site you are using is trying to rip you off with bots. This onslaught never stopped.
There were also a lot of fake profiles on the site. So many that actually being able to tell if there are ANY real humans using it would be impossible.
Everywhere you look on the site you see sketchy advertising. You just can’t get away from it. It is very clear that they are only interested in showing you ads instead of actually operating a site to meet other people.
We didn’t really find much to like in our review of iHookup but here are the main positives and negatives:
Now let’s get into the specifics of what we found in our review:
The most important part of evaluating any dating app is figuring out who is actually using it. A good app needs to have a LOT of singles using it and a very good balance between men and women. As soon as there are a lot more men than women using the app it becomes really tough for guys to find much success.
As we will get to more in a second, there aren’t a ton of people using this site but based on our experience the vast majority of the real people using this site are men. This is very typical of low-quality “hookup” sites like this. Women tend to completely avoid them.
When I first signed up for the site, I was warned that there are ‘Sweethaarts’ on this site. “What is a ‘Sweethaart’?” I wondered. Maybe someone just misspelled ‘sweetheart’. Or, maybe they are really cute women who have been highly rated by the community. Unfortunately, no. Sweethearts are, according to the site, there to give updates about “special offers targeted to my interests.” In other words, they are fake profiles that are set up by the site to make money.
And it didn’t take me long to find one of these Sweethearts. In fact, right when I logged in, I got a message. It said: “Hi, my name is iHookupKate and I’m an iHookup.com hostess. I’m here to show you the basics and share tips that will make your experience satisfying. Think of me as your community tour guide :)” I clicked on her profile and there were a bunch of adult photos of ‘Kate’. She recommended that I upload photos and get more involved in the site.
I clicked on her profile and there were a bunch of adult photos of ‘Kate’. She recommended that I upload photos and get more involved in the site. Now, we are going to help you out here and save some time. You can skip the rest of this review and use your time more wisely on hookup apps that are actually worth spending time on. These are the sites that can actually get you laid.
Legit Hookup Apps Normal Guys Actually Do Well On According To Dating Coaches
You need to skip iHookup and spend your time where it will actually benefit you. That means trying out one of the apps that dating coaches are actually seeing regular guys do really well on. Try these first if you actually want to meet girls:
Site | Our Experience | Our Rating | Free Trial Link |
---|---|---|---|
Best Hookup Site Right Now | Experience Highlights
| 9.5 | Try AFF For Free |
Great If You're Handsome | Tinder Highlights
| 8 | Try Tinder |
2nd Best For Most Guys | Experience Highlights
| 8 | Try Passion |
In the graph above you can see how many people searched for iHookup each month over the past several years. There hasn’t been a single month in the past few years where more than 6,000 people were actually looking for it. That’s REALLY bad. Popular apps are getting MILLIONS of searches a month by comparison.
What this tells us, combined with our experience using it, is that iHookup just doesn’t attract many singles. It’s really unlikely that anyone is going to have much luck on a site that gets so few people and it’s even more unlikely that guys will.
I began to wonder if there were, in fact, any real people on this site at all. I began doing searches on the members. A ton of profiles would appear in the results, but there was never a member count (which is always a red flag for scam sites). The pictures seemed legit in many cases, but most of the profiles were not filled out at all. Given what the user agreement said, I figure these could be photos that people made on other dating sites that were then transferred to make fake accounts. Either way, they didn’t seem like real people made them.
The profiles that were filled out were even stranger. One of them had the self-description: “Is it you???? Am I wait you all time? I am looking for someone, who can enjoy every day of being together!” That doesn’t sound like any real person I know.
There are two different membership plans on iHookup that they are constantly pushing:
The Gold Plan
The Silver Plan
One of the first things I noticed when I signed onto the site was a little bar on the upper-right corner that said R-Rated. I was, of course, intrigued by this little button, and so I pressed it. Oops.
It immediately took me to another page with pictures of scantily clad women in scandalous poses and even some straight-up adult video links. It was, to say the least, not a dating service. Of course, if you click on anything on this page, it asks that you upgrade your free account to a paid account. It promises that if you do you can have unlimited access to thousands of XXX videos.
No thanks.
This site advertises free membership. But what is a membership worth if you can’t even converse with other members? It’s worth absolutely nothing, in my mind.
This is a standard scheme for scam dating sites. They have fake member profiles who try to get you to sign up by sending messages. They lure you in, thinking that maybe you are going to get lucky, but then as soon as you sign up you realize you aren’t even chatting with a real person. You paid to send a message to a robot.
It’s not just messages you have to pay for. You have to pay to look at certain photos, or even read the messages that have already been sent to you. Don’t fall for it!
On the membership options page, the site says they “Guarantee You’ll Hookup”. But, of course, there is an asterisk and some fine print that says they actually don’t promise anything. But, if you don’t hookup, they will give you three free months of membership. Of course, they never define what ‘hookup’ means. And, if the site is a scam to begin with, what’s three months of free membership worth?
This, of course, is just another part of their clever scheme to get your credit card number.
For this iHookup review I looked over all of the terms and conditions for the site. One thing I noticed is that the company that runs the site is located in Malta. Malta is an island in the Mediterranean Sea. Companies often host their sites in these places when they want to avoid taxes and US regulations. In other words, only pretty sketchy sites usually host in these places, so that they cannot be held accountable for things like stealing your personal information and credit card number.
They even have a clause, in all caps, in the fine print that says, “IHOOKUP RESERVES THE RIGHT, AT ANY TIME, TO CHANGE ITS FEES AND BILLING METHODS, INCLUDING THE ADDITION OF SUPPLEMENTAL FEES OR SEPARATE CHARGES”
If that doesn’t scare you, I don’t know what will.
After spending a little time reviewing iHookup it is pretty clear that this app just isn’t going to deliver for most guys. I know your heart is broken by hearing that but you are in luck. You can check out AFF for free and actually get some real results.
Every year we rank and review all the best hookup apps that are popular. There are a TON of worthless apps out there (like iHookup) but also a couple that are legit, specifically Tinder and AFF.
Good-looking guys looking to date chicks under 28 are going to do great with Tinder. They are going to get almost all the attention from the women there. Normal-looking guys or guys interested in women 30+ are going to be out of luck.
We have found AFF to be a much better option for guys who don’t have a lot of luck on Tinder. AFF has a ton of women using it (60 million+ active members in English-speaking countries) and WAY more women 30+. They also are much less focused on looking great in a headshot since you have a much more expansive profile to show off with.
If you are looking for a quick fling check out their free trial and see what options you have in your hood.
Usually we spend some time talking about the app as well as the website in this section of our reviews. In this case, iHookup is so old that they don’t even have an app! That isn’t always a red flag but in this case it is.
If the developer isn’t even interested in making an app you can pretty much assume they have abandoned it.
There really isn’t anything that you can do with a free iHookup account that is meaningful. All of the useful features like messaging and interacting with other singles is only allowed for paid members.
This is a pretty typical setup with many high-quality dating apps.
I wondered why this ‘Kate’ wanted me to upload photos. What does she care if I have a photo or not? So, I did a little bit of research into what the site does my content when I upload it. Here’s what I found out in the user agreement. They say, “By submitting Content to the Website, you automatically agree that iHookup and anyone permitted by iHookup may reproduce, display, distribute and create new works of authorship based on and including the Content.”
What does that mean in plain English? It means that they can take your pictures and words, and reproduce them as advertisements, new profiles, or whatever they want, with whatever modifications they please. They could take your photo and make a profile for another dating site catering to some strange fetish or something. Seriously, I wouldn’t mess around with any site that has a user agreement like that.
I did a reverse search on Google to see if the photos of members were posted anywhere else. One of the searches I did had a match. It was with a photo of a woman named Elena on a dating site for Russian women. Of course, her name and location did not match the information on the site. Clearly, they were taking photos from other places and making fraudulent profiles.
Another weird thing I noticed is that about 75% of the profiles that I saw said they were “Native American” even though the people in the pictures looked about as white and blond as can be. What’s that about? These kinds of strange inconsistencies are big indicators that the site is not what it says.
In my final attempt to find a real member, I decided to send a message. I clicked on a woman’s profile and then clicked on the message button. That’s when I hit the pay wall.
Up near the ‘R-Rated’ button, there are some other links. One of them says, “Live Chat”. I clicked on the link, thinking that maybe it would let me chat with other members. I should have known better.
It actually took me to another site altogether. It was a cam site, with all kinds of adult content. And it asked me to pay in order to chat with the women. Any dating site that takes you to another domain without warning should not be trusted. And you definitely shouldn’t give these third-party sites any money.
This site has good marketing and design, so it may be hard to see the trashy scheme underneath. But I have done the research for this iHookup review, and trust me, this place is not where you want to go to meet women, or anybody for that matter. Stay far away!
Below are the questions we frequently hear and tracked down answers for during our iHookup review:
We go into great detail about this in our review but iHookup claims to be a site that can help you find someone to hookup with. In reality, it is more of an advertisement for other adult sites. There are much better options for you out there if you actually want to meet a real person. iHookup is all about taking your money.
iHookup is owned by Media Crush Digitial a company owned and operated out of Cyrus. Their address is:
Media Crush Digital
14 Griva, Flat/Office 113
Ag. Antonios ,1055 Nicosia
Cyprus
Any time you see a website based out of Cyprus you need to be skeptical. There are a lot of sketchy sites based out of there and few legitimate dating sites (if any).
You can contact them at the address above or use their contact form on their website.
iHookup is not a dating site, it portrays itself as a site for more casual dating or finding hookups. What they have in mind isn’t what we would call a “date”.
The iHookup mobile app is not worth using. The site itself is extremely sketchy and you are much better off trying other options. If you want to know what those are, check out our review of all the hookup apps that actually work.
We didn’t find anything in our iHookup review that would lead us to believe that this is a real hookup site that is worth your time. There are red flags all over this site that should send you running away as fast as possible.
There are several legit hookup sites and apps out there but iHookup isn’t one of them. They don’t have any substantial amount of real users, they have tons of fake profiles, and lots of fakes messages. iHookup.com is about as far from legit as it gets.
In our opinion, iHookup.com is not safe to use. There are too many examples where they are trying to mislead users for us to say otherwise.
Before you log into and signup for iHookup we are going to warn you that you are most likely wasting your time with them. If you insist on moving forward here is what you need to do:
If you are looking for an iHookup alternative (and you definitely should be) we suggest you check out our ratings and review of the best hookup apps out there. You can see which site or app would work best based on what you are looking for.
When you go through the signup process you are registering for a free iHookup account. Actually using all of iHookup for free is another story. As soon as you try to communicate at all you are prompted to put in your credit card information.
At this time you cannot use iHookup for free except to view their advertisements and do some basic searching.
At this time, there is no way to get a free iHookup membership. This site is very untrustworthy and does everything it can to get you to put in your credit card information. Even as a free site it isn’t worth your time so you shouldn’t even consider a paid membership.
In order to delete your iHookup account or to delete your iHookup profile you need to follow these steps:
You may still receive emails from them but this is all you can do to remove yourself from their systems.
iHookup tries really hard to get you to signup to a paid membership without tell you how much it costs. Below is the fine print:
As you can see, they charge you $2 for a one day trial and then the next day start charging you $39 a month. This is very sketchy and under no circumstances should you pay for this.
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