1. Lavalife review: summary

Lavalife is most commonly used amongst young singles looking for fun, playful, casual encounters. It does, however, also serve those looking to find their soul mate and get married, and even those of the older generation who may just be getting out of a divorce. All in all, their platform is based around the idea that love should be fun, passionate, and between like-minded people.

Yes, this is the talk and image Lavalife presents. Great, if they could really live up to that high and mighty talk. This is exactly what we set out to discover. To do this, we created our own profile to most accurately test how fun, playful, and active other members really were. We contacted them, flirted with them, and now can’t wait to share with you the results. Our findings will most definitely prove to enhance your online dating experience.

2. Lavalife Practical Test

Our first impression once logging into the site was that it was very modern and sleek. It had a beautiful red, white, and grey colour scheme which was easy on the eyes.

The homepage is filled with little squares containing member profiles. The biggest emphasis is put on display picture, then username, then age, then location. You can even see who’s online at the moment if they have a green dot in the upper left corner of their display picture. Clicking on a profile brought it to a side bar, where their picture was enlarged to “Sneak Peak” view. Here you can find out more about them like their zodiac sign and personality. Sneak peak view also gives you the option to view their full profile.


Picture: Search results and profile snapshot on Lavalife

After we felt comfortable on the homepage, we went over to a page labelled “Discussion”. It appeared the “Discussion” page was where members discussed topics of interest (general, dating/relationship advice, Lavalife profiles, ask a woman, ask a guy, dating over 30, local date ideas, or Lavalife polls and surveys) with other local members. This part of the website seemed to be pretty dead, as most discussions had not been posted in well over a month. It was also difficult to find our way back to the homepage as the entire site layout was different on this page. Instead of clicking “Home”, you had to click “Lavalife.com”. Weird.

After returning to home, we tried the only other page: “Blog”. The blog had a nice look to it, seemed to be continuously updated by staff members, and contained helpful information on succeeding in the dating world. They also featured “Success Stories” submitted by Lavalife members who had found love through the dating site. It was pretty uplifting and motivational. Again, trying to get back to the homepage was a hassle. It didn’t seem as if there was any button that brought us back, so we ended up having to retype “lavalife.com” into the address bar – poorly designed.

After visiting all of the different pages, we began our contact test. We messaged 100 women between the ages of 26-36 within 50 km. After checking in 24 hours later, we only had 8 responses. That means Lavalife only has an 8% response rate, which is ok but not great compared to other sites out there.

3. Functions and profiles on Lavalife

When searching for potential lovers, you are provided with a nice, big, and easy to use search bar at the top of the homepage. It allows you to customize your search so you can find the exact kind of partner you’re looking for. Basic customizable options include what kind of relationship the other person is looking for, their age, and their distance (25km-all of North America).

Picture: Search bar on Lavalife

 If you really want to narrow it down to find a very specific partner, you can choose to do an “Advanced Search”. The advanced search options let you find someone of particular ethnicity, height, body type, smoking habits, drinking habits, language, religion, income, and education. You can also find people who either have kids, want kids, or neither. Lavalife’s search bar definitely offers a game-changer in the online dating world.

Picture: Many advanced search options on Lavalife

Once we clicked on our profile we realized that there were more things to fill in. We filled out a short blurb in the “About Us” box to add personality, and checked off our “Interests” and “Find me at”.

Basically, they ask you what hobbies you have and places you usually hang out. The only frustrating part about this was that it said you were allowed to choose 10 “Interests” and 5 “Find me at”, but didn’t accept our information until we put in 9 “Interests” and 4 “Find me at”. Really strange, and sort of frustrating.

Beyond of that you can also describe your ideal date. Max. 1,000 characters are allowed in this section.

Picture: Add your personal interests

Lavalife gives you the option of adding up to 16 public photos additional to your profile photo. They also have the option of adding private photos, which are only visible to profiles you have liked that have also liked you back (in other words, the like must be mutual).

If you choose to view another member’s profile, you can see what kind of relationship they are looking for (casual dates, relationship, hook-up, etc.), height, body type, ethnicity, religion, first language, smoking/drinking habits, whether they have children or want children, education, income, and when they were last online. You can also take a look at their “About Me” paragraph which they personally write themselves. You can also view “Interests” and “Find me at” and if you scroll to the bottom it shows you which of these you have in common with them which are super helpful in figuring out if you’re compatible with someone.

Picture: Profile details on Lavalife

While viewing another person’s profile you can choose to “Like” them by clicking the heart on their photo. The other member will be notified that you’re interested in their profile and may be inclined to check out your profile in return.

You can also “Favourite” another person’s profile by clicking the star on their picture. This adds them to your favourites list, so you can easily go back and check out their profile later on. It will not notify them that you have added their profile to your favourites.

If you view someone’s full profile, they will get a notification that you did. This might seem annoying, because maybe you didn’t want them to know you viewed it. In the end, if you took their profile from icon size, to sneak peek, to full profile, it means you’re definitely interested and if the other person knows this they may want to check out your profile in return!

Lavalife’s messaging system gets a great review from us. In free trial mode, you can initiate only 50 conversations, but that’s still pretty awesome since there are no restrictions to replying to people or others initiating a conversation with you. A message is super simple to send. You simply click on the envelope icon seen on another member’s picture, type something in, and click send. If you keep the messaging screen open, messages sent will appear in real time.

Picture: You can chat with up to 50 singles for free

Any new favourites, likes, messages, or views you receive can easily be seen in the main navigation located in the top right corner of the homepage. The icons will even display a little number of how many new favourites, likes, messages, or views you have which is super convenient as well.

4. Customer Friendliness on Lavalife

At the beginning of registration, Lavalife offered us a 7 day free trial which we accepted. Then we were presented with two options: we could create our profile from scratch by entering our email or we could create it using the photos and info already entered on Facebook. We chose to create it from scratch, although the Facebook option probably would have been much easier.

Lavalife then asked us to create a unique username. Then they ask for your postal code, height, build, ethnicity, religion, and preferred type of relationship (casual dates, relationship, long term, friends, or hook-ups). You have an option of sharing your smoking habits/drinking habits, whether you had kids or want kids, your level of education, and income.

At the end of this process, we had created a profile of a man into women of average body type, Caucasian background, atheist take on religion, looking for a relationship, who is a social drinker and smoker, doesn’t have children, and disclosed his education, income, and whether he wants children.

After choosing a main profile picture, we were redirected to the homepage where we were offered a tutorial and tour of the site. The tutorial was a great tool in helping us get started.

After tinkering with the site for a while, we did find we had a couple more specific questions which the tutorial didn’t answer, so we went in search of customer service. We found it by scrolling to the very bottom of the page and clicking the faint “Contact Us” button.

Once we landed at the contact page, we were given a form to enter our name, email, and question. To the right of the form they also offer a phone number. However, after being on the page for only a minute we were greeted with a soothing “BING” and a chat box opened up. Talking to us was “Luke”, one of Lavalife’s customer service representatives. The conversation went like this:

Luke: “Hi there, can I help you with anything?”
Us: “Where is Lavalife offered, and is it possible to search for women in a certain place I may be travelling before I leave? If so, how?”
Luke: “North America.”

*we waited 2 minutes*

Us: “Okay, so I live in Toronto, but say I was travelling to New York. Can I view women on Lavalife before I leave?”

*we waited 6 minutes*

Luke: “You can try advanced search. It will find people farther from you.”
Us: “Okay, I have it open right now. Where should I click to change the settings?”
Luke: “See the advanced search button near the upper right quadrant.”
Us: “Yes, I opened that.”
Luke: “Sorry about that, you would select distance all.”
Us: “Thank you!”

Picture: Conversation with the customer care rep

So, although the instant messaging to customer service seemed a great asset, our wait time shows that the staff doesn’t have great knowledge on the site.

Apart from communicating with customer service, Lavalife members can also read through the FAQ which covers a broad range of 26 topics.

If you ever want to cancel your Lavalife membership, it can be done, but it will not be refunded. Once paid for, Lavalife’s policy states that a membership has no money value, it simply gives members access to its features for the time paid for. Thankfully, Lavalife doesn’t default an automatic renewal once one subscription runs out. You can, however, change this so that your subscription will automatically renew. If you do this, be sure that when you’re ready to cancel that you cancel at least 24 hours before the next billing period begins.

5. Value for Money at Lavalife

The only difference between a premium account and trial account is that with a premium account members can add as many people as they’d like to their favourites list and initiate conversations with as many people as they would like as well. These features do come in handy though.

If the 7 day trial runs out and you’re ready to subscribe to Lavalife, you are given 3 options.

• 1 month plan: $19.99
• 3 month plan: $49.99 (= $16,66 / month, Save 17% vs. 1-Month Subscription)
• 6 month plan: $89.99 (= $14,99 / month, Save 25% vs. 1-Month Subscription)

You can of course choose to pay as you go, but according to the pricing the longer you lock yourself in the cheaper it is. Payment options include Visa, Master Card, and