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With more than ten million members and well over a million messages exchanged every day, Lavalife is a well-rounded dating site with many options for singles of all sexual orientations, as well as people looking for dating, long term relationships or casual flings. Lavalife also now houses LavalifePrime (singles over 45), ManLine (for gay men), WomanLine (for lesbian women), and Lavalife2Go (mobile access).

Overview from Lavalife

"Lavalife is a new brand...a new community...a new world...a new vision for single life. Lavalife is solely dedicated to enhancing the lives of singles."

What a Lavalife Membership Includes

Lavalife was one of the first sites that offered the ability to add an account in one, two or all three of their different sections: Dating, Relationships and Intimate Encounters. Lavalife members can even choose different profiles, pictures and handles in each of the sections, guaranteeing anonymity if required.

Smiles can be sent for free, and replying to a paying users message, chat request or voice message is also free - although initiating contact does require a paid membership.

Depending on which section(s) the user signs up for will determine what questions need to be answered for a profile to be available to other Lavalife members. The sign-up process is quick (less than fifteen minutes if you already have a profile written), and many of the questions are related to basic demographics or in multiple-choice format.

Members can see relatively easily when another user logged in last, as well as when they last changed their profile. Most larger dating sites show you all profiles, regardless of when the person logged in last, or don't provide this information. Great feature if you want to increase your chances of getting a reply, since folks who aren't logging in for years likely aren't single anymore either.

Although Lavalife offers memberships to singles around the world, the site is based in Canada and thus you can read the site in either French or English at any time.

Unique Features of Lavalife

Lavalife has an extremely large member base internationally. Because of its scope it may seem challenging to weed through the variety of users, but the many ways with which to search, browse and review profiles is extremely helpful in this matter. Lavalife's search options include checking to see who is online locally, a list of the newest profiles generally or in your area, and limiting results to profiles matching any of the demographic or relationship type requirements. You can also save several different searches at any time to come back later and use them again.

There are also a wider number of ways to contact users, including chat/instant messaging, email, smiles, sharing of private photo galleries and video greetings. "Call Me" lets any paying member actually call any other paying members' home phone number, with a confidentiality guarantee.

For members who want only some people to see their pictures, you can upload up to ten different photos in the 'Backstage' area, and give individual members access in each area. So if you have five adult photos in the Intimate Encounters section you can share all five with someone, but it won't automatically share your three Backstage photos in the Relationship area with the same person - you'll have to give them separate access.

Lavalife also hosts a 'Party' five times a day. Think of it as a video chat with a whole bunch of other singles from around the world and you'll get an idea as to what it feels like. Take a peek anytime or see the upcoming timetable by clicking on the 'Party' tab.

What Lavalife Costs

A one month membership costs $19.99 USD, a three month membership costs $16.99 a month (billed all at once), and a six month membership costs $9.99 a month (billed all at once). Members can choose to pay in either Canadian or American funds by credit card, money order or PayPal. Lavalife used a credit system for many years, but they changed to a monthly billing cycle sometime in the mid-2000s.

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Disclosure: Lavalife provided free access to this service for review purposes. For more information, please see our Ethics Policy.