Hot Or Not isn’t necessarily a bad site but it’s not good for adult dating, which is presumably the reason you’re here. They’ve taken a different approach to online dating and there’s nothing wrong with that, but it’s inefficient and when compared to the sites in the positive reviews section.

Like almost any sex dating site you can sign up for a free membership to get a feel for how the site works and what it looks like inside. Unlike most you’ll have to add pictures and fill out at least some of your profile before you can do much. You can’t see all a girl’s pictures until you’ve uploaded at least three. It’s a nice touch, actually. It ensures that those looking to peruse give up quickly and disappear and those that are serious stand out more.

Hot Or Not operates in a freemium style, which means you can use the site without paying and you can actually converse with and meet people, but you can also get all kinds of perks for free. They call them Super Powers, in fact. When you pay a monthly fee you can get special delivery of your messages (makes it more likely they’ll get read), an advanced search feature, custom design your profile, chat with new members before the unpaid masses can, access the encounters folder, and more.

If you remember, Hot Or Not started at a simple site where you would look at pictures and judge whether the person was hot or not. That idea has stuck around now that it’s a dating site. Click the encounters section and they run you through a slew of pictures. Instead of saying if she’s hot now you’re saying if you want to meet her. If you click yes they send her a message letting her know you’d like to meet her. If she’s interested too you can chat. If not you never hear back.

It’s an interesting site and a fairly smart way to try and monetize what Hot Or Not used to be, but as mentioned above, it’s inefficient if you’re in this for sex dating. If you’re looking for a sexual partner you want to cut through all the bullcrap and get right down to it. You want the option to look at pictures and send a message saying you’d like to hook up (well, you’ll have to be a touch more subtle than that in most cases, but you get the idea). At Hot Or Not the focus is more about making friends and dating, not flings.

The many different ways in which they try to get you to pay is fairly annoying. It’s so much easier just to pay a monthly fee, not to get nickel and dimed to death until you realize you just spend $100 to raise your profile, send a silly digital gift to a girl (who does that?), etc. If you’re looking to make friends it’s a great site, just don’t get sucked into spending all kinds of money to contact pretty girls that are clearly fake profiles (yeah, they exist here too).