Fling.com Review: I Tried It & It Wasn't What I Expected

Let’s be honest, sex-forward dating sites can feel a little sketchy at times. You may want to have a little casual fun… but is the risk really worth it if you’re accosted by a bunch of creepy messages? That’s how I initially felt going into this experiment.

But online flirting doesn’t have to be a slog. Fling.com was created 15 years ago on a mission to create a safe space for curious and bold individuals seeking a sexy fling. 

I had a hunch that Fling.com would provide me with plenty of matches, but I doubted they’d be quality gents (sorry, fellas).

The safety and comfort I felt on Fling.com was a shocker for me — in the best way, of course. Fling.com does a great job in offering simple matching tools to make members feel safe and valued on the site. I’ll go into what my experience was like.

My Signup Went Smoothly (Only Took 4 Steps)

Launched in 2010, Fling.com boasts having 49 million members around the U.S. That means it’s not the biggest online dating pool, but not the smallest either. Going into my membership, I wondered if I’d feel like a small fish in a big pond or be bombarded by desperate dudes miles away. The truth was somewhere in the middle.

I wasn’t joining with the same goal as everyone, so I was concerned about my experience. Would I be forced to disclose details about my body? Would there be just a bunch of nude pictures and videos all over the place?

I was ready for Fling.com to fling sex content at me. But the signup was very much like it is on mainstream dating apps.

Step 1: Signing Up

The very first thing I saw when registering was a question regarding my gender identity. Which I fully expected. That’s usually the first question for online dating. There were three options for me to choose from: Man, Woman, and Couple. 

There were more options available for transgender, pangender, transsexual, and other LGBTQ+ identities. I didn’t need all these options, but I think it’s great that the site offers them for those who feel as though they don’t fit within a gender binary.

Step 2: About Me

Next up I had to share a little bit about myself. From hobbies to sexual preferences, there was a mixture of interests that were offered for me to choose from. This was also a great chance for me to decide how I wanted to present myself to others on the site. 

Do I play it cool or show my naughty side? I decided to play it cool and keep it vanilla. I selected interests that showed off my personal interests rather than my sexuality. Reading, travel, and stand-up comedy were some of the interests I chose to highlight on my profile. 

Oftentimes when signing up for online dating sites, I can easily get caught up on simple questions like “what do you like to do for fun?” when it’s open-ended. I begin to question myself and how boring or fun I really am.

Which is why I appreciated the fact that Fling.com supplied answers, and I just had to choose which I preferred. I didn’t have to do too much thinking or sell myself short. 

Step 3: What I’m Looking For

“What are you looking for?” is a question that may’ve gotten me flustered in the past, but not now. I feel confident enough to say I know what I want and what I’m looking for. For some daters, it may not be as clear as day for them — and that’s ok! 

Again, Fling.com included options for members so they don’t have to do too much thinking.

When asked what gender I was seeking, I selected “men.” I was glad to see inclusive options as well, including: couples, non-binary, and transsexuals.

Then Fling.com gave me the option to specify that I only want to see profiles with photos and profiles near me. Those two things are both important specifications in my book, so I said yes and yes.

After that, I set my desired date’s age range from 25 to 35. I appreciated having the option to do so because I didn’t want a bunch of old heads sliding in my DM asking for a nude pic. 

Lastly, Fling.com wanted me to select what types of connections I was interested in. I selected “experimenting” since I am doing an experiment with this account and not looking for anything too deep. The other options included: Friends with Benefits, Meet in Person, Group Fun, Online Flirting, and Open to Relationship.

Step 4: Uploading a Photo & Getting Verified (Optional)

Shortly after registering, I received a welcome email that shared the inside scoop on how to make the most out of my experience on Fling.com. Here are the five tips the email included:

1. Upload at least one picture. The more pictures I added, the more action I would receive. 
2. Complete my profile so that others can get to know me better.
3. Take the initiative to send other members friend requests and respectful messages (emphasis on respectful).
4. Ensure I’m being safe by logging in only at Fling.com and never sharing my login or password to anyone. 
5. Get verified so that I can increase my visibility in search results.

These five tips are simple and pretty straightforward, but they also showed me just how much control I have over my experience on the site. I felt like this was good guidance without being overbearing.

The team ended the welcome email with “Thanks for joining us, and we hope you have a great time on Fling!” Which was a great friendly start to my journey.

My Experience With the Free Membership

My goal was to scout out the dating scene and see how much control I would have as a free member. I avoided upgrading my membership until it was absolutely necessary. 

Free memberships draw a lot of people into giving online dating a try. I can attest to being one of those daters looking for all the freebies. So when I heard that Fling.com had a lot of free features, I thought to myself, “This can be fun and not expensive.” 

And I was right! The free membership on Fling.com isn’t too shabby. It has match games and literal computer games like Hearts, so that kept me entertained when I wasn’t actively chatting.

I learned that depending on what you’re looking for, a free membership can be a helpful start, and it currently comes with all the naughty benefits of chatting and livestreaming.

I saw a group chat forum with six people small-talking in the middle of the day, and I responded to the more polite conversationalists in my inbox, finding them perfectly fine. Not the horndogs I was expecting! There was an element of sexual interest (we did meet on a hookup site), but it wasn’t pushed on me at all.

If you’re not really rocking with the free membership, Fling.com offers a $10 upgrade to feature your profile on the homepage, which I ended up doing. 

Soon enough, I found out that my journey on Fling.com was totally up to me. From the membership to how naughty or vanilla I wanted it to be, the choice was mine. 

What I Like So Far

I liked that the free membership came with good perks. I could play matching games as well as computer games, and I could read and send private messages.

I could go into group chat rooms and lurk or join the fray by messaging, but it kept freezing up on me, so I found that a little frustrating.

Out of all those perks, my favorite was being able to see who viewed my profile in a handy sidebar. I would get real-time notifications if someone was on my page while I was on the site, and if I went to his profile page, he’d get a notification about that too.

That seemed like a good “cool girl” way to check a new person out. Kind of like making eyes at each other from across the room.

I also appreciated the games offered for free. Some of the matching games helped me to match with people based on shared interests. 

For example, I was presented with a bunch of swipe Q&A games that prompted me with fun questions such as “name some hobbies that bring you joy.” From there, I was able to see other members’ responses and decide if I wanted to like, dislike, or love their response. 

One member’s response was “Traveling gives me joy,” so I loved it because it aligned with my interests of traveling as well. 

The free membership had more compatibility features than I’d expect from a hookup site. And I’m happy that it did because it made my experience a whole lot better.

Oftentimes I’ll see hookup sites doing the bare minimum to hook people up. But Fling.com allowed me to set a variety of filters, look in different lists, and find someone who met my standards.

What I Don’t Like So Far

As I mentioned earlier, the free membership had some functionality limitations. Signing up was a breeze, but without the introductory trial period of silver membership, I would not have been able to chat.

On top of that, I didn’t like that the site ran on a credits system. I saw multiple pop-ups offering a chance to earn credits by liking other people’s profiles.

It puts pressure on users to send likes to profiles just to get more privileges rather than actually liking people. It felt kind of disingenuous to me. 

Some members may find this fun and incentivizing, but I prefer to be more intentional and less transactional in my dating life.

Cost Breakdown: Credit Packages As Low As $4.95

I expected to hit paywalls when I went into my inbox. But I didn’t. I expected I wouldn’t be able to view videos or join the group chat as a free member. But I could (I did have to turn off nudity filters to see the videos, though). In fact, the only time Fling.com asked for money was to “Feature My Profile” for $9.97.

This paid perk includes:

My profile seemed to naturally have a lot of visibility (I was getting a new message every few minutes while active on the site), so I didn’t know how much difference it would make.

Once my profile was featured, I started to get even more action. An overwhelming amount. Members reached out to me with winks, and some requested access to my private media. I got nine friend requests, whereas before I’d only had two.

I did notice my incoming messages started being less local and more everyone everywhere, but I guess they didn’t mind long-distance chatting.

All in all, I would say this paid feature is worth it if you notice things slowing down for you. If you’re like me and already have a long list of incoming messages and friend requests, it might just give you decision paralysis.

The only other payment options I saw were buying credits (which I could also earn for free by liking profiles). The credits can be given to members or used to buy special perks, like being added to the Daily Spotlight on the homepage.

I was only given two credits during my membership (thanks, Brody Long), so buying them definitely seems to be the faster option.

Historically, I know Fling.com has had a silver membership and a gold membership, but a close look at my profile revealed that I was already marked as a silver member. I saw some men were marked as gold members, maybe because they’re very active or earned credits, I’m not sure. I didn’t find a pathway to pay for gold on Fling.

I went into Fling.com’s FAQs and found this explanation: “Fling.com is currently offering an introductory trial offer for a limited time.” Awesome. Love a free trial. Not a big fan of the vague “limited time,” but I’ll definitely take it.

Safety Features: Your Profile, Your Choice

The site takes member safety seriously. Fling staff dedicate their time to verifying photos and ensuring members are exactly who they say they are.

Fling.com gives online daters choices when it comes to filters and visibility. I cannot emphasize enough how much this improved my experience. Being able to be in the driver’s seat of your online experience can make all the difference in how things go down.

Fling.com provides options to filter out nudity, or not, and make a profile visible to paid members only, or not.

I could choose to complete the age verification or photo verification processes, which required me to upload photos or get on a live call with a team member to verify I’m real. The age verification process also required a driver’s license.

There’s even a choice about billing. After deciding to upgrade my membership, I was asked how I would like to pay for my subscription. The two options were a one-time payment or a recurring monthly payment.

Now, when I first joined, I was greeted with some pretty heavy content. I know this is a hookup site, but I guess I wasn’t as prepared as I thought. Thankfully, Fling.com reminded me that I had the power. 

I quickly went over to my profile settings and changed my content level. There are three levels: safe, spicy, and show everything. My level was initially set up as “show everything” (which explained the nude pictures left and right), so I switched it to “safe.” And boy, did I feel relieved. 

With this filter turned on, I didn’t see any nudity at all on the website. If someone had a naughty picture on their profile, I’d see a stock image of a woman covering her mouth. Only the photos, not the person, would be blocked for me.

That way, I was still given the chance to connect with that person while still considering my comfort level. 

I could also choose to provide feedback on individual messages by marking them as “Nice” or “Rude.” I believe these scores contributed to the Account Status (mine was In Good Standing), where members could see how they’re being received and get warnings before being banned.

Additionally, and this was a really nice touch, Fling let me specify my messaging style and would give it as a hint to potential matches. The two options were: “Be polite, take it slow” or “Surprise me, it can get exciting.” I could also set filters so that only verified members or members with photos could send me messages.

My DM’s Were Hot — Here’s What They Said

My notifications were constantly going off when I was active on the site. When I spent a day away from it, though, nothing new came in. That tells me that Fling.com prioritizes active members, which makes sense for a hookup site.

All told, I received 13 messages, and only two of them were so graphic that I marked them as “Rude” instead of “Nice.” I liked that the messages had a rating system because it gave me a chance to give feedback and let Fling.com know I’m not about invites for car sex in the first message.

Here’s a sampling of private messages I got:

• Lets catch a vibe
• Send me your number in inbox I can’t message
• Reach out
• You’re soooo pretty

I could react with an emoji to their messages, or I could type out a quick response. Fling.com reminds users to “send a nice message” in the text space.

The only bummer was I couldn’t see if the person viewed my message. I would have to upgrade for that.

One user sent a request to view my private media, which are photos I upload and mark as private, i.e. only visible to me and those I allow to view them.

I haven’t even talked about the comments on my profile photo yet! I got a lot of traction on a simple selfie. Within one day, my photo garnered 57 likes (!!) and seven comments.

One guy left his phone number and challenged me, “call me if you’re not scared lol.” Sorry, Bobby, I am scared…of talking on the phone! Gen Zers like me aren’t about that.

It’s normal to feel worried about whether you’re going to meet real people on these sites, but it’s safe to say that it’s almost guaranteed on Fling.com (particularly if you’re a woman with a photo and a pulse).

The Fling.com dating pool was hot, responses were quick, and the people were real.

Pro Tip: My profile saw a lot of activity in terms of comments, likes, and messages, but I only received one friend request, so that got my attention. If you want to stand out, guys, be a friend first!

My Privacy Was Prioritized

I went into Fling.com with my guard up, for sure. From the very beginning, privacy was always in the back of my mind. I wanted to protect my privacy by withholding my name and exact location. I was also interested in controlling who could see my profile. 

Thankfully, Fling.com was on the same page as me and had tools to mask my identity, if I wanted to use them.

I was given the random alias “FriendlyCake917” during the signup process. I could’ve changed it, but honestly, I was grateful for the autofill because I suck at fake names.

I didn’t need to give any personal details in my profile. I could leave “Ask Me” in the fields for things like profession, income, relationship status, and religion. I could also make photos private if I wished.

I could filter my incoming messages so they only came from verified members or profiles with photos. And if at any moment I felt like hiding or slowing down the influx of attention, I could turn on ghost mode and disappear from the search results. 

Under account settings, I had the options to make my profile discreet, inactive, or visible only to premium users. 

All of these options made me feel safer and more in control. Knowing that I had an escape plan and was protected from unwanted people was a big relief. 

I Was Pleasantly Surprised by Fling.com

Look, I know hookup sites aren’t everyone’s cup of tea. But after being on Fling.com for a week, I came to realize it’s just like every other online platform — trying its best to help like-minded people find what they’re looking for (in this case, it’s sex). 

I think Fling.com is a great dating site for people who are looking for casual encounters without having to pay a lot of money for it. Yes, you might want to shell out cash to get featured or get yourself some credits, but we’re talking a few dollars a month. I think it’s worth it. 

It’s simple, quick, and offers fun ways to connect. But you don’t just have to take my word for it. It’s free to try it out for yourself!