iWantU Review — Is It What U Want? (2024)

iWantU is an online dating site that has been in operation since 2013. It promotes itself as a platform for meeting “stunning singles for quality local dating.” Based on its promotional material and welcome page, iWantU.com at first glance exudes a neutral feel. The important question, of course, is how does it perform for its users? How wide is its reach? Is it worth your time? We conducted a full iWantU review and here is what we found out.

— Pros and Cons —

Pros

• Fast registration
• Simple and easy to navigate user interface
• Availability of a 3-day trial membership

Cons

• Majority of female profiles consist of fictitious profiles for internal promotion
• Communication functionality requires a paid membership
• Easy to accidentally enter a third-party sex webcam site that charges additional fees

When you first visit iWantU.com, it is difficult to identify from its welcome page how effective or ineffective the site will be. The welcome page is clean and simplistic. Little information is offered on the welcome page. The most predominant feature is the registration box.

— Registration Process —

Registering on iWantU requires less than 2 minutes of your time. You start by selecting your gender, your age, and then you enter a valid email, your choice of password, and your location.

iWantU bucks the current trend in dating sites that give their users an option to link their accounts to their Facebook profiles. iWantU does not have the Facebook option, but it does have an option to use your Google credentials to register.

If you choose to register using your Google credentials, when you click on the red button that reads “start now,” you will be redirected immediately to the members’ area. If you decide to enter your information manually, a pop-up window will open requesting that you click on the activation link that was sent to your email. You are also given the option of manually entering the activation code that was included in the email. Unlike other dating sites that give you a grace period for verifying your account, iWantU will not allow you to advance to the members’ area until you validate your account.

Personally, we found this level of tightly controlled access against those who do not verify their accounts to be a good thing. We feel that it acts as a barrier against those who want to join the site solely for trolling or mischief.

— Features —

Once you enter the members’ area, you will notice that iWantU has a very small feature-set. Along the top of your navigation bar, you will find links to “search,” “online,” “mail,” “chat,” “activity,” “my account,” and “live cams.” Most of these features are self-explanatory by their titles.

By modern online dating site standards, the search feature on iWantU is rather primitive. It allows you to search for other members based on age, location, and presence of photos and videos. The site’s so-called “advanced search” features allow you to further filter search results by sexual preference, ethnicity, hair and eye color, and relationship status. If you have spent any time on other more robust dating sites you will understand what we mean by “primitive.” For some people this type of search might be enough, but more discriminating users will find the search options to be weak.

The “online” feature displays all of the users that are within a 25-mile radius of your location and who are presently online. Again, nothing impressive about this.

The “activity” section allows you to review the users that have sent you winks or that have viewed your full profile. The mail and chat sections allow you to engage in communication with other members via an internal email system or an internal online chat feature. Unfortunately, the chat feature does not allow for video conferencing.

The “my account” section is where you can make modifications to your user information, modify your profile, and upload videos and images of yourself. It is also where you can access information related to the billing of your account.

The “live cams” section sends you to a site outside of iWantU. This is a site that is dedicated to sex webcams. In order to use this service, you must pay on a per-minute basis. These charges will vary depending on the webcam model whom you select.

— User Experience —

The most appropriate way to describe the iWantU user platform is lackluster. Our testers found the search feature to be insufficient by modern standards.

Also, for the testers that lived in non-urban areas, a lot of the search results that were being returned to them belonged to members who lived far outside the 25-mile radius that is supposed to be the default standard. Some lived hundreds, if not thousands, of miles away. It appears that the iWantU search engine gives preference to those that live close to you, but if there are few members in your area, it will fill out the search results with other members regardless of where they live.

— The Bad —

Bear in mind that our testers described the features of iWantU as lackluster, that just means that they seemed routine, not that they were bad or deficient. Where our testers did express large doses of negativity was in the presence of automated messages and fictitious profiles.

Most of our testers reported that these automated messages do not start immediately. They begin to trickle in after you log on for the first time. After about an hour of navigating through the site, however, you should expect to receive between 6 to 12 automated messages.

These messages are designed to entice new users to communicate with site-sanctioned fictitious profiles. In order to communicate with any profile — fictitious or real — users need to upgrade to a paid membership.

During the three days of testing, all of the incoming chat requests and email messages received by our testers originated from fictitious profiles.

— Cost —

iWantU has a monthly subscription price of $39. You are also given the option of purchasing three months in advance for $65.70. 6 months will cost you $106.20. If you upgrade immediately after you sign up, you’ll benefit from the 30% discount.

There is also a special three-day trial membership with a cost of $4.47. This gives you the full privileges of a paid member for a three-day period. If you do not cancel your subscription within those three days, you are charged the full cost of a one-month subscription.