Badoo Reviews

Main features

Badoo is one of the few sites that offer a predominantly free service. When you sign up you can access chat functionalities, information about people with similar interests and view photos of available would-be friends or dates without having to pay a cent. If, however, you are happy with the service and decide to invest a little in your profile there are a number of premium services to take advantage of. This blend of ‘free’ and ‘premium’ services has coined the word ‘freemium‘ to cover exactly this scenario; where a basic free service can be enhanced with the purchase of paid-for extras.

‘Rise Up’ ensures your profile is closer to the top in relevant searches for a certain period of time, making sure that your page and picture achieve greater visibility, improving the chances of initial contact being made. ‘Spotlight’ pushes your picture and links to your profile to the top of almost every page of the site relevant to your area, again ensuring you achieve maximum exposure to potential contacts. ‘Special Powers’ allow extra features to be activated.

Badoo is available in Apple App Store and on Android Market for Google Play with apps for your mobile device. The apps work as a ‘geo-social network’ allowing you to meet up with people with similar tastes and views. Settings for this are reported to be fairly secure and can be disabled if necessary.

Who is this dating site for?

So, who is Badoo aimed at and should you sign up? If you are openly looking for a wide circle of friends, whether platonic or otherwise, that share similar interests and as long as you understand all the terms and conditions of using the site, you can certainly go for it. Badoo is perfect for linking all aspects of your life and finding links between contacts that might escape the casual glance. The site caters to people of all ages, looking for friends of all types; absolutely anyone can join. However if you are wanting to make a ‘friend’ separate from your ‘regular’ life it is maybe not the way to go – imagine your horror if your wife or girlfriend (or husband/boyfriend) received a message telling them you were looking to meet people in the area and asking would they be interested?

Pricing

Prices for the services depend on which country it is being used in and many of them are one-off features which last a certain amount of time: usually a month, then need to be topped up again. Badoo offers an auto-top-up feature that places a regular charge on a credit or debit card to keep you achieving maximum benefits from the site.