Are you part of the Jewish community? Looking for a long-term relationship within your community?
Haven’t heard about JDate?
Well, I’ve got you covered! In this post, I’ll be talking about JDate in detail, from how to create a profile and messaging to subscribing to membership packages.
By the time you’re done reading this post, you’ll be an expert on JDate and know whether or not it’s right for you.
Jdate is a Jewish online dating site and app using location-based services to match compatible Jewish singles.
If you want to go ahead and try JDate for yourself, you can try it for free here.
Dude Hack Exclusive Offers
What Is Jdate?
Jdate has been part of the online dating market since 1997. The site is available in five different languages–English, Hebrew, French, Spanish, and German. With an average of 10,000 users online at a time, Jdate has an almost equal ratio of male and female users.
You’ll find users from all types of religious and ethnic backgrounds such as Hassidic, Modern Orthodox, Ashkenazi, and Sephardic. Some members regularly attend the temple and keep koshers, while other members don’t.
Most users on Jdate are older and are looking to settle down long-term.
One drawback of this platform is that most users are from major cities. If you’re from a smaller town, you might have a hard time finding a match from your area.
How Does Jdate Work?
In terms of quality, Jdate provides great matches. Unfortunately, as it is with most niche websites, Jdate doesn’t provide much in terms of quantity. However, don’t let that discourage you. Jdate allows its users to screen profiles by adding certain filters on the search. If you have specific preferences in terms of religion, you can add filters in your searches to include options like:
- Attend Synagogue every Shabbat
- Attend Synagogue on High Holidays
- Kosher at home only
- Kosher to some degree
To see which users have viewed your profile and the mutual profiles you can check the notifications on the Activity tab.
How Does Jdate Profile Work?
Creating a profile on Jdate is quite easy and it’s free to create an account. You can create a profile through Facebook or using an email.
If you sign up using Facebook, information such as your name, birthday, and photos are automatically transferred to your Jdate account. While this option is convenient, it does link your private information to your Jdate profile for anyone to see, making it a bit unsafe.
If you’re concerned about your safety, using an email address to sign up is a better option. You’ll have to fill up the basic information yourself, but it’ll give you more control over the type of information you share.
Adding a photo is a requirement for all Jdate users. I suggest you be smart with the type of picture you add.
Don’t just add any selfie, try to add a picture that highlights your best side–I don’t only mean in terms of features, but also go for a picture where you seem more confident, welcoming. Don’t add a picture where you’re slouching or looking uncomfortable.
To assess if you’ve uploaded an appropriate image, Jdate takes around 24 to 48 hours to approve your profile picture.
Once your profile picture has been approved, you can add more information to your profile such as your height, religion, education, and occupation.
The app also has a short About You section where you can add information about yourself.
How Does Jdate LookBook Work?
Similar to the swipe feature on Tinder, Jdate has a feature called the LookBook. This helps you quickly browse through profiles, you can either like or pass the profile. If there is a mutual like, both users are notified that it’s a match.
If you’re in an area that doesn’t have a lot of users, you’ll notice the profiles in the Browse section and the LookBook section are the same.
This is one of the main complaints most Jdate users have. The lack of matches in certain areas is a real downer.
How Does Jdate Matching Work?
When setting up a profile, users are asked a few questions, the answers are used to find compatible profiles for users. Jdate has a “Matches” tab, which contains a list of compatible profiles the site has shortlisted for you.
You can use the Browse option as well to find more profiles. You can modify the search by changing the Discovery Preferences.
How Does Jdate Messaging Work?
If you come across a profile that has caught your interest, you can simply send them a message. However, keep in mind, free users cannot initiate a conversation. You need to subscribe to the membership plan to access this feature.
There are various ways you can communicate with your potential match. If you’re confident enough, you can directly send them a message. However, if you’re a bit nervous, there are a few ways you can go about this process.
One way is by sending them a wink emoji to “Flirt” with them. If the other user is also interested, they might send a wink back or they might start the conversation. However, do remember that a wink might be easy to send, but it might not be an effective way to capture someone’s attention.
A better way to go about this is by using the “Like” heart button. If the other user also “Likes” back, you’ll know the interest is mutual. This will make it easy for you to start the conversation.
I would recommend you come up with your own icebreakers beforehand. It’s better to capture the attention of potential matches using personalized messages. It’ll help you stand out more from other users.
If you’re a free user, and a member subscribed to the Message+ feature initiates a conversation with you, you can respond to their messages. However, waiting for others to message isn’t the best strategy when it comes to online dating.
How Does Jdate Membership Work?
While you can sign up on Jdate for free, the features you have access to are very limiting. With a free account, you can add up to six pictures. This might seem like a big number, but honestly, users on Jdate are looking for long-term partners and might want to look at more than just six pictures to get a better idea of your personality and appearance.
You can receive messages from premium members and respond to them but you can’t initiate the conversation. Say you come across a profile that catches your interest, there’s no way for you to communicate with them.
If you have the budget, it would be wiser to opt for the premium membership.
Here’s a cost breakdown according to the length of your subscription:
| Pricing | Total Cost | Monthly Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Free | ||
| 1 Month | $59.99 | $59.99 |
| 3 Months | $134.97 | $44.99 |
| 6 Months | $179.94 | $29.99 |
What exactly does the premium membership package offer its users?
Well, for one thing, you can communicate with any user via the messaging feature. If you see a profile that captures your interest but don’t want them to know you’ve visited their profile, you can anonymously visit.
Moreover, you also have the ability to hide your online status. You can not only look at who has viewed and liked your profile but also have the ability to see if your potential matches have read your messages.
Unlike free users, who only have access to look at the primary pictures on profiles, premium users can look at all the pictures on other users’ profiles.
If you want to make your profile stand out more, you can also purchase the Spotlight feature, which is similar to Tinder’s Boost feature. This feature makes your profile more visible to other users.
When this feature is activated, your profile jumps to the top of Browse searches. A blue banner also appears on the side of your profile.
You have to pay for the Spotlight feature per use. The payment varies depending on how long you want your profile to be in the “Spotlight”.
How To Download Jdate
If you know how smartphones work, downloading the app is super simple. It’s available on Google Play for Android users and on Apple Store for iOS users. All you need to do is install the app, set up a profile, and you’re all set!
Alternatively, if you’d rather use a pc or a laptop, the desktop site is also quite simple to navigate. Just open the site on your browser and log on to the JDate website.
It’s really that simple.
Final Thoughts
As far as niche dating platforms go, Jdate offers its users some really great features. I would suggest buying the membership rather than just using the app as a free user since the free features are quite limiting.
While Jdate does offer good matches, it lacks in terms of quantity. If you’re not from a metropolitan area, you might have a harder time finding compatible matches.
It might be a better idea to use a more popular dating platform. If you’re looking for someone from the Jewish community, you can apply specific filters to narrow your searches. You might end up with a larger pool of compatible matches.
If you want to try JDate for yourself, you can try it for free here.
