Is Match.com Still Around?

Yes. Match.com is still running, and men still use it to search for women and send messages without waiting for a mutual swipe. If you typed "does Match.com still exist" because nobody around you mentions it anymore, that silence is about fashion and size. It is not a sign that the site closed.

Whenever you read this, you can check in a minute. Open the site, or look it up in your phone's app store. A closed service has no sign-up page. A running one has plans, a cancel page and help pages for each. An article cannot tell you what a company changed last month, so trust the live page over any write-up, this one included.

a dating coach says Match used to be the biggest app of all. It now holds a smaller share of the women most men want to meet. When a big name loses ground, the talk follows the crowd, and the crowd moved to Tinder, Hinge and Bumble.

So a man in his twenties who has never heard anyone mention Match is telling you about his friends, not about the company. Forum posts that call it dead usually mean it is quiet where the writer lives. My rule for every app is that the same one can be busy in one city and thin in the next, so another man's quiet city is not your answer.

On Tinder, Bumble and Hinge, a woman has to like you before either of you can say a word. On Match, a paying member can search for women and write to one directly. coach calls that one of its real advantages. A swipe app's software can screen you out on your age or your height before a woman ever sees you, and search goes around that.

Free members still get something. They can chat with every match and rate a daily set of recommended people, so you can learn whether women answer you before you pay a cent.

The paid plans are Bronze, Silver, Platinum and Diamond, each adding to the one below. What each tier includes changes, so read the screen on the day you buy instead of trusting a list in an article.

The honest cost of being smaller is volume. coach says plainly that Match cannot be your main app, because it no longer has the number of attractive women it once did. In a small city you may run through the new names in a few days.

Before you pay, run a search with your real age range and a distance you would drive for one drink. If the results show a handful of women you would be glad to meet, the site is alive where you live. If the list is thin, you have your answer for free.

Read the billing rules too. A plan renews by itself, and Match has no pause button. Set a reminder the day you pay, and turn auto-renewal off right away if you only want one term.

Match fits a man who already does reasonably well on a swipe app and wants more say over who he reaches. It fits a man who keeps getting screened out by age or height on those apps. It also suits a man who would rather write one good message to a woman he chose than wait for software to hand him someone.

It does not fit a man hoping for results with no effort. Search gives you reach. A woman still has to want to answer.

She did not pick you, so your first message has to earn its place in her inbox. "Hi" earns nothing. Use one real detail from her page, add a small playful comment, and ask a question she can answer in a line.

Send one message, not three. If she writes back, keep the exchange short and move toward a plan. coach gets from the app to a phone number in about four to seven messages, and he brings up meeting early and lightly instead of springing it at the end.

Spend the first week on the free version with your best photos in place. Count the women you rated well, the replies, the plans and the dates.

If dates come, keep Match as a second site beside a swipe app. If a fortnight of honest effort brings nothing, cancel before the renewal date and put the time into the app that gives you the most real conversations where you live.