AdultFriendFinder vs. Abundance of Fish: Legal abundance, success rates, and more

In the world of online dating, AdultFriendFinder and plenty of fish are certified OGs. These veteran dating sites were first established more than two decades ago, before both the age of social media and the age of smartphones. Yet both sites have continued to stay relevant, attracting millions of visitors from around the world looking to connect.

That, however, is about where the similarities end. In fact, you’d be hard-pressed to find two online dating sites that are the least bit alike. Most Pisces works like a traditional dating site, even adopting a smartphone-like “yes-or-no” carousel approach. AdultFriendFinder feels like an X-rated site with a built-in social media system.

Of course, rather than treating them as alternatives, you can choose to view them as complementary, one offering a personality-first approach to dating that may lead to a long-term connection and the other using a sex-first approach that makes finding short-term, fun fun easier than ever.

Interested in learning more? We put these two giants of the online dating world to the test to find out their various strengths and weaknesses.

Since both dating sites have been around forever, AdultFriendFinder and Plenty of Fish clearly deliver the goods for their users, but it’s surprising to see how different their approaches can be.

Site layout

The difference between the two sites is immediately apparent in the aesthetic choices. Many Fish uses soft, pale colors and a clean, minimal aesthetic to focus your attention on one part of the website: your user profile, for example, or the profile of your potential match. AdultFriendFinder, on the other hand, has a dense site structure with ads, live streams, and user-generated content all sharing space and vying for your attention.

The AFF method gives the impression that there’s a lot going on, like you’ve just dropped into a big party, while the PoF method is at the same time less scary and less exciting. There is another big difference that is immediately apparent: AFF is an “adult” dating site, with nudity turned on by default in your profile settings, which means that most of what you will see on the site is indistinguishable from an X-rated tube site, while Many Fish curates its content very carefully: no risqué live broadcasts or only sexually explicit images.

And if we’re talking about X-rated content: because AFF allows nudity on its site, it’s not eligible for inclusion in the most popular app stores, so you’re very limited to the on-site experience, while Plenty of Fish has an app in both the Google Play and Apple App stores, so you can swipe and be on the go.

In numbers

While both sites are tight-lipped about their user experience, independent reporting from the Business of Applications suggests that Plenty of Fish has around 10 million active users at any given time, compared to AdultFriendFinder’s 2 million active users, and both sites have a roughly 60-40 male-to-female skew in their gender ratio, though recent reporting suggests AFF may be closer to 65-35 today.

In any case, there is no shortage of people to find and talk to, even though you live far from the urban hub, you will be more generous in your search parameters.

General dating profile

Another obvious difference between the two sites is their way of creating a profile. With AFF, you can set up a profile in seconds, with no verification steps and minimal data entry required. Many Fish, on the other hand, ask you a lot of personal questions, from your education level to whether or not you own a car, if your parents are divorced or still together and if you want children or not. PoF also requires you to verify the phone number tied to your account using a six-digit verification code, while AFF only requires email verification.

AFF also has its share of personal questions, but it’s not so much to do with your religion or smoking habit as it is to do with your preferences and sexual preferences. Their popular My Kinks tab allows users to freely fly their freak flags, and then regroup that information into one of their search options, so if, for example, you have a foot moon, you can search for other people who share your ancestry or they can search you based on that ancestry.

User experience

One thing you’ll quickly notice when using both sites is that PoF is very generous in what it allows non-paying users to do. With AFF, you can interact with other people in public spaces such as chat rooms and discussion forums. In fact, you can’t even view a person’s full profile without purchasing a Gold membership.

With PoF, by contrast, you can use the site, view user profiles, like user profiles, and talk to other singles, all without spending a cent. That being said, a Premium or Prestige membership on Plenty of Fish still represents a huge quality of life upgrade, giving you unlimited likes, read receipts on messages, an ad-free site experience, and some nice bonus features like the ability to see who liked your profile or an undo button when you accidentally skip a profile that catches your eye.

From a purely aesthetic point of view, the PoF site is very clean and less intrusive, even in the way it offers you ads, while the AFF site makes up for its busy design by offering a wide variety of possible activities, including live streaming, discussion forums, blogs and interesting news.

Success rates

The main difference between these two sites depends on the users and what they are looking for online. In general, most Fish users seem to be more committed people, desiring long-term relationships and meaningful connections, while AdultFriendFinder users are apparently satisfied with short-term connections, whether that’s a flirty chat or live streaming or meeting in person.

Basically, that means you’ll find AFF is the easiest place to start a conversation or find something, while PoF users clearly choose who they talk to, but that doesn’t mean “success” is easier on one site than another. It also helps that AFF offers multiple areas for discussion: you can try to send a message to one person, sure, but you can also search for people who share your interests, interests or kinks and talk to them in a public place like a forum or live chat, which eliminates a lot of one-on-one communication.

On the other hand, if you’re after something long-lasting and high, most Pisces users seem to know very well what they want and don’t want in a partner. They’re at the stage in life where they’re taking dating seriously and PoF caters to this crowd, putting serious life information (do you smoke? have kids?) front and center.

In other words, you will find more success by being honest with yourself about what you want and choosing the right dating site. Can you find love in AFF or PoF? Certainly. But it will also be an uphill battle, given the way these two places are structured.