Alt Review - Fuel Your Fetish
- Updated on: July 21st, 2024
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Articles to learn more about BDSM and other fetishes
- Open to singles and couples
- Free livestreams
Cons
- Many fake profiles
- Data shared with third parties
What is Alt.com?
The Alt dating platform has been a leading online gathering place where members can connect to play since 1995. Founded by pioneers in the online dating sector, FriendFinder Network, this dating platform hosts over one million users worldwide and claims to be the leading sex dating website.
The site is targeted to users who seek partners for BDSM and other fetishes, with the average age of users ranging from 27-39 years old. The site reports that over 72% of its members are actively using the site and have upwards of 80,000 visits per day.
The Alt dating website welcomes all genders and sexual orientations and is open to singles and couples.
Alt Sign-Up Process
Registration for the Alt com dating site is nowhere near demanding. New users can zoom through this sign-up process and start browsing profiles within 5 minutes.
The first step in sign-up is to submit basic information: a valid email address, username, age, location, and unique password. After you validate your email address, you’ll be asked to answer a small series of questions about your body type, race, marital status, and role in BDSM play (Submissive or Dominant). To finish up, you’ll need to create an introduction title, share a little bit about yourself, and upload at least one photo.
Once this last step is taken, you will be presented with a special offer for a gold membership. If you rather explore the site before committing to a paid membership, simply close the pop-up and get to browsing.
Alt Website Usability
As other reviews of Alt.com mention, the site’s design is dark and heavy and gives off an air of mystery with theme colors of black, gold, and dark gray.
Once signed in, you’ll find a menu bar across the top of the page with quick links to your personal inbox and various pages on the site, like the Live Action and Community pages. In the center of the homepage, you will find several tabs dedicated to helping you discover member profiles. With these tabs, you can see who is online, find members near your location, and browse through VIP profiles. There you will also find tabs for live member broadcasting, as well as nude model broadcasting.
On the left-hand side of your homepage, you have access to make quick edits to your profile, add new photos or videos, and search for members that match specific kinks. Below this section, you can view a 90-day history of messages, the friends you’ve made, profile views, and even a recap of the tips and gifts you may have received from other members.
Alt Profile Quality
Most Alt.com reviews agree that the profiles on this dating site could be more descriptive. Although they can certainly use more information, most profiles give details about their fetishes and have a browse-worthy photo gallery.
Other bits of information you may find on a member's profile are details about what they are looking for in a play buddy and even the results of their purity test. This fun quiz demonstrates how naughty or innocent you have been in your sexual history. In the end, Alt members have the freedom to add as much or as little information on themselves as they please.
Alt.com Features
Not many Alt com reviews delve into the different features available on this site outside of the platform’s live broadcasting. Although it is true that one of the most popular features of the site is live broadcasting by both individual members and professional models, Alt has several more features that add to a member's experience.
There is the Hot or Not game. This little game is a classic swiping game where you are presented with photos of other members. If you like what you see, swipe right, otherwise, swipe left to see more photos. While conducting research for this review, we found an older Alt.com review that made mention of the site's many articles on the BDSM lifestyle, as well as informative articles on other fetishes. There are, in fact, dozens of articles that help to educate site members on the various fetishes that they may encounter on the site.
Members can also add Blings to their profile. This feature allows members to add small icons to their profiles that they can create themselves or borrow from other members. The icons are decorative images that help to express a member's personality.
Other small but thoughtful features available to members are the site's Astrological compatibility page, a downloadable Fetish Consent Form, and Testimonials where members can write about their experiences with one another, which are then displayed on the subject’s profile.
There is also an Alt App available for download for iOS users.
Alt Pricing & Payment Methods
You may have read another review of Alt.com that states the platform is free to use. This is not entirely true.
Although the site is free to join, and certain features, such as the live broadcasting by models, are free to use, you will quickly come to realize that many of the site's features are only accessible with a Silver or Gold membership.
With a Silver membership, you can be amongst the first people to contact new members, access member live streams, and have priority placement after gold members in search results. With a Gold Membership, you will receive access to all of the same paid features as the Silver membership, though you will show at the top of all search results and view XL versions of member photos.
Prices for Silver Membership
1 month - $19.95
3 months - $11.99 per month
12 months - $8.33 per month
Prices for Gold Memberships
1 month - $29.95
3 months - $19.99 per month
12 months - $12.50 per month
However, even with a Gold or Silver membership, the Standard Contact and Highlight Listing feature is unavailable. Access to these features can be added on to your membership for an additional fee. Adding these additional features to your membership significantly raises the Alt com prices.
Users with a Standard membership (a free membership) are not able to view profiles or contact those with a Silver or Gold membership. If Silver and Gold members allow Standard members to see and contact them, they can add Standard Contacts to their existing membership. The prices for Standard Contacts are the following:
1 month - $19.90
3 months - $11.97 per month
12 months - $8.33 per month
With the HighLight listing feature, Silver and Gold members can claim their featured spot at the top of search results.
The prices for this feature are:
1 month - $9.90
3 months - $8.30 per month
Alt.com Security & Customer Service
Disappointingly, as mentioned in another Alt.com review, this hookup platform does not disclose its security features. In addition to this, when reading the fine print to create this review of Alt.com, we were surprised to discover that the site shares member data with third parties. However, the site administrators promise that member information will not appear in any search engine results.
The site does seem to care about the general safety of its members and takes consent of sexual encounters very seriously. They show this by offering a downloading Consent form that members can use before the meeting and by banning certain words and terms from being used on the website, including the word ‘rape.’
Is Alt Legit?
If you stumble onto this platform by chance, it’s easy to understand why you may be asking yourself if Alt com real or fake. Although this site did have a great reputation for 20+ years, it seems to have recently taken a turn for the worse.
Many long-time users claim that the site is now littered with fake profiles, making connecting with others for IRL play more difficult.
In addition to this, regardless of being a niche online gathering place, the monthly costs of having full access to all site features are quite high, with a gold membership with Highlight and Standard Contact features at over $40 per month for a 3-month membership.
Considering the reputation the site has had in the past and the fact that it is a site run by one of the most respected online dating operators in the industry, Alt.com may be a site worth your while if you make peace with the high price tag and the sifting through fake profiles.
F.A.Q
Who is Alt.com for?
Alt.com is for those who participate in or are interested in BDS and other fetishes and wish to find partners for casual encounters.
Is Alt free to join?
Alt.com is free to join, though many site features are only available with a paid membership.
Is Alt.com safe to use?
Given its reputation for the last 25 years, the site is believed to be safe to use.
Who runs Alt.com
The site is run by FriendFinder Network.
Where are Alt.com members located?
There are Alt.com members located around the world, though the highest concentration of members is based in the USA.
