Chemistry.com is a sister site of Match.com. Why two different sites for the same on-line dating company? Surely there must be a few key differences. According to the Chemistry.com website one key difference separating them from the rest of the pack is their personality test. Chemistry.com is a premium service. It costs more, but profiles are matched by criteria developed by a biological anthropologist.

Matching Systems

To get matched on Chemistry.com, you need to take their personality test. This test was developed by biological anthropologist, Dr. Helen Fisher. The test focuses on traits such as

Adventurousness
Decisiveness
Empathy

The questions seem pretty basic, however, and no more or less in depth than the questionnaires of the other sites in this guide—except for maybe the first question which is rather odd. The screen shows a picture of four right hands and asks you to select the image that best represents your own right hand. (See the video below for Dr. Fisher's explanation of why this is important.)

The rest of the questions in the series are typical. There are questions about your own behavior (smoking, drinking, interests) as well as those you'd like to see in a mate. There are questions about religious beliefs and whether you'd like to have children. There are a few questions concerning physical characteristics such as what is the color of your eyes and hair and how tall are you?

Effectiveness

The success rate for these types of personality matching sites are very hard to measure. Yes, people have success using Chemistry.com. They meet, they date, they fall in love, they get married. Would any two people meeting on any other site have found each other (or someone as compatible) if paired up another way. Possibly.

Cost

While this guide focuses on the personality matching systems in particular, most people are concerned with price as well. Chemistry.com has different levels of pricing starting at $49.95 a month with lower monthly costs available for longer terms of service.

Video

Dr. Helen Fisher explains the reasoning behind her personality test.

eHarmony

About

Dr. Neil Clark Warren got the idea for eHarmony in 1997. He had been a practicing clinical psychologist for 35 years at this point. From his own counseling work and by observing trends in marriage and divorce, he concluded that there must be a better way for people to find a suitable, compatible mate. Warren observed that incompatible people tended to split up at a higher rate. Was there a way to match people more effectively at the outset in order to ensure longer lasting relationships? That was the task set before him.

Matching Systems

The fruit of Dr. Warren's labor is eHarmony’s patented Compatibility Matching System®. The questions seem similar to both eHarmony and Match.com in some respects. There are questions about past marital status, geographic location, etc. Then the questions start to get into personality. The questionnaire lists certain characteristics and asks you to choose how these describe yourself on a scale from "Not at all" to "Very well". Some characteristics are you are asked to rate are:

Warm
Clever
Dominant
Outgoing

There is a section on feelings, a section that allows you to state what you think you do well. There seems to be a lot of questions about faith and church involvement which lends credence to the claim that eHarmony is geared towards those of religious faith. The last part of the questionnaire asks that you list your level of education, income, your physical characteristics and things you like to do. There is an opportunity to indicate how important it is for your potential partner to be attractive, religious or to not drink or smoke, as well as what level of education you'd like for them to have achieved.

Effectiveness

The eHarmony website makes the claim that "an average of 438 eHarmony members marry every day in the United States as a result of being matched on the site." This statement is based on a 2012 survey conducted in the U.S. by an outside market research firm. That's over 8,000 couples per year. Do those marriages last? That's a question it may take years to find out.

Cost

eHarmony offers a basic plan for $30.95 for six months, $13.95 for 12 months and $11.95 for 24 months. The Total Connect Plan offers enhanced benefits and starts at $32.95, $18.95 and $11.95 for 6, 12 and 24 months respectively.

Video

Match.com

About

Match.com is perhaps the biggest online matching site in the business. They've been bringing couples together online since 2005 and now operate in 24 countries in 15 different languages. They are partnered with their sister company Chemistry.com and offer a combination of services. Their site allows for the upload of over two dozen photos, which is great for browsing people you find attractive, but just how good are they at matching personality traits?

Matching Systems

The questionnaire on the Match.com site gets right into questions concerning physical appearance (hair and eye color, height), but it also asks you to provide your star sign. That's a novel twist for sure. Next is salary, occupation and the important question of whether or not you want kids? There are questions about smoking, drinking and exercise; education, languages and ethnicity and religious beliefs. They also ask the question of what charities you support. That's another unique and interesting question not seen in the questionnaires of the other sites. There are more quirky questions as well, such as, Where would you go if you had two weeks off?

The next part of the process allows for you to answer questions about what you're looking for in a mate starting with physical features. You can even check a box under 'body type' selecting what would be a deal breaker for you.

Effectiveness

Like much of what you search for on the Internet, there's an algorithm behind it. Just like Google uses algorithms to find results for your key word search, dating sites use them to find people who are compatible with you. You are not an algorithm of course, and in real life you do not make decisions like one. This way of finding matches is helpful due to the sheer volume of criteria that would-be daters provide when filing out their profiles. Entering your city, age and a few interests could potentially match you with thousands of candidates in a particular area. That's not going to cut it with a company approaching 2 million users. The algorithm employed by Match.com also learns from the behavior of the users themselves. It can make a match determination based on the profiles of other people you chose to look at. It also picks up on patterns in the profiles you choose to look at which may not have been revealed in the profile questionnaire.

Is Match.com effective in bringing people together? Yes. Do these pairings result in committed long-term relationships? Sometimes, although, unlike a sight like eHarmony, many people who use Match.com are not looking for that. It's a good way to meet people and date and make friends, that's for sure. It's also open to everybody, men seeking men and women seeking women. eHarmony is not.

Cost

There are several different pricing options for Match.com based on the length of service you choose. The longer the term of service the more money you can save.