(No, Karen, it is not OkCupid’s fault that John ghosted you.) Dead profiles, catfishing, and getting abruptly suspended is annoying. OkCupid has its fair share of each, but unfortunately, it’s nearly impossible to guarantee that a site is completely free of flaws. OkCupid does try to combat fake profiles by having users connect an Instagram account, which is way harder to fake than an online dating profile.
One thing that is a legitimate issue is the user base in less-populated areas. Cities (like NYC, where I live) are overflowing with potential boos, but I guarantee that if I logged on in my middle-of-nowhere hometown, my number of matches within a 10-mile mile radius would drop an alarming amount. We’ve seen a ton of complaints about this, but again – that’s not an OkCupid problem, it’s an every site problem.
For those who have been using the site for years, they’ve noticed a significant slowdown with finding people to talk to, as you can’t see who’s messaged you until you like them back, and going through all of the possible people already takes forever. It’s easier to just block people if you don’t want their messages instead of almost never being messaged at all, you know? OkCupid doesn’t have to re-open messages completely, because some people do like their privacy – but it would be great if they had an option to toggle it on if you don’t mind being hit up by strangers.
Alternatives
OkCupid falls under both the classic dating site category and the swiping app category, which also means that they have way more competition than most one-or-the-other platforms do. None of them want to be known as as hookup app, and it’s definitely possible to find a long-term relationship on any of them, but Tinder and Bumble provide so little information that user intentions are easy to surmise. Alternatively, Hinge calls itself “The Relationship App” and requires users to be a bit more serious with their pickings by judging off more than a few selfies. Where Hinge may fall short is the fact that it pretty much caters to young people only, while OkCupid is more wide-ranging.
When it comes to more traditional sites, OkCupid’s obvious competitors are eharmony, Zoosk, and Plenty of Fish. Match has the size advantage by far – and though OkCupid will always be #1 in my heart, Match is a close second. It’s also an OG player in the online dating game, and it’s always nice to have the reassurance that there are veteran masterminds behind the matchmaking process. Match has numerous unique features to meet new people that no other site has even come close to. I appreciated with their eagerness to get people together IRL. It’s a 
little less trendy and millennial than OkCupid, and maneuvering through the dating pool is basically a free-for-all. The way that OkCupid breaks suggestions down by categories makes everything significantly more organized and helps to give an idea of what might or might not work with a person right off the bat, which I found to be an extreme leg up.
As with any dating site, there will be the one-star ratings, enthusiastically negative reviews, and complaints from people about things that the site itself has no control over
If you’re looking to start a family ASAP or prefer a more traditional approach, eharmony may be a safer bet.
eharmony is all about marriage and features a 29-dimension matching system. The registration process there takes longer and goes a bit deeper, but there’s a reason eharmony has lead to some 4% of marriages in the US. This isn’t to say that OkCupid isn’t serious, because it is – it just gives a little more leeway when it comes to people’s intentions. eharmony sees a much more mature audience filled with many divorcees, single parents, and a few stage-five clingers – AKA no one that has time to play games. If you’re looking to start a family ASAP or prefer a more traditional approach, eharmony may be a safer bet. eharmony has had some history of not being LGBTQ friendly in the past, which is likely a turn off for most of OkCupid’s stans.