ArabLounge is a dating site that has been around since 2001 and is owned and operated by World Singles Network. The site boasts around a million members from all corners of the globe - 470,000 of which are located in the United States. Each day, the site has about 1,700 daily logins, which is a good indicator that the community is alive and active.
In order to become a member of the site, you have two options for registering for an account. You can take the easy route and join via the Facebook button or you can answer the brief registration questionnaire. The questionnaire will ask you the basic questions such as:
Gender and gender preference
Location
Birthdate
Desired username and password
Once you hit the button to join, you’re going to see a pop-up that welcomes you to the site and asks you to fill out your dating profile.
The first thing you’ll notice about the “Edit Profile” page is that it doesn’t look like most other sites, but it’s still quite easy to navigate and the layout is, in our opinion, user-friendly.
To fill out your profile, you’re going to want to first upload your profile photo. You’ll see that there are three different boxes where you can upload photos. We recommend that you upload a full-body photo in the largest box and two other flattering photos in the other spaces provided. The site gives you a useful “Add Photo” icon at the top right where you can drag and drop your pictures if you’d like to add more than the three on the profile.
After uploading your photos, you’re going to be asked to fill in details about your appearance and lifestyle. Some of these profile questions include:
Best Feature
Family Roots
Physique
Occupation
Income
Religion
...and more.
Some of the questions have a red * next to them indicating that you must answer them in order to proceed.
ArabLounge does not claim to be a free dating site and the basic plan features are pretty limited. When you’re a free member, you’ll be able to register, view and browse through member profiles, and send “winks.” That’s about it.
If you want to gain full access to all of the site’s features, you’ll need to upgrade to a premium plan, or Platinum Membership as ArabLounge calls it.
With a Platinum Membership, you’ll be able to:
Read all of your messages
Initiate conversations via chat
Advanced search features
Your outbound messages can be read by the recipient
See who read your messages
Appear in more search results
To access these features, you’ll be asked to choose one of three membership terms:
1 month membership is $39.99 per month (totaling $39.99)
3 month membership is $29.99 per month (totaling $89.97)
6 month membership is $24.99 per month (totaling $149.94)
Should you decide to sign up for a premium plan (you sort of have to if you plan on talking to anyone on the site), your plan will automatically renew at the end of the time period. It will renew for the same plan as you initially signed up for.
Keep in mind that if you forget to cancel before the service renews, ArabLounge will not issue a refund… So be aware of your plan’s expiration date.
After you’ve finished your profile, you’ll be encouraged to start making connections. On your screen, you see a menu that gives you a basic set of search filters. If you want to utilize the more advanced search filters, you’ll have to upgrade your account.
Your search results will appear in a grid fashion and you’ll see the person’s profile photo, user name, age and location. Under that, you’ll have the ability to send them a message or mark them as a favorite.
You can sort your matches based on:
Activity date
Newest members
Distance
Age
There are other ways you can look through profiles on the site, too. You can look for the newest members, who’s online now, or people who may like you. We aren’t really sure how they determine how the site knows who might like you, but we’re guessing this is done by an advanced search algorithm.
If you fancy a bit of “Hot or Not”, you can click on the fifth icon that looks like a pair of polaroids. When you click on that, it’s your basic swipe right to like the photo. You can also click on the photo to read the person’s profile.
If you’re not happy with the services on ArabLounge or you’ve found your special someone and want to cancel your account, you can do so fairly easily.
To cancel your ArabLounge account, you will want to click on three bars located left of your username located on the top left corner of your profile page. Then you’ll want to click on the “Settings” option. On this page, you’ll want to scroll down to the bottom where you have two options.
You can hide your profile if you need to take a break from the site or you can deactivate the account entirely. Whichever option you choose, simply follow the instructions on your screen.
Please note that if you deactivate your profile, it will be deleted entirely and you won’t be able to login unless you reactivate the account.
Nowadays dating sites are a dime a dozen and it’s easy to feel overwhelmed when you’re trying to find the best one to suit your needs. For those who are interested in dating singles of Arab descent, or they themselves are of Arab descent, ArabLounge.com is a good option.
We like that the site isn’t designed like any other sites we’ve come across. The overall usability of the site is pretty novice-friendly so even those who aren’t computer savvy can use the site with ease.
Yes, you do have to choose a membership plan in order to communicate with others on the site, but is that really a bad thing? The way we see it, if you’re paying for a membership, then you’re serious about finding that special someone. That is, unless you’re a fan of wasting money.