Ashley Madison hogs a lot of attention as an online dating site. It’s bold, and it knows what men and women want outside of their own relationships. It’s one of the top sites to head to if you’re looking to have an affair.

Yep, it’s kind of controversial — but it’s crystal clear about it, and gives male users an outlet to hookup with women for fun with no strings.

Maybe you’re curious about your options, and want to know where best to go. Maybe you’re skeptical, and want to know whether the whole thing is genuine, or even safe.

An unconventional dating site like this one, I’d say it’s a wise move to review it first. Here’s everything you must now about it.

Ashley Madison Review — An Introduction

Ashley Madison hit the web waves at full speed in 2001, drawing a lot of attention to itself for its specific user base — individuals seeking extramarital affairs. Men love it. Partners either despise it, or know none the wiser. Women with profiles are making a fortune.

So much so, Ashley Madison has gained global recognition, housing over 60 million users in 53 different countries. It is massive. And reputable, ranking as a top 5 website in USA, Japan, and Brazil.

It’s also won some pretty colorful accreditations and awards — prolific titles such as ‘Top Cheaters App’ at the USA App Awards 2019, validating its niche and success.

Despite its loud and proud fascia, users are treated with total respect and discretion, plus a serious level of safety with smart features such as panic buttons.

Overall though, Ashley Madison aims to safely, effectively attract married people looking for discreet connections. There are some negatives to analyze, though. With a niche service like this, there are bound to be some issues, right?

Who Can Sign Up For Ashley Madison Dating Site?

Any adult can sign up for Ashley Madison — it’s for both men and women, with plenty of female Ashley Madison users on the hunt for an affair. That’s right, this site isn’t only for men seeking something more than what they’re getting at home.

What Is The Average Age Of Users On Ashley Madison?

As long as you’re over 18, you can sign up, and there is a small percentage (10%) of users between 18 and 24 here. Ashley Madison may particularly appeal to slightly older adults aged 25 to 34. But ultimately, the site mostly attracts those in the middle-age and supposedly ‘settled’ phase of their lives — between age 35 and 44.

There are older users aged 55+ on here too. Ashley Madison claims its gender ratio is 70/30 from men to women, though this has come under huge speculation, with the number of men much, much higher.

How Much Does Ashley Madison Cost?

For women seeking men, all features can be used for free — I’d assume this is to encourage more women to use it, as it is very male dominant at the moment. For us guys, Ashley Madison works on a credit-based system. We have to purchase credits and then use them to access features that’ll help us match up and communicate.

The site’s premium features are available both through credits and monthly subscriptions. You can purchase credits in packages or opt for a monthly subscription to access premium services. As a rough guide, you can expect to pay a monthly fee of between 27.99 USD and 319 USD. Compared to other dating services, this is average.

It’s worth knowing though that if you don’t use these credits or you haven’t logged in for a year, your account will be closed and you’ll lose any credits you had.

The good news is, your subscription won’t automatically renew, landing you with an unexpected charge, which is a bonus compared to other dating sites. Oh, and their billing is discreet, too.

Can You Get Ashley Madison For Free?

Ashley Madison also allows you to message without using any credits, but only if you’re a woman seeking men. For the women seeking other women, they still can’t message for free — you’ll be in the same boat as us men. Men must pay.

This doesn’t bother me — if they’re making it easier for women to send a message, then great. And once started, keeping the exchange going is easier with more cost-effective features available (coming up next).

Extra Ashley Madison Features

The more you spend on credits, the more you can unlock with messages and virtual gifts, security and privacy features. (Note these are also all free for women looking for men). The user can choose which features they want, which means you only pay for what you use — this is where things can become really fun…

Message Plus

Message Plus is going to be your most used add-on, I’d say.

How messaging works is that it’s free for the first message, but then you have to use at least 5 credits at a charge to keep the conversation going — up to 9, depending on what you’re sending.

With Message Plus, it’s a feature that allows users to keep on messaging straight away, without using more credits. It’s a really good feature on a dating site for people who get a kick out of the flirting phase.

Priority Mail

For 5 credits, you can get Priority Mail, which basically highlights your message to your recipient. This is game-changing because trust me, you won’t be the only guy messaging that stunning match.

Virtual Gifts

Sending Virtual Gifts also ranks high amongst AM’s exclusive paid services. For 20 to 50 credits, you can send virtual presents like virtual roses or diamond rings, and these really do work for triggering attention and making your match feel special from the get go.

Recurring Payments and New Credits

Recurring payments and topping up of credits helps you control expenditures. I never let credits run low — trust me, they always manage to run out at the worst time otherwise. You can buy 100 credits for $59, 500 credits for $169, or 1,000 credits for $289.

Travel Man/Woman

For 30 credits you can become the ‘Traveling Man’, which gains you reach to 30 potential interests in other locations. Handy for that business trip or escape, you can quickly start communicating with women in different places.

Priority Man

$19.99 per month will upgrade you to Priority Man status, which massively boosts your profile visibility for local women, so they always see you first.

Profile Quality

Since Ashley Madison is predominantly a cheating site, you can imagine it allows you to see only so much — after all, people don’t want to advertise their intentions too publicly. It won’t ask for your name — you get to create a personal username instead.

Some users say the profiles are poorly detailed, but I kinda get that you’re never going to be given all the basic information. You’ll know their approximate city/location, gender, age, zodiac sign, and some info on what kind of relationship they’re after.

You can browse and view profiles with no credit, but to remove the blur from their profile you have to get a private key from them. The same applies for you, too — you unlock who gets to see what.

In terms of how quality the users are, there are a LOT of fake profiles on this site. Well, on any online dating site, to be honest. They are cranking down on them, always suspending suspicious activity, but this is annoying as it happens a lot.

The Ashley Madison App

Good news, AM does have an app (not all sites do), and it is available for iOS and Android.

To download the Ashley Madison app is easy — it’s a lite app that doesn’t take up a lot of space to download, and has all the features that are on the desktop version of the Ashley Madison website.

I prefer apps — they’re convenient to use on the go, and I just find it to be more private, always in my possession. And the app icon doesn’t look suspicious on your home page either. Its interface is also super easy to navigate.

Ashley Madison Account Privacy, Security, And Usability

User safety and privacy is really important to us as users on a site like this. Ashley Madison boast a decent approval process for account profiles to try and ensure new accounts are who they say they are (although this surely needs improving if we’re still seeing loads of dodgy profiles).

Ashley Madison allows you to upload a discreet display photo so you feel anonymous. The site provides features to blur your image or add a mask for full anonymity. Using a discreet photo can improve your chances of finding a match. This means you can use Ashley Madison to browse profiles without revealing your identity.

The Automatic Private Key Exchange means you can share private photos clearly with members only you choose, so they see more than the blurred image everyone else has. You can turn this feature on or off in the ‘Profile Options’ page at any time.

Ashley Madison does not sell your data, and your photos and personal information will not appear in Google Search Results.

The lessons learnt from the infamous 2015 data breach have spurred them to significantly enhance privacy measures. Today, they implement rigorous safeguards including secure connections using 256-Bit SSL Encryption, firewalls, and employing standards recommended by the PCI DSS security council. Anonymous payment methods also give us an added layer of confidence.

What Is Ashley Madison Customer Service Like?

When you join Ashley Madison, you want to know that if you do need help, someone is going to be on standby to guide you or fix the problem. We only really know how much support we’ve got when we need it, and often discover there is not a single pathway to speak to someone — there’s nothing worse, and nothing more worrying when it’s involving having an affair.

Thankfully, Ashley Madison has built up a strong customer support network. All Ashley Madison members can find assistance through various pathways, and there are quick resolution methods too rather than waiting to get through to someone.

You’ve got an FAQ section (it’s really helpful, actually), email support available around the clock, plus an immediate assistance phone line for when the FAQs don’t cut it and you need advice right now.

I’m not usually a fan of FAQs, I’d rather just speak to someone. But their FAQ section is very good. It covers account setup process, security measures, and the credit system. You get clear explanations, and it does actually answer common questions very well.

Response time for emails is between 24 to 48 hours, which isn’t too bad at all, especially when you take their high number of users into account. You’ve got the phone line as well, and they’re also very quick with refunds (for example, if you’ve spent credits on a fraudulent account,) getting your money or credit back within two business days. Very good.

Ashley Madison do genuinely have a very customer-centric approach — I’m really impressed with it. The support team even assists in profile optimization to help you find potential matches.

Is Ashley Madison A Legit Hookup Site?

Is Ashley Madison legit? The most common question asked. Yes, it is indeed among the legitimate online dating platforms, giving both parties a space to find partners based on their preferences and expectations. Of course, there’s a thin line between dating and prostitution if you’re trying to pay for sex as a service.

This is not the site’s aim. Ashley Madison doesn’t promote work for sex at all. It works hard to build connections that work on mutual interests, and fun, safe interactions, protecting its members. Its success and operational longevity of more than 20 years proves that it is trustworthy platform, trusted by its huge and loyal user base.

User Reviews and Ratings

This site has a bery solid average score of 4 on Trustpilot, from more than 400 reviews. That is incredible. And I always head to TrustPilot first for these ratings. The platform clearly has a fairly positive reputation. Testimonials praise it for its user-friendly interface, effective security features, and its help in finding matches for casual hookups. No it’s not traditional dating, but it never has tried to be — and people love it.

My Experience With Ashley Madison

I prefer a swift signup process and quick profile setup when I join a site. However, profile approval can take up to 48 hours. Luckily for me, it wasn’t this long, otherwise I’d have lost patience.

Apparently, profile approval can be delayed if information you’ve provided raises red flags. This is fair enough — Ashley Madison promises to uphold for user safety, and it makes me feel better knowing all active users have had to put at least some effort in to join.

I also created a new email address that gave no indication of my personal info. I recommend you do the same — it takes two minutes, and you can basically use it as a contact point for purely for sites like Ashley Madison, and nobody can guess who you are from it either.

After setting up an account, I found it easy to personalize my Ashley Madison profile. I blurred my image so that nobody I knew would know it was me and report back to my partner.

I added my interests and personal details, a bit about myself, keeping it honest so I could find a good match, but also ramped up the excitement and appeal as much as possible. It’s a self-guided process, with no match suggestions offered by the site, so you need to take your time doing this.

I also clarified that I was looking for casual relationships only — absolutely no strings. Otherwise, I know from experience you do get the odd woman who wants something more serious.

Then the browsing and messaging started. I’d imagine women get swarmed with messages — it’s not so speedy for us guys, we kind of need to do all the graft. But this is my kind of graft, I really enjoy it. Ashley Madison uses at least 5 credits as you start to send messages, so I happily paid for Message Plus.

We’ve seen how Ashley Madison provides different features to spice things up, and I loved using all of them. The winks and virtual gifts were really helpful, especially after I’d nailed the search filter to locate all my best matches wanting the same things I did.

I had a business trip I needed to attend, and while on my flight I switched things up with the Traveling Man feature. I only had a short space of time to connect with anyone in that area, so I used the mass message tool and this really got things going before I had to head back home again.

I think Priority Man is an annoying must. I mean, if you don’t have it, you’re never really going to be picked up by a woman on the hunt, so you kind of have to pay that extra charge for better visibility but with the private showcase. I guess at least women had that reassurance that I was real, but it is another dig into your wallet.

The site itself is easy to use, simple enough, but also attractive. I personally prefer to use the Ashley Madison app, I just always have done and these guys have done a good job of theirs.

Their customer service marked well when I had to use it, too. I had my account suspended temporarily while they confirmed I wasn’t a bot, so I quickly used their chat support to complain. They were responsive and helpful soon got it back on again. Something I could’ve done without to be honest, but I see it as a positive if a site is vigilant. Imagine if they weren’t? We’d be swamped with fake women!

The downside to this site for some will be the credit system. I like it, because you get what you pay for, but it sure does tot up. The other negative is that they’re not overly strict on what kind of relationships Ashley Madison offers. Even though their niche is affairs, it’s open to anyone wanting to hook up for any reason, so I was still getting soppy messages about potential long-term relationships.

I think if they filtered it right down and only made it available to people wanting the same kind of fling like most of the men and a lot of the women on here, it’d be easier to find a match. My advice is make it very, very clear on your profile, but don’t make it sound desperate or sleazy — women hate that… mostly.

My Verdict On Ashley Madison

I love this site. It’s very good. A unique platform that bravely stands up for the many of us who are in relationships but still need those casual hookups. It’s not for everyone, though it is for many of us. Don’t quote me, but I know that some say confidential infidelity actually helps their relationship at home.

With so many pressures today for both men and women, it’s no wonder so many of us are finding an outlet elsewhere. But still, we don’t want to upset the apple cart. We don’t want to turn our families upside down.

Ashley Madison gets that, and gives us a discreet way with robust security measures and array of features, including Ashley Madison premium options, to find matches that work for both parties.

The credit system gives you control over your spending, and the mix of free and paid features is something else I loved. PAYG, with extra on top.

It’s not ideal for anyone seeking serious, long-term relationships (though you’ll still find them on here). It excels in massaging discreet encounters with beautiful, vivacious women on Ashley Madison.

Yes, there are some annoying factors, like how many men are active users compared to women, and how quickly the credits can become expensive. But it was all justified in my opinion, and the site’s loyal and ever-growing global user base speak volumes about its credibility.