Plenty of Fish is one of the few big dating apps that still lets you do the essentials without paying: build a profile, search, like and message your mutual matches. The paid tiers add convenience rather than access. Whether that is worth £29.99 a month depends on how much sifting you are prepared to do yourself.
Plenty of Fish Promo Code: none needed
Promo Code: None needed. POF does not publish promo codes, and we found no official student discount.
Best real saving: skip the weekly plan. On the UK App Store a week costs £19.99 and a month £29.99, so a month works out at roughly £6.93 a week against £19.99.
| Offer detail | What you get |
|---|---|
| Promo Code | None needed |
| Welcome offer | Free membership with search, Meet Me likes and messaging for mutual matches |
| Who qualifies | Anyone aged 18 or over; UK members contract with MTCH Technology Services Limited |
| Key terms | Paid plans renew automatically; turn renewal off at least 24 hours before expiry; UK subscribers can claim a full refund within 14 days of a subscription starting; Boosts and other virtual items are non-refundable |
| How to claim | Download the app or register at pof.com, then upgrade from your account if you want Plus or Premium |
Plenty of Fish: key facts
- Official website: pof.com
- Owner: Match Group (UK/EU/EEA/Switzerland service operated by MTCH Technology Services Limited, 1 Hatch Street Upper, Dublin 2, Ireland)
- Headquarters: Vancouver, Canada
- Founded: 2003 (Markus Frind, Vancouver); acquired by Match Group July 2015
- Support: Live chat: no
- Ratings: App Store 4.1 (275k ratings, UK App Store); Google Play 3.3 (about 1.7m reviews, Google Play); Trustpilot 1.7 (52,660 reviews)
- Headline offer: Free membership: search filters, Meet Me likes and messaging with mutual matches
- Promo Code: None needed
- Price from: £19.99 for 1 week; £29.99 for 1 month (UK App Store in-app purchases, Oct 2026)
- Free plan or trial: Yes: search by gender, location, age and religion; like in Meet Me; see and message Mutual Matches
- Payment methods: Visa, Mastercard, American Express, PayPal, Apple App Store, Google Play
- Best features: Free messaging with mutual matches; Detailed search filters; Selfie video verification and Face Check badge
Plenty of Fish at a glance
- Owner: Match Group (UK and EU service run by MTCH Technology Services Limited, Dublin)
- Launched: 2003 in Vancouver, by Markus Frind; bought by Match Group in 2015
- Best for: free dating with a wide pool, especially if you like to search rather than swipe
- Free plan: yes; search filters, likes in Meet Me, messaging with mutual matches
- Premium from: £19.99 for one week (UK App Store); £29.99 for one month
- Verification: selfie video verification and Face Check, with a Photo Verified badge
- Trustpilot: 1.7/5 from 52,660 reviews | UK App Store: 4.1/5 from 275k ratings
Our verdict
POF is the dating equivalent of a busy Saturday pub: plenty of people, a fair bit of noise and no cover charge. The free plan is more generous than most Match Group apps, and the paid tiers are honest about what they add, chiefly seeing who has liked you and getting rid of ads. The weak spots are the weekly pricing, which is steep, and a Trustpilot score that reflects persistent complaints about fake profiles and billing. Use it free first; pay for a month only if the matches are worth chasing.
Pros
- Messaging your mutual matches is free
- Search filters by age, location, gender and religion on the free plan
- Selfie video verification and a Face Check badge help spot genuine profiles
- Cancel online, on iOS or on Android, with a 14-day refund right for UK subscribers
- Tiered upgrades let you pay for only the features you want
Cons
- A one-week plan at £19.99 is poor value
- Trustpilot reviewers frequently report scam profiles and billing disputes
- Seeing who likes you needs Premium, not the cheaper Plus
- Unlimited first contacts are reserved for Prestige, currently limited to some US iOS members
- No published student discount or promo codes
Is Plenty of Fish free? What the free plan actually includes
POF’s free membership is the reason most people try it. According to POF’s own help centre, free members can filter searches by gender, location, age and religion, like people in Meet Me (the swipe-style feed), and see and message their Mutual Matches. That last point matters: on several rivals, a free match is little more than a notification.
What you do not get is the full picture. Free members cannot see the single list of everyone who has liked them (the “Interested in Me” view), cannot see read receipts, see adverts, and are limited in how many people they can message first, which POF calls first contacts. POF does not publish the exact limit; only Prestige removes it.
In practice, a new arrival in London using POF to meet people can get a long way for nothing. Set a tight radius, filter by age, like generously and wait for mutual matches. It takes longer than paying, but it works.
POF Plus and Premium prices in the UK, and the cheapest way to pay
POF has replaced its old token system with three membership tiers: POF Plus, POF Premium and POF Prestige. Existing paid members were moved to Premium at the same price. Prestige, which adds unlimited first contacts and priority likes, is described by POF as available only to some US iOS members.
POF does not publish a price list on its website. The figures below are the in-app purchases shown on the UK App Store in October 2026. Apple lists several items simply as “Upgrade”, so which price belongs to Plus and which to Premium is not stated. Prices can differ by platform and, as with most dating apps, by age.
| What you buy (UK App Store) | £ | $ | € |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Week Subscription | £19.99 | $26.64 | €23.72 |
| 1 Month Subscription | £29.99 | $39.96 | €35.59 |
| Upgrade | £19.99 | $26.64 | €23.72 |
| Upgrade | £29.99 | $39.96 | €35.59 |
| Upgrade (listed twice) | £39.99 | $53.29 | €47.46 |
| 1 Boost | £3.99 | $5.32 | €4.73 |
| 1 / 5 / 10 Tokens | £1.99 / £8.99 / £17.99 | $2.65 / $11.98 / $23.97 | €2.36 / €10.67 / €21.35 |
The cheapest way to pay is the longest plan you are confident you will use. The weekly plan costs two thirds of the monthly one, which only makes sense if you are trying POF for a single weekend. On the web, POF accepts Visa, Mastercard, American Express and PayPal; in the apps you pay through Apple or Google.
POF promo codes, discounts and student deals: what exists and what doesn’t
There is no official Plenty of Fish promo code. Sites listing “POF Premium free” codes or free Prestige generators are not from POF and are best ignored. We found no student, NHS or military discount either.
The genuine ways to pay less are simple: use the free plan for longer, choose a month over a week, and watch for in-app introductory offers. POF’s terms note that promotional pricing can rise after the first period, so check the renewal price before you confirm.
Who owns Plenty of Fish and who uses it
Plenty of Fish is part of Match Group, which also owns Tinder, Hinge, OkCupid and Match. POF’s Face Check data is stored on servers operated for Match Group Americas LLC, and members in the UK, EU, EEA and Switzerland contract with MTCH Technology Services Limited at 1 Hatch Street Upper, Dublin. You must be 18 or over to join.
POF does not publish a current UK user figure. Its features page carries a claim of 3,000,000 daily active users in its metadata, with no date or country attached. The help centre includes dedicated safety resources for the UK, Canada, Australia and the US, which gives a fair idea of its core markets. The last widely reported figure was 100 million registered users worldwide in 2015, the year Match Group bought POF for $575 million.
Features that matter: Meet Me, search, Interested in Me and Boosts
Meet Me is POF’s swiping feed: swipe right to show interest, left to pass, and if you both swipe right a chat opens. Tap a photo first and you see the full profile, which is worth doing.
Search is the more distinctive tool. Rather than waiting for an algorithm, you can filter by age, distance, gender and religion, and POF Plus adds extended profile details such as whether someone has or wants children and their lifestyle habits. For anyone who knows what they are looking for, that is useful.
The upgrade features in brief:
- POF Plus: unlimited likes, extended profile details, first look at new members, up to 16 photos, no ads
- POF Premium: everything in Plus, plus Interested in Me and read receipts
- POF Prestige (US only for now): unlimited first contacts, unlimited priority likes and priority messages
Boosts (£3.99 each on iOS) push your profile up the queue for a short period, and Super Likes flag particular interest. There is no travel or passport mode advertised, and video chat does not feature in POF’s current list of membership benefits.
Is POF safe? Verification, safety tools and privacy
POF offers selfie verification: you record a short video selfie, the app compares it with your main profile photo, and a match earns a badge. Change that photo and you have to verify again. Face Check, rolling out in phases where local rules allow, uses facial geometry to estimate age, check photos and stop other profiles using your likeness.
The privacy detail is worth reading. POF says the video selfie is deleted once checked, but the resulting FaceMap and FaceVector are kept for the life of the account and deleted within 30 days of closure. Audit images, results and age estimates are kept for 90 days after closure, or a year if the account is banned. The only way to delete verification data is to delete your account.
Members can block and report from any profile, and the help centre lists UK helplines including the National Domestic Abuse Helpline, Rape Crisis and Report Fraud (which replaced Action Fraud).
The security record has blemishes. In January 2011 the site was hacked, exposing personal and password details for close to 30 million accounts. In March 2015 POF agreed to pay C$48,000 over alleged breaches of Canada’s anti-spam law, and in December 2019 a security researcher found the app was leaking details members had set to private, including hidden names and postcodes, which POF then fixed.
The usual first-date sense applies. Meeting someone from POF for a drink in Manchester’s Northern Quarter? Keep it somewhere public, tell a friend, and treat anyone who asks for money or wants to move off the app immediately with suspicion.
What users say about Plenty of Fish
The ratings split sharply by platform. On the UK App Store POF scores 4.1 out of 5 from 275,000 ratings. On Trustpilot it scores 1.7 from 52,660 reviews, and POF has not replied to negative reviews there. On Google Play it scores 3.3 from about 1.7 million reviews.
The complaints cluster around billing and fake profiles. Martin, a reviewer in Great Britain, gave it one star in September 2026: “They will do and say ANYTHING to get your money.”
The more forgiving reviews tend to praise the free plan. Shaw McG, giving two stars in January 2026, still conceded: “It is free to set up a profile and browse members in your area.”
How to join POF, build a better profile and cancel your subscription
- Download Plenty of Fish from the App Store or Google Play, or register at pof.com. You must be 18 or over.
- Add a clear, recent solo photo as your main picture, then complete selfie verification so your profile carries the badge.
- Fill in the profile questions properly. POF’s search filters only work in your favour if your own details are there to match.
- Set your search radius and age range, then use Meet Me and search together for the widest choice.
- Try the free plan for a week or two before deciding whether Plus or Premium is worth it.
- To cancel on iPhone: Settings, your Apple ID, Subscriptions, POF, Cancel.
- To cancel on Android: Google Play, your profile icon, Payments and subscriptions, POF, Cancel.
- To cancel on the web: log in on a desktop, go to Manage Account, then Account Type, then cancel membership.
Turn off renewal at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Cancelling does not delete your profile; that is a separate step in account settings. UK subscribers who change their minds can ask for a full refund within 14 days of a subscription starting.
Plenty of Fish vs OkCupid vs Match
| Plenty of Fish | OkCupid | Match | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes: search, likes, messaging mutual matches | Yes: likes, matches and messaging | Yes: profile, browsing and messaging once matched |
| Premium from | £19.99 a week, £29.99 a month (UK App Store) | £5.99 (UK App Store; plan length not stated) | £19.99 a week, £39.99 a month (UK App Store) |
| Best for | Big free pool, searching by filters | Detailed questions and compatibility | Daters happy to pay for a moderated, slower-paced site |
| Verification | Selfie video, Face Check badge | Not advertised | Every profile photo and description moderated |
| Owner | Match Group | Match Group | Meetic network (Match Group) |
Pick Plenty of Fish if you want to date seriously without paying and are happy to search. Pick OkCupid if you like answering questions and want compatibility percentages to guide you. Pick Match if you would rather pay up front for a smaller, more moderated pool and a slower pace.
Plenty of Fish FAQs
Is Plenty of Fish free?
Yes. You can create a profile, search, like people and message mutual matches without paying. Plus and Premium add extras such as unlimited likes and seeing who likes you.
How much is POF Premium in the UK?
On the UK App Store, a one-week subscription costs £19.99 and a one-month subscription £29.99, with other upgrades listed at £39.99. Prices can vary by age and platform.
What is the difference between POF Plus and POF Premium?
Plus gives unlimited likes, extended profile details, a first look at new members, more photos and no ads. Premium adds Interested in Me and read receipts.
Is there a POF promo code or student discount?
No. POF does not publish promo codes or student discounts. A monthly plan rather than a weekly one is the real saving.
Can I get a refund from Plenty of Fish?
POF calls subscriptions non-refundable, but its terms give UK and EU subscribers a full refund within 14 days of a subscription starting. Boosts and other virtual items are not refundable.
Is POF safe to use?
It offers selfie verification, Face Check, blocking and reporting. As on any dating app, be wary of anyone who asks for money or pushes to move off the app quickly.
Who owns Plenty of Fish?
Match Group, the company behind Tinder, Hinge, OkCupid and Match.
How do I cancel my POF subscription?
Cancel where you paid: in your Apple ID subscriptions, in Google Play, or under Manage Account on pof.com. Do it at least 24 hours before renewal.
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