Shaadi Review 2024 – [Is This a Legit Indian Dating Site?]

Today’s dating site review looks at a very unique online site that specializes in helping people from India or those of Indian origin find their lifetime partners.

That site is Shaadi and this comprehensive review will look into exactly what it offers and how it can help you find a marriage partner.

Our review will focus on:

So sit back, take your time and let’s see what Shaadi brings to the online dating table.

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Ratings

Ease of use – 4/5

Effectiveness -3/5

Key Features – 4/5

Pricing – 3/5

Pros

• Money-back guarantee
• Large user base
• Excellent search engine

Cons

• Membership options are pricey
• The site can be a little confusing first up

Who Is It For/Demographics?

Dating sites are about getting people together.

That can be in very different ways.

For example, a hookup site (like BeNaughty or Ashley Madison) focuses on getting singles, couples even groups together to embrace the physical and pleasurable aspects, like sex.

A dating site (like eHarmony) is about bringing people together for a range of reasons, depending on what they are specifically looking for.

It could even be a long-term commitment that leads to marriage.

And then you have a site like Shaadi where marriage is the ultimate goal.

People that sign up for profiles on this site, want to meet their life partner.

And that’s what the site helps facilitate.

But just how popular is a site like Shaadi and is it aimed at a specific target audience?

Well, let’s talk about the target audience first up before we get into user numbers.

You can probably guess from the name that Shaadi is a dating site that is aimed at the Indian population, not only in India but around the world.

It prides itself on the fact that to date (and according to the website) it has helped 35 million people find their life partners.

And it’s been doing so since 1996.

Shaadi user numbers and the gender ratio

You can probably guess that a site that has been around since 1996 and has helped over 35 million people to find their life partners is going to have a strong user base.

But despite the fact that they are happy to tell you the millions of people they’ve helped towards confirmed marriages, user numbers are a little more difficult to come by.

My guess would be, however, that it’s well over 10 million and maybe more.

That’s based on the length of time the site has been operating (over two decades), the number of people that it’s helped towards marriage (35 million) and that it has around 1 million users in the United States alone which is not it’s primary area of operation.

But yes, while it’s difficult to find a definitive number for users on-site, you can rest assured that it’s busy.

Now let’s look at the gender ratio on Shaadi.

That will show you that it’s a site dominated by men.

In fact, it’s just under a 3:1 ratio of male to female users.

• 75% of the users on-site are male
• 25% of the users on-site are female

That indicates hard work for males looking for that perfect matchup, especially at a ratio of close to 3:1.

That means for every female user you’d like to get to know better, there are three other male users as competition.

Of course, for a female user, that means choice.

So it really just depends on which side of the coin you fall on, right?

Ease of Use

You will immediately notice that when navigating over to the Shaadi website, it’s extremely welcoming.

But there are a few things about it that are different from a regular dating site.

The most important of these are the two options that you will need to select and fill in when registering for your user profile.

There are the regular kinds of information that all dating sites ask for:

• What you are looking for (the only options are male and female and note, Shaadi is a heterosexual only site)
• The age range you would prefer your matchups to be

But then there are two other options that you need to provide answers to:

• The religion your matchup should be (11 options)
• Their home language (a staggering 68 options)

Once you provided that information, it’s onto familiar territory if you’ve ever used a dating site.

You will need to give:

• An email address (which the site calls an email ID, so don’t be confused by that)
• A password
• Who you are creating a profile for (yourself, your son, your daughter, your brother or sister, a friend or a relative).

Yes, Shaadi will let you create a profile for someone else you’d like to find a partner for, for example, your children.

After that step, you will need to provide some more profile details, for example:

• Your first and last name
• Your date of birth
• Religion
• Community (for example, Hindi)
• Your location

That information is enough to get access to the site, but that’s not the end of it.

Now you have to fill in more sections of your profile.

And it’s mandatory, you cannot skip this and come back to it later like on other dating sites.

Here’s the information you will need to provide:

• The city you live in
• If you currently live with your family
• The country you grew up in
• Your current residency status
• Your marital status
• Ethnic origin
• Your diet
• Your height
• Your sub-community
• Your qualifications
• Where you work
• Your occupation
• Your income
• Your phone number

Lastly, you have to describe yourself in a few words.

Shaadi actually helps you with this by providing a paragraph for you based on what you’ve entered in your profile, but you can always alter it as you wish.

That’s plenty of information you have to provide and all-in-all you will need at least 10 minutes for this registration process.

Once you are done, you gain access to the site for the first time.

Finding your way around Shaadi

Shaadi gets you straight into the action when you are logged in for the first time.

It does this by presenting you with a bunch of matchups based on the information you provided in your extensive profile.

And you can deselect the ones you don’t want to connect with or skip this step altogether.

If you do choose to connect with them, you are taken to the membership sign-up page to choose a membership package.

If you aren’t ready to sign up just yet, you can move on to the website proper.

I like the overall design of Shaadi.

It’s modular, clean and crisp and not overcrowded at all.

And to find your way around the site, you will make use of four primary menus.

These are:

• My Shaadi: This contains links to the main dashboard, your profile, your photos, your partner preference and settings.
• Matches: This takes you to a bunch of matches that Shaadi has picked out for you. The sub-menus here are new matches, today’s matches, my matches, near me, recently viewed, more matches.
• Search: This takes you to the search engine where you can find even more matchups. There is a basic as well as an advanced search option
• Inbox: This holds all the invitations you send and receive on Shaadi.

While I like the fact that Shaadi has only four main menus to navigate by, the site still takes a little bit to get used to as it is different from other dating sites.

But overall, you should be up and running in no time.

The Shaadi profile

While you would have filled in a lot of information about yourself while registering for the site, it isn’t complete.

The basic information about you, however, is finished but to improve the quality of the matches you receive, finishing your profile, particularly what you want in a matchup, is necessary and well worth the 10 minutes it’s going to take to do so.

Effectiveness

We’ve already discussed the fact that Shaadi is different from other dating sites in the way that it operates.

I mean, you can create profiles for friends or your children!

But just how effective is it in helping your find long-term love that will lead to matrimony?

Well, it seems to do the job if those that own the site are to believed.

What I want to do now is to explain just how the site goes about helping your find the perfect match for marriage.

Searching for your life partner on Shaadi

The first thing that I noticed about Saadi was just how effective it is in providing you with potential matchups.

As I said above, if you complete your profile, these will be even better.

So yes, one of the most obvious ways to start looking for a potential life partner is to go through the matches that Shaadi provides for you.

And each day, Shaadi will provide you with new matchups as well.

But what about if you want to launch your own search?

For that, you will need to use the search engine for either basic or advanced searches.

And these are the parameters you can set on a basic search:

• Age range
• Height
• Marital status
• If they have children
• Religion
• Mother tongue
• Location
• If have a photo or not

That’s a decent amount of search parameters, especially for just a basic search.

But what about an advanced search?

Well, here’s the search parameters you can expect:

• Looking for (bride or groom)
• Age range
• Height
• Marital status
• If they have children
• Ethnic origin
• Religion
• Mother tongue
• More location details
• Education and professional details
• Lifestyle and appearance details
• Keywords
• If have a photo or not

There are a lot of extras here and amazingly enough, it’s not hidden behind a paywall.

So in between searching by yourself or using matchups, finding matches shouldn’t prove to be too tough but obviously, everybody’s case is different.

What happens once you’ve found them?

Can you get into contact easily enough, or will you need to sign up for a membership on the site?

Reaching out on Shaadi

Just like most other dating sites, messaging on Shadaai is limited

But it’s not impossible.

That’s because a member messages you as a regular user, you can reply to them.

But you cannot initiate any form of contact with other users other than liking their profiles.

And if you upgrade to some form of membership, you can see other important details about each user including their email addresses and contact numbers.

That’s a pretty awesome feature I am sure you will agree.

Let’s see what other key features membership brings to the party.

Key Features

Before we get onto all the key features that you can expect from Shaadi, it’s important to note that there are five different types of membership packages.

I will discuss all of these later in the review but of course, some of these options won’t have access to all these key features.

One does, however, and that’s Platinum Plus, so let’s view these key features with that in mind.

1. Send and receive messages

The most obvious advantage of membership is the fact that you can now send and receive unlimited messages.

Remember, we did say that as a regular user, you could reply to messages from other members but that’s really not an effective way to use the site.

You need to be able to send messages of your own.

All the membership packages offered by Shaadi let you send messages and as many as you like.

2. View contact details

Each of the membership packages allows you to view the contact details of other users.

The more pricey the package you take out the more contact details you can view.

But what exactly do I mean by contact details?

Well, it incorporates phone numbers and email addresses.

How incredible is that?

Having those kinds of details means that you can move conversations off-site.

It’s pretty unique and not something many other dating sites offer.

3. Promote your profile

Want to stand out from the crowd?

Well, the ability to have your profile stand out from others is something that certain membership packages offer.

Basically, this means that your profile will appear near the top of other users’ search returns.

4. View hidden photos

As a member, you are able to view the hidden photos that other users have selected as private on their profile.

5. Premium assistance and relationship advisors

As a member, you are able to call on assistance with any issues you have at any time on the site.

If you are prepared to pay even more, however, over and above the membership amounts, you get access to relationship advisors that can help you with personalized matchmaking services.

Pricing

There are a few features that Shaadi offers that I really think are useful.

But what’s a membership to the site going to cost per month?

Well, as I mentioned a little earlier, there are five different packages available.

The most costly, Platinum Plus, provides you with all of the features, except the relationship advisers and personalized matchmaking.

The cheapest, Gold membership allows you to send unlimited messages and view the contact details.

Note that packages are only three, six or 12 months long.

There are no one-month membership packages.

Let’s start with the cheapest first and move to the most expensive.

• Gold membership – 3 months – $97.00 ($32.33 per month)
• Gold plus membership – 3 months – $119.00 ($39.67 per month)
• Diamond membership – 6 months – $147.00 ($24.50 per month)
• Diamond Plus membership – 6 months – $187.00 ($31.17 per month)
• Platinum Plus membership – 12 months – $269.00 ($22.42 per month)
• Relationship advisories and match-making services – an additional fee of $599 for 3 months or $899 for 6 months.

For me, it’s interesting to see that there is no month-to-month payment option.

I am not sure why there isn’t, to be honest, because with a month-to-month option, dating sites make that their highest price per month when compared to their longer options.

Also, it locks you into at least three months of using the site.

What happens if you don’t actually like it or think it will work for you?

In terms of prices, they are pretty steep in my book but having said that, the key features you get are impressive.

Conclusion and Overall Rating

So that’s it for this review of Shaadi.

It’s a very unique website that clearly very popular in India and with people of Indian origin that are living around the world.

And those behind the site clearly think they have a very good product because they guarantee that they will refund you if you cannot find a matchup.

In terms of design and ease of use, Shaadi scores pretty well.

It does take a little bit of time to find your way around.

That’s because there are many sub-menus hidden under the four main menus.

But that’s not a particular problem and you quickly get used to it.

There is a massive user base here and I love the fact that Shaadi provides you with so many matches even before you’ve had the chance to look for your own.

One exciting plus point for me on this dating site comes in the contact details of other users.

As a member, you can get the contact details, as in the phone number or email address of other users.

That means you can chat offsite which is something that appeals to me.

Now onto the rating for Shaadi.

I am going to give it a score of 3.5 out of 5.

It serves a unique purpose in the world of online dating, that’s for sure!

Frequently Asked Questions

Facts

Shaadi is a safe website.

Profiles are screened before they are put online.

Matches are also tailor-made for each specific member.

I even received a call from the team at Shaadi to confirm that I was who I said I was.

So yes, Shaadi is safe, also in terms of keeping your data and banking details private.

Much of Shaadi is free.

You can register for a profile, set it up and browse through matches that Shaadi provides for you.

Or you can search for your own for free.

You cannot message anyone, however but you can reply if someone messages you.

Ultimately, you will need to take out a membership to use the site in an effective manner.

Without a doubt, Shaadi is a legit website.

It’s been around for over two and a half decades now and has millions of users around the world.

Shaadi started in 1996 and is one of the premier matrimony sites for people from India and of Indian origin.

The site has millions of users and has helped many of them find their life partners.

Shaadi has a money-back guarantee that if you don’t find matchups worth following up on, you receive your membership fees back.

Account

You need to be 18 years or older to have a profile on Shaadi.

The registration process is lengthier than most other dating sites as you fill in a fair portion of your profile during it.

In fact, you are going to have to set aside 10 minutes, possibly a little more to complete the registration process.

Once you are on, however, you will already receive matchups based on the information you provided.

To delete your Shaadi account, you need to click on the “My Shaadi” main menu and then select, “My Profile”.

From there, you have to search for the “Hide/Delete Profile” tab.

Click on that and you follow the instructions to either hide your profile so you don’t come up in other member’s searches or delete it to take it totally offline.

This contact form provides you with a way to contact the team at Shaadi.

If you prefer to send a regular mail, address it to:

2B (2) II Ground Floor

Film Center Building

68 Tardeo Road

Mumbai

400 034

India.

Usability

Shaadi has an extensive matchmaking system.

Because the registration process includes you having to fill in much of your profile, by the time you access the site for the first time, you already have matchups to look through.

And the algorithm uses profile information about you and what you want in a matchup to provide you with this as well as when you launch your own searches.

To block someone on Shaadi, you need to first access their profile.

On the right-hand side of their name, you will see an arrow pointing down.

Click on that and you have the option to not only block them but report them as well if their behavior warrants it.