EastMeetEast Review 2023

EastMeetEast is a massively popular dating site with a very specific audience in mind — people looking for Asian dates. Originally, it was intended as a platform for English-speaking Asians to meet people of the same descent. However, you do not have to be Asian to join this service — even though it may boost your chances of finding someone truly special over this service.

Another peculiarity of EastMeetEast is that this website is 100% free for women, but men — no matter where they are or what their ethnicity is — always have to pay. This, of course, may sound unfair at first, but site owners claim that Asian women are in higher demand than Asian men. Whatever the real case may be, EastMeetEast is not planning to review their pricing policies — and, with a good reason. The site targets young professionals, so men using this dating service really should have no problem paying for safe online communication.

The fact that EastMeetEast has plenty of users in the US alone proves this assumption. More importantly, this service has already managed to bring thousands of couples together, which is impressive, given that the platform was only founded in 2013. So, if you know for a fact that you’re looking for an Asian partner, this site might be worth checking out. But, before registering an account, take a look at our detailed review — we will tell you top things to know about this service, its main features, and prices.

User demographics and activity stats

Given that this site has global coverage, one would expect an enormous number of users. This, however, is not the case with EastMeetEast. Right now, it only has 700, 000 members, and most of them — almost 500, 000 — come from the US. But, what the site may lack in numbers, it clearly compensates with the quality of their user profiles. Most accounts on this site are very active, and the platform has over a thousand unique visits every other day.

Also, this service stays focused on its main idea — that is, helping people of Asian descent find and meet each other. Practically all people on this site meet this criterion. Another interesting thing is that users in their forties and older are practically non-existent on this service. This is a ‘young’ site with most people aged from 18 to 34 years old. In other words, it has a database of students and young professionals — mostly living in urban US areas.

When it comes to gender proportion, women do outnumber the men, but not drastically. All in all, the service offers men and women alike a chance to make new friends, find dates, and start a committed relationship. This website does not cater to casual dates or hookup sites, which is another important facet of this service.

Creating a new account with EastMeetEast

Technically, the website does offer a chance to sign up using your Facebook account. However, it will not save you a lot of time because you will still have to verify your email and manually add some basic info. The only thing EastMeetEast can pull from Facebook is your account picture.

So, it makes sense to go with a standard registration option. For this, you will need to include your relevant email address and think of a username and password. After confirming your email through an activation link, you can proceed to profile descriptions. The initial fields are very standard and include questions about your age, gender, location, and the gender of a partner you’re looking for. Users also have to specify their ethnicity. Possible options include either multi-race Asian or multi-race non-Asian.

The last thing is uploading your profile picture — you can skip this stage, but uploading a picture is still obligatory within 24 hours after creating a new account. That’s pretty much it — in approximately five minutes, your account should be created, and you can go on looking around your prospective matches.

Contacting other users

As already mentioned, female users do not pay for any of the EastMeetEast services. According to this site’s ads, it’s always ladies’ night with them. Men, however, are expected to compensate for that. We will discuss prices and payment means in more detail below, but for now, let’s just focus on what contact means this site offers, in general.

Here, we have the standard option — messages (free for women, paid for men), and smiles. Smiles are free for anyone, but since men cannot attach any text to them, the chances for a meaningful conversation are minimal. Men with a free count can get messages from women on EastMeetEast, but even so, they will not be able to read an entire message. Until you pay, only a preview of the incoming message will be shown.

It is, however, possible to search for prospective matches and preview their profiles for free — without any exception. Newly joined users immediately get access to an advanced search filter where they can indicate a whole range of different qualities they’d like to see in a partner. You can also save these settings and use them in your future searches. Note, however, that in such a case, your matching suggestions will not refresh too often. This one should not come as a surprise because the website database has less than a million members.

Also, both free and paid accounts can see a list of people who viewed their profiles. Still, the most useful feature from EastMeetEast is a user’s reply rate. So, even before reaching out to a particular site member, you’ll know if this person replies often, selectively, or very selectively.

EastMeetEast profile information and quality

On the whole, this service allows users to add quite a lot of details about themselves. Here, you have the standard graphs with occupation, age, and location. However, a lot of profile fields are self-descriptive text boxes, which — sadly — remain poorly detailed. There is a profile completion percentile on each account, and the higher this score is, the more visibility a profile gets.

We already mentioned that one should upload a pic to EastMeetEast within 24 hours after account registration. Users who fail to do so become invisible to other people. But, even before this happens, you will face additional limitations. For example, you cannot view other people’s pics until your own one is uploaded and approved by the site admins.

All in all, EastMeetEast management urges people to fully complete their profiles. However, the text box approach does not seem to work in this particular case. Self-descriptive fields include additional information about the users’ personalities, hobbies, and interests. Most people, however, simply drop a couple of quick generic lines just to make sure their profiles hit the 100% completion mark. As a result, the insight you can from a user’s profile is minimal, and you always have to engage in conversation to get to know this person.

On the other hand, we recommend making full use of the space in EastMeetEast text boxes. Some users do, and so could you. This will surely make your profile stand out from the crowd and boost your chances of finding a great match.

Website layout and navigation logic

EastMeetEast has a bright but still unobtrusive design. The dominant background colors are blue and gray, but several important website sections are highlighted in pink and green. The combination may sound too flashy, but in practice, everything is smoothly balanced out. On the whole, such a color choice accounts for pleasant user experience.

As to the actual navigation logic, everything is quite neat and simple. EastMeetEast does not offer any complicated features, so finding one’s way around this platform should not be difficult — especially for the young, tech-savvy audience this website targets.

There are only a couple of menu sections in the website header. The first is search, followed by messages, smiles, and visitors. A separate — subscribe — tab takes you to a page where you can buy credits or get a premium subscription.

All individual account settings and info can be found in the top right corner of the website. You can visit this section if you want to make any changes to your profile, which is possible at any stage of using the website.

Another useful feature some people will surely find helpful is advice from the site. If you do not get any interaction from prospective matches in the search tab, EastMeetEast will offer several suggestions on improving your profile and boosting your visibility. Mostly, however, this advice goes down to having more info featured on your account. Still, the thought is appreciated.

Mobile app

Currently, EastMeetEast app only has a version for iPhones. One of the best things about this application is that it actually improves on the desktop features instead of compromising on some of the standard functionality. All communication options can also be found in the app version. Besides, there is an instant chat feature, allowing users to stay in touch on the go.

The only drawback so far is that the app takes quite a lot of space — 80 MB. But, then again, with modern devices, such a volume should not be too much of a problem. And, of course, we are still waiting for the Android version. Even though young professionals in the US cities seem to favor iPhones, Android phones get more and more sophisticated. So, as more users switch to Android, we may yet see an EastMeetEast app on Google Play.

As for the design and navigation, everything is slick and clear. All essential features are easily accessible, and you can always see if the person is online before you drop a line.

Membership costs and features

For men, getting a paid subscription from EastMeetEast means unlocking unlimited communication options with the ladies. As a side bonus, you also get read receipts when your message actually reached the special lady in question.

The prices on this platform are a bit higher than the market average if we compare them to subscription plans on mainstream dating sites. On the other hand, you should not forget that EastMeetEast is not exactly a mainstream service. It has a very clear, ethnic-based user base, and such sites always charge a bit more for their services. Besides, don’t forget that you’re treating the ladies and are not seeing any annoying ads.

A monthly subscription on EastMeetEast will cost gentlemen $35. On subscribing for a full year, monthly expenses get significantly lower — $12/month with a single payment of $143.88. If you are looking for something in between these two, consider a three-month plan ($68.97 total, approx $23/month) or a six-month commitment ($197.94 total or approx $33/month). If, however, you are going to commit to more than three months of using the service, it makes sense to go with a cheaper, annual plan.

If you are still unsure about going premium — even for a trial period of one month — you can benefit from purchasing a couple of credits. 1800 virtual coins cost just $4.99, which is enough to get started and send/read a couple of messages before deciding whether to stay or go.

Bottom line: is EastMeetEast worth a try?

It definitely is if you are an Asian and are looking for Asian dates. Sure, the site’s pricing policies, where men have to pay for everything and women enjoy all the benefits of free communication, may seem unjust at first. On the other hand, how long has it been since you had a safe and sure chance to treat a lady? With ever more people going Dutch on dates, we’ve grown used to the idea of equality. EastMeetEast, however, takes a different approach, showing ladies that are wanted and special.

As for the site functionality and security, everything is top-notch. There are few fake accounts on this service — even though all ladies can use it for free. The prices for men are straightforward, and the overall site experience is highly rewarding. More importantly, EastMeetEast does have an impressive success rate, and many users have found good dates and met new friends over this service.