Friends With Benefits

The whole concept of Friends With Benefits can be a little controversial, depending on who you ask. There are dudes out there who claim it never works out, that there are always strings attached, no matter what she says. I’ve had my share of supposedly casual hookups that went sideways when the babes got jealous, but it doesn’t always go that way. In my experience, things tend to work out best when you’re really up front about what you want. These days, you don’t have to be looking for a girlfriend or a wife to get your dick wet, provided you know where to look. Match.com ain’t it for the casual flings, my friends!

Somebody sent me a link this morning for Friends-With-Benefits.com, a hookup site designed to help you meet friends to have casual sex with. There’s no shortage of similar platforms out there, and I tend to be a little skeptical if it’s my first time hearing about one. This site gets a few million visits every month, though, which tells me right away it’s not some barren ghost town. The bigger questions are whether it’s going to be a total sausage fest or whether there are actually women using the service. I’m always on the lookout for new friends with benefits, so naturally I was eager to test drive a site that puts it right there in the name.

The Kind of Benefits We’re All Looking For

There’s very little to be seen out on the Friends-With-Benefits front page. There’s a JOIN NOW and a LOGIN button, plus the usual set of links to terms, conditions, cookie policies and FAQs down in the footer. They do set the tone with the background image, though, a stock photo of a sexy lady and a well-coiffed male model. They’re both fully clothed, but the lighting, their dressy outfits and the looks on their faces imply something sexy is about to happen. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the same photo on the cover of a cheap romance novel on Amazon.

I took a quick look at their Reviews page, which offers a handful of brief, first-person testimonials about the joint. “I used to struggle with women and couldn’t find a date for a long time,” writes Dean, 28. “Now I have to organize and schedule several dates I have each month with new women that send me messages every day.” It’s a sentiment echoed by the other little writeups.

The FAQ offers a little bit more information about payment methods and technical details like uploading photos and deleting accounts, but didn’t answer any of the questions I actually had on my mind. They don’t list prices out front, for one thing, nor are there any numbers listed detailing how many women are signed up and swapping deets. I guess I’ll have to sign up to find that stuff.

The only thing of any real value you can see without signing up and logging in is the Friends-With-Benefits.com blog. They’ve got a lot of helpful articles on dating, hooking up and flirting. I know it comes naturally to some of us, yours truly included, but I also know some of you struggle just getting a conversation going. Hey, it’s all good; if we were all gifted with golden game, sites like this wouldn’t even exist!

Let’s Get into It Then

There wasn’t much to see out on the landing page, and since I’m always looking for friends with benefits anyway, I decided to sign up. Basic registration on the site doesn’t cost you anything, and the process will be familiar to anybody who’s used a similar service. I told them I was a man looking for women, gave them my location and age, then chose a nickname. You can sign up with Google if you want an even easier in, but I prefer to keep separate email addresses for these services to minimize spam.

That said, I couldn’t use any of the temporary email sites I often use and had to give them a “real” address. I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, I hate giving up my main addresses. On the other hand, this attention to detail means they are doing something to weed out fake profiles and scammers, which should ultimately mean a better selection of real women.

The Friends-With-Benefits.com validation email came through almost immediately. I clicked it and got a message explaining that new users get maximum visibility once they fill out their profiles. I checked off some boxes to say I’m open to affairs, open relationships and one-night stands, set some kink and character preferences, and off I went. By the time I’d finished, I already had a kiss in my inbox from another user.

I noticed my credits were listed as Zero, so I checked the pricing page to see what was available. Credits start at forty bucks for a couple hundred, but I wasn’t ready to buy any just yet. They do have a Date Guarantee listed on the Credits page, which is definitely worth mentioning here. They guarantee success, and offer your money back if you can’t get a date. Hell, that’s an even better deal than practicing your moves on drunk girls at the local watering hole!

How to Find That Perfect FWB

Before I gave Friends-With-Benefits any money, I really wanted to see what kind of local babes were using the service, if any. I got a few more messages from randos while I was typing the above paragraphs, but I tend to be a little skeptical of DMs that pop up minutes after signing up for a hookup or dating site.

They’ve got a decent search engine, which lets you select your preferred age range and how far you’re willing to travel. Some sites don’t include a travel distance option, which annoys the fuck out of me, so I was happy to see it here. You can also dial in preferences for body type, marital status, activities and other options.

I kept my search simple, with just an age range and a 20-mile radius. That only brought me back one result, which was a bummer. I wish they let you set a wider age range, because I found more hits when I chose different ages. 26 to 30 and 41 to 50 turned up the most results, so hopefully those are who you’re looking for.

I found a lot more potential Friends With Benefits when I expanded my search range to 50 miles. Overall, there’s an alright selection of women to choose from, though not the best I’ve ever seen. As is always the case with these platforms, your current location can potentially make all the difference in the world. Friends-With-Benefits.com has listings all over the world, and some cities are just going to have way more women to choose from.

I did find a gorgeous mixed chick a couple towns over, with a face like Aubrey Plaza and a list of preferences including Exhibitionism, Role Playing and Toys. Friends-With-Benefits allows explicit photos, so I got to see her naked even before I tried putting the moves on her.

Here's the part a lot of you were waiting for, and probably hoping it would work out differently. I know I was. When I tried to hit her up, the site told me my message wasn’t sent, and that I’d need to spend credits to do so. They sent me back to the Credits page so I could spend some money, which will hopefully lead to getting laid. Good thing they’ve got that Date Guarantee, huh?

I’d argue the Date Guarantee is one of the site’s biggest draws. There are plenty of hookup sites out there with a similar premise, and it’s pretty standard for them to charge you to slide into anyone’s DMs. Most sites don’t offer a guarantee, though, which makes the whole setup feel like more of a sure thing. It's certainly less risky. While their selection of women currently ain’t the greatest, it ain’t bad, and I hope that guarantee helps bring more users to the Friends-With-Benefits.com platform. Until then, well, I’ll see how far these credits carry me. Wish me luck!