The following is a 100% authentic, 100% real review. I was not provided a complimentary product or compensated in any way for this review.
Do the high costs associated with online dating websites have you down? When Justin Corsa created Supertova.com; he looked at the Jewish dating scene online and realized that it was cost prohibitive for many people. Corsa started SuperTova as an inexpensive alternative to websites like JDate. Although it has only been open for three years, SuperTova is becoming a force to be reckoned with in the Jewish niche of internet dating.
The Money Aspect
Account creation on SuperTova is free. Because part of the company mission statement is that the purpose of the website to create a dating environment for people who don’t want to pay high amounts of money to sign up; SuperTova doesn’t charge any subscriptions. Instead, the full site is accessible upon account creation. SuperTova holds to this standard so strongly that that they don’t even accept donations. Rather, the site is mostly funded out of pocket by Corsa who makes up the difference in advertising revenue.
Because of this, expect to see a few advertisements while using the website. They aren’t much of a nuisance as long as you remember to not accidently click on them when you don’t want to leave the page. It’s the trade-off for not having to pay a subscription for full website access.
Profiles and Matches
The profile creation feature is very useful. Besides the standard dating site fields regarding issues such as sex, age, and profession; there are Jewish specific fields ranging from religious background to whether or not you keep kosher. While you don’t have to be Jewish to create an account, there community has a record of being wary of non-Jewish users (especially in the forums section) as the intent of the website is to conduct Jewish singles with each other. You aren’t required to have a photo uploaded but it is relatively easy to do so.
There are four different ways to initiate contact with other users. Firstly, you can click on a profile and send them a message per standard dating site practice (If you add each other to your respective favorites list, there is a private chat feature). Secondly, SuperTova maintains an active forum for users to discuss a variety of topics with each other. Thirdly, there is a feature called the “Tova Wall” where you can blast an update to the entire website to see if anyone responds. Lastly, there is a chat room function for you to partake in.
In all cases, you have the ability to freely communicate with whoever you want. In this sense, SuperTova has done well in keeping communications open between users. Because the majority of users appear to be legitimate, there is a rarely a problem with unwanted messages coming from scammers. A nice feature is that whenever other users visit your profile is that you are able to see who has viewed your profile and can click on them to view theirs.
Matches appear to be based on geographic location, sex and age preference settings. That being said, there doesn’t appear to be a formula for the profiles appearing in periodic match suggestion emails beyond the fact that they live near you. The actual search engine is very basic overall. As there isn’t a match percentage system in place at this time, set your search to your personal preferences to search for potential matches. In many respects, contacting other users is a hit-or-miss situation because it’s often difficult to tell how well the other user and you will mesh without a basic idea of actual similarities and differences.
Harassment is usually not a major issue on the website as each account is screened individually before going live. It is possible to block other users when harassment does occur. SuperTova is usually good about investigating harassment claims and expelling naughty users from the website when necessary.
Website Usability
SuperTova is a relatively stable website as far as not going offline goes. However, there are some kinks to be worked out. The photo upload system doesn’t always work properly even when following the sizes instructions properly. There have are been issues with the messaging platform not working correctly from time to time. The forum still needs reworking and the private chat feature doesn’t always work. It must be noted that SuperTova openly admits to still been in beta mode.
When SuperTova isn’t glitching out, it’s very easy to navigate. The different tabs and features are clearly marked. It’s very difficult to do something by accident on this website because there are always prompts when you are about to change your settings. When issues with the website or other users do arise, customer service is excellent with helping get issues resolved. Despite a few remaining issues, SuperTova is much more stable than it was when it first started.
There’s something to be said about a smaller operation like SuperTova. Although it doesn’t have all the bells and whistles like some of the larger websites; there’s no doubt that it has a lot of charm. On a scale of 1 (dreadfully horrible) to 5 (amazingly wonderful), SuperTova gets a 3 out of a possible 5 stars.
