Cougar Life Reviews: The Truth about the Cougar Life Dating Site

Although there are a handful of Cougar dating websites and services online, CougarLife.com is by far the most well-known that caters to this growing niche. Chances are the main reason you came across this website is because you saw one Cougar Life’s catchy advertisements and it peaked your interest.

According the search statistics, both younger men and mature women want to know three things about Cougar Life and cougar dating in general.

These questions include… 

• Is CougarLife.com a scam or a legit place to hook up?
• What are peoples actual experience using CougarLife?
• Are there better places for cougar online dating?

Over the next few minutes it’s my goal to answer these questions and provide feedback about Cougar Life based on my own experiences as well as others. Hopefully after reading this information you will have a better understanding of how CougarLife.com works and if there are better options available for cougar dating.

Background information about Cougar Life…

CougarLife.com is owned by Avid Life Media Inc. which currently runs 5 different dating websites each catering to various sexual tastes. Obviously Cougar Life is a dating site for older women seeking younger men (and vice versa) but here is a breakdown of their other web properties.

• AshleyMadison.com – A website for married people looking to have an affair.
• Swappernet.com – A website for “swingers” or couples looking to trade partners.
• EstablishedMen.com – A dating website for wealthy men looking for casual relationships.
• ManCrunch.com – A dating website for gay men.

On the face of the CougarLife.com website, they claim to have over 6 million members. While I don’t know the validity to that claim, I’m guessing that most of these “members” are made up from free or abandoned accounts and not actual paid members. Like many dating websites, CougarLife offers both free and paid membership options.

What happens when you sign up as a “free” member with Cougar Life?

Many Cougar Life users have reported a “bait and switch” technique to get it’s free members to upgrade to a paid membership. Many people report that after signing up for a free account, they started getting inundated with messages from what seem to be very attractive and interested cougars or cubs. Unfortunately, the only way to communicate back with these “profiles” was to upgrade to a paid membership. After upgrading and responding though, they never heard back from the originally interested parties?

Why is this?

Basically this happens because the majority of those attractive profiles that contacted you were never “real” people in the first place but rather site generated robots.  If you read the fine print of the terms and conditions on the CougarLife.com website you will see that they reserve the right to create fake profiles and have them communicate with you. (In the spirit of entertainment of course!)

Here is a screenshot taken from www.cougarlife.com/terms-of-service

Basically, CougarLife.com reserves the right to use fake profiles to get you to upgrade your free account to a paid account.

Is anyone hooking up on Cougar Life though?

Even with all the robot profiles, CougarLife.com puts quite a bit of money into their advertising so there are real users that have paid memberships. Unfortunately though, the majority of online Cougar Life reviews are from people who had a negative experience using the website. Here is one of many reviews taken from complaintsboard.com...

Other “Red Flags” about signing up with Cougar Life…

Besides the fake profiles, another major issue users have had with the service is their billing practices. When browsing through the terms and conditions you will find out two things by reading the fine print.

• They have a “no refund” policy - No matter what!
• Most subscription plans include recurring billing - Which they don’t tell you about!

Many users have complained about being blind sided with recurring charges they didn’t know about and having difficulty canceling their accounts. Of course, this is why you want to read the “fine print” before signing up with anything.

What about other Cougar Dating Websites?

Besides CougarLife.com there are a handful of other dating websites that specifically cater to the younger men and mature women niche. These include Cougared.com, CougarsMeet.com & CougarPassions.com. Unfortunately, their actual membership base is going to be much smaller than CougarLife and many of them employ the same sneaky tactics to get your to upgrade your account. I would not recommend using any of these cougar dating websites.

A better solution for online Cougar Dating…

First off, there are two types of people that are into the cougar dating scene…  There are those that are looking for an actual dating type relationship and those that are looking to simply hook up (aka friends with benefits). Depending on which group you fall into will determine where you should be looking online.

Looking for an actual relationship with an experienced woman or younger man? Try this…

For those of you looking to actually get to know someone and possibly date, I suggest you check out FriendFinder.com.

FriendFinder.com is the world’s largest personals website and also allows you to specify exactly what you’re looking for. The cost to join Friend Finder is around $20 a month but they also have a standard account that is free. I suggest starting with a free account and upgrading after you get a chance to look around.

Looking to hook up with a more experienced woman or younger man? Try this...

For those of you looking for a sexual relationship then there is no better resource than AdultFriendFinder.com.

This website is full of men and women (of all ages) that are looking to hook up and explore. Adult Friend Finder does have a free account option but you’re going to have to upgrade to a paid account (around $20 a month) if you’re serious about hooking up. I think one reviewer put it best when he said. “An AFF subscription is kind of like the online hookup equivalent of a mud fight. It's dirty, it's kinda gross, but you have a strange urge to do it anyway, and with girls involved, yes, it's pretty hot.”

In Conclusion…

Is Cougar Life a scam? While I wouldn’t call CougarLife an all-out scam, it’s pretty obvious that they use some deceptive marketing tactics to get their free members to upgrade. Although they call getting contacted by fake profiles “entertainment” I think that we can all agree that it’s not much fun for anyone involved.

What do actual users say? When it comes to real Cougar Life reviews, the majority of people feel they got ripped off and didn’t find any value in using the website. The majority of complaints were about the abundance of fake profiles and use of shady billing practices.

Are there better online cougar dating options? I would stay away from CougarLife.com and the handful of other copycat cougar dating sites. Depending on the type of relationship you’re looking for, check out much larger and more popular dating sites like FriendFinder.com and AdultFriendFinder.com.

* Do you have experience with cougar life or other cougar dating websites? I'd love to hear about them. Share your story by shooting over an email to reviews@cougarlifereviews.net.