On Valentines Day in 2002, the infamous site is known as Ashley Madison (or AM for short) was launched. The founders had discovered that over 30% of users who were on dating sites then were married people looking for affairs, so they created a platform to tend to their unique needs.

Ashley Madison’s bold slogan encapsulates the spirit of cheating: Life’s Short, Have an Affair. This is something that other dating sites don’t tolerate, but AM has clearly embraced amorous affairs for married folks. The site also has lots of adventurous couples as well as searching singles, which makes for one very interesting platform to get your next “date” from.

Yes, Ashley Madison is different, but that is what makes it fun. Despite a 2016 hacking event that revealed the secrets of 32 million users, the platform has only grown in popularity. If you haven’t used AM before, strap on for a wild ride as we explore Ashley Madison as a platform for finding excitement, one-night-stands, and all that non-vanilla stuff you’re dreaming about.

Ashley Madison is a Canadian hookup site designed specifically as a “safe place” for married folks to engage with other people looking for extramarital affairs. For this reason, the site has exceptional features to enable anonymity and make hooking up super easy.

Unlike platforms like Tinder which are meant to ignite romance and even love, AM users know what they want and go for it. It is much easier to find interested people than on any other platform, which makes it much more rewarding.

Did you know that Ashley Madison was picked as the best dating site of 2021? That’s because of its innovativeness, as well as its user-friendly features. Here are some of the reasons why AM was the top choice.

How Ashley Madison Works: Who Should Use the Platform?

Signing up with Ashley Madison is as easy as creating an account and filling in information about your gender, age, height, body type, and a short bio detailing what you are looking for. You will also create an anonymous username and secure password (make it REALLY secure) and upload an optional profile image; you can obscure this image for security reasons.

Once your profile is ready, you can browse through other users in your area for free and decide if you want to take things to the next step, i.e, reaching out. You can also send out free winks to other users to show interest, with the option to attach your private Showcase Key to allow them to see your whole profile.

However, taking things to the next level will require you to pay if you are a man. That’s right, Ashley Madison is free for women while men have to pay a monthly fee to continue using the service, as well as having to buy credits for messaging and virtual gifts.

Men have to pay about $70 for the paid version, as well as buy credits at $249 for 1000 credits, $149 for 500 credits, or $49 for 100 credits.

Ashley Madison was mostly designed to enable people in relationships to find adventure and excitement by helping them meet other people. Traveling business people, dissatisfied wives, and amorous boyfriends/girlfriends can all use the platform to find like-minded people within their location.

Verdict

Having used the site and tested out its various features, we can honestly say that it is worth all the attention. That’s mostly because it works - Ashley Madison grew to 70 million users in 2020, almost half of which are in the US. You are virtually guaranteed a hookup if you live in a big city or travel often.

While the site lacks an automatic matching engine, it is very easy to filter, browse, and contact other users. All the usual features like choosing Favorites, sending Winks (like sending Likes on Tinder), and Love are all there.

Yes, it’s true that Ashley Madison is still full of fake profiles and wrathful scorned spouses looking to catch their partners cheating, but you quickly learn who’s who after a while. Here is a detailed first-person review of what another user experience on the platform to help you out.

At the end of the day, Ashley Madison gets a 7/10 score from us because it works. It is a straightforward platform that is easy to use (the website anyway) and has lots of interesting features to help you find “love.” In terms of pricing - well, men are already used to paying to get what they want. It’s expensive, but it brings the ladies out.

FAQs

Who can use Ashley Madison?

Ashley Madison is a platform for married people to hook up with others outside their relationship, or single people looking to hook up with married folks on the site. However, it is also open to singles looking for simple hookups.

Is Ashley Madison secure?

After the 2016 hacking, security and safety are obviously very big issues. The platform’s backend has been secured and reinforced to stop that from ever happening again, but we do urge you to use the site’s features to hide your identity as much as possible. Payment is also completely secure, where you can use means like credit cards or online payment services while keeping your personal details secure.

Is Ashley Madison worth paying for?

Ashley Madison is expensive, especially when it comes to buying credits. However, the success rate on the platform is worth the high price.

Is Ashley Madison trustworthy?

You can reasonably rely on Ashley Madison to keep your private affairs secure and anonymous, especially if you make full use of the platform’s security features. However, it is up to you as the user to take steps to protect yourself and your identity.

Does Ashley Madison have bots?

The 2016 Ashley Madison leak revealed that the platform was using bots to drive up engagement, but the resulting embarrassment forced AM to remove them. The numbers have since gone up, but a lot of fake profiles still exist on the site.

Conclusion

We may not approve of secretly cheating on your better half, but we agree that Ashley Madison makes things very easy to do. Singles can also rely on the platform to find connections, not to mention couples looking for adventure. We won’t judge, but we urge you to keep your wits around while using Ashley Madison, the cheater’s platform.