How Open Relationships works

Profiles are built around structure, not just preferences

On a general dating platform, a profile answers what you like. Here it also answers what you are in. Relationship structure, current partners, the agreements you have made with them and how much time you realistically have are fields rather than paragraphs to be volunteered later.

That single design decision is what removes the disclosure conversation. Anyone reading your profile has already seen the situation and messaged anyway, which is a considerably better starting position than a match built on an assumption nobody checked.

Couples are first-class, and separately accountable

Partners can link their profiles so they are visible as a couple, while each person keeps their own account, their own inbox and their own boundaries. Either partner can decline a conversation without it becoming a joint decision, and either can date separately.

This is deliberately not a shared couples account. A single profile operated by two people means the person on the other side cannot tell who is typing, cannot know whether both partners actually want this, and has no way to let a connection develop unevenly, which it usually does. The separation is more work and it protects everyone, including the couple. The reasoning is set out at length in unicorn hunting explained.

Finding people

• Daily match suggestions. A curated set delivered to every member each day, on every tier.
• Advanced search filters. City, distance, experience level and what someone is open to. Available to VIP members, and the feature most members say changes their experience the most.
• Browsing. Open to every member, including Classic, with no cap on how many profiles you can look at.
• Rewind. Revisit a profile you passed on, available from VIP.
• See who likes you. Available from VIP, which removes most of the guesswork.

Talking to people

Classic members can send a limited number of messages each day, and can always read and reply to messages from VIP and VIP+ members. That last part matters: a Classic member is never stuck unable to answer someone who wrote to them.

VIP removes the daily limit entirely and unlocks members-only chat rooms. VIP members can also create private group chats of up to 50 people, mixing paid and Classic members, which is genuinely useful for the parts of this community that organise around events and groups rather than one-to-one messaging.

Badges and ratings

Every member, on every tier, can earn badges through verification and activity: Verified, Chatterbox, Heartthrob and Most Popular. They signal that someone is real, present and worth writing to, and they cost nothing to earn.

Alongside them sits the member rating. Across the platform there are 10.7 million rated members with an average rating of 4.6 out of 5. That average is members rating each other rather than rating the site, which makes it a signal about who is here rather than a satisfaction score. Individual ratings appear on individual profiles, so you see someone's before you decide whether to message.

Membership tiers, briefly

Three tiers. Full detail and current prices are on the pricing page.

Where it runs

• Desktop web. The full experience in any browser, in every market.
• Mobile web. A progressive web app you can install to your home screen, in every market. It works offline and needs no app store account, which some members prefer for privacy reasons.
• iOS. A native iPhone and iPad app via the App Store, in selected markets.
• Android. A native app via Google Play, in selected markets.

The installable mobile web app is worth knowing about if discretion matters to you. It does not appear in an app store purchase history and it carries no store listing, which several of the country guides note is a live consideration for members in more conservative markets.

Verification, and why it is not compulsory

ID verification is available to every member at no cost and puts a badge on your profile confirming a real person is behind it. For members who want credibility without submitting identity documents, the team also runs a manual profile validation, which produces a badge without anything sensitive changing hands.

Neither is required. That is a deliberate choice: a substantial share of this community has genuine reasons for caution, whether professional, immigration-related or connected to an ongoing custody matter, and a hard verification requirement would exclude exactly the people the country guides describe as most careful. What verification does instead is give members who want to signal authenticity a way to do it, and give everyone else a signal to weigh.

The full picture of what protects members is on the safety page, which covers verification, privacy controls, moderation and reporting in detail.