Terms of Service

Agreement to these terms

By using The Casual Index you agree to these terms. If you do not agree with them, please stop using the site — nothing here is important enough to argue about.

These terms cover the website and its editorial content only. The dating platforms we review are separate businesses with their own terms, which you accept when you sign up with them.

Who may use this site

This site is intended for adults aged 18 or over. Every platform we rank requires the same. By using the site you confirm that you meet that age requirement and that you are not barred from using such services under the laws that apply to you.

Editorial content and opinion

Reviews, scores and rankings are our editorial opinion, formed by using the platforms ourselves and applying the four weighted criteria published on our standards page. They are not statements of objective fact about any company, and they describe the platforms as they were at the time of testing.

Platforms change constantly: free tiers shrink, features appear and disappear, prices move, ownership changes. A review that was accurate last month may not be accurate today. We update as often as we can, but we cannot guarantee that every detail is current at the moment you read it.

Where we cannot verify a claim — member numbers, for example — we say so rather than presenting an estimate as a fact.

Affiliate relationships

We earn a commission when readers join some of the platforms we review, Flirtup included. That is disclosed on every page where such links appear and repeated in the footer of this site.

The commercial relationship does not buy a score, a rank, a placement or the removal of a criticism. Ranking order is set from our testing notes before commercial terms are discussed, and a platform that pays us nothing can still outrank one that does.

Acceptable use

You are welcome to read, quote and link to this site. You may not:

• —copy substantial portions of our reviews or guides and republish them as your own, with or without attribution, for commercial purposes;
• —scrape the site at a rate that degrades it for other readers, or attempt to access parts of it that are not public;
• —use our name, branding or scores in a way that implies an endorsement, a partnership or a certification we have not given;
• —submit false corrections, impersonate a platform, or send abusive or unlawful material through our contact channels.

Short quotations with a link back are always fine, and we appreciate them.

Third-party platforms

We link to platforms we do not own or operate. We do not control what they do with your data, how their moderation works, what they charge, or whether the person you match with is honest about who they are. Any dispute with a platform — billing, a ban, harassment, a data request — is between you and that platform.

We may share a safety report with a platform, but we cannot act on your behalf inside it and we cannot compel it to respond. If you are dealing with harassment or a crime, contact the platform and your local authorities, not us.

Our content

The text, scoring tables, guides and design of this site belong to The Casual Index and are protected by copyright. Third-party names and logos — including those of the platforms reviewed — remain the property of their owners and are used to identify the platforms being discussed.

Photography on the site is either licensed to us or generated for our use and is not available for reuse without written permission.

No professional advice

Our guidance on safety, messaging and privacy is practical editorial advice based on experience. It is not legal, medical, psychological or security advice, and it cannot account for your circumstances. If you are in danger, contact emergency services; if you are dealing with abuse, contact the platform and a specialist support service.

Disclaimers

The site is provided "as is" and "as available". We work to keep it accurate and online, but we do not warrant that it will be uninterrupted, error-free, or that any particular platform will deliver the experience we describe. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we disclaim implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement.

Nothing in these terms excludes liability that cannot lawfully be excluded, including for fraud or for death or personal injury caused by negligence.

Limitation of liability

To the extent permitted by law, The Casual Index is not liable for indirect or consequential losses, or for loss of data, income, opportunity or reputation, arising from your use of this site or from any interaction with a platform you reached through it. Where liability cannot be excluded, it is limited to the amount you paid us to use the site — which is nothing, because the site is free to read.

Indemnity

If you use this site in breach of these terms and that causes a claim against us, you agree to cover the reasonable cost of defending it.

Changes to these terms

We may revise these terms as the site develops — for example if we add new features or new commercial relationships. The version in force is the one published here, with its date at the top. Continuing to use the site after a change means you accept the revised terms.

Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws applicable at our place of establishment, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. If you are a consumer resident elsewhere, this does not remove the protection of mandatory consumer law in your own country.

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