Not long after the earliest online dating services, including Match.com and eHarmony, launched, sugar baby websites took the concept and turned it on its head. The predominating question on these sites, where wealthy, older men are paired with young, beautiful women is this: Why deal with the unknowns of a traditional relationship when you could enter into an arrangement with fixed terms?
Though most sugar baby and sugar daddy websites resemble traditional dating sites with their portrayals of beautiful singles and testimonials touting their success in finding a partner, the language used is different. On almost every sugar baby and sugar daddy website the words "pamper" and "spoil" are everywhere, emphasizing the transactional nature of the relationship. Man gets a beautiful woman to spend time with, woman gets her bills paid. Many sites call these pairings "dating with benefits," though the question of whether this is sex work looms large.
While the price of joining the sites isn't always clear without setting up an account, most offer free membership for babies and charge a fee for daddies.
Refinery29 has profiled the financial situations of sugar babies. Here's a look at some of the sites where sugar baby-sugar daddy arrangements are formed.
Seeking Arrangement
Available on desktop and as an app, Seeking Arrangement is an OG sugar baby-sugar daddy meeting place. According to the site, which is celebrating its 10-year anniversary, most of its 10 million active users find "an arrangement" within five days of signing up. For sugar babies, the site lists financial stability, mentorship, and pampering among the perks of entering into an arrangement. Unlike some other sites, Seeking Arrangement also allows sugar mamas to create profiles.
Those who get verified via background checks on the site are promised increased profile views.
Sugar Daddy Meet
Sugar Daddy Meet is limited to straight sugar baby-sugar daddy relationships. The site notes that those looking for a "sugar mama or gay sugar daddy relationships" should go elsewhere. The majority of its users are sugar babies, while only a quarter are sugar daddies.
Who are these sugar daddies and babies? According to Sugar Daddy Meet, its users are, "Rich and successful men and young and attractive women, such as doctors, lawyers, other professionals, financiers, benefactors along with beautiful, intelligent and classy college students, aspiring actresses, and models."
Whereas most sugar baby-sugar daddy sites require prospective members to create an account before seeing other members, Sugardaddie.com offers views of the 100 most recent users to join. You'll see the age, photo, city, and a brief line about what each person — both men and women — are looking to get out of the relationship.
Arrangement
Arrangement is quick to call out the differences between the relationships facilitated through the site and traditional arrangements, including terms that are "agreed upon upfront" versus "discovered along the way." However, unlike other sugar baby-sugar daddy sites, there are no testimonials on Arrangement to tout member successes through the site.
SugarDaddyForMe
SugarDaddyForMe, the site claims to be the "world's largest sugar daddy dating site." Though it looks far less polished than the other sites in its category, it has the same testimonials, photos of beautiful women, and mentions of pampering and spoiling that you'll see elsewhere. A gold membership, which is like the pro version of a dating app, offers highlighted profiles and weekly matches for a cost of $39.90 per month.
Find Rich Guys
Find Rich Guys tells it like it is. Compared to other sites, this one is completely free for both sugar babies and sugar daddies. Like SugarDaddyForMe, Find Rich Guys is covered with ads and doesn't appear as polished as Seeking Arrangement or Sugar Daddy Meet, but it does note that it offers more privacy for members by not requiring them to upload a photo of their face.
Let's Talk Sugar
Let's Talk Sugar isn't a place to meet Sugar Daddies, but it is a place for those living the "Sugaring" lifestyle to connect with fellow "Sugar sisters". The community offers on-site editorial advice and a message board-style Sugar Support Forum, in addition to hosting in-person events for its female members to meet and mingle.
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