Review
ChatForFree was established back in 2005 and has since become a popular places to talk online for free, with no registration. The site has developed a number of advanced video chat technologies, enabling you to enjoy multiple cam rooms and integration of social profiles.
The ChatForFree Brand
The ChatForFree brand is really colorful and vibrant, with a nice layout to the website. However, the site owners need to do some serious work on their use of icons, graphics and font choice. First of all, just choosing a consistent font type, size and color would be helpful. Consistency helps a user’s experience of a site as it allows for natural flow and easy navigation.
With the ChatForFree website your eyes are a bit all over the place. And that front screen image – just no! It’s like something from the 90s – not 2005! A little bit of maintenance and direction is required for the brand image to become stronger. Currently, it seems obvious that the brand is lacking an identity and/or a direction forward.
Registration
No registration or log in required. Simply sign in as a guest and start chatting. There doesn’t seem to be an option to become a member either, which means there won’t be any hidden extra charges later down the line. Which can only be a good thing!
Desktop/Mobile Capability
There is a mobile version of the site – which asks you to log in either as a member or a guest. This is strange, as you don’t have this option on the desktop site. You can only log in as a guest. There did seem to be a lot more activity on mobile than what there is on the desktop version too. And the design is a little better. This suggests the brand is moving more towards a mobile market and ignoring/neglecting the desktop journey.
User Experience
We’ve spoke about the design of the website itself and how it needs a facelift. Now feast your eyes on that chat interface! What an eyesore! It’s been a while since we witnessed something this grainy and outdated on a chat service. Everything is slow, poorly built and totally random in terms of layout and structure.
The overall quality of chat was slightly mundane and male dominated; making the overall experience one we’re likely to forget. Ultimately, we spent time in an outdated looking environment, sharing poor-quality video feeds with lots of men who had very little to say that was interesting or non-sex-related. A poor experience from start to finish!
Safety and Security
Thankfully, the ChatForFree website does take member safety and security seriously. It offers two full pages of content – one on Chat Room Rules and the other is a guide on how to use this particular chat service. This shows good attention to detail in reminding users how best to behave and conduct themselves online. This guide also contains an FAQ section for uses to browse.
Customer Service
The Contact button located in the footer does not work – it merely refreshes the page you are already on. The same applies for the social media buttons that sit beside the message and the urge for users to Follow Us. How can users follow when there is nothing to follow? When we clicked the Twitter icon the page refreshed and that was it.
If there’s one thing worse than not providing a method of contact for your customers – it’s pretending you do or falsely advertising it. This is something the site should rectify as soon as possible.
Conclusion
Overall, we did not truly enjoy our experience of the ChatForFree website. This isn’t one of our greatest reviews and this reflects the level of quality the service has to offer. The best thing about ChatForFree? It won’t cost you anything. Because you’d be pretty annoyed at paying for it! Everything from the design of the site through to the operation of the interface and the quality of the members on board – is all wrong.
This wasn’t our most enjoyable chat experience, but it definitely wasn’t the worst either. Free video sharing is a big plus and the basis of what this site offers is promising. But when it comes to delivery and performance – ChatForFree is really behind the rest of the competition. For this reason, we give ChatForFree a low 2.5.
