Most people who visit your site will never buy a monthly subscription. Not because they are not interested — because a recurring payment feels like a decision, and they are not ready to make one about strangers on the internet.

The same person will happily spend five dollars on coins to write to someone attractive right now.

Virtual currency replaces the commitment with small purchases. Members top up a balance with real money, get your coins at a rate you set, and spend them on everything you sell.

The decision gets smaller. Thirty dollars a month is a commitment. Five dollars once is an impulse. You are not competing with the member's budget, you are competing with their hesitation.

Coins stop feeling like money. Once real currency becomes points on a balance, people spend more freely. The same effect that makes tokens work in arcades and chips work in casinos.

Purchases repeat. A subscription is one payment a month. Coins run out in the middle of an interesting conversation, and that is the best possible moment to sell more.

Spending stays under the member's control. They decide what to spend on: a message, a boost, a gift. People pay more willingly when they choose where the money goes.

You set two things: how much a pack of coins costs, and what each action costs in coins.

A typical setup looks like this:

This is what it looks like to your member:

And this is the admin side, where you set the rate and the packs:

Make the smallest pack genuinely small. Five dollars, not fifteen. The first purchase is the hard one — every one after it is easier. Your goal with the small pack is not revenue, it is turning a non-paying member into a paying one.

Make bigger packs better value. 50 coins for $5 and 200 for $15 means the larger pack gives a third more per dollar. People notice, and larger packs mean fewer payment steps and less chance to change their mind.

Do not let one message cost a whole pack. If the smallest pack buys ten messages, the member feels they have room to move. If it buys two, they start counting, and counting is the opposite of what you want.

Keep the exchange rate simple. Ten coins to a dollar is easy to hold in your head. Seven coins for ninety cents is not, and confusion costs sales.

You do not have to choose. The two work together, and each catches people the other misses.

Members who use the site constantly are better off with a membership, and they know it. Members who drop in occasionally will never subscribe but will buy coins. Offering both means neither group leaves without paying you something.

Coins also give you a way to pay members without spending money. A bonus for inviting a friend or completing a profile can be paid in site currency — it costs you nothing real, and it comes back when they spend it. See invites and referrals.

Anything you sell on the site:

Virtual currency needs working payments — members top up with real money before they can spend coins. See accepting payments.

It works across all channels: website, mobile apps and messenger bots.

Availability in your plan and the current price: see the pricing page and the add-on card.

Can I drop subscriptions completely and sell only coins?
Yes. The system works on its own. Whether you should is a different question — see the section above on using both.

Can members earn coins instead of buying them?
Yes. Daily login rewards, profile completion bonuses, invites. Useful for getting people into the habit of having a balance, which makes the first real purchase easier.

Can members cash coins out?
No. Coins go one way: real money in, site currency out. This matters legally — a currency people can cash out starts to look like something regulators take an interest in.

What happens to unspent coins?
They stay on the balance. You can set them to expire, though on a dating site that usually costs you more in goodwill than it saves.

Which payment systems work with this?
All the ones the platform supports — see payments on your dating site.