Live since 2002, Silver Daddies is a home run website catering for older gay and younger older gay chats, webcam fun, hookups and dating.
Whilst the website very much has the look and feel of the early internet (that you can pay for your subscription by mailing cash kind of sums it up), it’s got a wide range of services, covering messaging, chatrooms, and even has its own mature focused porn website - SilverDaddies-Videos.com.
Interaction.
Perhaps in line with the mindset of the community, the main website is geared towards messaging and connection rather than just hook-ups. The mature gay dating scene being more niche and perhaps old-school breed, people are generally fairly engaged, pretty polite and usually responsive where not restricted by owning a free account.
The focus around email type messages means you tend to get longer penpal type conversations rather than the ‘hey/hey/hows u?/gd u/gd thx. Pics?’ messages on apps. Things do however naturally skew towards the more explicit and immediate as soon as you enter the generally active chatroom. ‘TX 4 now anyone?’
Part required, part in line with the underlying dating nature of the site, people usually have a decent amount of personal information in their profile. It does however lack HIV status and checked dates that other more modern services have recently introduced. However having built up a sizeable global user base of the years you get at least a reasonable search return when browsing profiles - particularly if you like men that are 60+. That said, the US (1st by a long way) and UK (2nd) definitely outperform on all other countries in terms of user volume. I’ll leave it up to you to decide on ‘quality’.
Outdated Ethos
Disappointingly, the ethos behind the site is perhaps one of slight inequality - as of Jan 2020 the homepage stating it’s for mature men, and younger ‘who are interested in keeping their daddy happy and/or sexually satisfied’. This slightly archaic viewpoint supported by the user generated xxx pic galleries of ‘Daddies’ and ‘Admirers’. I would note however most users are looking for relationship equality and not subservience from a younger partner in an age gap relationship. Like most gay dating environments though you do get the odd houseboy request!!
Paying
Perhaps in line with the mindset of the community, the main website is geared towards messaging and connection rather than just hookups. The mature gay dating scene being more niche and perhaps old-school breed, people are generally fairly engaged, pretty polite and usually responsive where not restricted by owning a free account.
This paywall does however lead many people to drive you towards their personal email or Whatsapp in their opening message they send. Alternatively it can prevent conversations happening freely and easily - unless you write an essay 2 messages doesn’t get you far.
You do get a variety of potentially useful benefits with a Premium account - see who’s browsed your profile, see when your faves are online, etc. Disappointingly the privilege to block irritating or harassing users is a privilege only for those paying as well, and not as you’d expect an option for everyone . The cost works out about $4-5 a month depending on your package (3 month to 1 year) so it’s not too dear. If you’re really into mature or older younger dating then it can be a small price to pay considering the difficulty of finding more mature connections that last beyond a few hours on other sites and services.
Silver Daddies Porn
For those wanting a quick fix of the more adult nature, they have their own older gay porn site - Silverdaddies-Videos.com - as well as links to a few other free and paid for older specific websites. These shall be covered at another time, but as a quick viewpoint, their owned videos are vetted to be exclusively covering mature men. They are generally short, amateur in nature, though also generally of a fairly poor quality. A star rating system can help sift through them a little though the search functionality is fairly basic and poor. Being free it’s hard to complain, however many much larger sites like Pornhub, RedTube, XHamsterGay etc have had the Mature and Daddy sections grow a lot over the last few years, so you may be better serviced there.
Conclusion
If you want to chat and engage with older men on a more personal level, Silver Daddies is a nice environment. Whilst it’s in desperate need of an update, you can end up forgiving the site due to the community feel that emanates from its users. It would be nice however to see the owner modernise their views on the older younger dynamic.
Whether chatting, looking at naughty pics, or trying to find a date, you can pass the time in a more varied way than just the endless scroll, refresh, repeat of Grindr, Scruff and the likes. Whilst you really need the Premium function to get the most out of Silver Daddies, at $5 a month it’s worth at least trying it if you like men in their 60s/70s (making up the largest portion of members).
The worldwide user base means there’s always someone to engage with, however also hinders the delivery of genuine local connections* and can leave you with lots of chats and no ‘results’.
Overall: A dated site (in numerous ways), however a nice community for lovers of a more mature man. Be warned though, you’ll likely end up with some nice penfriends rather than a relationship.
7/10
Love, The Age Gap Guys
*The most famous instance of a relationship developing into a marriage comes from rugby star Sam Stanley, who met his now Husband Lawrence Hicks on SilverDaddies.