In Brief
- Squirt.org has mapped real-world gay cruising spots since 1999 — parks, saunas, and public venues — with user-submitted comments and activity reports covering the whole UK.
- The official SQ Dating app launched in January 2026 on Android in the UK and Canada; the full website remains the uncensored, full-featured experience.
- Core features — including the entire cruising listings directory — are completely free; paid membership adds full-size photos, expanded video, and enhanced filters.
- The platform has a mixed reputation: the cruising data is genuinely useful, but bot accounts, scams, and inconsistent moderation are well-documented problems.
- Public toilet listings overlap with “cottaging” — a criminal offence under UK law; gay saunas are a significantly safer indoor alternative.
See also: Gay Dating Apps in the UK: The Honest Guide
What Squirt.org Actually Is
Squirt.org is a hookup and cruising site for gay, bi, and curious men, launched in 1999 by Canadian publisher Pink Triangle Press — making it one of the oldest platforms of its kind still running.
To put that in context, it predates Grindr by a full decade. While most of the apps blokes use today were built around swiping, grid browsing, and profile photos, Squirt was built around something older and more specific: cruising culture.
The site describes itself as a place where men meet other men for sex, cruising, hookups, dating, and friendship. It’s available worldwide, operates in multiple languages, and has a solid UK user base — though it’s headquartered in Toronto. Pink Triangle Press also publishes Xtra, one of Canada’s longest-running LGBTQ+ news outlets.
What makes Squirt different from most hookup sites is its core feature: a massive, user-generated database of real-world cruising locations.
Parks, public toilets, beaches, rest stops, gyms, gay saunas — all submitted by users, with comments, tips, and activity reports attached. Think of it less like Grindr and more like a crowd-sourced field guide to where men are actually meeting up in the physical world.
The site also has standard hookup features — profiles, private messaging, chat rooms, video chat, and a “buddy list” for saving contacts. But the cruising listings are what people keep coming back for, and it’s what makes Squirt genuinely distinct in a market that’s otherwise saturated with proximity grids.
How Squirt Compares to Grindr, Sniffies, FabGuys, and Other Alternatives
The main thing that sets Squirt apart from apps like Grindr, Scruff, or Recon is that it maps places as well as people. Most gay hookup apps show you a grid of nearby profiles sorted by distance. Squirt does that too, but its real draw is the cruising listings.
Grindr, Scruff, Hornet, and Recon are all profile-first apps. You browse faces (or torsos), filter by preferences, and message someone nearby. They’re excellent for what they do, but they don’t tell you anything about the venues or locations where men actually meet in person.
Sniffies is Squirt’s closest competitor. It’s also map-based and focused on cruising and real-time hookups. The key difference is history: Squirt has over 25 years of accumulated location data, user comments, and activity reports. Sniffies has a cleaner, more modern interface — but its cruising spot database is thinner, particularly outside major cities.
FabGuys occupies a similar lane in the UK. It’s a site aimed at gay and bi men looking for casual meets, with official native apps on both iOS and Android. It’s UK-focused and straightforward. The difference is that FabGuys is purely a people-finding platform — it doesn’t have Squirt’s location database or cruising listings.
The short version: if you want a profile grid to browse nearby men, Grindr, Scruff, Recon, and FabGuys all do that well. If you want a map of where men are actually meeting in the real world, Squirt and Sniffies are your options — and Squirt has the deeper archive.
How the Cruising Listings Work
Squirt’s cruising listings are crowd-sourced — members submit locations, and other members add comments, tips, and warnings over time. The result is a living database that’s part directory, part review site, part early-warning system.
Each listing includes the location name, a description, directions, the type of venue (park, beach, gym, public toilet, bathhouse, glory hole, and more), what kind of crowd typically shows up, and when it’s busiest. You can filter by venue type and search by city or keyword.
The comment sections are where the real value sits. Users post recent activity reports — who was there, how busy it was, whether it’s still active. They also flag safety concerns: police presence, security cameras, aggressive individuals, venue closures. Some listings have years of accumulated commentary.
There’s also a “Recent Replies” feature that shows currently active listings within 50 kilometres of your location, sorted by the most recent comments. This gives you a quick sense of where the action is right now.
Anyone can submit a new listing, but it goes through moderation before being published. Comments are more loosely managed — they’re user-policed to some extent, and the quality and accuracy varies.
One UK-specific note: public toilet listings relate to what’s known in Britain as “cottaging” — sexual activity in public lavatories. This carries genuine legal risk under UK public indecency laws. More on that in the safety section below.
How to Access Squirt — Website, Mobile, and the New SQ Dating App
For most of its 25-plus-year history, Squirt was browser-only. That changed in January 2026, when Pink Triangle Press launched a proper mobile app.
The Squirt.org website remains the full-featured experience. It’s accessible on any browser, and because it’s not governed by app store content guidelines, it allows uncensored profiles, photos, and video content.
The SQ Dating app launched in January 2026 in the UK and Canada, with a US rollout in February 2026. It’s available on Android via Google Play under “SQ Dating – Gay Chat & Meet,” published by Pink Triangle Press. It connects directly to the existing Squirt.org user base. The app is less explicit than the website to meet app store guidelines, but gives you profile browsing, chat, and the same community.
A word of caution: there are apps that use “Squirt” in their name on various app stores but aren’t the real thing. The official app is published by Pink Triangle Press and branded “SQ Dating.” Check the developer name before you download.
At the time of writing, there’s no confirmed iOS version. If you’re on iPhone, the mobile website through Safari remains your best option.
To sign up: Registration is free — you’ll need a valid email address and a username. You can browse cruising listings without signing up, but you’ll need an account to message other users or post comments.
What’s Free and What You Pay For
You can use Squirt’s core features without paying — and the most valuable feature of all, the cruising listings, is entirely free.
The free tier gives you: profile creation, browsing other profiles, sending and receiving messages, searching and reading all cruising listings and their comments, posting comments on listings, and access to chat rooms.
The paid membership adds: full-size profile photos, expanded video library access, enhanced search filters, priority visibility, and fewer advertisements. Subscription pricing varies and the site regularly offers promotional rates.
The cruising listings — the feature that actually makes Squirt different — are completely free to browse, search, comment on, and submit to. If you’re primarily interested in the cruising directory, you don’t need to spend anything.
Safety, Privacy, and the Scam Problem
Squirt’s reputation is genuinely mixed — the cruising data is useful and unique, but the platform has well-documented issues. Whether Squirt is legitimate depends largely on what you’re using it for: the cruising listings are genuinely useful, but the social and hookup side has real problems.
Review sites paint a rough picture. Trustpilot and similar platforms report very low average scores — around 1 to 1.5 out of 5 — with frequent complaints about bots, scams, and customer support. The most consistent issues: bot and scam accounts sending automated messages, poor support response times, interface redesigns that long-term users dislike, and inconsistent moderation.
Bots and scam accounts are a known, long-running problem. Standard advice applies: never click links sent through Squirt messages, don’t share personal information until you’ve verified someone is genuine, and be sceptical of profiles that seem too polished or too eager.
Privacy has some advantages. Unlike some apps that foreground highly precise distance readouts, Squirt is primarily built around locations and listings rather than pinpointing exactly where you are.
Account management is limited. Squirt allows you to hide your profile, but a full, permanent account deletion may require contacting customer support directly.
Real-world safety at cruising spots depends entirely on the location. The user-submitted comments and warnings on each listing are your best source of current information. Read them. If multiple recent comments mention police activity, security cameras, or safety concerns, take that seriously.
Cottaging and UK law. Squirt lists public toilets as cruising locations. In the UK this overlaps with “cottaging” — a criminal offence under section 71 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003. People have been arrested, cautioned, and prosecuted. Indoor venues like gay saunas are a significantly safer option from a legal standpoint — they’re licensed, private premises where consenting adults can do as they please.
Sexual health. Regular STI testing is essential if you’re meeting people for casual sex. PrEP is available free on the NHS. For full details on testing, PrEP access, and where to find your nearest clinic, see our UK sexual health and support resources guide.
Squirt and UK Gay Saunas — How They Overlap
UK gay saunas show up in Squirt’s cruising listings under the “bathhouse” category, and some men use the platform to arrange sauna meets with someone they’ve chatted to online first. It’s a natural overlap — saunas are physical venues where men meet, and Squirt is built around mapping exactly those kinds of locations.
Some discover a sauna through the cruising listings and decide to visit independently. Others use the platform to chat with someone first and then agree to meet at a specific sauna. And some simply read the comments on a sauna’s listing to get a sense of the crowd and busy times before deciding whether it’s worth a trip.
The limitation is that Squirt’s sauna listings are user-generated and inconsistently maintained. For structured, reliable venue information — entry prices, facilities, opening hours — use the gaysaunas.co.uk live locator or browse the full UK gay sauna directory.
If you’re discovering saunas for the first time through Squirt, our guide to preparing for your first gay sauna visit walks through everything from what to bring to what actually happens when you get there.
Where to Find Each Platform
| Platform | Where to Go | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Squirt.org | squirt.org | Full-featured website, uncensored content |
| SQ Dating | Google Play / sqdating.com | Official app by Pink Triangle Press (Android) |
| Sniffies | sniffies.com | Map-based cruising, browser-only |
| Grindr | App Store / Google Play | Largest UK user base |
| FabGuys | fabguys.com / App Store / Google Play | Free, UK-focused casual meets |
| Gay saunas | gaysaunas.co.uk/near-you/ | ~40 venues across the UK |
Sources & References
NHS Sexual Health Services — nhs.uk/service-search/sexual-health. NHS PrEP Information — nhs.uk/medicines/pre-exposure-prophylaxis-prep. Terrence Higgins Trust — tht.org.uk. Sexual Offences Act 2003, Section 71 — legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2003/42/section/71.
This guide is part of the gaysaunas.co.uk Core Guides series — the UK’s dedicated gay sauna directory and guides hub. For information on preparing for a visit, see our first-timer’s preparation guide. For guidance on consent, see our etiquette and consent guide.