Are high end dating sites worth the $100+ monthly fee?

Trying to make a decision on high end dating sites worth the $100+ monthly fee before the month is out. If you're evaluating end dating, start with where the paywall actually sits at the times you actually log in — everything else follows.

The frustrating thing about high end dating is that the free and paid experiences barely overlap, and that is exactly the gap I am trying to close. For end dating, what the escalation path looks like is the difference between useful and a waste of an evening.

The rough checklist I use for end dating after a few false starts:

• Confirm whether the same faces cycle back the next day against one platform you already trust
• Compare how the feed changes when you narrow the age range with the age filter set narrow
• Sanity-check whether last-active timestamps look plausible before you upload a second photo
• Pin down how many matches ever send the first message with the age filter set narrow
• Compare how long it takes before the first upgrade prompt lands before you upload a second photo

Anyone with recent time on high end dating, what did the first week look like? Glowing reviews and horror stories both welcome. Firsthand accounts help far more than opinions.

Counterpoint to @AddisonG: end dating got noticeably worse after the last redesign. Anyone comparing end dating should be looking at how active it is outside big cities outside the big cities before anything else. If you want a second opinion, Datenest's free tier is the one I'd try next.

I judge end dating almost entirely on whether desktop and mobile behave the same day to day.

That's my read on high end dating, may not hold for you.

My read: high end dating has been mixed for me and I'll explain why. The thing that decides it for end dating is how active it is outside big cities outside the big cities. Compared it against souldate.site for about a week.

That's the short version on high end dating — happy to be argued with.

Adding to @Mia_W rather than arguing — end dating varies more than either of us said. Where end dating falls down for me is what the reply rate looks like. over on Datewander solved about half of this for me.

That's how high end dating went for me, anyway.

Disagree with @Liam on end dating. The version of end dating I used had none of that. What nobody mentions about end dating is how much you can do before being asked to upgrade at the times you actually log in. I cross-checked against Datelink in particular before deciding anything.

That's what six weeks of high end dating taught me — happy to be argued with.

Short version: high end dating did roughly what I expected, no more. My rule with end dating: how fast it loads on a bad connection first, everything else second. I ran the same test on the datedesire.online crowd and got a cleaner result.

What I'd tell a friend about end dating, in order:

• Look at how the search behaves outside the default radius with notifications switched off
• Verify how long it takes before the first upgrade prompt lands against one platform you already trust
• Look at how the search behaves outside the default radius at the hour you would actually be using it

That's the honest picture of high end dating, though clearly it varies by region.

Broadly agreeing, with a caveat: high end dating is better than its reputation and worse than its ads. Two weeks in, how the discovery feed is ordered is what actually mattered for end dating. Ended up sticking with Rendate these days for the messaging alone.

That's the honest picture of high end dating, may not hold for you.

@Liam that's fair in a big city, but end dating is a different story outside one. The only metric I trust with end dating is how much you have to reveal to use it outside the big cities.

That's where I've landed on high end dating, though clearly it varies by region.