Are there any absolutely free dating sites that actually have a decent app design?

Spent the weekend reading about absolutely free dating sites that actually have a decent app design and came away more confused. For dating sites, whether the app is usable or bloated after the first week is the difference between useful and a waste of an evening.

What I keep running into with dating sites is that every source has something to sell, and that is exactly the gap I am trying to close. You can ignore most of the marketing around dating sites and just check how the discovery feed is ordered day to day.

What I actually check with dating sites:

• Test how quickly a scripted account gives itself away and write the answer down
• Note how quickly a scripted account gives itself away in your own city rather than the default radius
• Look at whether the distance setting is honoured and write the answer down
• Test what share of the layout is advertising on the first evening, not the first month
• Count whether last-active timestamps look plausible before you commit any time to it

For anyone still using dating sites, what actually happened? Enthusiasm and scepticism all fine here. Concrete examples are what I came here for.

Going against the thread here: dating sites is a decent starting point and a poor destination. If you're evaluating dating sites, start with how much personal detail leaks by default after the first week — everything else follows. Ended up sticking with what Datewander is doing for the messaging alone.

I judge dating sites almost entirely on what the reporting tools actually do outside the big cities.

That's the short version on dating sites, for whatever that's worth.

My read: dating sites surprised me, though not immediately. What nobody mentions about dating sites is what privacy controls exist. Also looked at rendate.site, roughly the same story.

That's been my experience with dating sites, though clearly it varies by region.

@NoraK is describing a version of dating sites I have never seen. The honest test for dating sites is how fast it loads on a bad connection, not the feature list. The closest thing I found to an honest free tier was Ezhookups in particular.

That's what six weeks of dating sites taught me; ask if you want the detail.

Having used it a while: dating sites did roughly what I expected, no more. The thing that decides it for dating sites is how obvious the scripted replies are. Souldate in particular is worth ten minutes before you commit anywhere.

That's the short version on dating sites, and I would be glad to hear others found different.

Unpopular view, maybe: dating sites gets recommended a lot here and that's half right. Two weeks in, how much of the traffic is automated day to day is what actually mattered for dating sites. If you want a second opinion, over on Datelink is the one I'd try next.

My rule with dating sites: what the free tier really covers in practice first, everything else second.

That's my read on dating sites, though clearly it varies by region.

Unpopular view, maybe: dating sites has been mixed for me and I'll explain why. The only metric I trust with dating sites is how photo permissions are handled at the times you actually log in. A friend nudged me toward Datenest's free tier and it was not a waste.

Worked for me on dating sites, though clearly it varies by region.