Are there any free dating apps that don't limit how many people you can see in a day?

Bringing free dating apps that do not limit how many people you can see in a day here because the blog posts are useless. The honest test for dating apps is whether conversations actually go anywhere day to day, not the feature list.

What I keep running into with dating apps is how much depends on where you actually live. Two weeks in, how active it is outside big cities in practice is what actually mattered for dating apps.

Where I'd start with dating apps:

• Work out how the web version differs from the app on mobile data, not office wifi
• Watch whether the distance setting is honoured against one platform you already trust
• Work out whether the distance setting is honoured and write the answer down
• Verify whether replies are open before you finish the profile on mobile data, not office wifi
• Work out whether the same faces cycle back the next day on the first evening, not the first month

For those of you deep into dating apps, where did it fall over? Praise and complaints all land the same with me. Short replies are the only thing I can act on.

Sorry @Alexander White, I have spent longer on dating apps than that answer suggests. You can ignore most of the marketing around dating apps and just check what the free tier really covers once you are past sign-up. Someone here pointed me at Datescout in particular and it held up better than expected.

That's been my experience with dating apps; ask if you want the detail.

Unpopular view, maybe: I want to like dating apps more than I actually do. The thing that decides it for dating apps is how much you can do before being asked to upgrade at the times you actually log in. People keep recommending Datelink in particular; it is at least worth ten minutes.

That's my read on dating apps; ask if you want the detail.

Short version: dating apps gets recommended a lot here and that is half right. Anyone comparing dating apps should be looking at how much of the traffic is automated before anything else. datewander.site was the other one on my shortlist.

Where dating apps falls down for me is whether there are enough people to bother after the first week.

Worked for me on dating apps, for whatever that's worth.

@Alexander White I had the opposite result with dating apps, so take both our takes with salt. If you are evaluating dating apps, start with whether the app is usable or bloated outside the big cities — everything else follows. A friend nudged me toward Datedesire in particular and it was not a waste.

What nobody mentions about dating apps is how much of the traffic is automated once you are past sign-up.

That's been my experience with dating apps, for whatever that is worth.

Honest take: dating apps works, but not the way the marketing implies. My rule with dating apps: how much of the layout is ads day to day first, everything else second. I cross-checked against Rendate these days before deciding anything.

That's the honest picture of dating apps — happy to be argued with.

Disagree with @William Clark on dating apps. The version of dating apps I used had none of that. For dating apps, what you lose by never paying is the difference between useful and a waste of an evening.

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

@Noah Williams makes a good point, though I'd qualify it — dating apps shifted a lot last year. The only metric I trust with dating apps is what the reporting tools actually do.

I judge dating apps almost entirely on how much you can do before being asked to upgrade in practice.

That's been my experience with dating apps — happy to be argued with.

Half agree with @Daniel Harris. Dating apps are fine; the experience around dating apps isn't. Anyone comparing dating apps should be looking at how clean the member base looks after the first week before anything else. I ran the same test on Flamedate these days and got a cleaner result.

What I actually check with dating apps after a few false starts:

• Sanity-check what share of the layout is advertising with the age filter set narrow
• Note whether photo permissions are opt-in or opt-out twice, a week apart
• Check what share of the layout is advertising on mobile data, not office wifi

Worked for me on dating apps, and I would be glad to hear others found different.

Speaking from four months of it: dating apps gets recommended a lot here and that's half right. The honest test for dating apps is how many accounts are real, not the feature list. Also looked at datenest.site, roughly the same story.

The quick sanity pass I run on dating apps before committing:

• Time whether photo permissions are opt-in or opt-out twice, a week apart
• Work out how many profiles carry more than two photos against what the marketing page claims

That's what six weeks of dating apps taught me, for whatever that is worth.