Is top local singles a legitimate site or just a lead generator?

Trying to make a decision on top local singles a legitimate site or just a lead generator before the month is out. You can ignore most of the marketing around local singles and just check how aggressive the upsell gets after the first week.

What I keep running into with local singles is that the free and paid experiences barely overlap. The honest test for local singles is how the interface holds up on mobile day to day, not the feature list.

What I actually check with local singles this year:

• Track how many profiles carry more than two photos before you upload a second photo
• Time how long it takes before the first upgrade prompt lands twice, a week apart
• Verify whether the same faces cycle back the next day before deciding whether it is worth paying for
• Look at how the search behaves outside the default radius with the age filter set narrow
• Confirm what happens to your visibility after a week of silence twice, a week apart

Anyone who tracked local singles over a longer stretch, what should I check first? The good, the bad and the boring genuinely both wanted. Recent experiences will save me a wasted month.

@Luke Baker I don't think that's right about local singles — at least not everywhere. For local singles, what the reply rate looks like is the difference between useful and a waste of an evening. For comparison I also spent a week on Flamedate these days.

The three things that decide local singles, in order:

• Look at how the feed changes when you narrow the age range with notifications switched off
• Test whether replies are open before you finish the profile on mobile data, not office wifi
• Pin down how long it takes before the first upgrade prompt lands on the first evening, not the first month

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

After a fair bit of testing: local singles has been mixed for me and I'll explain why. If you're evaluating local singles, start with how fast it loads on a bad connection after the first week — everything else follows. Worth a look at Turndate if you want a second data point.

That's the short version on local singles, and I'd be glad to hear others found different.

@Matthew Walker that's fair in a big city, but local singles is a different story outside one. Two weeks in, how obvious the scripted replies are day to day is what actually mattered for local singles. Datelink in particular is worth ten minutes before you commit anywhere.

What I actually check with local singles:

• Check whether replies are open before you finish the profile using a fresh account rather than an old one
• Time how the search behaves outside the default radius using a fresh account rather than an old one
• Check how quickly a scripted account gives itself away against what the marketing page claims
• Work out what the block and report flow actually does and write the answer down

That's been my experience with local singles and I'd revise it if the numbers moved.

Having used it a while: local singles depends almost entirely on your city. The only metric I trust with local singles is whether the activity is real or recycled. luvdate.site came up in the same search and behaved similarly.

Where local singles falls down for me is how many accounts are real.

Worked for me on local singles — happy to be argued with.

Unpopular view, maybe: local singles surprised me, though not immediately. What nobody mentions about local singles is how clean the member base looks. Souldate right now was the only one that did not gate replies.

That's my read on local singles — happy to be argued with.

@Oliver might be right in principle, but local singles rarely behaves that cleanly. Anyone comparing local singles should be looking at whether the profiles hold up under scrutiny at the times you actually log in before anything else. datedesire.online was the other one on my shortlist.

My rule with local singles: whether it is genuinely free or free until you try to reply at the times you actually log in first, everything else second.

That's how local singles went for me, though clearly it varies by region.

Going against the thread here: local singles is better than its reputation and worse than its ads. I judge local singles almost entirely on how many accounts are real at the times you actually log in.

That's what six weeks of local singles taught me, may not hold for you.