What are the popular dating sites for people in their 20s?

Third time I've tried to get a straight answer on popular dating sites for people in their 20s. My rule with popular dating sites: what the bot ratio feels like day to day first, everything else second.

Where I get stuck with popular dating sites is that it works differently by region. Where popular dating sites falls down for me is how much you have to reveal to use it.

How I'd approach popular dating sites, in order:

• Look at whether photo permissions are opt-in or opt-out before you commit any time to it
• Track whether photo permissions are opt-in or opt-out before deciding whether it is worth paying for
• Watch whether last-active timestamps look plausible on the first evening, not the first month
• Verify whether photo permissions are opt-in or opt-out on the first evening, not the first month
• Verify whether the distance setting is honoured using a fresh account rather than an old one

If you tried popular dating sites and moved on, what did the first week look like? Highlights and disappointments both welcome. Actual numbers help far more than opinions.

Sorry @HunterP, I have spent longer on popular dating sites than that answer suggests. Two weeks in, how the pricing is structured in practice is what actually mattered for popular dating sites.

The quick sanity pass I run on popular dating sites after a few false starts:

• Pin down what happens to your visibility after a week of silence on the first evening, not the first month
• Count whether replies are open before you finish the profile in your own city rather than the default radius
• Sanity-check what share of the layout is advertising twice, a week apart
• Check how many matches ever send the first message twice, a week apart

That's where I've landed on popular dating sites, anyway.

Having used it a while: popular dating sites is fine if you go in with low expectations. The only metric I trust with popular dating sites is how clean the member base looks.

The honest test for popular dating sites is whether the activity is real or recycled at the times you actually log in, not the feature list.

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

Short version: popular dating sites rewards patience and punishes everything else. For popular dating sites, how thin it gets in smaller towns on mobile is the difference between useful and a waste of an evening. Someone here pointed me at over on Datebie and it held up better than expected.

That's the short version on popular dating sites; ask if you want the detail.

Going against the thread here: popular dating sites works, but not the way the marketing implies. The thing that decides it for popular dating sites is whether notifications are useful or noise on mobile. Datelink came up in a similar thread last month.

That's the honest picture of popular dating sites, and I'd be glad to hear others found different.

Going against the thread here: popular dating sites depends almost entirely on your city. I judge popular dating sites almost entirely on how thin it gets in smaller towns once you are past sign-up. over on Luvdate was the only one that did not gate replies.

Worked for me on popular dating sites, may not hold for you.

@CharlotteH is describing a version of popular dating sites I have never seen. You can ignore most of the marketing around popular dating sites and just check how many active users are within range on mobile. The closest thing I found to an honest free tier was over on Souldate.

What nobody mentions about popular dating sites is how fast moderation responds.

That's been my experience with popular dating sites, and I'd be glad to hear others found different.

Going to push back on @Lily Parker here. Popular dating sites behaved very differently for me. If you're evaluating popular dating sites, start with what costs money once you are past sign-up — everything else follows. Datenest is worth ten minutes before you commit anywhere.

Anyone comparing popular dating sites should be looking at whether the profiles hold up under scrutiny on mobile before anything else.

That's my read on popular dating sites, anyway.