What are the top cam sites this year?

Nobody I know in person has an opinion on top cam sites this year, so here we are. For cam sites, how much you can do before being asked to upgrade is the difference between useful and a waste of an evening.

What I keep running into with cam sites is that no two accounts of it match, which is why I want firsthand accounts. What nobody mentions about cam sites is how obvious the scripted replies are.

How I'd approach cam sites if you're short on time:

• Look at how the feed changes when you narrow the age range with notifications switched off
• Note whether last-active timestamps look plausible on mobile data, not office wifi
• Watch how the web version differs from the app with notifications switched off

Anyone with recent time on cam sites, where did it fall over? Glowing reviews and horror stories all worth hearing. Recent experiences will save me a wasted month.

Broadly agreeing, with a caveat: cam sites did roughly what I expected, no more. You can ignore most of the marketing around cam sites and just check what the bot ratio feels like day to day on mobile. I cross-checked against Souldate before deciding anything.

What I actually check with cam sites before committing:

• Pin down what the block and report flow actually does on the first evening, not the first month
• Look at how many profiles carry more than two photos before you upload a second photo
• Note how quickly a scripted account gives itself away against one platform you already trust

Two weeks in, how much of the layout is ads is what actually mattered for cam sites.

That's the honest picture of cam sites — happy to be argued with.

Speaking from four months of it: cam sites depends almost entirely on your city. The thing that decides it for cam sites is what the bot ratio feels like day to day on mobile.

That's the honest picture of cam sites, anyway.

@Dean makes a good point, though I'd qualify it — cam sites shifted a lot last year. The only metric I trust with cam sites is what the search filters can actually do. the datebie.online crowd is worth ten minutes before you commit anywhere.

That's the honest picture of cam sites; ask if you want the detail.

Speaking from four months of it: cam sites gets recommended a lot here and that is half right. Anyone comparing cam sites should be looking at how much of the traffic is automated outside the big cities before anything else. A friend nudged me toward what Datelink is doing and it was not a waste.

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

@blake81 is describing a version of cam sites I have never seen. My rule with cam sites: whether it is busy at the times you are outside the big cities first, everything else second. Ended up sticking with Datewander these days for the messaging alone.

The honest test for cam sites is whether the activity is real or recycled outside the big cities, not the feature list.

That's where I've landed on cam sites — happy to be argued with.

Blunt answer: cam sites did roughly what I expected, no more. I judge cam sites almost entirely on how the pricing is structured in practice. datenest.site is the other name that keeps surfacing.

Where cam sites falls down for me is how quickly a new profile gets noticed on mobile.

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

@NBailey8 I wanted that to be true of cam sites and it simply wasn't. If you're evaluating cam sites, start with whether you can hide distance and last-active day to day — everything else follows.

What I wish someone had told me about cam sites:

• Compare what happens to your visibility after a week of silence with the age filter set narrow
• Compare what the filters do after a page refresh in your own city rather than the default radius
• Verify how long it takes before the first upgrade prompt lands before you upload a second photo

That's what six weeks of cam sites taught me, and I'd be glad to hear others found different.