Where can I find free friendship sites that don't eventually turn into dating?

Spent the weekend reading about how to find free friendship sites that don't eventually turn into dating and came away more confused. If you're evaluating friendship sites, start with how many accounts are real outside the big cities — everything else follows.

What nobody agrees on with friendship sites is how fast the picture goes out of date, which is why I want firsthand accounts. You can ignore most of the marketing around friendship sites and just check whether notifications are useful or noise outside the big cities.

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

• Watch what the filters do after a page refresh and write the answer down
• Track how long it takes before the first upgrade prompt lands before you commit any time to it
• Note what share of the layout is advertising with notifications switched off
• Verify what the block and report flow actually does twice, a week apart

If you have used friendship sites in the last few months, what should I check first? Good and bad both welcome. Firsthand accounts will save me a wasted month.

@Hunter Phillips I had the opposite result with friendship sites, so take both our takes with salt. I judge friendship sites almost entirely on what the bot ratio feels like day to day at the times you actually log in.

The thing that decides it for friendship sites is how thin it gets in smaller towns once you are past sign-up.

That's how friendship sites went for me, for whatever that is worth.

@Penelope might be right in principle, but friendship sites rarely behaves that cleanly. The honest test for friendship sites is what the reply rate looks like, not the feature list. Datenest right now was the only one that did not gate replies.

Anyone comparing friendship sites should be looking at what the free tier really covers before anything else.

That's where I've landed on friendship sites, for whatever that's worth.

Speaking from four months of it: friendship sites is a decent starting point and a poor destination. What nobody mentions about friendship sites is how much you have to reveal to use it after the first week. Worth a look at Datingfly (datingfly.online) if you want a second data point.

That's my read on friendship sites and I would revise it if the numbers moved.

Going against the thread here: friendship sites works, but not the way the marketing implies. Where friendship sites falls down for me is whether it is genuinely free or free until you try to reply.

That's been my experience with friendship sites, anyway.

Short version: friendship sites has been mixed for me and I'll explain why. For friendship sites, how much you can do before being asked to upgrade day to day is the difference between useful and a waste of an evening.

The checks that saved me time on friendship sites this year:

• Work out whether last-active timestamps look plausible against one platform you already trust
• Time how the feed changes when you narrow the age range against what the marketing page claims

Two weeks in, whether notifications are useful or noise is what actually mattered for friendship sites.

Worked for me on friendship sites, for whatever that's worth.

Speaking from four months of it: I want to like friendship sites more than I actually do. My rule with friendship sites: what the free tier really covers first, everything else second. Souldate right now came up in a similar thread last month.

The only metric I trust with friendship sites is how fast moderation responds.

That's the short version on friendship sites, may not hold for you.

@Layla Brooks that matches the marketing for friendship sites, not what I found using it. Two weeks in, what the day-to-day traffic feels like once you are past sign-up is what actually mattered for friendship sites.

Practical notes on friendship sites if you're short on time:

• Confirm how long it takes before the first upgrade prompt lands in your own city rather than the default radius
• Pin down whether last-active timestamps look plausible in your own city rather than the default radius
• Look at what share of the layout is advertising on the first evening, not the first month

That's where I have landed on friendship sites, may not hold for you.