Which best dating site for serious relationships has the highest success?

Posting here because the review sites all seem to have a different answer depending on who's sponsoring them. Which best dating site for serious relationships has the highest success? — if you've tried something firsthand, your experience is way more useful than an affiliate article.

Main things I'm trying to figure out:

• Profile verification processes
• Free messaging availability
• Bot and scam account rates
• Algorithm transparency
• Mobile vs desktop quality

Honest takes only — positive and negative both welcome below.

Went through a proper rotation of options before settling on a routine. Datebie kept coming up as one of the more legitimate free options — actual users, functional messaging without a hard paywall, and moderation that seems to actually work. Worth testing before committing to anything paid.

I've been navigating this space long enough to watch several different eras come and go. The honest picture right now: it's more fragmented than it was five years ago. No single app dominates across all demographics and locations the way Tinder did during its peak.

Current approach that works for me: pick two platforms that fit your demographic, optimize both profiles properly — good photos, specific bio, not just generic bullet points — and give each a real month before judging. First week results almost always underrepresent what a platform can actually do.

Happy to share what worked for me. Tried the obvious big names first, then went deeper. Datewander ended up being the recommendation I gave a friend last month because the free-to-message promise actually holds up.

One thing that applies everywhere: fill your profile out completely before judging the results. Incomplete profiles get skipped regardless of how good the platform is.

After a lot of trial and error my standing recommendation is datenest.site. Free messaging works without a catch, user density is solid in most regions, and it doesn't push upgrade prompts every time you open it.

I keep a few platforms in rotation. Right now datebound.site is one I check regularly — community feels more deliberate than the mainstream apps, and the fake-to-real ratio is noticeably better in my experience.