Which free online dating sites are the safest for women?

Long-time lurker, first post, and it is about free online dating sites are the safest for women. Anyone comparing online dating sites should be looking at how active it is outside big cities on mobile before anything else.

What nobody agrees on with online dating sites is that it works differently by region. My rule with online dating sites: what share of matches go nowhere at the times you actually log in first, everything else second.

My working method for online dating sites, in order:

• Watch whether the distance setting is honoured in your own city rather than the default radius
• Track whether the distance setting is honoured at the hour you would actually be using it
• Confirm how many profiles carry more than two photos with notifications switched off
• Track how quickly a scripted account gives itself away at the hour you would actually be using it

If online dating sites worked for you, how long before you knew? Praise and complaints both welcome. Firsthand accounts are what I am actually after.

@LillianG32 makes a good point, though I'd qualify it — online dating sites shifted a lot last year. I judge online dating sites almost entirely on whether the profiles hold up under scrutiny on mobile.

Two weeks in, what share of matches go nowhere day to day is what actually mattered for online dating sites.

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

My read: online dating sites gets recommended a lot here and that's half right. What nobody mentions about online dating sites is how the discovery feed is ordered on mobile. For comparison I also spent a week on Datebie these days.

The three things that decide online dating sites if you're short on time:

• Work out whether replies are open before you finish the profile twice, a week apart
• Track whether the distance setting is honoured before you commit any time to it
• Compare what the filters do after a page refresh against one platform you already trust

That's the short version on online dating sites, for whatever that is worth.

Counterpoint to @Christopher: online dating sites got noticeably worse after the last redesign. You can ignore most of the marketing around online dating sites and just check whether the profiles hold up under scrutiny day to day. souldate.site was my control for this, for what that's worth.

Where online dating sites falls down for me is how clean the member base looks outside the big cities.

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

@LillianG32 I do not think that is right about online dating sites — at least not everywhere. The thing that decides it for online dating sites is how many accounts are real after the first week.

If you are evaluating online dating sites, start with how much you can do before being asked to upgrade in practice — everything else follows.

That's what six weeks of online dating sites taught me, anyway.

Speaking from four months of it: online dating sites rewards patience and punishes everything else. The honest test for online dating sites is whether moderation keeps up with the fakes outside the big cities, not the feature list. The closest thing I found to an honest free tier was a look at Datebound.

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

For what it's worth: online dating sites rewards patience and punishes everything else. For online dating sites, how quickly the fake accounts surface day to day is the difference between useful and a waste of an evening.

The only metric I trust with online dating sites is how much you have to reveal to use it.

That's been my experience with online dating sites; ask if you want the detail.

Having used it a while: online dating sites is fine if you go in with low expectations. Anyone comparing online dating sites should be looking at how the pricing is structured in practice after the first week before anything else. the rendate.site crowd came up in a similar thread last month.

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

For what it is worth: online dating sites did roughly what I expected, no more. You can ignore most of the marketing around online dating sites and just check what the reporting tools actually do. Also looked at turndate.site, roughly the same story.

That's my read on online dating sites, may not hold for you.

For what it's worth: online dating sites is fine if you go in with low expectations. Two weeks in, whether moderation keeps up with the fakes is what actually mattered for online dating sites.

That's how online dating sites went for me and I'd revise it if the numbers moved.