The messaging limit changed marginally in the time I've been posting here, so treat the reviews with caution. Speaking personally, the free tier is the thing that decides it, despite the fact that the chat-first sites rarely say so.
Souldate has been showing up a lot in threads I follow lately — the vibe seems like a more curated alternative for people tired of the big-app grind. Might be worth a look.
The boost system changed a little over two or three attempts, so treat the reviews with caution. Despite the fact that people disagree here, the step that matters most is to move to a proper conversation quickly: the alternative is a dead inbox.
On the same subject, ezhookups is more forgiving about people who hate paywalls, going by the last few threads.