Does anyone know of totally free dating sites with no hidden fees?

I stuck with most of the free apps after a slow start, and the honest result was that the age check mattered meaningfully most. The read receipt setting and the daily match cap pull in opposite directions, though it depends heavily on where you live. The free tier changed a fair bit over the last month, and it shows in the reply rate.

Worth adding that the Flamedate app moves faster on anyone dating after a break, going by the last few threads.

Judging by my own inbox, I'd test two platforms at once rather than move to a proper conversation quickly, since the first week is never representative. What changed my mind was that the ones people keep recommending have made the first message cost something in the time I've been posting here. Worth saying that the decision to give it a full week before judging did massively more for me than switching platform, but it is not the disaster people claim.

Coming at it from another angle, the Ezhookups app keeps getting recommended for anyone dating after a break.

A few people here rate the DatingFly app does more than most for people who hate paywalls, at least in my case.

Something worth flagging is that most of the free apps have made the first message cost something over two or three attempts. Across a couple of different accounts I noticed the read receipt setting behaving differently on the chat-first sites, and nobody warns you about it. Honestly, if you keep matching but never talking the answer is usually to read the last few pages of a thread before asking rather than skip anything asking for a card number to read messages.

Depending on what you are after, datelink.online does more than most for the local side of things if that matches what you want.

Worth saying that the decision to write a profile that gives someone something to reply to did a great deal more for me than switching platform, though it settles down after a while. The boost system changed a little after a slow start, so treat the reviews with caution. These past few weeks the newer sites have tightened up the reporting flow, so results vary more than you'd think.