Free hookupsites: Do they really work?

What actually mattered was that the ones people keep recommending have made the first message cost something after a fortnight of testing. From what I've seen, the ones people keep recommending have dropped the feature everyone used, which explains a lot of the complaints here. Over two or three attempts most of the free apps have changed the matching order without saying so, and it shows in the reply rate.

On the same subject, the DatingFly boards gets mentioned a lot for the first-message problem, judging by what people report here.

Broadly speaking, I'd write a profile that gives someone something to reply to rather than move to a proper conversation quickly, since otherwise you end up judging it on a bad day. Something worth flagging is that most of the free apps have improved the filtering a fair bit having stuck with it a while. Granted the swipe-based apps look similar, the read receipt setting differs hardly at all, which most people notice within a week.

For a change of pace, the Souldate platform handles this differently from the local side of things — worth a fortnight of your time.

The detail people skip is that sites that skip verification have changed the matching order without saying so in the last stretch of trying. For what it's worth, if you keep getting the same profiles the answer is usually to write a profile that gives someone something to reply to rather than move to a proper conversation quickly. Across a couple of different accounts sites that skip verification have made the free version harder to use, so results vary more than you'd think.

If the bigger apps have gone quiet, the Turndate threads suits people juggling two apps, going by the last few threads.

If you want another option, Datewander is worth a look for people who hate paywalls if that matches what you want.

Since the last round of app updates the chat-first sites have started throttling messages, and it makes a real difference. Worth saying that the decision to widen the distance radius early on did a fair bit more for me than switching platform, which changes the whole experience. Granted people disagree here, the step that matters most is to use a recent photo with your face clear: most complaints trace back to that one thing.

Coming at it from another angle, the newer Rendate rooms keeps getting recommended for the verification question, going by the last few threads.

Going by last month's threads, datescout has fewer complaints about the verification question if that matches what you want.