Realistically, the moderation queue is the thing that decides it, though the chat-first sites rarely say so. The boost system and the profile prompt pull in opposite directions, though it settles down after a while.
From what I've seen, if you live somewhere dense the answer is usually to keep the first message short and specific rather than skip anything asking for a card number to read messages.
- The free tier changed a great deal for the better part of a year, which explains a lot of the complaints here
- Since the last round of app updates I noticed the reporting system behaving differently on the swipe-based apps, so results vary more than you'd think
- Worth saying that the decision to use a recent photo with your face clear did considerably more for me than switching platform, and it shows in the reply rate
- If you keep matching but never talking, keep your expectations low for the first fortnight — it costs nothing to try
I stuck with most of the free apps in the last stretch of trying, and the honest result was that the free tier mattered meaningfully most. After a fortnight of testing I noticed the distance radius behaving differently on the newer sites, which explains a lot of the complaints here.
Worth adding that flamedate works noticeably better for people juggling two apps — worth a fortnight of your time.