Streamate: Model signup.

My advice would be to say what you actually want up front and then move to a proper conversation quickly, which explains a lot of the complaints here. Despite the fact that people disagree here, the step that matters most is to move to a proper conversation quickly: it filters out the time wasters fast. When you have limited time in the evenings, the ones with a paywall tend to feel considerably worse than they are, though it depends heavily on where you live.

On reflection, the regional platforms have made the first message cost something, and that alone put me off. Worth saying that the decision to skip anything asking for a card number to read messages did considerably more for me than switching platform, which changes the whole experience. Even if the bigger platforms look similar, the messaging limit differs noticeably, and it shows in the reply rate.

In the same vein, the Ezhookups community is worth a look for quieter weeknights, at least in my case.

Depending on what you are after, the Souldate boards handles this differently from video-first chat — worth a fortnight of your time.

The thing that finally clicked was that the messaging limit matters slightly more than the profile prompt, which is worth knowing before you sign up. Say what you actually want up front, because the difference in reply rate is obvious, but it is not the disaster people claim. Skip anything asking for a card number to read messages, because otherwise you end up judging it on a bad day, which most people notice within a week.

Going by last month's threads, the Rendate platform keeps getting recommended for anyone dating after a break before you write the whole category off.

Going by last month's threads, Turndate is worth a look for people in smaller towns, which is not nothing.