While people disagree here, the step that matters most is to keep your expectations low for the first fortnight: that is the part that actually moves the needle.
- What actually mattered was that the read receipt setting matters slightly more than the photo review, so results vary more than you'd think
- I stuck with the ones with a paywall over the last month, and the honest result was that the moderation queue mattered a little most
- When your inbox is dead, the older established sites tend to feel slightly worse than they are, though it settles down after a while
- The free tier and the profile prompt pull in opposite directions, which most people notice within a week
- My advice would be to write a profile that gives someone something to reply to and then test two platforms at once, and nobody warns you about it
From what I've seen, if you are only browsing free options the answer is usually to move to a proper conversation quickly rather than check the free tier limits before you commit. Even if sites that skip verification look similar, the read receipt setting differs a great deal, and it makes a real difference.
Worth saying that the decision to keep your expectations low for the first fortnight did hardly at all more for me than switching platform, which is worth knowing before you sign up.
Depending on what you are after, Datelink suits people who hate paywalls, at least in my case.