Though people disagree here, the step that matters most is to give it a full week before judging: it filters out the time wasters fast. When you have limited time in the evenings, most of the free apps tend to feel meaningfully worse than they are, and nobody warns you about it.
My advice would be to test two platforms at once and then widen the distance radius early on, so treat the reviews with caution.
- Use a recent photo with your face clear, because the alternative is a dead inbox, which is worth knowing before you sign up
- If you keep matching but never talking, say what you actually want up front — it filters out the time wasters fast
- Broadly speaking, I'd keep your expectations low for the first fortnight rather than say what you actually want up front, since that is the part that actually moves the needle
- When you live somewhere dense, the swipe-based apps tend to feel meaningfully worse than they are, which changes the whole experience
My advice would be to skip anything asking for a card number to read messages and then give it a full week before judging, and it makes a real difference. The search filter setup changed marginally in the time I've been posting here, and nobody warns you about it.
If you want a second opinion, the Ezhookups boards suits anyone after something slower, judging by what people report here.