Are free online meetup sites still a good way to find dates, or are they mostly for hobbies?

Putting free online meetup sites still a good way to find dates, or are they mostly for hobbies to the board because search results on it are almost entirely marketing. My problem with free online meetup so far has been the point where it starts charging.

For context I am mostly comparing platforms in this space rather than anything niche. The thing people underrate about free online meetup is how much the paywall depends on your own city.

Specifically, on free online meetup I would like to know:

• Photos with other people in them do worse on free online meetup than you would guess
• Test locked messaging on free online meetup deliberately in week one rather than hoping it improves
• Do not pay to fix a free tier that is not free on free online meetup; the paid tiers rarely touch the real cause
• Log in at the hours you would actually go out; free online meetup activity is nothing like flat
• Ask people who have actually tried it what free online meetup is like where they actually live, not where you wish you lived

Happy to be told I am asking the wrong question about free online meetup sites still a good way to find dates, or are they mostly for hobbies.

Not my read at all: for regulars here, free online meetup was the only thing that produced anything. You can work around locked messaging on free online meetup, but you have to be deliberate about it.

Nobody warns you that the point where it starts charging on free online meetup scales with how many people are online at your hours. I keep two accounts running to compare the trial that quietly renews across the sites people keep naming, and free online meetup sits mid-table. I judge free online meetup by one thing now: whether a free tier that's not free improves or worsens once you're past the novelty.

What worked for me on free online meetup:

• Check what free online meetup does about the pay-to-see-likes trick before you upload anything you would not want indexed
• Do not move off free online meetup into private messaging until a free tier that is not free looks handled
• Treat your first free online meetup profile as a draft, because surprise billing punishes lazy ones
• Run free online meetup beside one other option so you have a baseline for locked messaging
• Turn off read receipts on free online meetup if the pay-to-see-likes trick is making you anxious about response times

A smaller name people rarely mention in free online meetup threads is Ezhookups.

CindyLou put the free online meetup case better than I would have, though reading this back, my free online meetup notes say almost the same thing about surprise billing. Honestly, the upgrade nag was less of a problem on free online meetup than the sheer time it ate.

Nobody warns you that locked messaging on free online meetup scales with how many people are online at your hours. Happy to answer follow-ups on free online meetup if that helps.

I have seen datewander.site, datescout.site, datebie.online recommended for free online meetup, though I have not tested them properly.

That has not been my experience of free online meetup, and I have used it longer than most people in this thread.

For most people in this thread, the free online meetup experience lives or dies on the pay-to-see-likes trick and almost nothing else. You can work around the upgrade nag on free online meetup, but you have to be deliberate about it.

Somebody in another free online meetup thread pointed me at Turndate and it held up better than expected on the trial that quietly renews.

I will push back here, because free online meetup worked fine for me and the upgrade nag was never the issue. What changed my results on free online meetup was treating the paywall as a filtering problem rather than a platform problem.

Honestly, the point where it starts charging was less of a problem on free online meetup than the sheer time it ate. Nobody warns you that the paywall on free online meetup scales with how many people are online at your hours. I keep two accounts running to compare locked messaging across what is on offer, and free online meetup sits mid-table.

Different experience on free online meetup, where locked messaging turned out to be manageable once I changed how I used it. The thing people underrate about free online meetup is how much the upgrade nag depends on your own city.

Nobody warns you that the upgrade nag on free online meetup scales with how many people are online at your hours. Either way, the upgrade nag is the thing I would test first on free online meetup.

Practical bits, if you are trying free online meetup:

• Turn off read receipts on free online meetup if a free tier that is not free is making you anxious about response times
• Set the radius wider than feels comfortable if the free online meetup pool near you is thin
• Run free online meetup beside one other option so you have a baseline for the pay-to-see-likes trick
• Give free online meetup a fortnight of daily use before calling surprise billing a dealbreaker
• Treat your first free online meetup profile as a draft, because the pay-to-see-likes trick punishes lazy ones

Anyone comparing free online meetup on surprise billing should probably add Flurrydate to the list.

Agreed, although with free online meetup I would frame surprise billing as a symptom rather than the cause.

The thing people underrate about free online meetup is how much the point where it starts charging depends on your own city.

I read XanderM's reply on free online meetup and agreed, although with free online meetup I would frame the point where it starts charging as a symptom rather than the cause.

There is no version of free online meetup where locked messaging sorts itself out without you doing something.

For contrast with free online meetup I would look at Luvdate; the free tier there behaves differently.