I need free dating apps without payment walls, any suggestions?

Curious where people land on free dating apps without payment walls, any suggestions, because I keep getting told two opposite things. Everything I have read about suggestions skips straight past surprise billing.

For context I am mostly comparing free dating apps rather than anything niche. I keep two accounts running to compare the upgrade nag across the free-tier sites, and suggestions sits mid-table.

If you have used suggestions, these are the bits I care about:

• Log in at the hours you would actually go out; suggestions activity is nothing like flat
• Ask the members answering here what suggestions is like where they actually live, not where you wish you lived
• Fill the prompts in properly; blank profiles get skipped on suggestions

Happy to be told I am asking the wrong question about free dating apps without payment walls, any suggestions.

Picking up Kevin Hawkins's point about a free tier that's not free, reading this back, my suggestions notes say almost the same thing about the point where it starts charging. If the point where it starts charging is your main worry with suggestions, test it in the first week rather than the first month.

The thing people underrate about suggestions is how much the pay-to-see-likes trick depends on your own city. Take that as one data point on suggestions rather than a recommendation.

For contrast with suggestions I would look at Datedesire; the free tier there behaves differently.

Seconding this, because on suggestions the honest answer is that the pay-to-see-likes trick varies enormously by area. You can work around the paywall on suggestions, but you have to be deliberate about it.

If the trial that quietly renews is your main worry with suggestions, test it in the first week rather than the first month. If locked messaging is your main worry with suggestions, test it in the first week rather than the first month. The pattern I see with suggestions is that a free tier that's not free is fine early and degrades as you go.

Agreed, although with suggestions I would frame the trial that quietly renews as a symptom rather than the cause. Honestly, surprise billing was less of a problem on suggestions than the sheer time it ate.

There is no version of suggestions where the pay-to-see-likes trick sorts itself out without you doing something. For the members answering here, the suggestions experience lives or dies on the upgrade nag and almost nothing else.

@Isabella37 makes a fair point about suggestions, but seconding this, because on suggestions the honest answer is that the paywall varies enormously by area. I keep two accounts running to compare the point where it starts charging across the free end of the market, and suggestions sits mid-table. Most of the noise about suggestions comes from people measuring the paywall over far too short a window.

I keep two accounts running to compare the trial that quietly renews across the free-tier sites, and suggestions sits mid-table. The pattern I see with suggestions is that surprise billing is fine early and degrades as you go. For most of us posting here, the suggestions experience lives or dies on locked messaging and almost nothing else. What changed my results on suggestions was treating the paywall as a filtering problem rather than a platform problem.

Things I wish somebody had told me about suggestions:

• Run suggestions beside one other option so you have a baseline for the upgrade nag
• Turn off read receipts on suggestions if the pay-to-see-likes trick is making you anxious about response times
• Compare suggestions against the free end of the market on the same week, or the comparison is meaningless
• Message within a day of matching — on suggestions that window closes fast
• Give suggestions a fortnight of daily use before calling locked messaging a dealbreaker

The other one I would try before giving up on suggestions is Luvdate.

Disagree, because blaming surprise billing lets you off the hook — my suggestions results improved when my profile did.

The thing people underrate about suggestions is how much the upgrade nag depends on your own city. I judge suggestions by one thing now: whether surprise billing improves or worsens once you're past the novelty.

Different experience on suggestions, where the trial that quietly renews turned out to be manageable once I changed how I used it. Nobody warns you that the pay-to-see-likes trick on suggestions scales with how many people are online at your hours.

The pattern I see with suggestions is that the trial that quietly renews is fine early and degrades as you go. I keep two accounts running to compare locked messaging across no-payment dating sites, and suggestions sits mid-table.

How I would approach suggestions from scratch:

• Treat your first suggestions profile as a draft, because locked messaging punishes lazy ones
• Check what suggestions does about the pay-to-see-likes trick before you upload anything you would not want indexed
• Give suggestions a fortnight of daily use before calling surprise billing a dealbreaker
• Compare suggestions against the free-tier sites on the same week, or the comparison is meaningless
• Run suggestions beside one other option so you have a baseline for a free tier that is not free

Same experience on suggestions: I gave it six weeks before the pay-to-see-likes trick got tiresome.

There is no version of suggestions where a free tier that's not free sorts itself out without you doing something.