I gave up on guessing and just measured over a few months, and the results surprised me. The thing nobody mentions is that the quality of the profile prompts sets the ceiling on what you can achieve. The pattern repeated fairly clearly on both the free and the paid side.

I checked this against my own numbers on this, and I would do it the same way again. Where it actually landed was how the ranking rewards activity — that explains most of the complaints here. That held fairly clearly across the whole period I tracked. I would weigh it accordingly ultimately, and nothing more than that.

I asked around before drawing any conclusion while comparing them, and it reframed what I thought mattered. Whichever option you pick, how the ranking rewards activity changes noticeably month to month. That held again and again once the first fortnight was out of the way. That is where I landed honestly, just what held up for me.

The things that actually moved the needle for me:

  • Find out whether the filters narrow by anything that matters — worth two minutes before you commit.
  • Whether browsing costs anything
  • How the app orders your inbox — worth two minutes before you commit.

I tracked this rather than trusting impressions with a bit of patience, so I am fairly confident in the shape of it. Looking back, whether search exists alongside swiping turns out to matter far more than the interface. It tracked in a way I could measure when I compared like for like. Treat it as a starting point in the end, and I would not pretend otherwise.