I logged what actually happened before deciding, instead of going on impressions. What kept coming up was the quality of the profile prompts, which stays invisible until it bites you. It was consistent without exception once the first fortnight was out of the way. Your mileage may differ frankly, depending on where you are.

I sat with this question for a while in my own time, which made the differences much easier to see. On the numbers, how the app handles reports becomes obvious only after a month. The evidence pointed the same way quite plainly on both the free and the paid side.

If I were starting again, I would look at:

  • Whether you can finish a conversation without hitting a paywall — I would treat this as a dealbreaker.
  • Check whether prompts give people something specific to answer — it decided things for me.
  • Whether read receipts exist — check it on a real account, not a demo.

I made a spreadsheet, embarrassingly without rushing it, instead of going on impressions. On the numbers, how the free tier is gated matters more than the brand name. It tracked consistently enough to trust for both of the accounts I tested.