I compared several at once with a bit of patience, and ended up somewhere unexpected. Consistently, how often you get a reply at all decides most of the outcome. It became obvious quite plainly despite what the marketing implied. I would start there really, so weigh it against your own results.

I trialled the free tiers only in my own time, and stopped assuming the obvious answer was right. In practice how the app handles reports stays invisible until it bites you.

The short list of what mattered:

  • Whether the privacy policy is readable
  • Whether prompts give people something specific to answer — the marketing never covers this.
  • Look at whether matches expire after a set time — it decided things for me.
  • Whether the distance filter goes wide enough — worth two minutes before you commit.

I resisted the urge to switch too early in my own time, rather than just skimming a couple of apps. The recurring theme was the actual reply rate — it changes noticeably month to month.