I sat with this question for a while on this, before I was willing to recommend anything. What I found is that photo quality on both sides matters more than the brand name. The outcome barely moved more than once once the first fortnight was out of the way. Worth a fortnight of your time ultimately, not what a listicle told you.

I only worked this out after a month of tallying a while back, and ended up somewhere unexpected. Strip out the noise and how blocking actually behaves matters more than the brand name. It tracked every time regardless of how I framed the profile. Worth testing yourself for what it is worth, rather than taking my word for it.

The checklist I ended up with:

  • Worth confirming whether browsing costs anything
  • Whether you can undo an accidental swipe — I underestimated this at first.
  • Find out how the app handles people who never reply — it changes the experience completely.
  • Whether conversations sync across devices — it decided things for me.

I looked at what changed since last year while comparing them, and the conclusion was not what I wanted. In my testing, the size of the local pool turns out to matter far more than the interface. It was consistent again and again once the first fortnight was out of the way. Your results will vary for what it is worth, before changing anything else.