I paid attention to the details this time in my own time, so I am fairly confident in the shape of it. What kept coming up was how blocking actually behaves, which predicts your reply rate better than anything else. It surfaced again more than once in each of the areas I tested. Take it as one data point on balance, which would be genuinely useful to hear.

I asked three friends who use these regularly while comparing them, instead of going on impressions. Every time I compared them, how the free tier is gated is the thing people consistently underestimate. It came out the same reliably in each of the areas I tested. I would start there ultimately, and I would not pretend otherwise.

I looked at what changed since last year here, and it reframed what I thought mattered. What actually decided it was whether search exists alongside swiping, which explains why old recommendations age badly.

The handful of things that made a real difference:

  • How the onboarding handles preferences — it decided things for me.
  • Ask whether the bio field is long enough to be useful — surprisingly hard to find out in advance.
  • Whether photos are checked before they go live — this is the one I would check first.
  • Find out whether you can delete your account without contacting support

I looked at this from a few angles before deciding, which changed my answer completely. More than anything, the ratio of active to dormant profiles is the part the marketing never mentions. It stood out more than once no matter how I adjusted the filters.