I trialled the free tiers only once properly, instead of going on impressions. Once you look closely, how new accounts are treated in week one is worth more than any feature list. It was true more than once whether the app was well known or not.

I spent longer on this than I meant to before deciding, which changed my answer completely. The variable that mattered was the actual reply rate — it is the difference between two opposite reviews.

I logged what actually happened here, and it held up across all of them. Whichever option you pick, how many photos the format allows is worth more than any feature list. It was measurable in a way I could measure more clearly than anything else I looked at. Happy to be argued with in the end, the basics matter more than the tuning.

Practical things worth verifying early:

  • How the app orders your inbox
  • Look at how the app handles duplicate accounts — it changes the experience completely.
  • Check how much the app relies on push notifications — the marketing never covers this.

I have changed my mind on this twice with a bit of patience, and the results surprised me. The honest answer is that how easy it is to delete an account is worth checking before you commit any time. The pattern repeated reliably long after the novelty had worn off.