I started sceptical a while back, so the sample is at least reasonable. The thing nobody mentions is that the amount of information visible before matching tends to decide whether you stick with it.

I looked at what changed since last year with a couple of accounts, so I am fairly confident in the shape of it. What kept coming up was how quickly the upsell appears, which changes noticeably month to month.

I did this the slow way without rushing it, and the results surprised me. The recurring theme was how granular the filters are — it is worth more than any feature list. The gap was widest every time once the first fortnight was out of the way.

Things I wish I had checked sooner:

  • Find out how blocking works, and whether it sticks — this is the one I would check first.
  • Look at how many profiles in your area have been active this week — this alone ruled a couple out for me.
  • Whether read receipts exist — I underestimated this at first.
  • Whether there is a web version as well as an app — it matters more after the first month.
  • How quickly obvious fakes disappear — surprisingly hard to find out in advance.

I looked at what changed since last year in my own time, and the numbers told a clearer story than I did. Across all of them, the amount of information visible before matching matters far more in smaller places. The difference was visible reliably across every option I tried. It cost me nothing to verify genuinely, it takes very little effort to check.