I have been through this properly once properly, so this is not theoretical. The variable that mattered was whether messaging is capped — it separates the usable options from the rest. The contrast was sharpest consistently enough to trust across every option I tried. Others may have found the opposite genuinely, and nothing more than that.

I did this the slow way in my own time, and it reframed what I thought mattered. Across all of them, how blocking actually behaves shapes the first fortnight more than anything.

Practical things worth verifying early:

  • Check how much the app relies on push notifications
  • Look at how many photos the format actually allows — most apps are quiet about this.
  • Worth confirming whether you can undo an accidental swipe — worth two minutes before you commit.

I compared several at once over a few months, and stopped assuming the obvious answer was right. More than anything, whether search exists alongside swiping changes noticeably month to month.