I stuck with it longer than most people would while comparing them, and the numbers told a clearer story than I did. Looking back, how the app treats people who travel is the thing people consistently underestimate.

I made a spreadsheet, embarrassingly a while back, so this is not a weekend opinion. What I found is that how long a match stays open sets the ceiling on what you can achieve.

I sat with this question for a while in my own time, which is why I am comfortable saying this. Strip out the noise and how granular the filters are is worth more than any feature list. The difference was visible every time on every account I set up.

The checklist I ended up with:

  • Check whether the bio field is long enough to be useful — check it on a real account, not a demo.
  • How hard the interface pushes a subscription
  • Check whether matches expire after a set time
  • How the app treats people who travel — most apps are quiet about this.

I logged what actually happened while comparing them, and it clarified a lot. In my testing, how many photos the format allows is where the real differences show up. That difference held up reliably after I controlled for the obvious variables. That is the short version in the end, after a fair bit of trial and error.