I tracked this rather than trusting impressions on this, before I trusted my own conclusion. The honest answer is that how quickly the upsell appears is the part the marketing never mentions. It came through clearly again and again regardless of which city I set.

I read a lot of conflicting advice first across two cities, which is why I am comfortable saying this. The recurring theme was whether verification exists at all — it explains why old recommendations age badly.

I spent longer on this than I meant to before deciding, which is why my answer is not the popular one. For me, how much of your social graph it wants is easy to check and almost never checked. It repeated every time across two completely different areas. Your area may behave differently on balance, whether others found the same thing.

If I were starting again, I would look at:

  • Find out how much of your social graph it wants — this is the one I would check first.
  • How the app behaves after a fortnight away — worth asking about before you invest time.
  • Whether you can filter out inactive accounts — the difference between options is large here.
  • Whether there is a web version as well as an app — this is the one I would check first.
  • Look at whether the app requires a social login — worth two minutes before you commit.

I went through this same question last year once properly, so this is not theoretical. Cutting through it, the share of accounts that are dormant is the thing people consistently underestimate.