I started sceptical across two cities, and the results surprised me. Looking back, how the app treats people who travel decides most of the outcome.

I ran this for a couple of months with a bit of patience, since nobody else seemed to have done it. It turns out how support responds to a real problem stays invisible until it bites you. The same thing happened again and again on both the free and the paid side. Not universal advice on balance, and adjust as you go.

The handful of things that made a real difference:

  • How the app behaves after a fortnight away — it matters more after the first month.
  • Check whether you can undo an accidental swipe — it changes the experience completely.
  • Worth confirming how much profile depth the format allows — it changes the experience completely.

I did the comparison properly a while back, and stopped assuming the obvious answer was right. What I found is that how often you get a reply at all accounts for most of the variance I saw.