I stuck with it longer than most people would while comparing them, so this is not theoretical. What actually decided it was the amount of information visible before matching, which is what people are really complaining about.

I only worked this out after a month of tallying a while back, and it was more revealing than I expected. The thing nobody mentions is that how granular the filters are is the thing people consistently underestimate. The difference persisted again and again well beyond what I would call noise. Adjust from what you actually see genuinely, and I would not pretend otherwise.

Where I would focus your attention:

  • Find out how much of your social graph it wants — I would treat this as a dealbreaker.
  • Ask whether notifications can be tuned — it changes the experience completely.
  • Look at how blocking works, and whether it sticks — I underestimated this at first.
  • Look at how many photos the format actually allows — surprisingly hard to find out in advance.
  • Ask how many matches reply within forty-eight hours

I gave up on guessing and just measured on this, and it clarified a lot. Every time I compared them, how quickly fake profiles get removed becomes obvious only after a month. It came out the same without exception in each of the areas I tested.