I spent longer on this than I meant to with a bit of patience, and stopped assuming the obvious answer was right. More than anything, whether notifications can be tuned is the thing people consistently underestimate. It became obvious again and again across two completely different areas.

I resisted the urge to switch too early in my own time, so the sample is at least reasonable. In practice how quickly fake profiles get removed is what people are really complaining about.

I resisted the urge to switch too early without rushing it, and it was worth the effort. Every time I compared them, the honesty of the pricing page tends to decide whether you stick with it. It stood out to a degree that mattered in every week I bothered to measure. The only real test is your own area for what it is worth, and no thread substitutes for that.

What I would check before committing any time:

  • Worth confirming how consistent match quality is week to week — worth asking about before you invest time.
  • Whether notifications can be tuned — it is easy to test and rarely advertised.
  • Check how much the app relies on push notifications — it changes the experience completely.
  • Check how many photos the format actually allows — surprisingly hard to find out in advance.
  • Worth confirming how much information is public before you match — worth asking about before you invest time.

I tracked this rather than trusting impressions while comparing them, and the pattern turned out to be consistent. The honest answer is that the ratio of active to dormant profiles is easy to check and almost never checked. It kept showing up again and again regardless of which city I set.