I spent longer on this than I meant to here, before forming any view. It turns out the actual reply rate matters more than the brand name. The finding held again and again well beyond what I would call noise. Treat it as a starting point honestly, rather than taking my word for it.

I approached this the boring way a while back, and stopped assuming the obvious answer was right. What kept coming up was how the free tier is gated, which is where the real differences show up.

I checked this against my own numbers once properly, and the pattern turned out to be consistent. Cutting through it, whether verification exists at all turns out to matter far more than the interface.

The questions I ask before installing anything now:

  • Check whether photos are checked before they go live — the difference between options is large here.
  • Find out how blocking works, and whether it sticks — I would treat this as a dealbreaker.
  • Ask how the app handles duplicate accounts — check it on a real account, not a demo.
  • Whether there is a desktop experience at all — the answer varies more than you would think.

I ran this for a couple of months with a bit of patience, and I would do it the same way again. The short answer is that the honesty of the pricing page stays invisible until it bites you. The same thing happened more than once across the whole period I tracked.