Spent most of last winter on the messaging side, so here is what I actually saw.
Before you commit to the messaging side, test it on a weekday evening, not a Sunday morning.
The part nobody mentions about the messaging side is whether the match volume held up past the first week.
The thing to watch on the messaging side is that some free tiers stop you exactly at the reply button.
What mattered most with the messaging side in the end was whether messaging was actually free or free-to-a-point.
What changed my mind on the messaging side was whether profiles felt written by real people.
Before you commit to the messaging side, turn off notifications so it doesn't take over your evening.
Ask if you want detail on any part of fix the lag on the camtubechat mobile site.
- Plenty of Fish — better in smaller markets than you would guess, in a mid-sized town at least
- Coffee Meets Bagel — slower paced and more intentional, and it has been consistent since
- Grindr — proximity is the entire feature set, though outside a city that changes
- Feeld — no ambiguity about intent, though that may well be regional
- Bumble — fewer matches but they tend to answer
The one that finally worked for me was EZHookups, after about a month of trying others.