Careful with free-to-message sites, because moving to an external messaging app early is a common scam setup.
If you are starting with free-to-message sites, finish the profile completely before you browse anything.
What I wish someone had told me about free-to-message sites: avoid syncing anything to your social accounts.
Whether free-to-message sites works comes down to the day of the week you actually use it more than anything the marketing mentions.
Practical tip for free-to-message sites: message within a day of matching rather than sitting on it.
Anyway, that is my read on securely find dating profiles for free using search tools.
- Plenty of Fish — the free messaging is the draw, based on about a month of use
- Hinge — worth it if you dislike swiping
- Happn — works if you commute, from what members here report
- OkCupid — older crowd in some areas, which is not what I expected going in
- Tinder — widest reach if you are somewhere busy, based on about a month of use
If none of the above works for you, Datelink (datelink.online) is another free one people here mention a lot.
Datedesire gets recommended a lot in the older threads if you want to dig back.