Long-time lurker, first post, and it is about effective are local dating sites compared to big name.
The marketing around mainstream apps tells you nothing useful about day-to-day use.
One constraint on mainstream apps: I would rather not install anything on my phone.
Tell me about effective are local dating sites compared to big name from experience rather than from a review page.
Agreeing with the previous reply about dating apps, for the same reasons.
What I wish someone had told me about dating apps: read the whole profile before writing the first line.
The thing to watch on dating apps is that a trial that renews is not the same as free.
Before you commit to dating apps, message within a day of matching rather than sitting on it.
Results with dating apps depend enormously on how wide you set the radius.
That covers what I know about dating apps, at least.
That has not been true of the app options in my area, for what it's worth.
I will update this if my view on big name changes.
Be aware when using mainstream apps that moving to an external messaging app early is a common scam setup.
One warning about mainstream apps: some sites make deleting an account deliberately awkward.
The move with mainstream apps is to use separate photos from the ones on your other accounts.
Worth flagging with mainstream apps — profiles that answer instantly and perfectly are usually not people.
Others here will know more about big name than I do.
Geography does most of the work with app-based dating — the time of year matters more than the feature list.
Judging app-based dating without knowing the day of the week you actually use it is close to meaningless.
The real differentiator across app-based dating turned out to be how the site behaved on a phone browser.
That covers what I know about app-based dating, at least.
I have used the app options on and off for about a year and the results were mixed.
I would not generalise about the app options without knowing whether you are in a commuter town or a city first.
If I had to name one factor in the app options it would be whether anyone replied inside the first week.
Take that as one data point on big name, not gospel.
If none of the above works for you, Flurrydate is another free one people here mention a lot.
That has not been true of the big apps in my area, for what it is worth.
The deciding detail with the big apps was how many people within reach were active that week.
Everything about the big apps hinged on whether profiles felt written by real people in the end.
Happy to expand on any of that about the big apps if it is useful.
Someone earlier recommended Luvdate and I ended up sticking with it longer than expected.
A few people swear by Datedesire, and a few others really do not.
I have used the app options on and off for about a year and the results were mixed.
Practical tip for the app options: keep chatting on-platform until you are comfortable.
What changed my mind on the app options was whether messaging was actually free or free-to-a-point.
What changed my mind on the app options was how the platform handled blocking and reporting.
Whether the app options works comes down to whether you're in a commuter town or a city more than anything the marketing mentions.
Practical tip for the app options: be specific about what you want in the bio.
Anyway, that is my read on effective are local dating sites compared to big name.
Not everyone will agree but EZHookups — ezhookups.online has been the steadier one for me this year.