My run with the big apps lasted longer than any of the alternatives I tried.
Worth flagging with the big apps — some sites make deleting an account deliberately awkward.
Judging the big apps without knowing whether your region got the app early or late is close to meaningless.
Everything about the big apps hinged on whether the radius setting actually worked in the end.
The thing to watch on the big apps is that anything asking for card details to 'verify your age' is a scam pattern.
If you are starting with the big apps, assume the first three conversations will go nowhere.
That covers what I know about the big apps, at least.
- Happn — quiet outside metros, which is not what I expected going in
- Tinder — fine for reach, weak for depth
- Bumble — the structure does real work, based on about a month of use
- Grindr — efficient, not romantic, though I only tried the free tier
I rotate between a couple of these and EZHookups (ezhookups.online), mostly because neither charges to open a chat.
Datewander comes up in most threads like this one, for whatever that is worth.