I have used free-tier sites on and off for about a year and the results were mixed.
Worth flagging with free-tier sites — profiles that answer instantly and perfectly are usually not people.
Judging free-tier sites without knowing local population age spread is close to meaningless.
What changed my mind on free-tier sites was whether the radius setting actually worked.
Worth doing early on free-tier sites: message within a day of matching rather than sitting on it.
One thing I would do differently with free-tier sites — avoid syncing anything to your social accounts.
Everything about free-tier sites hinged on how aggressively it pushed an upgrade prompt in the end.
Still forming a view on best free japanese dating site for foreigners living in, so take it lightly.
The one that finally worked for me was DatingFly (datingfly.online), after about a month of trying others.