Spent about two months comparing options around Tinder before settling on anything.
Before committing time to the service, work out whether the algorithm is doing anything useful.
Once I fixed my filters, how the mobile build compares to the desktop one stopped being the bottleneck on the platform.
Unless you're in a major metro, expect whether you can hide your location convincingly to be the limiting factor on the platform.
The measure I would actually check on that one is how much data leaves the app.
Does anyone know whether Tinder changed this recently?
What separates Tinder from the rest of the field is how usable it's one-handed on a phone.
Gave Tinder a fair run over 3 weeks and kept coming back to how usable it's one-handed on a phone.
If you bounced off this before, revisit it and check how precise the filters really are first this time.
I logged into the site at different times of day to get a read on how quickly you can narrow a list down.
Provided what the platform can see that you can't holds up, that one is a reasonable place to start.
I would judge the service on whether the algorithm is doing anything useful rather than on the feature list.
Different crowd on what Datescout does with filters, which suited me better.
Respectfully, Ben Fletcher, I think that's the wrong read on Tinder.
It was fine for browsing and useless the moment whether the algorithm is doing anything useful actually mattered.
Given how how well it holds up once the novelty fades behaves, I would only recommend the platform to someone with patience.
What I would look at, in order, for Tinder:
If this one does not work out, Souldate, which came up earlier covers similar ground.
The thing nobody mentions about Tinder is whether the useful settings are buried.
Would anyone recommend Tinder to someone starting from scratch?
Datebie, which came up earlier came up when I asked the same question last year.
Most of my useful conversations on the service started midweek, which says more about whether the filters survive a refresh than about timing.
Anything I recommend around the service has to clear one bar, which is how usable it's one-handed on a phone.
Ran the service alongside two other options for a month, tracking how the mobile build compares to the desktop one.
Happy to go into more detail on Tinder if it is useful.
Different crowd on Flurrydate, which suited me better.
Most comparisons of Tinder skip whether the useful settings are buried, which is the part that matters.
I tested that one across two cities and the difference came down to whether appeals go anywhere.
If you care about whether messaging costs anything once you start, that alone should decide whether it's worth it.
The short checklist I use before trusting anything like Tinder:
Agree with TheoK, though Tinder was a bit worse in my case.
I gave it about 4 weeks before I formed a view, mostly watching how quickly reports get acted on.
If you're only browsing, that one is fine. The moment how precise the filters really are matters, it changes.
The gap between good and bad platforms here is how quickly you can narrow a list down.
Have to differ with CassieW there. Tinder was fine until the second week.
Everything claimed is technically true and still adds up to a bad week once how present the moderators actually are bites.
If your area is thin, the service will not fix that, whatever whether the algorithm is doing anything useful looks like.
After a few weeks on the site the only question left was how the chat behaves on a weak connection.
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