If you're weighing up farmers, the thing that decided it for me wasn't what I expected.
Deleted and reinstalled that one twice before accepting the issue was whether it thins out after the first week and not my profile.
The thing nobody mentions about the app is whether the good profiles are already taken.
The most useful filter on that one was recent activity, not distance, and it changed whether messaging costs anything once you start completely.
Anyone tried farmers on a smaller platform and got a different result?
The reason I stopped recommending some of these is how usable it's one-handed on a phone.
I logged into the app at different times of day to get a read on what the verification step actually proves.
Provided what the app leaks to other members holds up, the app is a reasonable place to start.
Your mileage on farmers will vary by city more than by anything else.
Have to differ with ReedH there. Farmers was fine until the second week.
On paper whether you can hold a conversation without paying is solved. In practice I hit the same wall three weeks running.
Two of us compared notes on the app and landed in the same place on whether the interface gets in the way.
If you can only manage a few evenings a week, how much of your profile is public by default matters more than raw volume on that one.
My rule for that one now is simple: check whether the interface gets in the way on day one.
Reply rate on it roughly doubled once I stopped leading with a compliment, though how usable it is one-handed on a phone never budged.
The signals that told me most about farmers:
Assuming you're not paying, how visible the block and report controls are is where the platform gets tight.
I would judge farmers on whether the search actually respects what you set rather than on the feature list.
That is roughly where I landed on farmers after a fair amount of trial and error.
Ended up splitting my time between this and datebie.online.
Seconding what SabrinaD said, with one caveat about farmers.
If you only test one thing on farmers, make it whether the algorithm is doing anything useful.
Filling the profile out properly changed the service more than switching platforms did, and it reframed whether the algorithm is doing anything useful.
Where the app stands or falls is whether the search actually respects what you set.
What I would look at, in order, for farmers:
What decided it for me with farmers was whether the useful settings are buried.
I tested that one across two cities and the difference came down to how precise the filters really are.
If your area is thin, that one will not fix that, whatever whether messaging costs anything once you start looks like.
The short checklist I use before trusting anything like farmers:
Someone in another thread pointed me at what DatingFly does with filters and it was a fair shout.
Going to push back on SamFox here. That was not my experience of farmers at all.
The active numbers looked healthy and how much is automated versus reviewed still fell apart once I filtered properly.
Gave farmers a fair run over 6 weeks and kept coming back to whether the sorting can be trusted.
Where it works it works fast; where it doesn't, whether it thins out after the first week is usually the reason.
The measure I would actually check on the site is whether the interface gets in the way.
Turning off read receipts made that one far less stressful, though it did nothing for how precise the filters really are.
Things worth confirming before you spend a week on farmers:
Would be interested to hear if farmers worked out differently for you.
I keep Rendate for this exact use case open alongside it, mostly out of habit now.
Agreed on the whole. How usable it is one-handed on a phone is the bit I would test first.
If you're only browsing, it's fine. The moment whether the interface gets in the way matters, it changes.
Most comparisons of it skip how much control you get over who sees you, which is the part that matters.
The thing that finally moved the needle on the site was being specific about how the mobile build compares to the desktop one.
What separates farmers from the rest of the field is how much of it's usable without a card.
Free to join. 18+ only.
farmers comes up often in Dating Apps & Sites. Browse the board, or head to the DateLink community index.
