Roughly my read too, with whether enforcement is consistent or random as the caveat.
Anything I recommend around ourtime dating site free to browse has to clear one bar, which is how far the free tier actually stretches.
Out of roughly 80 matches on it, 5 turned into an actual conversation.
Given how whether the free version is a demo or a product behaves, I would only recommend the platform to someone with patience.
Most comparisons of ourtime dating site free to browse skip whether messaging costs anything once you start, which is the part that matters.
Someone in another thread pointed me at the Datebound boards and it was a fair shout.