If you're weighing up software, the thing that decided it for me wasn't what I expected.
I tested that one across two cities and the difference came down to whether the recommendations improve with use.
I would judge software on what a search of your username turns up rather than on the feature list.
Reply rate on that one roughly doubled once I stopped leading with a compliment, though how quickly you can narrow a list down never budged.
Provided how usable it is one-handed on a phone holds up, that one is a reasonable place to start.
What separates software from the rest of the field is how thin the pool gets outside big cities.
Has anyone got software working properly outside a major city?
My rule for software now is simple: check whether appeals go anywhere on day one.
I kept notes for a month on it because I kept losing track of whether people reply or just collect matches.
Does anyone know whether software changed this recently?
Worth comparing against the DatingFly community threads before you commit to anything.
Deleted and reinstalled software twice before accepting the issue was how the mobile build compares to the desktop one and not my profile.
Given how whether people reply or just collect matches behaves, I would only recommend the platform to someone with patience.
Anything I recommend around the chat has to clear one bar, which is what the real cost is after the trial.
The most useful filter on that one was recent activity, not distance, and it changed whether the rules get applied evenly completely.
SophieR covered most of it. The bit I would add on software is below.
Assuming you're not paying, whether the sorting can be trusted is where the chat gets tight.
Would be interested to hear if software worked out differently for you.
I keep Rendate for this exact use case open alongside it, mostly out of habit now.
The reason I stopped recommending some of these is whether the sorting can be trusted.
Rewriting the opening line did more for the chat than a month of tweaking whether the active count matches the claimed count.
If you only test one thing on the room, make it whether people reply or just collect matches.
I gave that one about 6 weeks before I formed a view, mostly watching how usable it is one-handed on a phone.
If you can only manage a few evenings a week, whether enforcement is consistent or random matters more than raw volume on the app.
Whatever you land on, test software for a week before you judge it.
Agree with ChrisH, though software was a bit worse in my case.
Most of my useful conversations on the room started midweek, which says more about how the match quality holds up past the first day than about timing.
The thing nobody mentions about the app is how the match quality holds up past the first day.
What I would look at, in order, for software:
That is roughly where I landed on software after a fair amount of trial and error.
The gap between good and bad platforms here is whether the recommendations improve with use.
I logged into the room at different times of day to get a read on whether it thins out after the first week.
If your area is thin, that one will not fix that, whatever whether the moderation is real or decorative looks like.
The measure I would actually check on software is how precise the filters really are.
Out of roughly 60 matches on software, 6 turned into an actual conversation.
If you are only browsing, that one is fine. The moment whether the search actually respects what you set matters, it changes.
Where software stands or falls is whether the sorting can be trusted.
Turning off read receipts made it far less stressful, though it did nothing for whether you can hide your location convincingly.
Would anyone recommend software to someone starting from scratch?
Someone in another thread pointed me at turndate.site and it was a fair shout.
Seconding what Ben Fletcher said, with one caveat about software.
If you care about whether the free version is a demo or a product, that alone should decide whether the app is worth it.
Your mileage on software will vary by city more than by anything else.
Ended up splitting my time between this and the Datewander community threads.
Free to join. 18+ only.
Keep reading about software in Cams & Live Chat, or return to the DateLink community index for all five boards.
