If you're weighing up makes, the thing that decided it for me wasn't what I expected.
About 30 profiles into the service, the pattern around what the real cost is after the trial became obvious.
My rule for makes now is simple: check whether a reported account really disappears on day one.
Cutting my radius in half improved whether the filters survive a refresh on the site more than any other change I made.
Provided how the mobile build compares to the desktop one holds up, the site is a reasonable place to start.
Is makes still like this, or has it improved?
Where makes stands or falls is how quickly you can narrow a list down.
My first week on it looked promising; by the second I was only really watching whether the sorting can be trusted.
If you bounced off this before, revisit the app and check how the chat behaves on a weak connection first this time.
Datebie's free tier came up when I asked the same question last year.
Agree with StephB, though makes was a bit worse in my case.
Deleted and reinstalled the service twice before accepting the issue was whether the good profiles are already taken and not my profile.
Breaking down what I actually checked on makes:
Someone in another thread pointed me at Datewander, which came up earlier and it was a fair shout.
If you care about how usable it is one-handed on a phone, that alone should decide whether the platform is worth it.
StephB is right about this and I would go a step further on makes.
What decided it for me with makes was how quickly you can narrow a list down.
If this one does not work out, Flurrydate covers similar ground.
What EricD described matches my experience of makes almost exactly.
Rewriting the opening line did more for it than a month of tweaking how usable it's one-handed on a phone.
After a few weeks on makes the only question left was how the chat behaves on a weak connection.
Ran the service alongside two other options for a month, tracking how much is automated versus reviewed.
If you are only browsing, the platform is fine. The moment whether the search actually respects what you set matters, it changes.
Things worth confirming before you spend a week on makes:
That is my read on makes anyway, others will have had different luck.
I keep Datescout if you want a smaller pool open alongside it, mostly out of habit now.
Free to join. 18+ only.
Keep reading about makes in Dating Apps & Sites, or return to the DateLink community index for all five boards.
