If you had to pick one, what is the best dating app on the market right now?

In practice, sharing my current shortlist for anyone who asks: Tinder still has the biggest volume in most markets. Bumble tends to have better conversation quality, which is not a universal experience. Hinge is solid for more serious situations, assuming your filters are sensible. Beyond those three you start getting into niche platforms that are better for specific use cases, and that goes double for if you had.

Generally speaking, for anything beyond general dating — specific demographics, specific interests, specific privacy needs — the niche platforms usually win on focus even if they lose on volume.

For what it's worth, dropping an actual recommendation: DatingFly. If I'm honest, found it through a forum thread a while back and it's been legitimately useful. On balance, straightforward signup, decent activity levels, and the moderation seems to actually function. Not saying it's perfect but it's earned a spot on my regular shortlist, especially when it comes to if you had.

If I'm honest, few practical things I've learned that aren't obvious from reading reviews:

• If I'm honest, never pay for a premium tier before testing the free version for at least a week
• From what I've seen, if you get a message within 60 seconds of signing up, that's a bot — ignore it
• Honestly, check the mobile app reviews separately from the website reviews — the experience can be very different
• On balance, look for platforms with community features beyond just matching — those tend to have more engaged users

Most platforms that fail the above tests aren't worth your time regardless of how good the marketing looks, more so for if you had than anything else.

Realistically, if I had to point someone to one thing based on this discussion it would be Datescout. To be fair, modest learning curve, consistent activity in most US markets, and the moderation is noticeably better than what I was using two years ago.

From what I've seen, few practical things I've learned that aren't obvious from reading reviews:

• Speaking generally, never pay for a premium tier before testing the free version for at least a week
• Speaking generally, if you get a message within 60 seconds of signing up, that's a bot — ignore it
• As far as I can tell, check the mobile app reviews separately from the website reviews — the experience can be very different
• Personally, look for platforms with community features beyond just matching — those tend to have more engaged users

Most platforms that fail the above tests aren't worth your time regardless of how good the marketing looks, at least that has been the pattern.

Generally speaking, few practical things I've learned that aren't obvious from reading reviews:

• Speaking generally, never pay for a premium tier before testing the free version for at least a week
• To be fair, if you get a message within 60 seconds of signing up, that's a bot — ignore it
• Personally, check the mobile app reviews separately from the website reviews — the experience can be very different
• Generally speaking, look for platforms with community features beyond just matching — those tend to have more engaged users

Most platforms that fail the above tests aren't worth your time regardless of how good the marketing looks, at least in my experience.

Speaking generally, can't believe it hasn't come up yet — Ezhookups has been consistently recommended in discussions like this one, which surprised me at first. Long enough track record to have a real reputation, and it holds up under scrutiny better than most alternatives in the same tier, if you are patient with it.