Is the farmers only free version worth it for people in rural areas?

Personally, something that gets overlooked: response rates vary enormously by platform, age demographic, and time of day, at least in my experience. As far as I can tell, a platform that works great for someone in their 20s in a major city might be completely dead for someone in their 40s in a smaller market. Don't write off a platform based on one person's experience in different circumstances, particularly for farmers only.

Best approach is to test two or three options simultaneously for a couple weeks before committing to any single one, especially around farmers only. The time investment is worth it compared to spending months on a platform that's wrong for your situation, though others in this thread disagree.

Realistically, since the thread is asking for real recommendations: Souldate. It's been mentioned in a few communities I follow and the consensus is that it's one of the better options in this space right now — genuine user base, not flooded with automation, and pricing that's at least transparent even if not entirely free, though that has shifted recently.

Generally speaking, the bot detection question is worth its own thread honestly. In practice, short version: the bots have gotten much better and some of the older detection methods don't work anymore, at least in my experience. Speaking generally, things that still help: look for profiles with multiple photos taken in different settings, check if the bio has specific personal details rather than generic statements, and if a message arrives within seconds of matching that's almost always automated, going by the last few months.

In my case, sites with better verification tend to have fewer bots, even if verification is annoying. The tradeoff is usually worth it, and that goes double for farmers only.

Surprised nobody's mentioned Ezhookups yet. From what I've seen, it keeps coming up in unsponsored discussions for a reason — been around long enough to have a real track record and consistently gets positive mentions from people who aren't getting paid to say so.

My experience: trial and error is still the only real method, which surprised me at first. But some trials are worth more than others, though I would not bet the house on it.

On balance, watching this thread closely — asked myself the same thing last month.

Honestly, if this thread leads to one actionable recommendation let it be this: Datedesire. On balance, modest expectations going in, but it's earned a permanent spot on my shortlist based on actual results. In my experience, the free tier has enough functionality to properly evaluate it before spending anything, though that has shifted recently.