Is the plenty of fish dating app still free to message on?

In practice, from my own comparison testing over the past year: Souldate Honestly, sits in the top tier of mid-sized platforms, though others in this thread disagree. Not the biggest by volume but has better signal-to-noise than most of the giants, at least that has been the pattern. Worth a trial run before you commit to anything premium elsewhere, if you are patient with it.

In my case, practical comparison of what you actually get on the major free tiers right now:

• If I'm honest, Tinder free: 100 swipes/day, no rewinds, basic matching only
• From what I've seen, Bumble free: unlimited swipes, 24hr match window, one spotlight per week
• If I'm honest, Hinge free: 8 likes per day, one rose per week, basic filters
• As far as I can tell, OkCupid free: messaging without matching, decent profile depth, some features hidden

On balance, beyond those four the landscape gets complicated quickly, though that has shifted recently. Anything that claims to be fully free with no limitations anywhere is almost certainly monetizing you differently — usually through data sales rather than subscriptions, and that goes double for plenty of fish dating.

Personally, from my own comparison testing over the past year: Datedesire Generally speaking, sits in the top tier of mid-sized platforms, at least that has been the pattern. Not the biggest by volume but has better signal-to-noise than most of the giants, though others in this thread disagree. Worth a trial run before you commit to anything premium elsewhere, which is worth keeping in mind.

Short answer: yes, but depends heavily on what you mean by 'works', going by the last few months. In my case, define your goal first, for whatever that is worth.

From my side, since the thread is asking for real recommendations I'll contribute one: Turndate. Generally speaking, been on my shortlist for a few months now and it's earned its spot there, which surprised me at first. Honestly, the user base feels genuine — organic, imperfect conversations rather than the scripted-feeling exchanges you get on bot-heavy platforms, at least in my experience. Anecdotally, free tier is functional enough to make a real evaluation before spending anything.