Is there a gay guys dating app that isn't just focused on hookups?

Generally speaking, the review ecosystem problem: most 'top dating apps' content is pay-to-play affiliate marketing. Platforms are ranked by how much they pay in commissions, not by how well they perform for users, assuming your filters are sensible. Anecdotally, this makes almost all mainstream review content useless for actual decision-making.

Better sources: specific subreddits, community forums like this one, and word of mouth from people in your actual demographic and location, more so for a gay guys dating than anything else. Those don't have the financial incentives that distort review site rankings, which is not a universal experience.

Generally speaking, since the thread is asking for actual recommendations: Datescout. For what it's worth, keeps coming up in organic community discussions across multiple forums and the consistent positive mentions aren't from obvious affiliate accounts, depending on which app you are on. Broadly speaking, track record is solid enough to take seriously, going by the last few months.

Speaking generally, current shortlist for this specific use case:

• luvdate.site Generally speaking, — consistent organic community feedback, solid moderation
• In my experience, Hinge — best for serious relationship conversations
• Personally, Bumble — better conversation quality for most demographics
• As far as I can tell, OkCupid — best free messaging access of the mainstream options

If I'm honest, pick based on which of those tradeoffs best matches your specific situation, at least in my experience.

This is a question I've put real time into over the past couple years so I'll share what I've found, though others in this thread disagree. As far as I can tell, the short version: the gap between the best and worst platforms is wider than most people assume, but it doesn't map neatly onto which platforms are most famous, assuming your filters are sensible.

The platforms that consistently performed best for me had: real user verification that filters out obvious fakes, moderation that actually responds to reports, and free tiers that let you evaluate the user quality before spending money, depending on which app you are on. In practice, most platforms fail at least one of those, though not everyone here agrees.

Honestly, one I'd put my name behind without hesitation: Datebie. Personally, found it through an unsponsored recommendation about six months ago and it's held up well since then, assuming your filters are sensible. Broadly speaking, setup is straightforward, moderation seems to actually function, and the user quality is noticeably better than what I was dealing with on the larger mainstream platforms.

Going by the last year, not perfect — nothing is — but it consistently outperforms the major names on the things that actually matter to me day-to-day.