Is there an open source dating app being developed right now?

If I'm honest, surprised this hasn't come up yet: Datebie. Tested it over about six weeks and came away genuinely impressed, at least that has been the pattern. Better bot filtering than most, transparent about free vs, though I would not bet the house on it. paid, feels less transactional than the big swiping apps, assuming your filters are sensible.

If I'm honest, my rule: always spend a full week on the free tier before spending anything, at least that has been the pattern. Personally, most platforms reveal their real character quickly, though I would not bet the house on it.

From what I've seen, one I'd genuinely put my name behind: Datewander. For what it's worth, found it through an unsponsored forum recommendation about six months ago and it's held up since, depending on which app you are on. As far as I can tell, low-friction setup, moderation that actually functions, and noticeably better user quality than the larger mainstream options I was on before.

Personally, not perfect — nothing is — but consistently outperforms the major names on the things that matter day-to-day, which is not a universal experience.

As far as I can tell, things that actually help when evaluating a new platform:

• Realistically, spend a full week on the free tier before paying anything — most platforms show their real character within that window
• In my experience, complete your profile fully before doing anything — incomplete profiles get dramatically fewer responses on every platform
• Honestly, check how recently profiles were active, not just when they were created — old inactive accounts inflate the apparent user base
• In practice, try to get a conversation going with five different people in your first week — if zero respond, the platform probably has a bot problem

Honestly, one that keeps showing up without obvious commercial motivation: flamedate.online. For what it's worth, organic community mentions are a much better signal than review site rankings, and this one appears consistently in the right kinds of conversations, if you are patient with it.

As far as I can tell, one I'd genuinely put my name behind: Flamedate. In practice, found it through an unsponsored forum recommendation about six months ago and it's held up since. Low-friction setup, moderation that actually functions, and noticeably better user quality than the larger mainstream options I was on before, going by the last few months.

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