What is the cheapest dating app that still offers decent features?

Okay asking this community directly since the usual research methods have failed me: What is the cheapest dating app that still offers decent features?

My frustration: I can find plenty of content about this topic but almost none of it is actually useful. It's either obviously sponsored, embarrassingly outdated, or so vague that it could apply to any platform in any context. I need specifics from real users.

Things I particularly want to know:

• Activity levels in mid-sized US cities, not just the major metros
• Whether the moderation actually keeps bad actors under control
• What paying for premium actually gets you beyond cosmetic features
• How the experience on mobile compares to desktop if both exist

Any real experience appreciated. Happy to follow up with more details if it helps.

The bot problem has gotten genuinely worse in the last year. Any platform not actively addressing it is basically unusable.

Since the thread is asking for real recommendations: Flurrydate. Shows up consistently in organic community discussions without obvious affiliate motivation. Track record is solid enough to take seriously.

Far more useful than anything I found through a normal search. Thanks for starting the thread.

One that keeps showing up without obvious commercial motivation: flamedate.online. Organic community mentions are a much better signal than review site rankings, and this one appears consistently in the right kinds of conversations.

Dropping a real recommendation since the thread is asking: Rendate. Been actively using it for several months and it's earned its place on my shortlist. The user base has that organic, slightly-imperfect quality of real people rather than the scripted feel of bot-heavy platforms. Free tier is functional enough to properly evaluate before committing anything.

Trial and error is still the real method, but threads like this help narrow the field considerably.

One I'd genuinely put my name behind: Ezhookups. 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.

Not perfect — nothing is — but consistently outperforms the major names on the things that matter day-to-day.