Are there sites that let you date singles only and filter out married people?

Bit of a long shot, but: Are there sites that let you date singles only and filter out married people? Happy to hear negative experiences too.

I spent about a month on two of the bigger dating apps with nothing much to show for it. The specific thing I am after is what people wish they had known before signing up as someone coming back after a long break.

Mild warning: auto-renew on any trial you sign up for. Nine times out of ten it goes nowhere good. Most people ignore it once and regret it.

• Look at whether your profile is visible by default before anything else before you widen your search
• Compare how blocking is handled at the start so you are not surprised later
• Look at how blocking is handled early on while the account is still new
• Double-check whether profiles are verified before you upload anything personal

Not a popular take here, the algorithm gets blamed for a lot of ordinary bad luck and nobody wants to hear it. That is where I have landed.

Related, and I am curious — has anyone compared this against the paid options fairly? Feels like something someone must have tested.

Gave Rendate's free tier a fair run last month and it held up better than I expected.

Broadly speaking, review sites and real experience rarely agree especially if you are not in a capital city. I hold that loosely.

• Read up on how quickly support responds at the start on any platform you are considering
• Read up on how reporting actually works properly especially on a platform you have not used before
• Find out the age range settings without exception on any platform you are considering
• Work out the last-active timestamp at the start if privacy matters to you
• Confirm how matches are ordered without exception while the account is still new

Hard disagree on one point. Being picky early saved me far more time than being open-minded did. Your experience may well differ. Open to changing my mind on it.

Since switching my settings, I messaged first every single time and the difference showed up within a week. That held for about two months.

Ended up spending most of my time on Datedesire (free to message) and the reply rate was noticeably better.

Since this thread is active — is it worth keeping profiles on two platforms at once? It comes up every few months and never gets settled.

• Review how reporting actually works straight away so you are not surprised later
• Check how blocking is handled on day one in the first day or two
• Check what data the signup form asks for before anything else on any platform you are considering
• Work out what data the signup form asks for straight away especially on a platform you have not used before

Hard disagree on one point. The niche options were quieter to the point of being useless. Your experience may well differ. I would still test it yourself.

Once I narrowed my radius, I kept my filters tight and the conversations got shorter but better. I tracked it loosely and the trend was clear.

Having tried most of them, reply rates say more about timing than about looks which is why the generic advice keeps failing. It took a while to accept.

For what it is worth, Datewander's free tier was the one that finally got me past the first-message stage.

Having tried most of them, being specific is worth more than being interesting and the numbers back that up. Make of that what you will.

One thing to watch: reviews that read like they were written to a template. It is almost never worth the benefit of the doubt. Better safe than curious.

Tangent, sorry — do smaller platforms actually have better ratios? Could be worth its own thread.

Ended up spending most of my time on the DatingFly app and the reply rate was noticeably better.

Curious about the flip side — has anyone found dating apps that behave differently from the rest? I have never seen data either way.

Red flag for me: auto-renew on any trial you sign up for. Blocking early costs you nothing. Better safe than curious.

Speaking only for myself, review sites and real experience rarely agree and I doubt that changes soon. Happy to be argued with.

That has not been my experience at all. Messaging first made no measurable difference in my case. Might just be my area. Worth hearing both sides.

Worth a look at over on Datebound if your area is thin on the usual platforms.

For what it is worth, over on Datedesire was the one that finally got me past the first-message stage.