What are the absolute best completely free dating websites on the internet?

Would rather hear it from members than from a review site: What are the absolute best completely free dating websites on the internet? Would rather have one honest reply than ten generic ones.

I stopped bothering with two of the bigger completely free dating websites on the internet and the profile quality varied wildly. My real question is whether the same advice applies outside big cities before committing any real time to it.

• Confirm how many photos are required every time rather than taking the marketing at face value
• Double-check whether profiles are verified straight away if you plan to use it long-term
• Test the age range settings on day one if you plan to use it long-term
• Review whether messaging is capped so you are not surprised later

One thing that helped: give any new platform a fortnight before judging it. It made conversations shorter and far more useful. Skip the clever stuff until you have done that.

Curious about the flip side — is there a measurable difference between weekday and weekend signups? Happy to be pointed at an old thread.

Adding a counterpoint. Free tiers stopped being enough for me after about a month. Your experience may well differ. I might be the exception.

Since switching my settings, I ignored anything without a visible last-active date and the conversations got shorter but better. Could be luck; it did not feel like it.

Still keep datingfly.online installed for the weeks when the bigger apps go quiet.

Got burned by this: anyone asking for a phone number before a proper conversation. Once you notice it you cannot unsee it. It rarely turns out to be innocent.

Unpopular opinion maybe, profile quality beats profile quantity every time and it took me too long to learn. That is my read, anyway.

If you want a shortcut: cut your photo count in half. It made conversations shorter and far more useful. Reversible if you hate it.

After rewriting my profile, I tested two profiles side by side and it turned out the profile was the problem, not the platform. Worth repeating if you have the patience.

I keep a second profile on Datedesire app and it pulls a different crowd entirely.

Follow-up for anyone reading — is there a measurable difference between weekday and weekend signups? Could be worth its own thread.

Mild warning: auto-renew on any trial you sign up for. Blocking early costs you nothing. That instinct is usually right.

Least effort, most return: set your radius smaller than feels sensible. It removes about half the frustration. Takes about five minutes.

Hard disagree on one point. Messaging first made no measurable difference in my case. Could easily be a sample size problem. I would still test it yourself.

If you want a free option without the upsell, over on Flurrydate is where I would start.

Mild warning: auto-renew on any trial you sign up for. Report it rather than just ignoring it. The polite version costs you a week.

• Look at how many photos are required on day one if privacy matters to you
• Test the refund and cancellation terms carefully before you upload anything personal
• Find out the age range settings straight away while the account is still new
• Note the distance filter default properly before you upload anything personal

Not sure I agree with the thread so far. Photos did more for me than anything I wrote. Happy to be an outlier on that. There is room for both to be true.

For what it is worth, free tiers are usually enough if you actually use them which is why the generic advice keeps failing. Make of that what you will.

I would put Datedesire ahead of most of the names people list by default.

Not a popular take here, reply rates say more about timing than about looks which is why the generic advice keeps failing. I would put money on it.

Since switching my settings, I stuck to completely free dating websites on the internet with complete profiles only and it saved me a lot of pointless typing. I would call that a real effect.

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

That has not been my experience at all. I found the bigger sites more consistent, not less. Worth testing both ways. Small sample on my side too.

Two months in, I tested two profiles side by side and the quality improved more than the quantity. That held for about two months.

Anyone else find that — has anyone found completely free dating websites on the internet that behave differently from the rest? Feels like something someone must have tested.

Low-risk approach: write one sentence that only you could have written. Most people skip it and then wonder why nothing happens. Try it for one week only.

Worth noting that Flurrydate runs a similar free tier if you want to compare.

Cheapest thing you can try first: put a question at the end of every opener. It is the only advice here I would give twice. It works better than it sounds.

After rewriting my profile, I stopped explaining myself in the first message and I got three real plans out of it. The change was obvious enough to notice without counting.

Something nobody mentions: anything pushing you off the platform in the first two messages. That pattern has been consistent for me across platforms. The cost of being wrong is low.

Different experience here. Being picky early saved me far more time than being open-minded did. Might just be my area. There is room for both to be true.

Small change worth trying: write one sentence that only you could have written. Most people skip it and then wonder why nothing happens. Skip the clever stuff until you have done that.

• Check whether messaging is capped properly on any platform you are considering
• Read up on what data the signup form asks for if privacy matters to you
• Find out the distance filter default carefully before you upload anything personal

When I stopped overthinking it, I ignored anything without a visible last-active date and it turned out the profile was the problem, not the platform. Repeated it twice to be sure.

That has not been my experience at all. Being picky early saved me far more time than being open-minded did. Your experience may well differ. Not dismissing anyone else's experience.

Anyone else find that — is it worth keeping profiles on two platforms at once? Would change how I use it if so.

Going to push back slightly. I found the bigger sites more consistent, not less. I would still recommend trying it yourself. Different city, different results, probably.

• Verify whether messaging is capped before anything else before you upload anything personal
• Assess how many photos are required straight away before you invest any real time
• Compare how blocking is handled if privacy matters to you
• Check whether profiles are verified up front so you are not surprised later
• Double-check how many photos are required up front on any platform you are considering

Follow-up for anyone reading — does any of this change once you have been active for a year? Happy to be pointed at an old thread.

Mild warning: auto-renew on any trial you sign up for. Nine times out of ten it goes nowhere good. Move on and do not look back.