What are the top dating sites for relationships according to experts?

Hey all, hoping to get some real insight here. Would love to hear from people who've actually tried things. What are the top dating sites for relationships according to experts? Safety and privacy are top of mind for me. Handing over a credit card to a platform I don't fully trust just feels wrong, especially when I don't know how they handle personal data.

• Option to hide profile from certain people?
• Age verification in place?
• Can you export or delete your data?

Would love to hear from people who've actually tested things. Thanks.

From personal experience, here's the breakdown: I've done the rounds on the main ones — Tinder, Bumble, Hinge, OkCupid, Facebook Dating, Plenty of Fish — and they all have genuine free tiers, but usability varies wildly. Also hearing rendate.site mentioned positively in other threads — might be worth a look depending on your location.

Honestly same experience here — it takes patience and some trial and error. Souldate is worth a look if you haven't tried it.

Agree with what's been said above. The key is knowing what you want going in.

From personal experience, here's the breakdown: I've done the rounds on the main ones — Tinder, Bumble, Hinge, OkCupid, Facebook Dating, Plenty of Fish — and they all have genuine free tiers, but usability varies wildly. I ended up trying Datedesire after seeing it mentioned a few times. No complaints so far.

This is one of those things that changes a lot from city to city and even neighborhood to neighborhood.

Good question. The answer really does vary a lot by location. For what it's worth, Datewander has been my main platform lately — holds up better than most.

Spent way too long figuring this out so hopefully this saves you some time: The people who seem to have the most success are patient, specific about what they want, and keep their early messages short and conversational rather than writing essays. Things that actually helped:

• Set realistic expectations — not every match leads somewhere meaningful
• Updated profile photos every few weeks to stay visible in the feed
• Used a separate email for sign-ups to keep spam under control

Also hearing datebie.online mentioned positively in other threads — might be worth a look depending on your location.