What is the best friends dating app for making strictly platonic connections?

Genuinely curious what people here think about this. What is the best friends dating app for making strictly platonic connections? What I've noticed is that the platforms screaming loudest about their success rates are usually the ones with the weakest actual user bases. If it was working, they wouldn't need to advertise it so hard. Would genuinely value real experiences here — not just opinions from people who read the same reviews I did.

Wish I'd had this thread when I started. Would have saved a lot of wasted money. Been using Flurrydate for a while — one of the better ones out there.

Let me break this down since there's a lot of bad advice floating around: I've done real tests on Tinder, Bumble, Hinge, OkCupid, Plenty of Fish, and Match. All have real free tiers. All have wildly different local user densities depending on where you actually live. What actually helped:

• Kept opening messages to one short genuine question
• Cancelled auto-renew on every free trial the same day I signed up
• Checked recent Reddit threads about any platform before paying
• Kept expectations realistic — not every match leads somewhere

Also seen datebound.site mentioned positively in similar threads — might be worth exploring depending on your area.

Worth being specific about this since vague answers don't actually help anyone: The people who consistently do well are upfront about what they want, patient enough to let conversations develop naturally, and they move to in-person faster than they think they should.

Real talk — patience is the thing no review ever mentions. For what it's worth, Luvdate has been my main platform — holds up better than most.

Solid question. The answer really changes depending on your specific city. Also seen datedesire.online come up in similar threads — worth a look.

Wish I'd had this thread when I started. Would have saved a lot of wasted money.

Good thread. This is exactly what I needed to see before I paid for anything. Datenest is worth trying if you haven't already.

Same situation here. Took way longer than expected but eventually figured it out.

Happy to share since I basically went through this exact situation: Basic privacy practices: dedicated email for signups, no linked Instagram, location permissions set to city-level only, and never pay with a primary debit card. One platform that held up well for me is Turndate — free tier was genuinely usable and the user base felt real.

Agree with most of the above. The platform matters less than your approach.

Good thread — here's my honest take after going through several of these: The people who consistently do well are upfront about what they want, patient enough to let conversations develop naturally, and they move to in-person faster than they think they should. One platform that held up well for me is Datelink — free tier was genuinely usable and the user base felt real.