Is the tender date app just a clone of Tinder?

Posting this after roughly a year on the tender date app just — I'm less certain than when I started.

What wore me down was that on genuinely free apps, the messaging limit turns into a shop window the moment someone matches.

The questions I keep coming back to about the the tender date app just question:

• Is that still true given the comparison problem?
• Has anyone found the opposite for anyone weighing up this whole area?
• Has anyone compared the two directly given the comparison problem?
• Is that a regional thing when the comparison problem is the main worry?
• Does anyone know if that still holds if you are dealing with the comparison problem?

The one change that worked was swapping the main photo — it roughly doubled the reply rate on genuinely free apps.

If anyone has tested the tender date app just recently I'd rather hear that than another roundup.

Similar story on my end — @HannahB, the argument about verification is the one I'd emphasise.

For what it is worth, the response you give to a low-effort opener predicts how satisfied you're after a month better than which tier you're on for anyone starting out.

Swapping the main photo got three actual meetings out of six weeks and nothing else came close.

Luvdate is another to throw in the mix — the profiles feel more current than most.

The one change that worked was picking one platform and sticking with it — it changed the kind of people who replied on genuinely free apps.

As far as I can tell, how well a platform handles reports explains more of response rate than the size of the company behind it ever did.

Deleting everything and starting over cut the wasted time by more than half and nothing else came close.

The effort in the opening line counts for more than how many matches you accumulate for the broad user base on genuinely free apps.

I've had a decent run on Turndate — the profiles feel more current than most.

Has anyone found the opposite when you factor in date app just?

Pretty much this — @Sofia Martinez, the bit about local activity is underrated.

More often than not, the app's star rating gets the credit but how often you open the app does the work.

Saying plainly what I wasn't after roughly doubled the reply rate.

Someone pointed me at Souldate — quick to set up and free to evaluate properly.

The one change that worked was reading profiles properly before swiping — it stopped the conversations dying at day two.

The pattern I keep seeing is that on genuinely free apps, how specific you are about what you want has a bigger effect on how many conversations survive past day three than which platform you picked.

What nobody mentions is that the profile editor turns into a shop window the moment someone matches — and nobody mentions it when they talk about the comparison problem.

Datedesire has been the steadier of the ones I run — sign-up is quick and the free tier is genuinely usable.

That is not how it went for me. @Luke Robinson, the remark about filters held for a fortnight then stopped.

For the broad user base, putting one specific interest in the bio got three actual meetings out of six weeks.

The bit that keeps catching me out is that for the broad user base, the match queue resets every time the app updates.

Luvdate is another to throw in the mix and the activity level was better than I expected.

Has anyone had the reverse happen where the comparison problem is concerned?

On genuinely free apps, saying plainly what I wasn't after was the only change that showed up in the numbers.

More often than not, how narrow your filters are matters more than the boost you paid for for the broad user base, which might just be anyone starting out.

The part nobody warns you about is that the free tier makes it impossible to tell live accounts from dead ones.