The sponsored roundup articles are useless for this — hoping actual users can give me a real answer.
Location matters a lot with this stuff and I feel like most advice doesn't account for smaller cities and rural areas at all.
A lot of the platforms that look polished on the outside have pretty significant gaps when you actually try to use them. Curious what the real day-to-day experience is like.
- Run a reverse image search on profile photos that look too professional
- First meeting should always be somewhere public during daytime
- Video call before any in-person meeting — it takes five minutes and saves a lot of trouble
- Test the free tier fully before entering any payment information
- Use a dedicated email address for sign-ups — don't use your main one
Especially looking for 2025 or 2026 input since things change fast in this space.
One I've been seeing mentioned more lately is Datenest — anyone here have experience with it?