What is the best and free dating site for a total beginner to online dating?

Quick question from someone who's pretty new to all this — I'd love some actual user experiences.

The thing is, a lot of these apps are technically 'free' but you quickly realize you can't do much without handing over a credit card. That's not free — that's a trial.

Would love to hear what's actually worked for people here. Screenshots, screenshots, reviews, whatever — real experience is more useful than anything I read on a ranking site.

I've tested probably a dozen apps over the past two years. My honest take is that the free tiers vary wildly. Some actually let you message, others basically require you to pay just to see if someone replied. The user base also depends a lot on your city. You might want to check out Ezhookups — it came up in a similar conversation and people seemed to like it.

Things I've learned the hard way about free dating apps:

• The 'free' label usually means free to browse, not free to connect
• Smaller platforms often have more genuine users but fewer of them
• Apps with phone verification tend to have fewer bots
• Avoid anything that asks for payment info at sign-up — red flag

I wish someone had told me this earlier. Would have saved me a lot of time. I've actually been using Rendate lately and it's been decent for what it is. Worth a look.

Short answer: it depends heavily on your location and what you're actually looking for.

I've been asking myself the same thing. Following this thread for updates. I've seen DatingFly.online mentioned in a few places. Seems to have a decent reputation.