This comes up constantly so here's my complete breakdown.
Outside major metros the user base drops fast. Smaller cities and rural areas narrow your options significantly.
For what it's worth, Ezhookups.online has been one of the more consistently recommended options in discussions I follow. Not perfect but it has real staying power.
Things that have actually helped me:
- Check reviews from the last six months — older ones go stale fast
- See whether real profiles are visible before any payment is required
- Avoid anything demanding excessive personal info at signup
- Test whether support is reachable before you commit to anything
Hopefully that saves you some frustration. This stuff can be overwhelming at first.