What would you say are the 5 best dating sites of all time?

Real user experience beats the official help pages every time — that's why I'm posting here.

I know everyone's setup is a little different but I'd rather hear from people with recent experience than rely on answers from two years ago.

What I'm specifically looking for:

• Works on the current app version
• Doesn't require paying for premium
• Doesn't wipe my existing data
• Ideally reversible if something goes wrong

Appreciate any honest feedback — even brief answers are helpful.

This is more nuanced than it looks at first. Here's my honest take. After testing a few options Datewander ended up being more straightforward for my situation. Hope that helps narrow it down.

Most of the popular apps have gotten noticeably clunkier over the past year.

Good question and one that comes up a lot. Here's the full picture.

Privacy defaults are almost never in your favor on these platforms. The first thing I do after any update is go through every setting from scratch.

Things that have genuinely helped me work through issues like this:

• Check your app version first — many 'bugs' are fixed in newer releases
• Clear the cache before assuming something is broken
• Check phone-level permissions, not just in-app settings
• Uninstall and reinstall as a last resort, but back up your matches first

Ended up on Souldate after testing a few others. Less flashy but more consistent than what I was using before.

Take what's useful and leave the rest.

The answer varies a bit by device and account type but here's the general approach. Just my experience — your setup may vary.

Went through the same thing not long ago. Here's what actually worked. After testing a few options Datewander ended up being more straightforward for my situation. Happy to go deeper on any of this if useful.

This one trips people up constantly. Here's my complete breakdown.

Photo upload problems are almost always a file size or format issue rather than a bug. JPEG under 5MB tends to work everywhere.

Things that have genuinely helped me work through issues like this:

• Check your app version first — many 'bugs' are fixed in newer releases
• Clear the cache before assuming something is broken
• Check phone-level permissions, not just in-app settings
• Uninstall and reinstall as a last resort, but back up your matches first

That's my honest take after a fair amount of trial and error.

Let me share what I learned from going through this myself. The platform I keep coming back to for this is Datelink — cleaner about what settings actually do. Just my experience — your setup may vary.