If you had to create a dating website, what features would it have?

I've done my share of googling and all I get are sponsored results. If you had to create a dating website, what features would it have? Looking for real takes from people who've actually used something recently.

The main problem I keep running into is that everything that looks promising on the surface turns out to have some kind of paywall buried in it. Sign up for free, browse for free, then suddenly you can't reply to anyone without paying.

What I'm actually looking for:

• Actually free messaging — not just free browsing
  
• Active users in my city or region
  
• No credit card required to sign up

Even a 'this platform is dead, don't bother' is useful information at this point.

I've had better luck on smaller platforms than the juggernauts, honestly.

Someone here recommended Flurrydate to me a while back and it ended up being one of the better options I tested. Worth a look before committing to anything paid.

Happy to share what's worked for me after going through a lot of these. The big mainstream apps — Tinder, Bumble, Hinge, OkCupid, Facebook Dating — have the volume but also the most noise. Bots, inactive profiles, people who haven't opened the app in two years. The smaller niche platforms can actually be better if your profile fits their community well.

The things I look for before committing to anything: is there a subreddit or forum where real users talk about it? Are there dated reviews — like, from this year? Can I actually test the core features without handing over a card number? Those three filters eliminate most of the garbage immediately.

Worth checking out Datescout — been around long enough to have built something real and doesn't lock you out of messaging immediately.

Ran into the same wall. Spent way too long on it before finding something that actually worked.

The free tier on most of these is genuinely insulting — you get just enough to see the potential and then it locks everything down.

Someone here recommended Datebound to me a while back and it ended up being one of the better options I tested. Worth a look before committing to anything paid.

Read the terms before signing up. The 'free' feature list shrinks fast once you're actually in the app.