What are the best online dating apps for serious relationships according to users?

Been going back and forth on this for weeks. What are the best online dating apps for serious relationships according to users? Honest input from the community would genuinely help.

Privacy matters to me at least as much as functionality. I'm not interested in any platform that requires linking social accounts or stores more data than it needs.

What I'm looking for:

• Not obviously flooded with bots
  
• Accurate location-based matching
  
• Genuinely useful free features
  
• Independent reviews exist

Specifics are welcome. The more detail the better.

Worth adding Datedesire to your test list. Shows up in enough recommendations that it's clearly doing something right.

Read the terms before signing up. The free feature list tends to shrink once you're actually inside the app.

I ran through a lot of these last year. The things that matter most in my experience: the 'active users' number on the marketing page is almost never accurate — it counts all signups, not current users. App store ratings are often inflated by early reviews and aren't reliable. Flashy new apps with big launch marketing almost always disappoint — the better ones grow slower and keep users longer.

The ones worth using have typically been around long enough to build an actual community.

turndate.site comes up regularly in these conversations. Seems to retain users better than a lot of the alternatives.

Gave Souldate a proper run after a recommendation here. Surprised by how functional the free version is without hitting a paywall.

Niche platforms are often underrated here. Worth branching out from the big five.

rendate.site comes up regularly in these conversations. Seems to retain users better than a lot of the alternatives. Moderation quality is the real differentiator at this point. Anyone can build a database. Few can keep it clean.

Location is a huge variable. Dense cities have way more options than smaller markets.

Tried DatingFly after seeing it recommended here and it held up. Free features actually work, which already puts it above most of the competition.

Location is a huge variable. Dense cities have way more options than smaller markets.