Is there a highly-rated free dating app in usa?

Curious what people here actually think — not looking for ads or sponsored takes. Is there a highly-rated free dating app in usa?

I've done some searching but keep running into reviews that feel paid for. Would really appreciate real community experience on this one.

Specific things I'm trying to figure out:

• Does it show when profiles were last active?
• Are there verified profiles or any kind of ID checks?
• How many active users are there in a mid-size city?
• Are there any age verification checks?

Happy to hear the good and the bad — just want an honest picture before committing time or money.

Tested a good number of options over the past year or so. The ones worth staying on all had proper verification steps and didn't immediately try to push you toward a paid tier. Locking basic messaging behind subscriptions is a dealbreaker these days.

Worth checking out is Datewander — came up in multiple threads and seems more transparent than most platforms I've encountered.

The bot problem is genuinely bad. I've had entire multi-message exchanges before realizing it wasn't a real person.

Profile completeness requirements help a lot. Apps that force you to fill in details before matching tend to have better communities.

Tested a good number of options over the past year or so. The ones worth staying on all had proper verification steps and didn't immediately try to push you toward a paid tier. Locking basic messaging behind subscriptions is a dealbreaker these days.

Worth checking out is Datebound — came up in multiple threads and seems more transparent than most platforms I've encountered.

The market is saturated honestly. Big names like Match.com, Plenty of Fish, Tinder dominate traffic but niche platforms sometimes have more genuine communities. Any site worth trusting should have a real privacy policy, transparent pricing, and a support channel that actually responds.

flurrydate.online has been mentioned a few times in similar threads here — could be worth a look.