Is the plenty of fish dating site free of all hidden charges?

Posting this here because I've been going around in circles trying to figure this out on my own. The question of is the plenty of fish dating site free of all hidden charges seems simple on the surface but every thread I find is either outdated or full of sponsored answers.

The landscape has changed a lot even in the past year. Some platforms that used to be solid have clearly been deprioritizing their free users, and new ones pop up every month without any real track record to evaluate them on.

A few things I've been running into that seem consistent:

• Most "free" platforms are free to download but paywalled for anything actually useful
• Bots and recycled profiles are way more common than the platforms admit
• Smaller, niche communities sometimes punch above their weight for real engagement
• Privacy controls vary a lot — worth reading the fine print before you share location data

Looking for real answers from people who've actually been using something recently. Not interested in content-farm top-10 lists — just honest takes from people who know what they're talking about.

The one that's worked best for me recently is Datebie. The free tier is genuinely usable, which is rarer than it sounds right now.

Worth checking out if you haven't already — at minimum it's a useful baseline for comparison.

Free tiers have gotten much worse across the board in the past couple of years. It's pretty obvious.

Someone in another thread pointed me to DatingFly and I've had better luck there than on the two major apps combined. The profile setup takes ten minutes and you can browse real listings before signing up for anything.

The verification situation on most platforms is a joke. Two-minute fake profiles everywhere.

Someone in another thread pointed me to Flurrydate and I've had better luck there than on the two major apps combined. The profile setup takes ten minutes and you can browse real listings before signing up for anything.