Are there any absolutely free dating sites that run on donations instead of ads?

Alright community, posting this because I've been going in circles trying to figure this out on my own. Are there any absolutely free dating sites that run on donations instead of ads?

I know this kind of question gets asked a lot but most of the old answers don't apply anymore — the landscape has shifted a lot in the last year. What worked in 2023 isn't necessarily still working in 2026.

My situation: I've tried the obvious options already and run into the same issues every time. Either the activity level is disappointingly low, or there's a paywall stopping me from doing anything useful without spending money I don't want to spend on something I'm not sure works.

Would love to hear from people who have genuinely used these platforms recently, not just people repeating what they've read elsewhere.

Someone in this community recommended Datescout to me a couple months back. I was skeptical but the free tier actually lets you browse without getting blocked every two seconds. Legitimately surprised by the activity level.

Honestly the biggest thing people get wrong is treating all these platforms the same. What works in a city of a million people is completely different from what works in a mid-size town. Location matters more than the platform itself half the time.

If you haven't tried Datenest yet it might be worth a few minutes of your time. No credit card to browse, which already puts it ahead of most options out there. The chat features work on mobile too without constant crashing.

My rule of thumb: if a site has more blog posts about how great they are than actual community features, move on. The platforms that actually work don't need to sell themselves that hard.

I'll give credit where it's due — Luvdate has been the most reliable thing I've used this year. Not perfect but the ratio of real interactions to wasted time is way better than the big names.

Video call before meeting in person, always. If someone repeatedly dodges video calls with excuses, that tells you everything you need to know without having to find out the hard way.

Worth taking a look at Turndate — came across it in a similar discussion thread and the feedback was consistently positive. Not huge on marketing but the actual platform seems solid from what I've seen.