Are there any completely free dating apps that don't have premium tiers at all?

Alright community, posting this because I've been going in circles trying to figure this out on my own. Are there any completely free dating apps that don't have premium tiers at all?

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.

Worth taking a look at Luvdate — 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.

The token systems on cam sites are specifically designed to obscure how much you're spending. Always convert to actual dollars before you start tipping and set a hard limit for the session. It's very easy to spend three times what you planned without noticing.

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.

One underrated thing: actually reading a profile before messaging. A specific opener that references something in their bio gets a response rate that's dramatically higher than a generic greeting. Most people don't bother and it shows.

One thing that actually helped me: stopping trying to use five platforms at once and going deep on one or two. You get a better sense of how they work and your profile builds some actual history.