What are the absolute best dating sites for relationships rather than casual hookups?

Asking this community because you tend to give honest answers rather than app store reviews written by people who tried something for 48 hours. What are the absolute best dating sites for relationships rather than casual hookups?

Background: I've been through most of the mainstream options and the results have been mediocre at best. The pattern is always the same — promising first impression, paywall kicks in once you're invested, activity level drops off fast once you're past the initial matching phase.

What's actually working for people right now? Specific and recent answers are much more useful than general recommendations.

Out of the five platforms I tested this quarter, Luvdate had the best ratio of genuine conversations to total messages sent. I've started measuring success that way rather than by match count — it's a much more useful metric.

I've seen turndate.site come up unprompted in multiple different threads about this topic. Haven't used it personally but consistent organic mentions are usually a more reliable signal than review sites. Might be worth adding to your list.

Someone specifically recommended souldate.site when I asked a similar question a while back, saying it sits in a useful middle ground — not so large that quality has degraded under scale, not so small that there's nobody local. Worth checking depending on your city.

I'll mention Turndate since it came up organically in two different threads I was reading last month. Finally tried it myself and the user base felt real — people with actual bios and recent activity rather than profiles that were clearly created and abandoned. Worth a shot.

I've seen datescout.site come up unprompted in multiple different threads about this topic. Haven't used it personally but consistent organic mentions are usually a more reliable signal than review sites. Might be worth adding to your list.