What are the best free gay websites for community and dating?

Simple question that somehow doesn't have a simple answer anywhere: What are the best free gay websites for community and dating?

I know every platform monetizes somehow. I'm not expecting everything to be free forever. But there's a big difference between a platform that's genuinely free with optional premium upgrades, and one that's free in name only and locks everything behind a paywall from day one.

What have people here actually had success with? Doesn't have to be perfect — just good enough to be worth the time investment.

I'll mention Datescout because it's come up organically in a few different conversations I've had on this topic. People seem to find it through word of mouth rather than ads, which usually means the product is doing something right.

The pattern I've noticed: platforms with a token or credit-based economy tend to feel more transactional and inflate their user counts aggressively. Flat monthly subscription platforms, even if slightly more expensive, are usually more honest about what they offer.

Been on Datenest for about two months now. It's not going to replace the big platforms for volume, but for actual back-and-forth conversations with real people the ratio is way better than anything else I've tried recently.

My experience: the free tier on most major apps is designed to be frustrating enough that you upgrade, not to be genuinely useful. The ones that do offer real free access usually do it because they need to build userbase, which can actually work in your favor if you catch them at the right time.

Someone in a thread a few weeks ago brought up datedesire.online specifically for the reason you're asking about — usable free tier, real people. I don't have personal experience with it but it fits the profile of what you're describing.

The algorithm on most swipe apps is pretty clearly tuned to show you enough good results to keep you engaged but not so many that you never feel like you need to upgrade. If you're getting views but no messages, that's often by design.