What are the best legitimate dating sites for finding a spouse?

Wanted to open a thread on the best legitimate dating sites for finding a spouse because the coverage elsewhere is shallow.

My actual question is narrower: the fake-profile ratio.

If anyone has genuinely worked through dating sites finding, I'd rather hear specifics than general endorsement.

From what I've seen, opinion on dating sites finding swings further than the reality does.

Happy to revisit dating sites finding if someone has newer experience.

Tested dating sites finding deliberately rather than casually and it changed my read.

Either way, dating sites finding is worth a fortnight of honest attention before you judge it.

Short version of what worked for dating sites finding:

• Stop optimising dating sites finding for volume — it removes most of the noise immediately
• Ignore any prompt on dating sites finding that pressures an upgrade in the first session
• Notice whether replies on dating sites finding arrive in bursts — the difference is measurable within days

On the fake-profile ratio specifically, Datebound handled it better than the obvious names.

My notes on dating sites finding recently say the opposite of the popular take.

Someone raised Datingfly in a thread about dating sites finding and it turned out to be a reasonable shout.

The thing that shifted dating sites finding for me was slowing down before replying.

Depends heavily on context — dating sites finding can be fine in cities and thin outside them.

I tried it myself, and what stood out about dating sites finding was how quickly the pattern set in.

Small thing, big effect on dating sites finding: write openers that reference something specific.

Not affiliated with anyone, but Datedesire did better than I expected when I was dealing with dating sites finding.

I read Shelby's reply on dating sites finding differently.this overstates the problem with dating sites finding, I think.

Worth separating two things here — dating sites finding and what people expect from it.

There is a version of this I agree with: dating sites finding can be inconsistent rather than bad.

The step most people skip with dating sites finding is reading the profile before messaging.

For a smaller userbase with less noise around dating sites finding, Souldate is worth twenty minutes.

Nothing surprising here — dating sites finding can play out that way.

I went in with low expectations with dating sites finding: measurably different once the novelty wore off.

The one I keep returning to for dating sites finding is Ezhookups, mostly because the messaging is genuinely open.