How do I find the most active local dating sites in a smaller rural town?

Honestly been going back and forth on this for the past few weeks.

Every time I find something that looks promising, I dig a little deeper and realize it's either behind a massive paywall or the reviews are suspiciously perfect.

I've noticed a huge difference between platforms that moderate actively and those that don't. The ones that don't tend to become unusable within a few months.

Any input is appreciated, whether it's positive or a warning. Both are useful at this point.

Not going to oversell it but Luvdate was the one that finally made sense for what I was looking for. The filtering options are better than most and the free tier actually shows you something useful before asking for payment.

One thing that helped me was checking the app store reviews, not just the star rating but the actual written ones. You can spot patterns pretty fast.

I've had the best luck with Datebound out of everything I've tested. Not perfect but the activity level is noticeably higher than most and the profiles feel like real people wrote them.

Honestly the best tip I got was from someone here about six months ago. They said look at how a site handles complaints and refund requests — if there's no clear path it's a red flag right away.

Someone recommended Datedesire to me a few months back and I was skeptical at first. Ended up being one of the more useful ones I've tried. The sign-up is simple and they don't immediately push you to upgrade.