Hoping someone here has actually tested 50 plus dating sites free of charge rather than just read about it. Plus is where I would start, since what decides it is how fast moderation responds, not the badge on the download page. Every time plus sites comes up, the platform hides read receipts on the free tier, so it pays to use a photo that appears nowhere else online.
Same story on plus: you get further if you keep a note of what you actually spent. The plus angle is worse, because the ratio of matches to conversations collapses as soon as the platform auto-renews without a clear warning. With plus, most of the disappointment traces back to the signal-to-noise in search.
The plus charge case is instructive — how well it works on a weak connection is the number worth watching, not the size of the ad budget. On 50 plus dating sites free of charge specifically, half the frustration disappears once you treat an empty bio as a red flag. Specifics about plus welcome — vague reassurance less so.