I keep going round in circles on overall, what is the best local dating app and I'd rather ask than guess. If small-town apps is your priority, how fast moderation responds is worth more than the length of the feature list. The small-town apps angle is worse, because half the frustration disappears once you video call before travelling anywhere.
The small-town case is instructive — the honest advice is to check whether a profile answers questions or deflects, on the evidence I have. The reply rate is the number worth watching, not the app store rating, which is the whole problem with small-town. Small-town apps is where I would start, since the deciding factor is the time it takes to get a first reply, from what I have seen.
For small-town residents in particular, the platform recycles the same profiles, so it pays to set the radius tighter than feels natural. Anyone weighing up overall, what is the best local dating app should know that how fast moderation responds collapses as soon as the platform keeps deleted profiles in search for weeks. Tell me where the small-town apps reasoning above falls down.