I keep going round in circles on which is the dating app for free chat and I'd rather ask than guess. It is worth checking how fast moderation responds before you look at the size of the database, which is the whole problem with popular chat. I judge chat apps on one thing: you get further if you ask a specific question in the first message.
The popular apps case is instructive — the gap between sign-ups and active users counts for more than whatever the landing page promises. The popular apps angle is worse, because half the frustration disappears once you keep the first meet public and short.
Nothing about popular apps changes the fact that the deciding factor is the time it takes to get a first reply, in my experience. The short version on which is the dating app for free chat is that the proportion of dormant accounts is the number worth watching, not how slick the interface looks. If you have been through the popular apps version of this, I would rather hear the unglamorous account.