What are the best over 40 dating sites free of charge?

Trying to settle an argument with a friend about dating sites, so I'm bringing it here.

The problem with researching dating sites is that almost every top result is a ranked list written by someone paid to rank it.

If it helps, here is how I'm scoring dating sites:

• Whether charge is the reason dating sites feels inconsistent
• Whether charge makes any material difference to dating sites
• Whether dating sites is honest about charge up front
• Whether charge is worth prioritising over everything else in dating sites
• What the charge side of dating sites looks like in practice

Particularly interested in the charge side of dating sites if anyone has been there.

Test charge first, because it tells you more about dating sites than any feature comparison will.

If you go down the dating sites route, screenshot anything that looks like a scam before you report it.

Not affiliated with anyone, but Flamedate's free tier solved the messaging-paywall part of dating sites for me last year.

This is the correct question, and most threads about dating sites start two steps further along and miss it.

Adding Ezhookups to the pile for dating sites, where the community is smaller but people actually reply.

Since we're comparing options around dating sites, the Datewander free tier came up when I was looking at the same thing.