Okay so I finally decided to just post and ask directly rather than keep second-guessing what I read elsewhere.
The number of platforms out there is honestly overwhelming and the quality gap between them is massive. Some are clearly just trying to extract credit card info, some are ghost towns, and a handful are genuinely worth your time. The hard part is telling them apart without wasting money in the process.
Free trials are your best friend here — they give you enough time to actually evaluate whether the user base is real.
The specific things I'm trying to nail down:
- Is the active user base large enough to actually be useful?
- What's included in the free tier versus paid?
- How does the platform handle fake or inactive profiles?
- What do verified third-party reviews actually say?
Would really appreciate hearing from people who have actually used these and can give honest feedback rather than just repeating what the marketing says.