Flingster alternative: choosing who you meet is the free part
Flingster asks about $6.99 a week, $19.99 a month, or $89.94 for six months — the figures four independent reviews quote consistently through 2025 and 2026. The subscription is called VIP, and its headline item is the gender filter: on the free tier there is no choosing at all. Veilr is a video chat where the choosing is the free part — it is at the top of this page: pick video, press start.
What the VIP actually buys
By those same reviews, VIP covers the gender filter, a country filter, a verification badge, extended AR face filters, a button back to the partner you just left, hiding where you are, and a screen without ads. Billing runs through Segpay, renews on its own, and DatingScout reports no refund policy.
None of that is more conversation: it is the parts deciding who turns up on your screen.
On Trustpilot it sits at 2.8 out of 5 across 52 reviews, split the telling way: half five stars, four in ten one star. The one-star reviews repeat three things — bans that arrived after the subscription was paid for, with no reason and no reply; a VIP charge that went through, crypto included, with no access at the end; and a renewal nobody could reverse. An angry sample, not a measurement — but it is why "sites like flingster" gets typed.
The free door, and what walks through it
The front page asks almost nothing: choose male, female or couple, allow the camera, and you are in. Reviews tie the rest back to that: DatingScout writes that bogus members were all over the site given its easy registration process, and bots and fake profiles head every complaint list. The balance they report runs about 70 men to 30 women; one hands-on test put it at 76 to 24.
A door with no lock lets everyone in — and the filter for sorting them costs $19.99 a month.
What Veilr gives away instead
The filter is the free part. Set your gender in your profile and you can choose who to talk to: free, tried first whenever someone you asked for is online, and if nobody is, you are connected to someone else rather than left waiting. The other person’s choice is always respected. With Boost your choice is a hard filter and you go first in line; people who registered as non-binary are matched by those who chose ‘Any’. Age and country are preferences, not gates: a search that finds nobody widens instead of stalling. Boost turns them into gates as well.
Everyone who searches signs in first. You arrive with a social account you already have — the sign-in screen shows which ones are open to you — and there is no guest mode, no search without one. It is a step Flingster never asks of you, and it is why a Veilr ban lands on an account, a device and a network address, not a session anyone can remake. Veilr is adults only, 18+, and an account whose recorded age is under 18 is refused a match.
Penalties you can read. No automatic decision bans anybody for good: 30 days is the ceiling, a permanent block takes a person, and the notice says which it was. If it is wrong, you appeal to support.
Three formats, and the one you picked holds. Text, voice and video are separate modes, chosen before the search and fixed until the talk ends: a chat begun with the camera off cannot become a camera pointed at you. In text and voice your photo reaches your partner blurred, though one with an active Boost can clear it for that chat without you knowing; alongside your gender and age bracket they see a country flag when the country is known, a verified or Boost badge, and your native language once you set it. Your exact age goes only to someone who set an age preference. Nothing else reaches a stranger you are matched with — not your name, email address or city.
Both languages at once, and a way to keep the person. Type in yours and your message can reach your partner in theirs, the original one tap away; every free account starts with a run of translations, earns more, and Boost lifts the ceiling. On a call between two declared languages, live captions start on their own: five free minutes with a new account, then Boost, a top-up or a reward. We never save recordings of your calls. Press ‘Add to contacts’, and if the other does too they become a contact and the conversation stays. Only two things are sold on Veilr: Boost, which puts you first in the queue, and extra caption minutes.
The two of them, honestly
| Flingster | Veilr | |
|---|---|---|
| Getting in | A gender, a camera, no email | An account you already have |
| Hiding your face | AR masks, free | Voice or text as a format of its own |
| Filtering by gender | VIP — about $19.99 a month | Free preference, tried first; hard only with Boost |
| Country | VIP | A free preference, widened if nobody fits; strict with Boost |
| Across languages | Text messages translated | Text translated, calls captioned as they speak |
| On a phone | Mobile browser; no official app | Browser, or an Android app |
| What pays for it | Ads, then a renewing VIP | Free core; Boost and caption minutes |
Two of those rows are Flingster's, and the first is not close: nothing will ever be quicker than a page that wants a gender and a camera. The second matters more: a mask changes what a stranger sees of you, not who the stranger is, or whether tomorrow's ban still finds them. That is what a sign-in buys, and the filters under it cost nothing.
Who this leaves where
If you want a mask to hide behind and no account, and you don't mind $19.99 a month for the filter, stay with Flingster. If you want the filter free and the person still reachable next week, start above.
Starting a video chat on Veilr
- 1. Sign in with a social account you already have.
- 2. Pick video — the format is fixed before the search and cannot change under you.
- 3. Set the gender filter, press start, and press ‘Add to contacts’ when a conversation earns it.
Questions people ask about Flingster
Is Flingster free?
The chat is; choosing who you talk to is not — both filters sit inside VIP, quoted at $6.99 a week or $19.99 a month. On Veilr they cost nothing, along with all three formats and a run of translations.
Does Flingster have an app?
No official one — it is a website in a mobile browser. Apps published under that name in Google Play are not connected to flingster.com, and one review tells readers to avoid them. Veilr runs in a browser, and has a native Android app.
Can I use Veilr without putting my face on camera?
Yes. Voice and text are formats of their own, picked before the search — not a panel beside a video window.
What happens if someone behaves badly?
On Veilr, reporting them during a chat moves you on to the next partner, and we keep the two of you out of each other's matches for a day. Blocking is a separate choice of your own, and works both ways.
Related
- The comparison index
- Emerald Chat — sells the gender filter too.
- Thundr — filters bought with coins.
- Video chat — this page's format.
- Voice chat — talking, with captions.
All trademarks and service names on this page belong to their respective owners. Veilr is not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to any of them.