gay dating apps are broken.

If you’ve been on gay dating apps before, you’ve felt it. More ads. Fewer features. Fake profiles everywhere. Everything that used to be free slowly locked behind a paywall. Somewhere along the way, these apps stopped being built for gay people and started being built for investors.

Ruck exists because we’re tired of that. We didn’t want to make another app running the same tricks to extract money and attention. We wanted something that respects the people using it.

why we built this

Gay dating apps aren’t just utilities. They’re part of queer culture. They’re how people meet, explore, find community, and sometimes find safety. Then corporate priorities took over. Growth at all costs. Monetization first. Users second. We think that’s worth pushing back against. Ruck is built to stay useful, not to scale endlessly and cash out.

built for the community, not investors

We’re moving Ruck into independent, non-profit stewardship. That means no VC pressure, no exit plan, and no incentive to hollow the app out over time. This isn’t branding - it’s a legal structure designed to stop the usual decay.

free features that stay free

  • Messaging, browsing, photos - they don’t disappear later behind a subscription.

  • We offer a paid membership to cover costs and unlock extras, not to ransom basic functionality.

  • Matching based on shared interests, not noise:

  • Your interests only show up to people who share them.

  • Your filters are built from what you’re actually into and the stats you share.

  • If you share an interest, you'll see it. If you don’t, you don’t.

community beyond the grid

  • Create or join local events based on things you actually enjoy.

  • No algorithms pretending to know you better than you do.

  • Just people, offline options, and less pressure.

privacy that’s locked down by design

  • We collect only what’s necessary to run the app.

  • No social account linking required

  • No silent repurposing of your data

  • No selling, sharing, or “partner” loopholes.

  • No album screenshots.

what you won’t find here

  • Intrusive ads breaking your flow

  • Your data sold or reused

  • Core features quietly removed

  • AI gimmicks pretending to fix connection

  • Dark patterns designed to frustrate you into paying

how ruck feels

  • Clean, smooth, calm

  • No clutter

  • No interruptions

  • Conversations without limit

  • An app that isn’t working against you

stewardship, not ownership

We’re transitioning Ruck to be governed by an independent non-profit trust. That means:

  • Core features protected as free, permanently

  • No data sales - it’s written into our governance

  • Transparent reporting on costs and operations

  • Accountability to users, not shareholders

This is about keeping the app stable and resistant to corporate slide.

why ruck exists

  • Because gay dating apps shouldn’t feel hostile.

  • Because “community” shouldn’t be a slogan while users get squeezed.

  • Because this space deserves protection, not extraction.

  • Ruck is for people who are tired of being treated like inventory.

  • Ruck is just honest technology, built for the community, not the investor.