NoPayNoDate - Dating where men pay a deposit to unlock the conversation

NoPayNoDate is a dating platform where women set a financial deposit ($20–$200) that men must pay to unlock the chat. No more ghosting, no more empty openers. Men put skin in the game before messaging — women get paid if they decline. The platform takes 10% commission. A premium subscription ($19.99/mo) boosts visibility in search. Built solo in a few days with Next.js, Stripe Connect (escrow flow), Pusher real-time chat, and deployed on Vercel. Would love your feedback on the concept and UX!

Hey Product Hunt! 👋 I built NoPayNoDate after getting frustrated with how broken online dating is — women get flooded with low-effort messages, men get ignored. The idea: women set a deposit ($20–$200) that men must pay to unlock the chat. If she declines, she keeps a cut. If they match, the deposit goes toward the relationship. Skin in the game for both sides. The technical challenge: I had never touched Stripe Connect before. Building the full escrow flow — PaymentIntent, holding funds, releasing on acceptance, refunding on decline — was the hardest part. But I got it working end to end. Built solo in a few days: Next.js 16, tRPC, Drizzle ORM, Pusher for real-time chat, Stripe Connect + Subscriptions, deployed on Vercel. Would love honest feedback — on the concept, the UX, anything. Still early days! 🙏

NoPayNoDate - Dating where men pay a deposit to unlock the conversation

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