The quick answer
#Open and Kasidie both describe themselves as community platforms rather than pure swipe apps, but they built that community around different models. #Open is app-first: a mobile-native dating product with a CNM events calendar and education content layered in. Kasidie is web-first: a browser-oriented lifestyle community with forums, regional groups, trip planning, and an events directory that predates the app-first era of dating products.
#Open if you're polyamory- or open-relationship-oriented, you're in a city with an active #Open events scene, and you want a modern app experience with community baked in.
Kasidie if you're in the swinging and lifestyle community, particularly in North America, and you value an established events and club directory over interface polish.
The comparison is a genuine one because both platforms lead with community over volume. But they're not serving the same community, so which one wins depends heavily on whether your interests sit closer to polyamory or to swinging.
Side-by-side comparison
| Criteria | #Open | Kasidie |
|---|---|---|
| User base quality | Smaller network, concentrated in cities with active events (New York, San Francisco, London, Los Angeles) | Established North American lifestyle community; limited outside the US, Canada, and pockets of Australia/New Zealand |
| Verification and safety | Email only, no identity verification | Basic, email plus photo submission, some manual review |
| CNM-specific features and profile depth | Good, relationship structure options and partner linking, oriented toward polyamory and open relationships | Strong for lifestyle context (couple configuration, dating preferences), no polyamory-specific structure or metamour linking |
| Moderation quality | Not extensively tested at scale; smaller, more intentional community somewhat reduces mismatch risk | Community norms provide informal accountability; formal moderation tooling is basic |
| Pricing and value | Free tier with basic access; events layer accessible without premium; premium unlocks additional features | Free tier with limited messaging; premium unlocks full messaging, photos, and event features; competitive with other lifestyle platforms |
| Overall experience | Modern, app-native, more community-oriented than swipe-heavy | Dated interface, particularly on mobile, but functional and reliable within its niche |
| Overall score (our methodology) | 7.0 / 10 | 6.0 / 10 |
App-first vs web-first: what it actually changes
#Open was designed from the start as a mobile app, and it shows in the day-to-day experience: onboarding, matching, and the events calendar all sit inside one modern interface. Kasidie predates that expectation. It was built as a website for a community that organised around forums, trip planning, and long-form profiles, and its mobile experience is a layer added on top of that, not the product's original design centre. If interface quality and everyday usability matter to you, #Open is the more comfortable product to use.
That doesn't make Kasidie's approach worse, just older. The features that a web-first design produces, deep regional forums, trip planning tools for members travelling to lifestyle events, a club and party directory built up over more than a decade, are genuinely useful to the community Kasidie serves, and they're not things #Open has tried to replicate. The trade-off is UX polish for depth of community infrastructure.
Events, but for different reasons
Both platforms treat events as central, but the events themselves serve different purposes. #Open's events calendar is aimed at people newer to CNM: discussion groups, social meetups, and workshops that offer a lower-stakes way into the community than dating cold. Kasidie's events and club directory is aimed at an already-established lifestyle audience: swingers clubs, parties, and travel-linked gatherings for members who know what they're looking for and are seeking real-world venues to find it.
If you're new to CNM entirely and want a structured, educational way in, #Open's events layer is closer to what you need. If you're already part of the swinging community and looking for where the parties and clubs actually are, Kasidie's directory has more relevant depth, particularly in North America.
Network size versus network fit
#Open's biggest limitation is raw numbers: outside a handful of cities with an active events scene, the dating pool thins out quickly. Kasidie's biggest limitation is geographic: it has real density in the US and Canada but comparatively little outside North America. Neither platform competes with Feeld on scale, and neither is trying to. The relevant question isn't which has more users, it's whether your specific interest, polyamory-adjacent community versus swinging-adjacent community, matches what each platform's users actually showed up for.
Verification and safety: neither is a solved problem
Neither platform offers meaningful identity verification. #Open relies on email sign-up alone, the same baseline as most CNM apps. Kasidie asks for a photo submission alongside email and does some manual review, which is a modest step up but still falls well short of ID or video verification. In both cases, the platform's community norms do more practical safety work than the technology does: #Open's smaller, more intentional user base reduces the odds of encountering people who misrepresent their intentions, while Kasidie's couples-first, events-oriented culture creates some informal accountability that a purely anonymous swipe platform lacks. Neither substitutes for your own vetting before meeting anyone in person.
Which one should you start with
If you're new to CNM and unsure whether your interests lean toward polyamory or swinging, #Open is the lower-friction starting point. Its events layer is accessible on the free tier, so you can attend a discussion group or social meetup before deciding whether the platform's dating layer is worth pursuing further, and its educational content is aimed squarely at people still working out the basics. Kasidie assumes more: it's built for people who already know they're interested in the lifestyle specifically, and its forums and trip planning tools reward members who are already active in that community rather than easing newcomers in.
If you're a couple weighing both
Couples whose interests span open relationships and the swinging lifestyle don't have to choose permanently. #Open and Kasidie serve different enough communities that running both, at least during an initial exploration phase, is a reasonable way to work out where you actually fit. Both offer usable free tiers, so the cost of testing both is time rather than money.
Conclusion
#Open and Kasidie are both community-first platforms wearing different decades of product design. #Open's app-native experience and events-as-entry-point model suit polyamory and open-relationship daters, especially newcomers, particularly well. Kasidie's web-first depth, forums, trip planning, and an events directory built over more than fifteen years, still serves the swinging and lifestyle community better than any app-first alternative has managed to. The choice comes down to which community you're actually trying to reach, not which product feels more modern.
Related: #Open review · Kasidie review · Feeld vs #Open · Kasidie vs SLS · Best dating apps for CNM