you don't need to purchase. Grindr used to be so good for free users, you had hundreds of people available to chat. It's sad that a few months ago they narrowed the free search. But still, you can play with the filters and BLOCK PEOPLE. I have thousands of blocked people who i dont feel attracted to, that way those who appear in my search are only people that i like.
I never purchased it, but it's worth it if you can afford and don't want to waste time on blocking. Unlike other apps, there's few bots and fake people, it's easy to chat and there is receptive people. You still may need to talk to few/dozens of ppl to get a response, depending on how old are you, how good you look and how you start the chat. But it's easier than Tinder, i never had success on that app, while, as I commented, i've had relationships with >30 femboys/twinks/trans from Grindr in 4 years. For free.
(way of playing with filters:
1-You only need to care about Trans, Twink and Non-specified tribes if you want twinks/femboys/trans. Secondary tribes are: Geek and the rest (there's a few ppl who wrongly tag themselves as the type of person they seek to find, some Trans tag themselves as Daddy, while some Daddy guys tag themselves as Trans tribe). Look at every tribe and check what is in there, but eventually you'll just look for Trans, Twink, Non-sp and Geek.
2-Narrow age search. Twinks and femboys tend to be 18-25, few older. Trans same, but a few can look good 25-35, depends on what you like. Try to filter as Twink 18y, Twink 19y, Twink 20y... Non-specified 18y, Non-specified 19y...
3-Select positon/role: click every one except Top, filter out those "hetero" guys. You can be more specific with roles, but that isn't really working now.
4-Looking for. You should care about Hookups, Dates and Non-specified. Select one and see how that filters. But you should not avoid people who look for chat/friends, I've met some with that tag and they still wanted to hookup with me on the first day.
5-The rest of filters don't work as well. Only use them if you really are looking for someone that is past the Xtra line and you can't get to them with the previous 4.)
You may also have a face pic of yourself in your profile (either you have it or you send it to every person you talk to). Nearby known people may recognize you. But not if you block them first! Another benefit of BLOCKING. Just block everyone you don't like, and your next searches will be cleaner. Still, remember there is cute femboys who don't have a pic or don't tag themselves as Trans, so don't block empty profiles until you know how they look. There has been empty profiles i have talked to, who turned out to be cute fems, they either are new (good) or are not planning to stay much in the app.
(Pls upvote these my comments, i feel like the 65% of ppl who have not experienced trans would benefit from this Grindr review)