Who is behind The Companion Lab, and how we test
We are a small testing desk, not a media brand. One card, nine apps and a spreadsheet of screenshots. This page says who does what, what we spend, and where you can check us from outside.
What are the rules we test by?
Every number on this site has to point at something we did ourselves. These are the rules, in the order we apply them.
- We pay for the plans, on our own card. In October 2026 that was 8 subscriptions: Kindroid Standard, Secrets Premium, Ourdream Premium, Candy Premium, SpicyChat True Supporter, GirlfriendGPT Premium, DreamGF Premium and Xotic Ultimate. We buy direct, never through our own affiliate links, use the plan for the paid checks, then cancel. Nomi is the one app we have not paid for, so its review only claims what a free account showed us.
- We record the real statement descriptor. One card, 7 merchant strings taken from our own card notices and recorded before cancelling: EverAI candy.ai MT, DREAMSTUDIOS.CO Limassol CY, S LABS INC 604-3295224 CA US, NDAI.CC 514-2860020 DE US, NDAI.CHAT 514-2860020 DE US, Dream AI dreamgf.ai RO and Xotic.ai Tallinn EE. Where we only have a site’s promise about its statement name, we label it as the site’s claim instead of calling it a bank line.
- The same six messages, in the same order, everywhere. A rent rant, two facts to remember (Biscuit the cat, a peanut allergy), a request for a joke only that character would tell, a bad career question about poker, a memory quiz three messages later, and a selfie request. Five apps on free accounts on 18 October 2026, four more on paid accounts on 20 October. Replies are quoted verbatim; Ourdream’s first run came back in Chinese and is marked as our translation.
- 9 character creators walked and rebuilt. Every creator step and option was screenshotted as a guest or on an account, then rebuilt as a click-through replica under
/try/so you can see the questions before handing over an email. - No explicit images, ever. Where an app produced an explicit picture or video we state what it was and what it cost, and we publish none of it. Our replica portraits are stand-ins we generated, not the apps’ artwork.
- Affiliate links are marked and never decide a verdict. Outbound “Visit” links go through
/go/<slug>/?sub=…, are markedrel="sponsored nofollow"and open in a new tab. Where the destination pays us, the link says “affiliate link” next to it; where it does not, it says so. Candy has an affiliate programme and sits eighth of nine.
Who does what on a test?
Two roles, deliberately separated. The person who runs the test does not get to sign off their own claims.
Runs the test end to end
- Creates the accounts — guest walkthroughs first, then a free account, then a paid one where the free plan stops.
- Subscribes on our own card, notes the amount and the date, and screenshots the merchant name on the card notice.
- Sends the six messages, records every reply word for word, and notes the coin, Moment, token or credit balance after each one where the app has a balance.
- Walks the character creator step by step, keeps the on-screen text and the option lists the site loads, then cancels the plan inside the test window.
Checks the evidence, not the opinion
- Re-opens every screenshot and clip against the written claim before it ships, and checks video files for their real length and resolution where we quote those.
- Reads the front-end code and network payloads behind prices, coin costs, statement names and model labels, so a “site code” claim is a file we kept, not a memory.
- Signs off each
verifiedentry in our app records; anything that does not survive the check moves to thenotTestedlist on that review instead of being softened.
The same split applies to scores: the lead tester argues the number, the second reviewer checks the reason attached to it. Where we could not test a dimension, the score is null and the page says “not tested” rather than filling the gap with a guess.
Where can you check us from outside this site?
Everything below is a public profile or open copy of our data. The same five addresses are listed in the organisation schema on this page and on the home page, so a reader can tie the site to the people who write it.
- GitHub — @fancydirtyOur GitHub account.https://github.com/fancydirty
- GitHub GistA public gist on the same GitHub account.https://gist.github.com/fancydirty/c5d74dba7875d93d8fb2e690596860a8
- DEV Community — @fancy39_9841cbc02f99f729cOur DEV Community profile.https://dev.to/fancy39_9841cbc02f99f729c
- Hashnode — @thecompanionlabThe Hashnode account registered under this site’s name.https://hashnode.com/@thecompanionlab
- Hacker News — dirtyfancyOur Hacker News profile.https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=dirtyfancy
Our method lives at how we test; the merchant-name dataset at bank statements; the October ranking at the best AI girlfriend apps.
What do we not know yet?
- We have not run conversations across days and weeks, so every memory score means memory inside one chat.
- We have not paid for Nomi, and we have not recorded a card descriptor for Nomi or Kindroid. We paid for Kindroid Standard on the web on 18 October 2026, but no merchant string from that charge is in our records, so nothing is printed for it rather than a guess.
- We have not tested every tier. Deluxe, Elite, annual plans, token packs, voice calls and group chats are named as untested on the reviews that mention them.
- Prices move. The official page always wins over ours, and we date every number so you can see how old it is.
Frequently asked questions
Who runs The Companion Lab?
Two roles at one desk: a lead tester who signs up, pays and runs the six-message test, and a second reviewer who checks every claim against the original screenshots, video files and front-end code before it goes on the site.
Who pays for the subscriptions you test?
We do, on one card, and we cancel them in the test window. Eight of the nine apps on our ranking were paid for by us in October 2026. Nomi is the only one we never paid: we tested its free plan and its subscription page, and its review says so.
Do you publish explicit screenshots?
No. We crop or withhold anything sexually explicit. Where an app produced an explicit picture we say what it was and what it cost, and we do not show it.
Do affiliate links affect your scores?
No. Every subscription was bought direct with our own card, never through our own links. Some outbound links are affiliate links and we may earn a commission; Candy has an affiliate programme and sits eighth of nine.