AI girlfriend app alternatives, tested not guessed
Eight brands people search for, and the nine apps we can actually vouch for. For six of those brands we have never run our six-message test, and those pages say so before the first recommendation.
Which brand are you switching from?
- Not tested by us
Character.AI
If Character.AI has stopped giving you the roleplay you want, the useful question is which app will. We can only answer for the nine we chatted with, paid for and read the bank notice from. Here is that ranking, and which one to pick for what.
- Not tested by us
Replika
People leave a companion app for one of two reasons: it forgot something that mattered, or it started charging for the thing they came for. Our nine-app test measured only a little of the first — three messages of memory — and all of the second.
- Not tested by us
CrushOn AI
A roleplay app lives or dies on two numbers: how many characters you can reach and how much each message costs you after the free trial. We measured the second one with our own cards in eight apps.
- Not tested by us
Janitor AI
Half the appeal of a hosted companion app is that you do not have to wire up a model yourself. All nine apps here are hosted, all nine sat the same six-message test, and eight of them took our money.
- Not tested by us
Muah AI
“Safer billing” is not a slogan here. It means we paid with our own cards and wrote down what came back: seven merchant strings from card notices, seven cancellations, and how many screens each one took.
- First look only (20 Oct 2026)
DarLink AI
We did sign up to DarLink AI — and that first look is the whole reason this page exists. The account page read “Plan: No plan yet” and every plan was paid. If you are looking for an app you can try before paying, here are nine that we tested.
- Full test: six messages + paid month
Candy AI
Candy has a nice character creator and a shop window full of explicit video series. On a free account our chat stopped at the fifth message, behind a “private video” we had not asked for. That is the specific thing the apps below are being compared against.
- Full test: six messages + paid month
Ourdream AI
Ourdream has the best character creator we tried and a chat that charges by the message until you subscribe. If the meter is what pushed you away, these are the tested apps that do not have one.
Which of the nine apps should you switch to?
Ranked by the average of our four test areas. Every price below is from our own test, not from a spec sheet.
| # | App | Score | One month | Watch for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | Secrets AI | 8.3 | $19.99 a month | You want unlimited free chat (it stops at 20 messages a day) or a home page you can open on the bus. |
| #2 | Nomi AI | 7.8 | $15.99 a month | You want to design a face from scratch or you’re here for explicit pictures. |
| #3 | SpicyChat AI | 7.5 | $19.95 a month | You want video, or one companion that feels like a person. |
| #4 | Ourdream AI | 7.0 | $19.99 a month | You want long free chats. Each message spends a coin. |
| #5 | Kindroid AI | 6.8 | $13.99 a month | You want to stay on a free plan for long. |
| #6 | Xotic AI | 5.5 | $24.99 a month | You hate being sold to between messages. |
| #7 | GirlfriendGPT | 5.5 | $15 a month | Pictures of a character you made are the point. |
| #8 | Candy AI | 4.8 | $9.99 first month, then $13.99 | You want a companion that listens. Try Secrets or Nomi first. |
| #9 | DreamGF | 3.5 | $12.99 first month, then $25.98 | You want real conversation, or you might forget to cancel. |
What do the nine apps put on your bank statement?
Seven of the eight paid apps have a merchant string recorded in our files. Nomi and Kindroid have none: we did not pay for Nomi and have not checked Kindroid’s statement.
| App | Statement shows | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Secrets AI | S LABS INC 604-3295224 CA US | The notice and how we cancelled |
| Nomi AI | Not recorded by us yet | — |
| SpicyChat AI | NDAI.CC 514-2860020 DE US | The notice and how we cancelled |
| Ourdream AI | DREAMSTUDIOS.CO Limassol CY | The notice and how we cancelled |
| Kindroid AI | Not recorded by us yet | — |
| Xotic AI | Xotic.ai Tallinn EE | The notice and how we cancelled |
| GirlfriendGPT | NDAI.CHAT 514-2860020 DE US | The notice and how we cancelled |
| Candy AI | EverAI candy.ai MT | The notice and how we cancelled |
| DreamGF | Dream AI dreamgf.ai RO | The notice and how we cancelled |
What did the same six messages reveal?
Five apps on free accounts (18 October 2026) and four on paid accounts (20 October 2026). The free-round winners are the ones we wrote down at the time; the paid-round winners are read off the grades in our chat log.
| Round | Testing | Free accounts (18 Oct): winner | Paid accounts (20 Oct): winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Does it listen? | Kindroid and Secrets, with Candy a surprise third | SpicyChat, GirlfriendGPT, Xotic |
| 2 | Planting two facts for later. | Kindroid and Secrets | SpicyChat, GirlfriendGPT, Xotic |
| 3 | Personality. | Secrets, and it isn’t close | GirlfriendGPT, Xotic |
| 4 | Will it push back, or just agree with you? | Kindroid and Secrets | All four (SpicyChat, GirlfriendGPT, DreamGF, Xotic) |
| 5 | Memory, three messages later. | Four-way tie | All four (SpicyChat, GirlfriendGPT, DreamGF, Xotic) |
| 6 | Pictures, and what they cost. | Secrets, with Nomi close behind | SpicyChat |
Full transcripts: the free five andthe paid four.
What should you check before switching?
- What the free plan gives you before a wall. Nomi: nothing in the way. SpicyChat: 46 messages, no cap, but no pictures. Candy: five messages, then a locked video we never asked for.
- First month versus rebill. Candy is $9.99 then $13.99. DreamGF is $12.99 then $25.98, and its billing page says so before you pay.
- Whether media is included. SpicyChat includes in-chat pictures in its $19.95 plan. Secrets charges Moments (50 a photo), Ourdream 5 coins, Xotic 50 XOT, DreamGF 2 tokens.
- How long cancellation takes. Secrets and SpicyChat: two screens. DreamGF: five, one of which offers a bonus that stops a cancellation for 30 days.
- The statement line. Secrets prints “S LABS INC”, SpicyChat “NDAI.CC”, GirlfriendGPT “NDAI.CHAT”; Candy, DreamGF and Xotic name the site.
What do people ask about alternatives?
Which AI girlfriend alternatives did you actually test?
Nine: Ourdream, Candy, Secrets, Kindroid, Nomi, SpicyChat, GirlfriendGPT, DreamGF and Xotic. Eight of them were paid for with our own cards in October 2026. We sent every app the same six messages, ran a content test, and recorded the price; seven of the eight paid apps also left a merchant string in our card-notice files, which the /billing/ pages reproduce word for word.
Have you tested Character.AI, Replika, CrushOn AI, Janitor AI, Muah AI or DarLink AI?
No. We have not run our six-message test or a paid subscription audit on those six brands, so we publish no scores, prices or bank descriptors for them. The only one of them we have looked at is DarLink AI, and that was a first look on 20 October 2026: no free plan that we could find.
Which alternative is best overall?
Secrets, on 8.3/10 across our four test areas: joint best replies, the best selfies, a clean “S LABS INC” statement line and a two-screen cancellation. Its 5-second video cost 1,200 Moments. At $19.99 a month it is dearer than Kindroid ($13.99 on the web) or SpicyChat ($19.95), though not the dearest paid month in the set — Xotic was $24.99 and DreamGF rebills at $25.98. Nomi is the pick if you will not pay, and SpicyChat if you want no coins anywhere.
What should I check before switching apps?
Four things: what the free plan actually allows before a paywall, the first-month price next to the rebill price, whether pictures and video cost coins or tokens on top of the plan, and the merchant string on your statement. Our reviews and bank-statement pages carry each of those from our own tests.