Nine platforms, each tested on a paid plan rather than a free trial. What follows is the part the landing pages leave out: how fast the credits burn, what the memory does after a week, and which subscriptions renew quietly.
Editor's choiceCandy.ai is the most complete product in this roundup and the best built. Chat, image generation, voice messages and character creation sit in one interface that does not feel assembled from three different teams' work, which is more than can be said for most of its competitors.
Generation-led platform for people who want to build something specific
Realism-focused generation with chat attached
The best memory of anything tested here
Widest style range and the fastest queue in the list
The most configurable companion app, and the least forgiving of a lazy setup
Privacy-first companion platform with a narrower feature set
Image and video generation with the deepest customisation and the messiest pricing
Large community character library with a free tier people actually use
A swipeable feed, not a generator — and it is honest about that
Candy.ai's short-form video feed, sold as its own thing
No-filter chat with 50+ ready characters and a lifetime access option
Looser content rules than the mainstream sites, with quality tied to your tier
The original consumer companion, now the conservative and heavily filtered option
Image-led girlfriend app sold in credit bundles
The deciding factor in this category is almost never conversation quality, which is close enough across the top five that a blind test would be hard to pass. It is the billing model. Credit-based platforms advertise a low monthly figure and then meter every image, so a normal month lands at two or three times the sticker price. Flat-rate subscriptions cost more up front and nothing after that.
Work out which type of user you are before comparing prices. If you mostly chat, a flat subscription is cheaper over six months. If you mostly generate images, the credit platforms give better output per unit of spend — but compare the per-image cost, not the bundle price, and check the auto-renewal setting at checkout.
The second thing worth checking before you pay is deletion. Every platform here stores conversations on its own servers. Some make account deletion a two-click affair; others bury it or keep a copy for a stated retention period. If that matters to you, read the policy before the pricing page.