Most buying advice here is a list of apps with adjectives stuck on. It doesn't help, because the apps differ less than the reasons people open them. These five questions do the real narrowing.
1. What do you want it for when you are bored?
Your answer here settles most of the rest.
If you want "someone who talks to me like they know me," look for continuity: memory that carries across sessions, a steady voice, a character that doesn't reset. That is what Nomi is built around.
If you want "something to look at," you need media, meaning image generation and voice inside the subscription rather than sold separately as credits. Candy AI covers this, and it is why it heads our ranking. It doesn't win every category; it is simply the only one that delivers all three without a second purchase.
If you want "a good story," roleplay and scene quality are what count, and continuity matters far less than you would expect.
Choosing the wrong lane is the most common reason people decide the whole category is a letdown.
2. How much does the content filter matter?
Content policy gets the least airtime and decides the most. Some apps refuse plenty, others refuse next to nothing. Neither is better in principle, but finding out on day three wastes a month's fee.
If unfiltered chat is the whole point, test it on the free plan before paying; that is the turf Secret Desires and Joi compete on. If it isn't the point, a very permissive app may feel cheap and not what you were after.
3. Where will you use it?
About half the apps in this space run in a browser only. Of the ones we cover, Camsoda AI and Secret Desires are browser-based, while Candy AI, Nomi, Kupid, Sweetdream and Replika have native apps for iOS and Android.
If you picture yourself chatting in bed on your phone, a mobile browser that logs you out every week will kill the habit faster than any weakness in the writing.
4. What will you be paying in month three?
Not month one. A launch discount isn't the product. Among the apps we track, listed monthly prices run from US$10.00 for Sweetdream to US$19.99 for Replika, with Candy AI at US$12.99 and Nomi at US$15.99. The headline number is only half the story, since several apps add credits for images and voice on top.
That needs a checklist of its own, which lives in what these apps really cost.
5. How do you leave?
Before you subscribe, locate three things: the cancel button, any option to export your data, and whether deleting the account is self-service or a support ticket. An app that hides all three is showing you how it plans to treat you. The specifics are in deleting an AI companion account.
A sensible first month
Choose two apps from the lane you picked in question one. Use both free plans for three days and judge only the conversation. Then pay for one month of the better one. Reread question five before the renewal date, not after it.
That plan costs roughly US$13 and tells you more than any amount of reading, this article included.
