We sign up and pay
For each app I create a new account, build a companion from the ground up, and pay for the tier most readers are likely to choose. A free trial with a couple of dozen messages is fine for seeing the welcome screens. It won't tell you if your companion still knows who you are on day twelve.
Then it's daily chats and detailed notes: what it held on to, what it invented, what renewal cost, and how much of a hassle it was to export or delete everything.
The same five categories for every app
| Category | What I'm checking |
|---|---|
| Conversation | Consistency across weeks rather than one witty reply |
| Memory | Little details returning without a nudge |
| Media | Pictures and voice that match one character |
| Price | Renewal rate, token charges and fair-use caps |
| Controls | Export, deletion, content settings and age verification |
The published rating is the average of those five, rounded to one decimal place, and it's locked before any developer contacts us. Update notes don't change it mid-cycle; they wait until the next monthly review.
Costs get their own once-over
Advertised prices can be misleading. I compare the launch deal with the renewal rate, check whether images chew through tokens on top of the subscription, and decide whether the free version is a genuine product or just a teaser. It's all laid out in the true cost of AI girlfriend apps.
Privacy is part of the score
People share personal stuff with these apps, so privacy gets proper scrutiny. I read the policy, hunt for anything about encryption, and try exporting and deleting my own data. Wishy-washy wording like "we may share information with partners" gets called out in the review. I can't see inside their systems, and whenever I'm making an educated guess, I'll tell you.
What a rating isn't
It isn't up for sale, and we knock back paid placements. Our affiliate arrangements, explained in the affiliate disclosure, have no say in where an app lands. If an app gets worse, its rating drops at the next review. Notice something out of date? The footer email is the place to flag it.
The limits of testing from outside
Their servers are off limits to me. What I can do is read the fine print, try every export and delete option on offer, and tell you when the language is vague. An unclear answer counts as a finding too.
