Candy AI Alternatives: What to Compare Before You Subscribe

Adults only. Every product in this guide that states an age rule in the documents we read sets it at 18 or older. This guide is for adult readers and is non-explicit.

How this guide was made. This is a documentation-based comparison. We have not used paid accounts on any of these services. Every fact below comes from the companies’ own homepages, terms, pricing documentation and privacy policies, read on 18 October 2026. There is no ranking here, because ranking would need hands-on evidence we do not have. Instead, this guide shows you what to compare and what each company officially says.

If you have not read it yet, start with our Candy AI review for the baseline.

Why compare on criteria, not on “best”

Companion apps look similar in screenshots: a character, a chat window, a voice button. The differences that cost people money or privacy sit in the documents. A useful comparison asks the same eight questions of every product:

1. Memory: what does the company say the companion remembers, and for how long?
2. Voice: voice messages, live calls, or both?
3. Images and video: can the companion send generated images or video, and is that paid separately?
4. Pricing model: flat subscription, subscription plus tokens, or add-on tiers?
5. Free tier or trial: how much can you do before paying, and does a trial need a card?
6. Privacy: who receives chat content, is it used for training, and how long is it kept?
7. Cancellation and refunds: where do you cancel, and what is refundable?
8. Platform: web, iOS, Android, and does the platform change the price or the cancel route?

Our step-by-step guide on how to evaluate an AI companion app before you pay turns these into a checklist you can fill in.

The products compared

Candy AI

Operated by EverAI Limited (Malta), according to its homepage and terms. The homepage lists text chat, voice, generated images and video, memory and a character builder. The subscriptions page lists monthly, quarterly and yearly plans, each including 100 tokens per month, and the Terms say unused tokens expire at the end of the billing period. Free users can send about 5 messages, per the Terms. Refunds must be requested within 24 hours and only for card payments. The Privacy Notice says chat content may be shared with third-party LLM providers and, after de-identification, used for training.

Replika

Operated by Luka, Inc., per the homepage footer. The homepage describes chat with a “Rep”, voice calls, selfies, a customisable avatar and memory (“Always remembers what matters”). It lists iOS and Android apps and a “Web App (Legacy)”. The homepage showed no plan names or prices.

The Terms (last updated 30 March 2026) set a minimum age of 18. They say paid subscriptions can be changed or cancelled only through the app marketplace where you bought them, and that refunds are not given for partial-month periods. Purchases are described as final unless the terms or applicable law say otherwise, with separate withdrawal rights noted for EU and Brazilian users.

The Privacy Policy (last updated 27 May 2026) says messages, photos, videos and voice messages you send are collected. It says small, anonymised portions of message data are used internally to train safety systems and improve performance, that anonymised data is not used to train third-party models, and that advertisers “will never have access to your conversations”. It states that profile information, messages and preferences are kept up to 60 days after the contract ends, and that you can delete your account in account settings.

Nomi

Operated by Glimpse.ai, Inc., a Maryland corporation, according to the Nomi Terms. The homepage describes short, medium and long-term memory, voice messages and hands-free calls, the ability to view images you send, selfies and group chats with several Nomis. It says it is free to start chatting with no credit card required. The homepage did not list plan names or prices, and we could not find an official pricing page.

The Terms require users to be 18 or older, say subscriptions renew automatically unless you cancel before the renewal date, and state that payments are generally non-refundable. The Privacy Policy (last updated 27 April 2026) says Nomi does not sell or rent personal information, that deleting your account in Account Settings removes personal information within about 28 days, and that some information in “our archives” cannot be changed or deleted. The policy does not clearly say whether chats are used to train models.

Kindroid

The legal page names the operator as “BEAUTIFULLY INCORPORATED”, based in Los Angeles. The homepage describes long-term memory, voice and video calls, selfies and short video selfies, and group chats, available on iPhone and iPad, Android and the web under one account. It states: “You must be 18 or older to use Kindroid.”

Kindroid’s subscriptions documentation is the most detailed of the four on billing. It describes a Standard subscription billed monthly, quarterly or yearly, with optional monthly-only Ultra and MAX add-ons. It does not list prices, saying you will see the exact price for your country and platform at checkout, and that web purchases are usually cheaper than app store purchases. New users can take a 3-day trial, but it needs a payment method and converts automatically unless cancelled, with an email reminder one day before. Refunds are described as generally not offered and at Kindroid’s discretion.

The privacy documents say Kindroid does not sell or share personal data, and that chats and generated media are kept until you delete a specific AI or your account. They allow de-identified or aggregated data to be used to improve the services.

Character.AI: could not verify

Character.AI is a widely known chatbot platform, but its homepage, terms and help centre returned access errors to our reader on 18 October 2026, so we could not verify its features, plans or age rules from official pages. The one fact we can confirm from a primary source is that Character Technologies, Inc. was one of seven companies that received FTC information orders in September 2025 about AI chatbots acting as companions. Check its official site directly.

Side-by-side: what the documents say

“Not found” means we looked on the official pages listed in our sources and did not see it. It does not mean the information does not exist.

Patterns worth noticing

Token systems change the maths

Candy AI is the only product here whose documents describe a monthly token allowance that expires. A token model means the subscription price is a floor, not a ceiling. If you plan to use images or voice often, the real monthly cost depends on token prices we could not find published. See what AI companions really cost for worked examples.

Where you buy decides how you cancel

Replika’s terms say app-marketplace subscriptions are cancelled only through that marketplace. Kindroid’s documentation says the same for app store purchases, and adds that web purchases are usually cheaper. If you subscribe in an app, cancelling on the website may not stop billing. Our guide to cancelling an AI subscription covers each route.

Trials that need a card

Kindroid’s trial converts into a paid subscription unless cancelled, although its documentation says a reminder email is sent a day before. Nomi says you can start free without a card. Candy AI’s free access is a small message allowance. These are different risks: a card-backed trial carries renewal risk, while a tiny free tier pushes you to pay before you know whether you like the product.

Privacy wording differs in what it promises

Nomi and Kindroid say they do not sell personal data. Replika says advertisers never get conversations but notes that some website data sharing may count as a “sale” under certain laws. Candy AI’s notice says chat content may go to third-party LLM providers. None of these statements is a guarantee of security; they are commitments you can hold the company to. Use our AI companion privacy checklist to check the details.

Decision guide

These are starting points, not verdicts. Each depends on documents that can change.

Best for / Avoid if

This guide is best for adults who have narrowed their choice to a companion app and want to compare the fine print before entering card details.

Avoid relying on it if you need hands-on quality judgments, such as how natural the conversation feels or how well memory works over months. Those require testing, which this guide does not claim. Our explainer on AI companion memory shows what to look for when you try one yourself.

Bottom line

There is no single best Candy AI alternative on paper. Replika, Nomi and Kindroid all set an 18+ rule and all offer memory, voice and images in some form, but they differ sharply on pricing transparency, free access, refund rules and how they describe data use. Decide which two or three criteria matter most to you, read those sections of each company’s official documents on the day you sign up, and compare the free vs paid trade-offs before you commit.