What actually differs between these apps

Under the hood, most of these are the same thing: a named character with a personality running on an LLM, keeping chat history between sessions. What's different is what wraps around that core. Some apps generate photos. Some add video. Some charge with a subscription, others with credits per generation. Some store your data aggressively, others don't. Some need a separate app, some just work in the browser.

Below is what each one actually does and how you pay for it. Prices are described in words rather than exact numbers because subscription tiers and rates change constantly, and that would make this list outdated within a month.

Candy.ai

You pick details like ethnicity, hairstyle, build, and personality, and Candy.ai generates a consistent character with photos and short video clips of that same face and body. The chat has memory, so details from your first conversation stay in play later. Voice calls work on paid tiers.

You pay a monthly subscription for the chat, but images, videos, and voice calls come from a separate token pool. The subscription price in their ads doesn't include tokens. So you're looking at subscription plus tokens, which is a two-layer cost structure worth understanding before you sign up. That subscription price is just the floor.

Secrets.ai

Browser-only, no app to install. There's a library of characters you can pick from or build your own. Voice calls are live, and you can chat with multiple characters at once. One feature they highlight: you can edit or rewrite earlier messages in a conversation (they call it "time travel").

They claim end-to-end encrypted messaging with external security audits. Charges appear on your card as a generic description so it's not obvious what you're buying. The service has a free tier plus two paid tiers, each month you get an allowance of credits ("moments" is their word for them) that you spend on image and video generation.

Replika

This one's been around since 2017, longer than most. It's built more for emotional support conversation than photo generation. The memory stays sharp, holding details like your pet's name or a recurring stress, and brings them up weeks later without being prompted. They also have a 3D avatar that pops up in AR on your phone camera, which most competitors don't offer.

Replika killed the one-time lifetime purchase. Now it's subscription only, three tiers. Unlike most others here, they don't publish prices on their site. You only see the actual cost when you're in the app, and it can vary by where you are and what promotion they're running.

DreamGF

Heavy focus on customization. You get over 20 sliders for hair, eyes, skin tone, build, and clothing. You also pick from personality archetypes. The character can send you generated photos during the chat if you ask. Voice messages work alongside text.

Free tier with limited photos. Three paid tiers above that, each one lets you create more characters, send more images per month, and messages don't have a cap. Commit for multiple months and you get a discount.

Muah AI

Adult-oriented chat with a transparent content policy (not vague). Photos, voice calls, full customization of how the character looks and acts. Try the chat for free before you pay.

Two subscription tiers: VIP gives you unlimited chat and image generation; UHD adds extended memory and more voice calls. You can also buy token packs separately if you want to pick and choose features instead of buying the higher tier.

CrushOn.AI

This is more of a roleplay and storytelling platform than a single-companion app. Big library: anime characters, realistic characters, whatever. You can also build your own from scratch with a backstory and personality. It's positioned as unrestricted for adults. HD character images and voice messages are built into the chat.

The platform keeps track of what happened in your roleplay—names, preferences, plot details—so a long conversation doesn't start over. Browser and mobile apps both available, which not all competitors offer.

Hoty (that's us)

Read this with a grain of salt—we made this. But everything here describes what's actually in the app, using the same facts-only standard as the rest of the list: features, pricing, nothing made up. Hoty's chat companions are built like the others, around a persona from our character roster and conversation memory. The real difference is how you pay and what we check before charging you.

New accounts get free messages upfront. After that, every message costs coins instead of a subscription fee. The coin balance works for both chat and photo or video generation, and a character in the chat can suggest a matching video from the catalog instead of making one inside the conversation. No subscription layer at all—neither for chat nor generation. Prices are posted publicly for each one.

Every photo you upload for generation gets checked by an automated moderation system before we charge you, specifically for consent and age. If generation fails, coins refund automatically. Hoty runs in your browser at hoty-ai.com with no app install, and you can use it in English, Russian, or Hindi.

How to choose between them

Honestly, they solve different problems. Replika is for conversation and support, not photos. The other five—Candy.ai, Secrets.ai, DreamGF, Muah AI, CrushOn.AI—all want you to care about how the character looks. They differ in how far you can customize, what content they allow, and how much the subscription plus credits actually costs if you use images and video regularly instead of just chatting.

Before you pay, ask four things: Does the subscription price include images and video, or do you pay extra? Are prices posted before signup, or do you only see them inside the app? Does the service say what they do with your photos and chats? Is there a real age verification or just a checkbox? Those four answers matter way more than which specific characters are in the library. For a deeper dive on privacy, there's our privacy checklist for NSFW AI chat.

Frequently asked questions

Read next