Editorial Policy: Where Every Fact Comes From
The short version
Every page on AI Partner Guides tells you three things: what an app costs, what it allows, and what kind of review you are reading. Every review rests on my own use of the app, written down in dated notes between 2023 and 2026, and on a re-check of its current prices, plans, terms and screens on 23-24 September 2026. The facts sit in a dated database, one record per app.
No page claims a test that did not happen, and every page carries a label that says which kind it is.
The rest of this page explains those rules in detail, because a rule you cannot check is only a promise. If anything here does not match what you see on a page, the page is wrong, and I want to hear about it through the contact page.
Where the facts come from
I use three kinds of sources, in this order of trust.
- My own use. My notes from using each app: the period, the plan, what it cost me in all and what happened. They are printed on the review as a dated log. 73 of the 91 apps were used on a plan bought with my own card, 17 on the free tier only, and one, Dreemy AI, has not been used and is a desk review.
- The dated re-check. Each app's current prices, plans, free allowance, terms, privacy policy and main screens, re-checked on 23-24 September 2026 from its pricing screens, help centre, terms, privacy policy and app store listings. Each fact keeps the link and the date it was read.
- Other reviewers. When neither my notes nor the app's own pages cover a point, I read what established review sites report and cross-check them against each other. A point that rests on them is written as "other reviewers report", never as my own experience.
When sources disagree, the record keeps both with their dates, and the page uses the more careful reading until one is confirmed. An official page beats a review site. For today's price, the re-check beats my notes, because a price from my 2024 notes says nothing about what the app asks now; the review gives the old figure with its date and the current one as today's price.
How one fact gets into a record
Take a monthly price. It is read from the app's own pricing screen with its currency and billing cycle, and, where the app store lists the same plan, compared with that in-app purchase list, where it often appears under a slightly different name. If the two agree, the price goes into the record with the date and the link.
If they disagree, both are kept, and the page prints the one from the pricing screen with a note until the difference is explained. Yearly plans are stored as the full charge and as a monthly equivalent, so a page can show both and never hide the size of the single payment.
Free allowances are harder, because apps count them differently. One gives a number of messages, another gives coins that different actions use up at different rates, and a third simply stops after a few replies without saying so. The record keeps the allowance in the app's own unit, and the page explains what that unit buys in plain words. Where an app publishes no number at all, the page says so rather than guessing.
The labels on every page
Each review carries one of three labels near the top, printed from the record rather than typed by hand.
- Hands-on test, paid plan. A plan was bought with my own card and used, and the dated log names the plan and what it cost. 73 apps have this label.
- Hands-on test, free tier. The app was used on its free tier only, and the dated log is printed on the page. 17 apps have this label.
- Desk review - not paid for yet. The page is built from the app's own pages and the re-check, with no use of the app behind it. One app, Dreemy AI, has this label.
A label is not decoration. It tells you how far to trust the parts of a page that no document can answer: how a character feels to talk to, how memory holds over a week, how fast replies come. On a review with a hands-on label those parts come from my log, with its dates; on the one desk review they are clearly attributed to other reviewers.
- Apps tested
- 90hands-on, 73 of them on a paid plan
- Money spent
- $2,083subscriptions, paid with my own card
- Apps in the database
- 79every price with a check date
- Latest test
- FunFun AI
Computed from the test database when this page was built. The same numbers on every page. How the apps are checked
Dates and freshness
Every price and every deal in the database has a check date. A price older than thirty days is not printed at all; the page shows fewer numbers rather than stale ones. A discount code appears only while its check date is fresh, and there are never countdown timers.
The date at the top of a page is the last time its facts were checked, not the day the text was written.
Which apps get covered
An app gets a record when people are searching for it and it is open to new users. The list of apps grows with what readers look for, not with who pays. An app with no partner programme gets the same record, the same checks and the same kind of page as one with a programme.
When an app closes to new users or shuts down, its record is marked, its prices stop printing, and the page says what happened and when.
Some apps make it hard to read their prices without an account, or show different prices in different regions. In those cases the record says which region and which screen the numbers come from. A reader in another country may see other prices at checkout, and the pricing section says so when it matters.
Scores and the order of lists
The site has a scoring rubric with seven weighted criteria: conversation 25%, memory 15%, pricing value 15%, privacy 15%, customisation 10%, media 10% and reliability 10%. The weights are fixed in the site settings and apply to every app in the same way. Every app with a hands-on label has a score, 90 in all.
The score is my own judgement from my use of the app and the dated re-check. The one desk review shows "Not rated yet", because I would rather print no number than one I cannot defend.
Each score shows its breakdown by criterion next to it, and the label of the review sits above it, so you can see whether a high number comes from conversation, from price or from privacy, and whether it rests on paid or on free use. A score is never given to an app on the strength of its marketing pages alone, and it is never raised because an app joins a partner programme.
On the page that gathers every review, the order follows the score. A best-of list is built from the apps that fit its topic best, and each entry prints its score. Within that fit, a partner app may sit above a higher-scored one, which is why a best-of list can depart from score order.
That is where money plays a part, and the affiliate disclosure explains it in full. What money never changes is the record: every entry prints the same checked prices, free-tier numbers and policies, whether the app pays a commission or not.
Where the catch lives
Every app on this site has a catch, and every review says what it is. Some free tiers end after a handful of messages. Some plans cover chat but charge a separate currency for images. Some apps bill under a name that says exactly what the charge was for.
The catch is written in the review text, in the pros and cons, and in the billing notes, plainly and without drama.
Commercial cards are the short sales boxes with a button. Those boxes leave the cons to the review, where there is room to weigh them. The full picture sits in the text around them, and you will always meet the catch before you have to decide anything.
A catch is written for the reader it affects. "Images cost extra" matters little to someone who only wants to chat and a great deal to someone who came for pictures, so the page says who should care and what to do about it: which plan avoids it, which setting changes it, or which other app handles it better. A catch that only a few people will meet is still written down, just lower on the page.
What I never do
I never claim a test, a payment or a conversation that did not happen. I never invent a reader, a quote or a screenshot. I never use fake urgency, and I never shame anyone for using these apps or pretend they are therapy.
I never type a price by hand into a sales box; prices come from the record, so the number on a card is the number in the database.
Wording and content rules
This site writes about apps that allow adult roleplay, and it does so calmly. Content is described as a level, never as an act. Titles avoid stacked category words, images are product screenshots without people, and alt text is neutral. I never use vulgar anatomy, slurs or genre tags from adult video sites.
The age checks on these apps are there for a reason, and the pages respect them. The content notice explains what the site covers and what it leaves out.
Privacy and safety facts
Each review has a privacy section built from the app's own policy. It says whether chats are stored, whether they may be used to train models, how deletion works and which company runs the service, as far as the policy states it. When a policy is vague, the page says it is vague instead of filling the gap with a guess. Your own privacy on this site is covered in the privacy policy.
When I get it wrong
Mistakes happen, especially in a category where prices change monthly. When one is found, the fix goes into the record first, with the new date and source. The site is rebuilt, so every page that printed the old fact shows the new one at the same time.
Then the change is logged on the corrections page with the date, what was wrong and what it says now. I do not edit quietly and pretend a page was always right.
If you spot something, tell me through the contact page or by email. A screenshot of a pricing screen with its date is the fastest way to get a record corrected. Tell me which country you are in as well, because several apps show different prices by region, and a correction that is true for one country can be wrong for another.
I reply to every correction, including the ones that turn out to be right already, so you know the message was read.
What changes when I go back to an app
Apps change after I stop using them. If I go back to one, the new period is added to the dated log, the label changes if the new use changes it, for example from free tier to paid plan, and the score can move, with its breakdown. Until a new log entry exists, a review describes my earlier use with its dates and today's app from the re-check, however confident the text around it sounds.
Many reviews in this category read like diaries of weeks of testing, and many of those diaries cannot be true, because the same moments turn up on site after site. The diary behind each review here is my own, dated and printed as a log, and it is kept apart from the re-check so you can see which sentence describes the app as it was and which describes it as it is. I would rather build trust slowly with a smaller claim I can back than quickly with a larger one I cannot, and the rules on this page are how the site keeps that promise, page by page.
Affiliate links, your price and contact
Some links on this site earn a commission when you sign up. Using those links never raises your price, and a few partners even lower it. A link's label always matches where it goes: a button that says "Try Candy AI free" opens Candy AI, not a different app. The same disclosure sits in the footer of every page.
The site is run by one person, Chris Furrey, and messages reach me directly. Corrections, questions about a page and requests from companies all go through the contact page or the email address in the footer. Companies can send updated prices or policy links like anyone else; they are checked the same way, and they cannot buy a change to a fact.
A last word on tone. These pages are written for adults who have already decided to look at AI companions and want the facts straight. You will not find a lecture about loneliness or a warning in every paragraph.
You will find the price, the free start, the catch and the label, in that order, on every page of the site.
Common questions about these rules
Do you pay for the apps you review?
For most of them, yes. 73 of the 91 apps were used on a plan bought with my own card, 17 on the free tier only, and one, Dreemy AI, is a desk review. The dated log with the plan and what it cost is on each review, every app's prices and terms were re-checked on 23-24 September 2026, and every review carries a label that tells you which kind it is.
How often do you update pricing?
Every price has a check date. Anything older than thirty days is hidden until it is checked again, and a changed price is fixed once in the record so every page updates together.
What happens if an app shuts down or changes its policy?
The record is updated with the date and the source, the pages are rebuilt, and the change is logged on the corrections page. An app that closes keeps its page with a clear notice rather than disappearing without a word.