Share your favorite websites, apps, or platforms that are alternatives to Character.ai. Feel free to share the links, too. Everyone is welcome to share recommendations here!
Please follow the subreddit rules when making a recommendation, including:
- following our rules for self-promo
- AI companion apps are not allowed on this subreddit
- no referral links
This month, there is no theme.
i paid less than $45 for 3 tees incl tax and shipping.
Thank You & the Verdict Isn't Pretty
I asked r/characterairunaways 30 questions this month: where are things headed?
Many of you responded! 💛
The Numbers:
61% of you say AI chat platforms got worse this year. "Much worse" was the single most-chosen answer in the entire survey. By a 3-to-1 margin.
Character.AI is simultaneously the most-used platform, the most-quit platform, and the most-named "worst platform." That's a hostage situation.
What Broke It:
What You Actually Want:
You're not asking for the future. You're asking for 2023 back: better prose, memory that works, characters you can take with you, a developer who listens, all with a price under $15 (or better yet, free).
You want platforms to stop betraying you & rug pulling.
The full results are here: Link to survey results
Including what you said about your favorite platforms, where the real alternatives are, why you're all stuck in snowglobes (AKA your most precious chat), and what the actual state of the exodus looks like right now.
I bought a domain for this so that this year you don't have to visit my github repo and download a pdf. & Again: TYSM for responding to the survey, I love this stuff. 😂 Hope y'all enjoy this as much as I do.
hi! i know the community is very hype over emersons and is turning to resellers to try to get the most coveted bags.
and i know this is already in the rules here but please beware of scammers. someone posted in this community multiple times trying to sell bags and deleted their posts when i asked why their image was generated using openai tools.
this is the exact image they used. it can be uploaded directly to openai's website to confirm this.
she was already banned by mods but has made a second account selling bags in another color trying to direct people to her off platform accounts.
other things we have on the discord server:
btw have you filled out the 2026 character ai alternatives survey yet? it's here - it needs more responses!
join the discord server (it'll be linked in the automod comment!)
Share your favorite websites, apps, or platforms that are alternatives to Character.ai. Feel free to share the links, too. Everyone is welcome to share recommendations here!
Please follow the subreddit rules when making a recommendation, including:
- following our rules for self-promo
- AI companion apps are not allowed on this subreddit
- no referral links
This month, there is no theme.
Please also participate in our survey, we have very few replies so far: link
https://forms.gle/PBJCoBJt9Xy1FLwi6 - Survey link
Takes 5 minutes to answer, I'll share the results publicly once we get enough responses! Curious about last years results? Check here.
Please & thank you!
Running v2 of last year's survey where I asked this community what you're actually using, what you love, what you hate, and what you're still looking for in AI chat platforms.
Here's the thing: last year, when I compiled those results and shared them publicly, platform devs actually read them. People building these spaces used the feedback to understand what was genuinely frustrating users vs what was just Reddit discourse. Some of that data directly influenced feature discussions and priority decisions.
So if there's something broken about your current platform: features that don't work, missing features you desperately need, design choices that make no sense... this survey is a direct line to the people building the next iteration of these tools. You're not just venting into the void. You're giving developers actual insight into what matters to users who've tried multiple platforms and know what good looks like.
The landscape has shifted so much in a year. New platforms, dead projects, surprises, disappointments. I want to capture what that actually looks like from the people using these things daily.
Takes about 5 minutes, it's completely anonymous (your email isn't shared with me), and I'll post a full breakdown of the results once it's all in.
If you want to see better platforms, this is how you help make that happen.
Here's last years: link to results (July 2025)
This year's survey has more questions, but you can skip all but 1. Please participate & please share the survey with your pals!
title is satire, this is a meme
Hey everyone. Wanted to put this on people's radar because these kinds of schemes specifically prey on users who are new to the AI chat space and don't know which URLs are real yet.
1. chatjanitor.com — impersonating JanitorAI (janitorai.com)
This one is brazen. The site plasters "Janitor AI," "JanitorAI," and "AI Janitor" across every surface, the title tag, the meta description, the H1, the FAQ, the OG tags — and explicitly claims to be "also known as janitor.ai." It is not. The real Janitor AI lives at janitorai.com, built by Jan Zoltkowski, with ~149 million monthly visits and its own in-house model (JLLM). chatjanitor.com has zero affiliation.
What makes this particularly gross is the SEO strategy. They've stuffed their metadata with every conceivable misspelling of Janitor AI: "jaintor ai," "janutor ai," "janitor si," "janator ai," "jantior ai" specifically to catch typo traffic and confused users Googling the real platform. They're even keyword-stuffing in Cyrillic ("джанитор аи") to catch Russian-speaking users.
And the cherry on top? They're running a crypto affiliate scheme: "Invite friends, earn USDT, withdraw anytime" funneling users who think they're on a legit platform into a referral pipeline. They've got Google Adsense running. They have a fake Trustpilot rating in their meta description. This is a textbook impersonation-to-monetization operation.
2. moescape.net — impersonating Moescape (moescape.ai), redirecting to OurDream AI
The real Moescape lives at moescape.ai it's a legitimate anime art generation and AI chat platform with a real Google Play app/App Store app and an established community. moescape.net is definitely not affiliated with them.
moescape.net exists to intercept users looking for the real Moescape and reroute them to ourdream, which is a completely different platform, an NSFW adult AI companion site operated by Dream Studio USA / TekTopia Ltd out of Delaware and Cyprus. Whatever you think about OurDream as a product, the fact that they (or someone acting on their behalf) are using a lookalike domain of an unrelated platform to funnel traffic is deceptive and predatory. Users searching for an anime art platform are getting bait-and-switched into a completely different type of service.
Why this matters:
These aren't just annoyances. Users who land on these sites think they're interacting with the real platform. They might create accounts, hand over emails and payment info, or start using a service under completely false pretenses about who they're actually giving their data to. The AI chat space already has enough trust issues without bad actors actively exploiting user confusion for ad revenue and crypto affiliate kickbacks.
How to protect yourself:
These scammers are counting on people not looking closely.
[ Removed by Reddit on account of violating the content policy. ]
if you are invited somewhere that you're uncomfortable going by other parents, how do you turn them down?
do you fully explain the why, give a short version, or just an excuse?
for example, we were invited to a for-profit, privately owned roadside animal attraction which keeps exotic animals and focuses on human-animal encounters. it's not even AZA accredited and has had a bunch of citations by the USDA. unlike a typical zoo, which might be more of a grey area for some, this one is pretty clear cut for me...
so we're not going. I just don't know how much detail to give without alienating my kids.
Hi. Some of you may have seen that the Bureau of Investigative Journalism published a hit piece June 7th called "Incentivising Intimacy" about AI companion platforms. I want to talk about it because they sourced from this community and I have serious issues with how we were represented.
About two months ago, a reporter from TBIJ reached out via modmail asking permission to post here. She was professional about it, offered to share the post draft, asked about our rules. I approved the post. She posted asking people who'd left Character.AI for other platforms to share their experiences. She DMed nearly every person who replied, including people who shared really personal stories about mental health and recovery. Then the post was deleted. She was also reaching out in the comments of other posts here and on similar subreddits.
The published piece includes a graphic showing three subreddits, captioned "Subreddits luring users from Character.AI on Reddit." We're one of the three included subreddits.
The Bureau used an edited version of our profile picture. The descriptions they show read "A community for users looking for AI companions and roleplay without heavy restrictions" and "Ran away from restrictions. Found freedom here" with topic tags including "Romance," "NSFW roleplay," and "AI Companions."
That is not what this subreddit is. Our actual description says, "We broke up with Daddy C.AI when he cheated on us with Google </3 For those who enjoy talking to AIs and for those would like to freely discuss their RPG experiences, share non-C.AI chatbots, and freely vent their feelings and express their opinions. ♡ Venting safe space ♡ Debating safe space ♡ Chatting~ ♡ Sharing RPG stories, chatbots, etc. ♡ LGBTQ+/POC/religious safe space To anyone reading this from C.AI: Get out. The divorce is over 💀💀"
AI companion platforms are literally banned in our rules. We are not a pipeline to unrestricted romance platforms.
A journalist asked my permission to access this community, sourced from your stories, and then the published piece altered our identity to fit a narrative about reckless developers cashing in on vulnerable users. 🤡 If you know what this community actually is, don't let someone who spent a moment here and then deleted their post tell you otherwise. This community is yours.
I've reached out to the journalist for comment on how the graphic of our subreddit was produced and why it doesn't reflect our actual description or rules. I'll update if I hear back.
The article does report on some genuinely bad stuff and I want to be clear about that. One developer (Seewa AI) reportedly admitted on video to reading user chats from an unencrypted back office. Another (OpenCharacter) allegedly acknowledged his user base skewed young and collected no age data. I've reached out to them to ask if they feel like they were represented fairly or if this is another fabrication.
Beyond misrepresenting our community, the piece treats every platform, developer, and community in this space as interchangeable.
One developer quoted in the article (AICHIKI) has since published his own account of what happened. He did an hour-long interview, prepared a 400-line briefing document with references to source code, and offered a code walkthrough. It didn't make it to the article. You can read his account here: https://blog.aichiki.ai/posts/what-didnt-make-the-article I recommend reading through - it's thorough.
I've also chatted directly with another developer quoted in the article, from HereHaven. He told me the reporter asked him about the general demographic for "these types of AI sites" and he answered 16-25 as an industry-wide observation. The published article presents this as HereHaven's platform's core demographic. Assuming this account is accurate, which I believe it is given the overall picture, the journalist took an answer about the general market and attributed it to his specific platform. Was this to intentionally mislead readers? 😬 Whether intentional or not, the effect is the same.
He also shared with me that HereHaven doesn't read user chats at all, moderates at the bot creation layer, and has automated systems for blocking illegal content. The article places HereHaven right next to a developer who reads users chats from a "back office dashboard" without distinguishing their approaches because that wouldn't fit this narrative.
When coverage lumps together platforms with real safety practices and platforms with none, it tells every developer in this space that investing in moderation won't save you from the same headline.
I've watched what happens every time a major platform locks down or a piece like this drops. I'm sure plenty of you have seen it, too. Users come looking for alternatives. We don't lure them here. Users also go to other spaces looking for alternatives. Some find platforms with real moderation. Some find platforms with nothing. The platforms with nothing are the ones journalists usually can't find because they're not on Reddit and they're not building public brands. They're often Discord servers or self-hosted instances.
Articles like this don't eliminate demand, of course. TBIJ's own data says AI companion platforms get 90 million monthly visits from UK users alone. Undifferentiated pressure just pushes people toward less visible, less accountable platforms. The users who need the most protection end up in the places with the least of it.
This subreddit is one of a few maintained spaces on Reddit where small developers can organically share their platforms with people who actually want to discover them. These developers are often working hard to build something sustainable, maintain generous free tiers, and find users without a marketing budget. A subreddit like this is critical for early-stage growth, SEO/GEO visibility, and getting real feedback from real users. When a journalist reaches out, a lot of these developers say yes because they see it as another opportunity to share what they've built with people who might appreciate it. They're probably not expecting to get quoted next to someone who reads unencrypted chats and have their platform labeled as part of a predatory industry. 🕯️
If you're using AI chat platforms, read the terms of service and privacy policy. Some of these platforms are built by solo developers in a few days with no moderation infrastructure at all. You deserve to know what you're signing up for.
If you've found a platform that has transparent safety policies, real moderation, clear terms, and treats your data with respect, share it in the comments. Build a list of platforms that are actually doing this right. The more visible we make the ones putting in the work, the more incentive there is for others to follow.
If journalists reach out to you, you are not obligated to respond. If you do respond, you can ask how you'll be represented and get it in writing. Ask whether your quotes will be shared with you before publication. Ask what the angle of the piece is. You have every right to protect yourself.
If you're a journalist, you're welcome here, but we have expectations. Reach out to the mod team before posting. Be transparent about your angle. Don't DM vulnerable people sharing personal stories without considering the power dynamic in that interaction. If you source from this community, represent it accurately. Don't fabricate our description, misrepresent what we are, and don't caption this subreddit as "luring" anyone (hello white van meme, how topical). If you want to understand what this space actually is, read the sidebar, read the rules, and spend more than a moment here before deciding to paint over us with your predetermined narrative.
The coverage in this space usually treats every platform as a predator and every user as either lonely, horny, or a child in danger. That framing erases the writers, casual hobbyists, the roleplayers, the people using these tools for creative work, the neurodivergent users who find something here that works for them in a way other spaces don't. Frankly, it's predatory that journalists would do this. *clutches pearls*
Respectfully crashing out,
loamy
tl;dr: I asked ChatGPT to name this post and ChatGPT suggested "The Bureau of Investigative Fan Fiction" 😭
