CrushOn.AI is the cheapest unfiltered character chat in this directory at 4.90 dollars a month, and it has a genuine free tier on top of that. So the usual reason for reading an alternatives page, finding something cheaper, mostly does not apply here.
That makes this a different question: what does spending more actually buy? Six answers below, each one a specific upgrade rather than a general improvement.
Every price was read from the vendor’s own page and carries the date it was checked on its listing.
The short answer
| What more money buys | Try | From |
|---|---|---|
| Nothing, it is already cheapest | CrushOn.AI | 4.90 dollars |
| Better long-form writing | DreamGen | 7.83 dollars |
| Cryptocurrency and an API | Uncensored Chat | 9 dollars |
| A daily renewing free allowance | 976.ai | 10.99 dollars |
| Deep character authoring | Backyard AI | 12 dollars |
| Memory and voice on real apps | Kindroid | 15.99 dollars |
| Nothing leaving your machine | SillyTavern | Free |
None of the hosted options asks for a credit card to create an account, so every comparison here can be made on your own prompts before you pay anyone.
DreamGen, for the writing
7.83 dollars, built for story and chapter structure rather than chat that happens to run long. It also publishes the clearest position on model training anywhere in this directory: off by default, opt-in only, and the vendor says plainly that withdrawing consent cannot un-train a model that has already learned from your work.
That is under three dollars more than CrushOn and it is the upgrade most people notice fastest.
Read the full DreamGen assessment
Uncensored Chat, for payment flexibility and an API
9 dollars, sold in 30-day blocks payable in cryptocurrency, with API access from the middle tier. Worth it if you want to build against the service rather than only use it in a browser, or if card payment is inconvenient.
Read the full Uncensored Chat assessment
976.ai, for a free tier that keeps working
The free allowance here is permanent, renews every day, and covers the whole character roster with voice messages included. If your usage is occasional, that may be worth more to you than any paid tier on this page.
Read the full 976.ai assessment
Backyard AI, for control
12 dollars, with lorebooks, author’s notes, response grammars and raw model parameters exposed rather than hidden behind a personality slider. The free tier carries the same context window as the paid plan.
If your complaint is that characters drift or forget things mid-scene, this is the category of fix.
Read the full Backyard AI assessment
Kindroid, for memory and real apps
15.99 dollars, the most expensive here, and the only one with persistent memory across sessions plus voice on web, iOS and Android at once. Both app stores restrict adult content, so that combination is rarer than it sounds.
It uses third-party age verification rather than a checkbox, which is a genuine signal about the vendor and also means signup asks more of you.
Read the full Kindroid assessment
SillyTavern, for owning the whole thing
Free, open source, installed on your own machine. Nothing is transmitted, so retention periods, training clauses and terms changes stop applying to you entirely.
The cost is setup: it is a frontend and expects you to supply a model backend separately. KoboldCpp bundles one and can serve SillyTavern, which is the usual way past that step.
Read the full SillyTavern assessment
The honest conclusion
If CrushOn.AI does what you need, there is no saving available and no reason to move. Every option above costs more, and each one justifies it with a specific capability rather than by being generally better.
Work out which sentence describes your actual complaint. If none of them does, you are already on the right tool.
More comparisons: AI roleplay chatbots and NSFW AI chatbots and apps.