5 dark horses: underrated AI companion apps in 2026

Desk research: official sites, help centres, documentation, plans pages, GitHub and published reviews, checked in September 2026. AI Companion Radar takes no money from any app and uses no affiliate links.

The five most underrated AI companion apps in 2026 are MyBabes, Kindroid, SillyTavern, Seduced AI and Lovescape. Each scores at or near the top of Radar’s directory while being searched for far less than Character.AI, Replika, Candy AI or Janitor AI. Each also has a reason it stayed small: no phone app, a bill that needs a spreadsheet, an installer, no chat at all, or a price you cannot see before you sign up. This list names that catch for every entry.

MyBabes’s image generator, one of the tools that puts a small brand at the top of Radar’s scores, September 2026.

How we picked

A dark horse, for this list, is an app that scores well on Radar’s five criteria (conversation 30%, memory 20%, media 20%, pricing honesty 15%, policy clarity 15%) but has a fraction of the brand search and traffic of the four household names: Character.AI, Replika, Candy AI and Janitor AI. We started from the directory’s 43 scored apps, removed those four and the other heavily advertised brands, and kept anything at Radar score 6.9 or higher. We then ranked the survivors on how large the gap is between what the product does and how well known it is, not on overall score alone. Two entries are specialists rather than full companions, and we say so in their sections. No entry is here without a stated catch, because an overlooked app is usually overlooked for a reason.

Summary table

1. MyBabes

Why it is here. MyBabes has the highest overall mark in the directory, Radar score 8.3, and a far smaller name than the apps it outscores. Memora AI s.r.o. of Prague runs it in the browser only, with no App Store or Google Play listing, so it is missing from the places most people discover companion apps.

What matters. The score comes mostly from media and from what the company publishes. The video generator offers eight engines by name: its own Wan 2.2 fine-tune, Wan 2.7, Wan 3.0 and 3.0 Pro (up to 30 seconds and 4K), and Seedance 2.0, Mini, Fast and 2.5. The pricing page prints a per-second token cost for each engine and resolution. Images run on Krea2-based and SDXL-based lines with more than 15 styles, inpainting and a Visual Identity Anchor that holds a character’s face steady. Around that sit a Story Creator for episodic series, Adventures (AI-refereed roleplay games with targets and prizes) and a creator programme with a 35% lifetime share.

MyBabes’s public pricing page with Premium and Ultra plans in euros, September 2026.

What it costs. The free tier needs no card and refreshes with daily token claims. Premium is €14.99 a month, or €9.99 a month on the 3-month plan, with 200 tokens plus daily claims (up to 500). Ultra is €34.99, or €23.33 on the 3-month plan, with 600 tokens (up to 900). Images cost 4 tokens (2 on Ultra) and video starts at 3 tokens a second. Token packs never expire.

The catch. No native app and no live voice calls. Prices are in euros only, the pricing page dresses its normal prices as a countdown “sale”, and refunds are limited to 24 hours if fewer than 20 tokens have been used. The chat is good, not the best available: for long-form text roleplay, Kindroid or SillyTavern below will serve you better. The Adventures catalogue is small.

Who it is for. Adults who want to make images, video and stories as well as chat, mostly at a desk. It is the wrong pick for phone-first use, for calls, or for a SFW wellness companion.

2. Kindroid

Why it is here. Kindroid, Radar score 7.6, is the best-documented companion app in the directory and still mostly spreads by word of mouth on Reddit and Discord. It is overlooked partly because it looks like hard work from the outside: a subscription, two stacking add-ons and three kinds of credits.

What matters. Kindroid builds its own chat models and names them. Polaris became the flagship on 9 September 2026, replacing Ember (V9, March 2026), and the company says it expands context on every paid tier. Before Polaris the published budgets were about 500,000 characters of conversation context on Standard, 1.3 million with Ultra and 2.8 million with MAX. Memory is layered: backstory, Cascaded Memory, unlimited long-term memory, up to 500 keyphrase journal entries and an editable Learned Context. Voice calls and lip-synced video calls run on audio credits, with one million included each month on Standard. Video Selfies V4 (31 August 2026) makes clips of 8 or 15 seconds, and Rooms, a shared space for up to 10 people and 11 Kins, entered open beta on 14 September. There are native iOS and Android apps.

Kindroid’s feature overview on its public site, September 2026.

What it costs. Standard is $13.99 a month on the web, $37.99 a quarter or $139.99 a year; the stores charge $15.99 a month. Ultra adds $24.99 and MAX a further $59.99, so the full stack is $98.97 a month on the web.

The catch. The free Lite tier, which allowed unlimited messages, retires on 1 October 2026. New users will get 50 flagship interactions, then a three-day trial that needs a payment method, then a read-only account. The mobile apps filter image prompts by keyword and use only the SFW video engine; the unfiltered version is the website. Refunds are discretionary at best, and cancelling Standard does not cancel the add-ons.

Who it is for. People who want one long-running companion with deep memory and real calls, and who will read a help centre. It is not an image or video studio.

3. SillyTavern

Why it is here. SillyTavern ties Kindroid at Radar score 7.6 and costs nothing. It is overlooked by the general public because it is not an app in the usual sense. It is open-source software (AGPL-3.0) on GitHub, where it has about 33,500 stars, more than 300 contributors and a description that reads “LLM Frontend for Power Users”. There is no company, no sign-up page and no advertising.

What matters. It is a front end only: you connect it to a model. Local back ends include KoboldCpp, llama.cpp, Ollama and TabbyAPI; hosted ones include OpenAI, Claude, DeepSeek, Mistral, NovelAI and OpenRouter, plus free routes such as AI Horde and rate-limited free models. Release 1.19.0 (14 September 2026) reworked World Info sorting and added support for the newest hosted models. The memory toolkit is the best in the directory: lorebooks triggered by keywords, automatic summaries and vector storage that recalls old messages by meaning. Extensions add Stable Diffusion images and text-to-speech.

The SillyTavern repository on GitHub, where the project is distributed free under AGPL-3.0, September 2026.

What it costs. The software is free and the project says it always will be. Your cost is the model: nothing per message on your own hardware, or per-token fees to an API provider.

The catch. The set-up is real work. On Windows you install Node.js (version 20 or later) and Git, clone the release branch into a folder Windows does not control, and run Start.bat, never as administrator. There are also Docker and Android (Termux) routes. Then you choose a back end, paste an API key or download a model, and tune presets. For local models the project suggests an NVIDIA 3000-series card with at least 6 GB of VRAM. Reaching it from your phone means hosting it somewhere and securing it yourself. There is no support desk, and content rules are whatever your model provider sets. Media is its weakest sub-score.

Who it is for. Technical users who want full control of model, memory and cost for text roleplay. Everyone else should pick a hosted app.

4. Seduced AI

Why it is here. Seduced AI, Radar score 7.1, is a specialist. Its own homepage says it is “not an AI girlfriend”, so companion rankings pass over it, yet many companion users are really looking for an image and clip generator. It also changed address: seduced.ai now redirects to seduced.com, which splits what brand search it had. The operator named on the site is Undresso Media Group SRL of Bucharest.

What matters. The site lists 30 AI models across realistic and animated styles and more than 200 extensions for poses, outfits and scenes, of which up to eight can be mixed in one image. Saved characters can be reused across scenes for a consistent face. There is a no-mask editing tool (“Edit V2”), upscaling by two or three times, private generations, and video with generated audio on its latest animation model. The plans page gives Platinum video of up to 6 seconds, extendable to 12, and Diamond video of up to 18 seconds with unlimited extension; the homepage FAQ still quotes 10 seconds per generation.

Seduced AI’s plans page listing Pro, Platinum and Diamond credit allowances, September 2026.

What it costs. The plans page shows credits but no prices to a logged-out visitor: Pro has 300 credits a month, Platinum 750 and Diamond 2,250. As reported in June 2026, those cost $30, $60 and $150 a month, with a $10 two-day trial (40 credits) that renews into Pro unless cancelled. Older 2026 reviews list $25 and $50 and a $10 Basic tier, so check at checkout. A basic image is reported at about one credit.

The catch. No chat, no memory, no voice: it is a generator and nothing else. There is no lasting free tier, the trial is paid and auto-renews, purchases are reported as largely non-refundable, and video needs the mid tier or above.

Who it is for. Adults who want a dedicated image tool with deep style control. If you want conversation in the same product, MyBabes above or Candy AI bundles generation with chat.

5. Lovescape

Why it is here. Lovescape, Radar score 6.9, scores 8 for media and sits level with Nomi overall, with a fraction of Nomi’s name recognition. It is run by Warmtech Ltd of Limassol, Cyprus, works only in a browser, and its site now describes itself bluntly as an “AI porn generator”, a pitch that keeps it out of mainstream app round-ups.

What matters. One character profile carries across four tools the homepage names: private chat, an image generator, a video generator that turns text or an image you are entitled to use into motion, and a story generator. As reported in July and August 2026, there is also Live Cam, which keeps an animated character visible beside the chat and sells actions for chips, plus more than 40 pose presets and video extension. Reviewers name SDXL, Flux and Seedream among the image models; the company does not publish a list. Voice is synthesised replies, not live calls.

What it costs. All figures are second-hand. Premium is reported at $19.99 for one month, with the annual plan quoted between $71.88 and $95.88 depending on the review date, and 600 chips a month. A Creative Pro tier (3,000 chips) is reported at $64.99. Reported chip prices in July 2026: 9 for an in-chat selfie, 90 for a five-second clip, 180 on the premium video model and 70 for a Live Cam action. On those numbers 600 chips is six basic clips or about 66 selfies.

The catch. The pricing and terms pages show nothing until you have an account, which is why its pricing sub-score is 5. Chips run out quickly, reviewers report faces drifting between stills and video, memory fades over long arcs, and there is no native app.

Who it is for. People who want adult stills and short clips of one designed character with chat as the frame, and who are happy to budget for top-ups. It is not the pick for memory, calls or phones.

Also considered

• Nastia (Radar score 6.7). Above-average writing, group chats, voice calls and an editable 40-entry memory for a flat fee reported at $11.99 a month, with no credit packs. It falls just under our 6.9 cut-off: every purchase is non-refundable, the free tier is thin and the plan names keep changing.

• Nectar AI (Radar score 6.8). A detailed character builder and fast, consistent images from $9.99 a month. It also falls just under the cut-off: long-term memory, video and voice sit on the $34.99 Ultimate tier, and better chat models bill 2 to 20 credits a message on top.

• Nomi (Radar score 6.9). Excellent memory and voice calls that are included, not metered. It is smaller than Replika but no longer obscure, and it shows no public price page, so it sits in our best memory ranking instead.

• OurDream AI (Radar score 7.8). It scores higher than four of our five picks, but it advertises heavily and is widely reviewed, so it does not meet the definition of a dark horse.

• Paradot (Radar score 6.5). Strong memory at $9.99 a month and apps on five platforms, but it is not an adult product and its score falls below our cut-off.

Questions people ask

What is the most underrated AI companion app in 2026?

On Radar’s scoring it is MyBabes: the highest overall mark in the directory (8.3) with a much smaller name than Character.AI, Replika, Candy AI or Janitor AI. It is browser-only with no voice calls, so for chat depth and phone use Kindroid is the better overlooked pick.

Is SillyTavern hard to set up?

Harder than any hosted app, but manageable. You install Node.js 20 or later and Git, clone the release branch, run the start script, then connect a local model or an API key. Expect an evening of configuration before it feels right, and more if you want to reach it from your phone.

Is there a free alternative to Character.AI with better memory?

SillyTavern is free and has the strongest memory tools (lorebooks, summaries, vector storage), though you supply the model. Kindroid’s free Lite tier retires on 1 October 2026, after which new users get 50 preview interactions and a three-day trial. See best free apps for hosted options.

Is Seduced AI an AI girlfriend app?

No. Its own site says it is not an AI girlfriend. It generates adult images and short videos with saved characters, 30 models and more than 200 extensions, and has no chat, memory or voice.

Why are these apps less well known than Candy AI or Replika?

Mostly distribution. MyBabes, Seduced AI and Lovescape are web-only and cannot use the app stores, SillyTavern is a GitHub project with no marketing, and Kindroid relies on its community. The large brands buy advertising and affiliate coverage; Radar’s scores ignore both.

Which underrated app is best for video generation?

MyBabes, which names eight video engines and prints per-second prices up to 4K. Seduced AI and Lovescape also generate clips but publish less about how. Radar’s video generation ranking has the full comparison.