Flirtly vs Replika

Replika is the oldest companion product still running, and it has the best claim to the thing this whole category is about: people have kept the same Replika for years. It publishes a Memory tab you can read, add to and delete from — the one competitor here that clearly has that feature — and it sells ordinary subscriptions rather than metering by the message.

The reason people leave is not the product, it is the discontinuity. Replika has changed what its companions will say, mid-relationship, and the users who had built something around the old behaviour discovered it the way everyone else did. Flirtly writes that down as a commitment instead: her character sheet is written once and never rewritten, and if she ever does have to move, that will come with a preview you approve first — a commitment we have published rather than a screen already built.

The other difference is what she can do. Replika is a companion product with a conversation at the centre. Flirtly meters images, voice and video against a published rate, which is a different bargain — cheaper if you only want to talk, priced up front if you want more than that.