Editorial & Review Policy
01 Our mission
The AI companion space fills up with near-identical marketing every month, and it's genuinely hard to tell the apps apart from the outside. VirtualCandy exists to cut through that — to test these apps properly and report what we actually find, so you can choose with confidence and not waste money on your first subscription.
02 How we test
Every review is based on hands-on use with real accounts, not a glance at a feature list or a rewrite of the app's own marketing. Where a free tier exists, we start there; where a paid tier is needed to judge a core feature, we test it. We evaluate each app on the same criteria:
- Conversation quality — how natural, coherent, and responsive the chat feels over a real session.
- Memory & continuity — whether the companion holds context instead of resetting.
- Image consistency — how well generated visuals match the persona you built.
- Voice — clarity, naturalness, and how connected it feels to the character.
- Pricing & value — free vs paid limits, billing clarity, and whether it's worth the cost.
- Privacy & safety — how each app handles accounts, data, and payment discretion.
03 How our ratings work
Each app receives a score out of 5. It reflects overall performance across the criteria above, weighted toward what matters most to real users — conversation quality, value, and reliability. A higher-priced app doesn't earn a higher score for being expensive, and a free app isn't penalised for being free.
04 Editorial independence
This is the rule that everything else depends on. Commercial relationships never influence our verdicts.
- We rank apps on how they perform in testing — not on how much they pay.
- No brand can pay to be rated higher, featured, or have criticism removed.
- We name the downsides of every app, including ones we earn from.
- We also cover apps with no affiliate program when they're relevant to readers.
How we fund the site is explained openly in our Affiliate Disclosure. The two things — earning and reviewing — are kept separate on purpose.
05 Accuracy, sourcing & updates
AI companion apps change fast — features, pricing, and policies shift often. We date our reviews and revisit them when things change. Where we cite a specific figure (like a subscription price or commission), we base it on the app's official information at the time of writing and note that details can change. If we get something wrong, we'd rather fix it than defend it.
06 Corrections
Spotted an error, an outdated price, or a feature we described incorrectly? Tell us at support@virtualcandy-ai.com and we'll review and correct it promptly. Accuracy matters more to us than being right the first time.
07 Adults only (18+)
Everything we review is adult (18+) content, and this site is intended strictly for adults. See our Age Policy for details. We have zero tolerance for any content involving minors, and every app we cover is an adult service for adults only.