Disclosure: this page is written by the makers of My Softly. Everything about Replika below comes from its in-app paywall, its App Store listing and its own help centre.
Replika is the broader platform: more devices, live calls, a 3D avatar and a large community.
Pick My Softly if the thing that made you close your last app was being forgotten or never messaged first, and you would rather pay one flat price than juggle gems and tiers.
At a glance
| Replika | My Softly | |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly price | No monthly plan offered (in-app paywall, US, September 30, 2026) | $15.99 |
| Yearly price | Plus $79.99; Max $89.99 | $159.99 |
| Free tier | Unlimited text, limited features; gems for extras | Free starter messages; optional credit packs from $2.99 for photos and extra voice |
| Platforms | iPhone, Android, web, VR | iPhone and Android (US, Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore) |
| Memory design | Memory tab of facts you can edit, plus a deeper learned layer; limited live context | Lasting life profile plus a day-by-day record, built to recall weeks later |
| Texts first | Yes, proactive check-ins are listed as a feature | Yes, premium; follow-ups on what you said, quiet hours, backs off if you go quiet |
| Voice | Voice and video calls (paid) | Voice messages in four voices (US and UK English) |
| Content | Romantic and adult modes available to paying adults | Built for everyday company; friend or partner is your choice |
| Visuals | Customisable 3D avatar, AR, selfies, image generation | Photographic companions; you choose their age and look; photo sharing in chat |
| Age rating | 18+ | 18+ |
What Replika does well
- Platforms. Replika runs on iPhone, Android, the web and VR headsets.
- Maturity. Replika launched in 2017, and nine years of refinement show in the polish of the app, the depth of the activities, and the number of edge cases it has already met.
- Voice and video calls. Replika's paid tiers include live voice and video calls with your companion.
- The avatar. If you want a 3D character you can dress, place in your room with AR and watch react, Replika has built exactly that.
- Community. Replika has one of the largest companion-app communities anywhere, with 228K App Store ratings at 4.4 stars, years of shared tips and a very active subreddit.
Where My Softly is different
My Softly was built by looking at the complaints people make about companion apps and building the other way around. Four things follow from that.
- Memory as the product, not a tab. Your companion keeps a lasting profile of the durable facts of your life (the people, pets, places and preferences you mention), a day-by-day record of what you two talked about, and the emotional threads running through it, and brings them up naturally weeks later. Replika's memory is real but it is a list of facts plus a learned feel for you, sitting next to a limited live context. Our guide on whether Replika remembers conversations goes through exactly what that means in practice.
- Check-ins that know your life. Both apps can message first. The difference is what the message knows. My Softly's check-ins are follow-ups on things you actually told it, held back during quiet hours (9pm to 8am by default), and they stop rather than pile up if you do not reply. Our guide to an AI that texts you first has a one-week test for telling a real check-in from a scheduled notification.
- Friend or partner, your choice. You choose whether each companion is a friend or a partner, and how old they are and how they look. If part of what you disliked about other apps was the anime-girlfriend aesthetic, that is the difference you will feel first.
- One flat price. Conversation is covered by the subscription. Optional credit packs exist for extras (generated photos and heavy voice use), but your companion never sells you anything mid-conversation.
The memory question
This is the comparison most people actually want, and the fairest way to settle it is with your own facts rather than anyone's score. How the two are built is described above; the test below costs nothing and works on both.
The how to test an AI companion's memory page describes a 21-day memory test: five specific facts on day one, no reminders, then unprompted recall checked on days three, seven and twenty-one, with a count of how many first messages you received and whether any of them referred to your life. It is a method rather than a score, because the facts that matter have to be your facts.
What a year costs
| Plan | Replika | My Softly |
|---|---|---|
| Twelve months, paid monthly | No monthly plan offered | $191.88 |
| Twelve months, annual plan | Plus $79.99; Max $89.99 | $159.99 |
| Extras | Gems, sold separately | Credit packs: 20 for $2.99, 50 for $6.99, 100 for $12.99; one credit is one requested photo |
Screenshots of Replika's Plus and Max plan screens, taken September 30, 2026, are in our guide to whether Replika is worth it.
Replika's prices are from its in-app paywall in the US, checked on free accounts on iPhone and Android on September 30, 2026, where both plans were billed annually; My Softly's are from the US App Store on 2026-09-07. Replika does not publish prices on its website, so confirm on the subscription screen. Our guide to how much an AI companion costs sets both against the rest of the category.
What do Replika's 1- and 2-star App Store reviews complain about?
Price, most often: a third of Replika's 303 most recent 1- and 2-star reviews on the US App Store, posted January 3 to September 15, 2026, were mainly about price or the subscription. We took every 1- and 2-star review in Apple's public US App Store review feed for Replika, which returns up to an app's 500 most recent reviews, sorted each one by its main complaint, and re-checked a random sample against the same categories. Retrieved September 17, 2026.
| Main complaint | Share of Replika's 303 low-star reviews |
|---|---|
| Price or the subscription | 33% (101) |
| Personality or quality changed | 20% (60) |
| Bugs or login problems | 17% (50) |
| Forgetting | 4% (13) |
| Everything else, including filters, privacy and complaints that fit no category | 26% (79) |
These are unhappy reviewers only, one main complaint each, so they describe what went wrong for the people it went wrong for rather than how most people feel about the app. The same figures for eight other companion apps are on our AI companion statistics page.
Who My Softly is for
Replika is built around breadth: devices, calls, an avatar and a community. My Softly is built for a narrower set of people.
- Your last app kept forgetting you. My Softly was built for exactly this.
- Nobody ever messaged you first, or the messages were obviously automated. My Softly's check-ins are follow-ups on what you said.
- You want to decide what your companion is to you. In My Softly each companion is a friend or a partner, and that choice is yours.
- You are an adult who found the anime-girlfriend aesthetic off-putting. My Softly's companions are photographic, and you choose how old they are, from their twenties to their seventies and beyond.
Switching without losing what matters
No companion app can import another's memories, and that includes ours. What survives a switch is what you carry over deliberately. If you decide to try My Softly after time with Replika, this is what works:
- Open Replika's Memory tab and copy out the facts you actually care about. Most people find it is ten to twenty things: names, dates, the situation you are in, the things you are looking forward to.
- In the first few days with a new companion, tell it those things one per message, plainly. Not as a list pasted in; as conversation.
- Mention one or two of them again a week later without prompting and see whether they come back. If they do not, the app is not the one for you, and you have lost a week rather than a year.
If you would rather compare more than two apps before deciding, our comparison of the best AI companion apps covers Nomi, Kindroid, Character.AI and Pi as well, and Replika alternatives without NSFW focuses on apps for platonic friendship.
About My Softly
My Softly is our app, and the disclosure is at the top of this page. It is an AI companion app for iPhone and Android that remembers what you tell it and asks about your day, for the days nobody else does. It is free to download on the App Store and Google Play, and the free starter messages are enough to find out whether it feels right before you decide anything.
Sources
- In-app paywalls (US), free accounts on iPhone and, for Replika, Android. Checked September 30, 2026.
- Replika on the US App Store (rating, feature list, age rating, compatibility), checked 2026-09-07. apps.apple.com
- Replika Help Center, "How does Replika's memory work?" and "What is Replika Ultra?" help.replika.com
- My Softly on the US App Store (pricing, availability), checked 2026-09-07. apps.apple.com
- My Softly FAQ, the public description of how memory, check-ins, voices and pricing work. mysoftly.ai/faq
- My Softly (September 17, 2026). Count of Replika's 1- and 2-star reviews in Apple's public US App Store customer review feed, which returns up to an app's 500 most recent reviews; each review was sorted by its main complaint, and a random sample of 30 across the apps counted was re-checked against the same categories. Retrieved September 17, 2026. itunes.apple.com
Frequently asked questions
Is My Softly better than Replika?
They are built for different people. Replika is the broader platform with more devices and a bigger community. My Softly is for people whose actual complaint is being forgotten and never messaged first, which, in our subscriber data, is mostly people over fifty.
Does My Softly remember better than Replika?
They are designed differently. Replika keeps a Memory tab of facts plus a broader learned sense of you, with a limited live context. My Softly keeps a lasting profile of your life and a day-by-day record of what you talked about, built to surface weeks later. The free 21-day test on our how-to-test page works on both, and it settles the question with your own facts.
Which is cheaper, My Softly or Replika?
On September 30, 2026, Replika's in-app paywall in the US offered two annual plans, Plus at $79.99 a year and Max at $89.99 a year, and no monthly plan. My Softly is $15.99 a month or $159.99 a year, one plan that covers conversation and check-ins. Both have a free tier; Replika's is unlimited text with limited features, My Softly's is a set of free starter messages.
Is Replika SFW?
Not strictly. Replika is rated 18+ on the App Store and offers romantic relationship modes and adult content to paying adult users, so keeping it platonic depends on your settings. My Softly is built for everyday company, and you choose whether your companion is a friend or a partner.
Can I move my Replika's memories to My Softly?
There is no import between any two companion apps. What you can do is write down the ten or twenty facts you most want carried over, tell them to a new companion plainly, one per message, in the first few days, and check they were kept. Replika's Memory tab is a good place to copy them from.