How we rate platforms

The criteria

We compare every platform on the same points, in this order of importance:

1. The real monthly cost. The subscription plus the tokens or credits that photos, voice and long chats burn through, from each company's own pricing page, dated. Annual plans and auto-renewal called out.
2. Content & age checks. What the app allows and bans (anything involving minors, real people, uploaded photos), and whether it checks that you're an adult or just asks.
3. Privacy record. What the privacy policy says happens to your chats: kept, used to train models, shared or sold. Mozilla Foundation's 2024 findings, regulator orders and breaches.
4. Complaints & regulators. Fines, lawsuits, regulator orders and documented billing complaints. A past case doesn't rule an app out, but you should know about it before you hand over a card.
5. Who it's for. Companionship, roleplay or explicit chat: each review says who the app suits and who should skip it. Commission never changes that line.

We don't give star ratings or name a single "best" site. Which platform suits you depends on what you want, so each review says who it's good for and who should skip it.

Where the facts come from

Regulators (the FTC), company filings with the SEC, the platforms' own help centers and app-store listings, Pew Research Center surveys and established news outlets. Every fact that rests on a source links to it. Some facts are our own finding that nothing was published (for example "we found no regulator action" or "no audited user numbers"); those are marked "no published source found" so you can tell the difference. Where only a review site or press report gives a price, we say "reported". Where we could not confirm something, we leave it out instead of guessing. Facts were last checked in November 2026. Apps change prices and features often, so check the platform before you pay.

What we will never publish

• Fake profiles, photos of "members", or anyone presented as a person you could meet.
• Fake chat windows, "someone near you wants to meet" pop-ups, or invented member counts and distances.
• Made-up success stories or testimonials.

How we make money

Some links to platforms are, or will become, affiliate links: if you sign up or pay after clicking one, the platform or its affiliate network may pay us a commission. That never changes your price. We apply the same criteria whether or not a platform pays commissions, and we list platforms that pay us nothing. Platforms cannot pay to be included, to be placed higher or to change what we write. Links to platforms are marked as sponsored for search engines.

Some pages may also carry ads, always labelled "Sponsored" and kept apart from our verdicts, facts and comparison table. An advertiser is not endorsed by appearing in an ad slot, and ads never change what we write.

Corrections

Found something wrong or out of date? Email editor@meetwaifu.now with a source and we'll fix it.