I tried 7 Character AI alternatives to find the best AI chatbot in 2025

Character AI can be a lot of fun. It’s a creative playground where you can chat with anyone from a sassy space pirate to a surprisingly decent life coach. But if you’ve spent any real time there, you’ve probably bumped into its limits. The content filters have become so tight that even the most innocent conversations can get flagged, and the AI’s memory is often… well, leaky. It can completely forget key plot points you’ve spent hours building up.

There’s nothing more frustrating than your immersive story falling apart because your character suddenly has amnesia. Honestly, that’s what sent me looking for the best Character AI alternatives in the first place.

I went down the rabbit hole to find platforms that offer more freedom, better memory, and a wider range of uses. This is my list of the best options I found for 2025, whether you’re looking for unrestricted creative fun or a powerful AI character that can actually help you run your business.

Understanding Character AI and its limitations

At its core, Character AI is a chatbot platform where you can create and talk to AI-driven characters. It’s built for entertainment, creative writing, and just having someone to talk to, letting you browse an endless library of bots made by a massive community of users.

It’s famous for its huge character selection and a simple interface that makes it easy for anyone to just jump in and start a conversation. But the things that make it great are also tied to its biggest drawbacks.

Pros	Cons
Huge library of community-created bots	Strict and often unpredictable content filters
Free to use with a simple interface	Characters frequently forget past conversations
Mobile apps for iOS and Android	Slower response times during peak hours
Good for casual roleplay and storytelling	Lacks practical, real-world applications

How I picked the best Character AI alternatives

To make sure this list was actually helpful, I judged each platform on a few things that really matter when you’re looking for a better experience.

• Customization: How much control do you really get over a character’s personality and background? Can you fine-tune them to be just right?

• Conversation Quality: Does the AI remember what you talked about yesterday? Can it hold a coherent conversation without repeating itself or losing the plot?

• Content Freedom: What’s the deal with content filters? Can you explore mature themes, or is everything strictly PG?

• User Experience: Is the platform easy to get started with, or do you need a computer science degree to figure it out?

• Pricing: Is the cost clear and upfront? Does it feel like you’re getting good value for your money?

A quick comparison of the top Character AI alternatives in 2025

If you’re in a hurry, this table gives you a quick rundown of how the top alternatives compare.

Tool	Best For	Content Freedom	Customization	Free Plan
Janitor AI	Technical control & custom models	Unfiltered	Excellent	Yes (API costs may apply)
CrushOn AI	Polished user experience	Unfiltered	High	Yes (Limited messages)
Candy AI	AI companions & voice chat	Unfiltered	High	Yes (Limited trial)
NovelAI	Serious creative writing	Unfiltered	Excellent	Yes (Limited trial)
Replika	Emotional companionship	Filtered (for ERP)	Low	Yes (Limited features)
SillyTavern	DIY setup & total privacy	Total Control	Excellent	100% Free (Open-source)
SpicyChat AI	Straightforward NSFW chat	Unfiltered	Medium	Yes (Limited guest access)

The 7 best Character AI alternatives for creative freedom in 2025

These are my top picks for roleplay, storytelling, and general creative messing around. They all bring something different to the table, but most importantly, they give you more freedom than you’ll find on Character AI.

1. Janitor AI

If you’re the type who likes to tinker under the hood, Janitor AI is for you. It’s not a simple plug-and-play service. Instead, it’s a powerful hub that lets you connect to various AI models like OpenAI’s GPT-4 or KoboldAI. This means you can choose the "brain" that powers your conversations, which is perfect for technical users who love to get everything just right.

Key Features:

• Multi-Model Support: You can connect to different APIs to find the perfect mix of intelligence, speed, and cost for your chats.

• Deep Character Creation: The tools for creating characters are pretty detailed, letting you define personality, backstory, and dialogue with a lot of precision.

• Strong Community: There’s a buzzing community that’s always making and sharing new characters and setup guides.

Pros	Cons
Ultimate control over the AI model	Can be confusing for beginners to set up an API key
Very active and creative community	Costs can be unpredictable since they depend on your API usage
Excellent for completely unfiltered content	Relies on third-party services, which can have their own downtime

Pricing:

The Janitor AI platform itself is free, and it offers its own language model (JanitorLLM) in a free beta, though there’s a queue. For the best experience, you’ll need to plug in a paid third-party API. For instance, using OpenAI’s API is pay-as-you-go, so your costs will depend on how much you chat.

2. CrushOn AI

If setting up Janitor AI sounds like a massive headache, CrushOn AI is probably what you’re looking for. It offers a high-quality, unrestricted chat experience in a sleek package that’s incredibly easy to use. It’s one of the most popular alternatives for a good reason: it just works, and it works well, especially for NSFW chats.

Key Features:

• User-Friendly Interface: The platform is clean, intuitive, and makes finding or creating a character super simple.

• High-Quality AI: The AI responses feel more coherent and less repetitive than many other platforms I tried.

• Unfiltered Conversations: It’s very upfront about providing a solid NSFW chat experience without throwing up surprise content filters.

Pros	Cons
Extremely easy to get started	The best AI models are locked behind the more expensive tiers
Polished and modern user experience	The free message limit disappears pretty quickly
One of the best platforms for unfiltered chat	Smaller community compared to Character AI

Pricing:

CrushOn AI has a free plan that gives you 100 messages a month. After that, you’ll need a paid plan for more messages and access to the better AI models. Their pricing page was down when I was writing this, but plans have previously started at $4.90/month.

3. Candy AI

Candy AI is all about creating deep, emotionally intelligent AI companions. It goes beyond simple text by adding features like voice messages, AI phone calls, and image generation, which makes the whole experience feel more personal. It’s built for people who are looking for a more meaningful, multi-layered connection with an AI.

Key Features:

• Emotionally Resonant Conversations: The AI is tuned to pick up on and respond to emotional cues, leading to more supportive and engaging chats.

• Voice and Image Features: You can talk with your AI through voice messages and calls, or generate images to get a better picture of your companion.

• Highly Customizable: You can design your ideal companion by tweaking their appearance, personality traits, and voice.

Pros	Cons
Allows uncensored and emotionally deep conversations	The free version is pretty restrictive
Heavily focused on romantic and companion-style bots	The occasional generic response can break the illusion
Strong privacy measures and a clean interface

Pricing:

Candy AI gives you a free trial to see if you like it. The paid plans unlock unlimited messages and other premium features. The official pricing page was also down during testing, but the latest info I could find shows a Monthly Subscription for $12.99/month and an Annual Subscription for $71.88/year (which comes out to $5.99/month).

4. NovelAI

NovelAI is less of a simple chatbot and more of an AI-powered writing partner. It’s built for authors, screenwriters, and hobbyists who are serious about crafting long-form stories. Its AI models are trained on actual literature, which means the writing quality is much higher and more descriptive. If your main goal is to write a story rather than just chat, NovelAI is in a league of its own.

Key Features:

• Literary AI Models: The AI generates text that is more coherent and stylistically refined, which is great for creative writing.

• Storyteller & Text Adventure Modes: You can use its powerful editor to co-write a novel or jump into an interactive text adventure where the AI is your guide.

• AI Image Generation: It comes with an excellent integrated image generator (with an anime style) to help you visualize characters and scenes.

Pros	Cons
Produces beautifully descriptive and coherent text	No dedicated free tier, just a limited trial
Exceptional for NSFW and creative freedom	The AI’s memory can struggle in really, really long stories
Powerful customization tools for writers	Has a steeper learning curve to get the most out of it

Pricing:

NovelAI has a free trial with 30 free image generations. After that, it’s subscription-only.

• Tablet: $10/month for 1,000 bonus Anlas (their currency for generations).

• Scroll: $15/month for 1,000 bonus Anlas.

• Opus: $25/month for 10,000 bonus Anlas and unlimited image generation for common sizes.

5. Replika

Replika is one of the original AI companion apps, and its main goal has always been to be an empathetic, non-judgmental friend. It learns from your conversations to mirror your personality and provide supportive chats. It’s less for complex roleplaying and more for daily check-ins, mental wellness exercises, and just having a friendly AI to talk to.

Key Features:

• Empathetic Conversation: The AI is designed to be supportive and is great if you’re just looking for a friendly ear.

• Mental Wellness Focus: It includes activities and coaching sessions aimed at helping with mindfulness and anxiety.

• Customizable 3D Avatar: You can create a visual avatar for your Replika and even interact with them in augmented reality (AR).

Pros	Cons
Excellent at creating a sense of personal connection	Not designed for complex roleplay or unfiltered chat
Very easy to use with a clean mobile app	Many of the best features are stuck behind the paywall
Non-judgmental and supportive tone	Recent policy changes to its ERP (erotic roleplay) have upset some long-time users

Pricing:

Replika offers a free version for a basic friendship mode. Replika Pro unlocks different relationship types, voice calls, and more.

• Monthly: $19.99/month

• Annual: $69.96/year ($5.83/month)

• Lifetime: $299.99 one-time payment

6. SillyTavern

Much like Janitor AI, SillyTavern isn’t a hosted service, it’s a free, open-source interface that you run on your own computer. This is the top choice for privacy-focused users and tech lovers who want 100% control. You connect it to an AI model (either one running on your PC or in the cloud), and you get a completely private and unfiltered chat experience with a surprisingly powerful set of features.

Key Features:

• Total Privacy: Since it runs locally on your machine, your conversations are completely private.

• Extensive Model Support: It can connect to dozens of different AI models, from local ones like Pygion to commercial APIs from OpenAI, Anthropic, and others.

• Deep Customization: It gives you fine-grained control over every part of the chat, from memory settings to extensions that add new features.

Pros	Cons
100% free, private, and unfiltered	Requires some technical skill to set up and maintain
Incredible control over every aspect of the chat	Useless on its own; you have to connect it to an AI model
Strong community development with frequent updates	You’ll need a powerful PC to run the bigger models locally

Pricing:

SillyTavern is 100% free. Your only costs come from running it. If you use a powerful local model, you’ll need a decent computer. If you connect to a paid API like OpenAI, you’ll pay for your usage there.

7. SpicyChat AI

As the name implies, SpicyChat AI is all about providing a straightforward platform for adult-themed conversations without any fuss. It has a massive, easily searchable portal of user-created characters for just about every genre you can think of. If you want to dive straight into NSFW roleplay without any complex setup, this is a great place to start.

Key Features:

• Massive NSFW Library: A huge collection of user-created bots all focused on adult themes.

• Simple Interface: The chat is direct and easy to use, with no complicated settings to get in your way.

• Zero Filters: The entire platform is built from the ground up for unfiltered, explicit content.

Pros	Cons
Huge variety of NSFW characters	AI quality can be less consistent than some competitors
One of the most straightforward platforms for adult chat	Lacks features for deep, long-term storytelling
No complex setup required	The website was down during my testing

Pricing:

SpicyChat AI offers limited free guest access. For unlimited messages, you need a paid subscription, which has previously been priced around $19.99/month. It’s worth noting that the entire website was inaccessible when I was writing this review.

This video ranks every popular Character AI alternative to help you find the perfect fit for your creative needs.

Business use cases for Character AI alternatives

Chatting with a fictional character is one thing, but the same tech that powers these bots can be incredibly useful for businesses. Instead of a roleplay partner, imagine an AI character that acts as a perfect brand representative, a customer support agent who knows your products inside out, or an internal expert who can answer any employee question instantly.

This is where the goal changes. It’s less about having an open-ended chat and more about actually solving problems. Entertainment bots are built for rambling conversations, but a business needs an AI that is focused, reliable, and completely on-brand.

eesel AI: The professional business alternative

For businesses, the best alternative isn’t another roleplay app. It’s a platform designed to create functional, professional AI agents. eesel AI is built specifically for this, letting you create an AI character that does a lot more than just talk.

Here’s how eesel AI is different from the entertainment-focused bots:

• Total Control over Persona: While roleplay bots can have wild, unpredictable personalities, eesel AI’s prompt editor lets you define the exact tone of voice for your brand. Your AI agent will always be professional, helpful, and sound just like you.

eesel AI’s customization settings allow businesses to define specific rules and guardrails, ensuring the AI agent's persona aligns perfectly with brand standards, a key feature for professional Character AI alternatives.

• Perfect Memory and Context: Entertainment bots often forget what you just told them. In contrast, eesel AI learns from your actual company knowledge, like past support tickets, help centers, and internal docs. This gives it a perfect, context-aware memory to solve real customer issues accurately.

This infographic shows how eesel AI integrates with multiple knowledge sources to provide perfect memory and context, making it a powerful business-focused alternative to Character AI.

• Goes Beyond Just Chatting: Character AI alternatives are pretty much stuck in the chat window. With eesel AI, your AI character can take real action. It can look up an order in Shopify, create a ticket in Jira Service Management, or tag a conversation in Zendesk. It becomes an active part of your team’s workflow.

Here, an eesel AI agent is shown answering a question directly within Slack, demonstrating how it integrates with business tools to do more than just chat, unlike purely entertainment-focused Character AI alternatives.

• Go Live in Minutes, Not Months: Forget about complicated setups. With eesel AI, you can connect your helpdesk and knowledge bases in just a few clicks. Best of all, you can use its simulation mode to test your AI on thousands of your past tickets before it ever talks to a real customer. This gives you a precise forecast of how it will perform, so you can launch it with confidence.

The eesel AI simulation mode allows businesses to test their AI agent on historical data to predict its performance, a key advantage for professional Character AI alternatives.

How to choose the right Character AI alternative

With so many options, picking the right platform really comes down to what you’re trying to do. The choice generally falls into two camps:

1. Entertainment & Creative Pursuits: If your goal is storytelling, roleplaying, or just finding a fun AI companion, platforms like Janitor AI, NovelAI, or SillyTavern are your best bet. They offer the creative freedom and customization you need for immersive fun.

2. Business & Support Automation: If you need a functional AI agent to handle customer service, IT support, or internal questions, a dedicated platform like eesel AI is the way to go. It’s built for reliability, accuracy, and plugging into professional workflows.

Here’s a quick checklist to help you decide:

• Is your main goal fun and creativity, or efficiency and problem-solving?

• Do you need an AI that just chats, or one that can perform tasks and connect to tools like Slack, Zendesk, or Shopify?

• How important are data privacy and having total control over the AI’s personality and knowledge?

Find the right Character AI alternatives for the job

The world of AI characters has grown way beyond simple chatbots. Whether you’re a writer looking for a creative partner, a hobbyist searching for unrestricted roleplay, or a business trying to automate its support, there’s a platform out there for you.

For creative freedom, tools like SillyTavern and Janitor AI put all the power in your hands. But if you’re ready to build an AI character that does more than just chat, it might be time to think professionally.

See how eesel AI can transform your customer support by building an AI agent that understands your business, helps your customers, and works with the tools you already use. Start your free trial today.