About
What this site is
Companion Index is an independent site where I review AI companion apps: the chatbots, platforms, and services that sell simulated relationships, intimacy, and ongoing conversation to adult users. I go through what they cost, how they bill and what they actually deliver, and I publish the results in a format that's useful before you spend money.
The category is large and growing, and the existing coverage is bad. Most of these apps are not even in the app stores. Tabloid pieces treat their users as symptoms. The companies themselves explain very little. I started Companion Index to fill the gap: a site that lays out plainly what each app costs, how it bills and what it gives you, without theatre.
The site launched in May 2026. It is written in English; the legal pages also exist in French.
Who I am
My byline is Théo Vasseur. Théo is a pseudonym. I separate the byline from my real identity because the AI companion industry is litigious in places and harassing in others, and because many of these apps retain user data aggressively. The pseudonym keeps the work, and me, out of conflicts that would distract from the reviews.
Théo isn't a character. No backstory, no face, no opinions outside the work. He's a stable editorial voice. When you read "I" on this site, it is that voice: the byline under which Le Bazar de Babylone publishes Companion Index. The methodology explains how reviews are built and checked, and the author page lists everything published under that name.
What isn't pseudonymous is the work. Every score traces back to the reasons given in the review, on axes fixed in advance. The methodology explains where the information comes from. If a company thinks I got something wrong, there's a correction policy and I use it.
How I work
Sources. For each app I go through the pricing page and plans, the billing and cancellation terms, the terms of service and privacy policy, the help center, and what users report on public forums and in the press.
Scores. Scored reviews use eight axes, /10 each, averaged into a single rating. The score is the consequence of the findings, not the starting point.
I have used Candy AI and OurDream AI personally, on paid plans. Other reviews are based on the apps' own pages, terms and user reports.
The three things I won't move on
Specificity. When something is broken, dishonest, or great, I describe what specifically is broken, dishonest, or great. I don't gesture. I don't generalise from a feeling.
Restraint. The category invites moralising. I don't. The AI companion industry is worth covering without pity for users and without contempt for them. I try to write it that way.
Independence from outcomes. When the research turns up a finding I didn't expect, I publish it. When a finding contradicts something I wrote three months earlier, I publish that too, with the link back.
How I make money
Most reviews on this site contain affiliate links. When you subscribe to an app via one of those links, I may receive a commission. The commission has no effect on the review's score or on whether the app appears in the index.
The full explanation, with the alternatives I considered and rejected, is on the affiliate disclosure page.
Who I'm not writing for
I don't write for readers who want to be told AI companions are dangerous, that they're wonderful, or that they're a sign of a generation in crisis. I write for adults who want to know whether a specific app is worth a specific subscription, what its actual practices are, and what the industry it belongs to is doing.
Contact
Editorial: editor@thecompanionindex.com
Press: press@thecompanionindex.com
Corrections: corrections@thecompanionindex.com
Anything else: contact@thecompanionindex.com
I read everything. I don't always reply. When I do, it's on the record unless explicitly agreed otherwise in advance.