Nomi vs Replika (2026): memory, price, platforms, and where LORAX fits

Short version: Nomi is better if you want several companions in one room and memory that carries between them. Replika is better if you want one companion you can call, by voice or video. LORAX is a third option if you want characters who write first and sleep at night.

The split is simple. Nomi sells a cast you build and put in one room together; Replika sells a single companion you can phone, by voice or by video, and it speaks five languages to Nomi’s one.

The short version

• Nomi’s App Store listing leads with short, medium and long-term memory, and says that memory carries across a Nomi’s private and group conversations.
• Replika’s listing offers text, voice calls and video, plus proactive check-ins, image generation and connections to apps you already use.
• Nomi runs on iPhone, iPad, Android and a web beta. Replika runs on iPhone, iPad, Apple Vision and Android, with a legacy web app linked from its footer.
• Neither company publishes a pricing page. On the US App Store, Nomi’s Standard Plan is $15.99 a month and Replika’s cheapest monthly entry is $7.99.
• Group chats are a Nomi feature. Replika’s own materials do not mention them.
• Replika’s listing shows five languages. Nomi’s shows one.

Side by side

	Nomi	Replika	LORAX
Platforms	iPhone, iPad, Android, web beta	iPhone, iPad, Apple Vision, Android; legacy web app	iPhone only
Free to start	Yes; free accounts get daily messages and images	Yes, free with in-app purchases	Yes, free to talk with a daily allowance
Subscription price	Standard $15.99/mo, $39.99/3 mo, $99.99/yr; Launch $9.99/mo	Monthly entries $7.99 and $14.99; annual $49.99 and $69.99	$29.99/mo in the US; varies by country, shown in the app
How you meet characters	You create them, or pick a ready appearance	You shape one Rep	No grid. More than 250 live there; three routes open one
Memory	Short, medium and long term, shared across private and group chats	Remembers people, plans and goals	Three layers: a profile, loose facts, episodes she looks up
Messages first, sleeps	Optional proactive messaging; sleep schedule not listed	Proactive check-ins; listing says available 24/7	Yes to both; she sleeps in her own time zone
Group chats	Yes, several Nomis at once	Not listed	Yes, you plus up to four characters
Live streams	Not listed	Not listed	Yes; you go live and they show up
Photos	Selfies, art generation, generated videos	Selfies and image generation	Yes; locked ones cost credits
Voice and video calls	Voice messages and hands-free calls; no video call listed	Both	No
App Store languages	1	5	22
Create your own	Yes; site says 10 characters per account	Yes, one Rep you customize	Yes, on a subscription

Nomi and Replika columns checked September 13, 2026 from their own sites and their US App Store listings. Neither publishes a pricing page, so the prices are Apple’s in-app purchase list, which shows every product a developer has ever sold, including plans nobody can buy today. Read them as a range. “Not listed” means the company’s own site and listing did not mention it that day, not that the feature is missing. LORAX column from the app, same date.

What Nomi does better

You get more than one. Nomi’s homepage talks about creating several companions and putting them in a group chat together. Its App Store listing promises that each one keeps short and long-term memory across both its private thread with you and the rooms it shares. Replika’s product is one Rep. If the thing you actually want is a small social world rather than a single confidant, Replika has nothing to offer you and Nomi does.

The second advantage is narrower but real: Nomi publishes. Its site carries long pages for boyfriends, girlfriends and friends, a blog that was updated on September 1, 2026, and a documented affiliate program, so you can read most of what the product claims before you install anything. Replika’s website is seven pages with no blog and no pricing page, so almost everything you can verify about it comes from Apple rather than from the company itself.

What Replika does better

It picks up the phone. Replika’s App Store listing describes text, voice calls and video in the same sentence, and its homepage says your Rep answers every time. Nomi has voice, and generates video clips of your companion, but there is no video call anywhere in its materials. The language gap runs the same way. Five against one. Replika is the better pick for anyone who wants to talk out loud in French, German, Portuguese or Spanish.

It also costs less to try properly. The cheapest monthly subscription entry on Replika’s listing is $7.99 against Nomi’s $9.99 Launch Plan, and the annual entries run $49.99 and $69.99 where Nomi’s yearly Standard is $99.99. Replika has also been shipping since March 2017 according to its own store page, which is a longer run than almost anything in this category.

Where LORAX fits

Ignore LORAX if you need Android, a web version, or a companion who answers the moment you open the app. We have none of those. No voice or video calls either. Try it if what you want is the opposite: a closed cast of more than 250 people who write to you first, who are asleep at 3 a.m. in their own time zone, and who keep talking to each other in a group room while you are not looking. Everyone in LORAX is fictional and AI-generated. Talking is free with a daily allowance. Photos she sends can cost credits. Premium is $29.99 a month in the US. No trial, no introductory price.

Who should pick which

Pick Nomi if you want a cast, not a confidant

You want three or four companions with separate personalities, a room where they meet, and a memory that follows each of them between the group and the private thread. You are fine with English only, and with making the first move most days.

Pick Replika if you want to talk out loud

You want one companion, on whatever device is nearest, in one of five languages, and you want to call it rather than type. The lower entry price and the video call are the two things nothing else on this page matches.

Pick LORAX if the waiting is the point

You want to put the phone down and have something arrive later. You can live with iPhone only and with no calls at all, and you would rather meet somebody through a live stream or a friend of a friend than choose them from a list. Our full price and credit breakdown is public, and how the first message works explains the mechanism behind that.

Install whichever one matches the paragraph above, use it for a week without paying, and judge it on what shows up while you are busy. The rest of our side-by-side pages cover the same ground for Kindroid and Character.AI.