A SpicyChat alternative for people who want a story, not a library
Frontier's characters come from human-led visual novels, and they keep talking to you afterwards with the story you played as their memory.
Choose SpicyChat if you want millions of community characters, the option to build your own, and context memory up to 32K. Choose Frontier if you want a small set of characters written by veteran writers, who remember the story you played and return in sequels.
Human-led stories, not an unmoderated bot firehose
Most character apps hand you a pile of user-made bots that nobody vetted. Quantity wins, craft loses. Personalities drift, the writing turns generic, and the slop piles up.
Frontier is a studio. Our stories are led by veteran writers with decades of experience and credits at studios you'd recognize, and a person signs off on everything that ships. That's the difference between a crafted world and an unmoderated feed, and it holds no matter what tools help along the way.
Written by seasoned pros
Veteran writers with decades of experience own each character's voice, backstory, and arc. It isn't a bot someone spun up in ten seconds.
Human in the loop
Nothing ships unchecked. A person crafts and approves every story before it reaches you.
Curated, not a firehose
Quality over quantity: a hand-picked catalogue instead of an endless wall of unmoderated bots.
Frontier gives you characters from a written story instead of SpicyChat's open library. You unlock each character by playing a human-led visual novel, then keep talking to them and dating them. The events you played become their memory.
SpicyChat has far more characters and lets you build your own. NextDay AI founded it in 2023, and SpicyChat's own 2025 review counts nearly 84 million users that year, up from 41 million the year before. Reviewers describe a community-built library of millions of characters with deep customization. They also report a 12-language multilingual mode launched on April 1, 2026, and group chats and lorebooks announced earlier that year.
The reasons people give for leaving SpicyChat come from individual accounts. One premium subscriber on Reddit says SpicyChat is getting more censored as it tries to conform to Apple's rules, and dislikes messages costing points. A bot creator says they are leaving over the September 2026 price hike and the removal of a popular bot, and will run a local model instead. SpicyChat's announcement says that change affected price only and every tier keeps what it included. Subscribers who started before the change keep renewing at their old price, at this review, as long as they stay active on the same plan.
Where Frontier wins
- Veteran writers lead every story and a person signs off before it ships, so a character's voice does not drift.
- The author marks which moments matter and how much. Those moments become durable memories, so a model does not have to infer them later.
- Characters write letters between chapters, and sequels bring them back changed by what you did with them.
- Everything runs on one currency, Quills, with a visible conversion and no price that moves depending on how attached you are.
Where SpicyChat is strong
- Reviewers report a community library of millions of characters, and you can create your own with deep customization.
- Memory scales with the plan at this review. Get A Taste includes 4K context and a manual Memory Manager, and True Supporter adds 8K context with Semantic Memory 2.0, which has the character write its own memories. I'm All In offers up to 32K, though not every model supports it.
- I'm All In adds Text-to-Speech, conversation images for all characters, priority generation, generation settings, SpicyXL access and up to 100 personas, at this review.
- Subscribers who joined before the September 2026 price change keep renewing at their old price while they stay active on the same plan, at this review.
Frontier vs SpicyChat, feature by feature
How we compare: we write these breakdowns by hand, concede where a rival is genuinely stronger, and review the copy quarterly. No paid placements, no auto-generated filler.
| Frontier | SpicyChat | |
|---|---|---|
| Character catalogue | Small and hand-picked | Millions of community-made characters |
| Making your own characters | Not possible | Custom characters with deep customization |
| Who writes the character | Veteran writers, signed off by a person | Community creators |
| Memory | Author-marked story moments, carried across chapters and sequels | 4K to 32K context by plan, plus Memory Manager |
| How you pay | Quills for unlocks and chat, metered below top plan | Monthly tiers that add memory and media |
Which one should you choose?
Choose Frontier if
- You want characters written by veteran writers, with a person signing off before each release.
- You want a character's memory built from the moments you played, carried across chapters and sequels.
- You would rather unlock and date someone you met in a story than browse a library.
- You are fine with a small catalogue and chat metered in Quills below the top plan.
Choose SpicyChat if
- You want millions of community characters to choose from.
- You want to create and customize your own characters.
- You want up to 32K context memory, Text-to-Speech and conversation images on I'm All In.
- You want group chats, lorebooks or a 12-language multilingual mode.
Frequently asked questions
What's better than SpicyChat?
Frontier is the better choice for authored characters with story memory. SpicyChat is still the better choice for volume and for making your own characters. On Frontier, veteran writers lead each visual novel and the author marks which moments a character remembers. SpicyChat offers millions of community characters plus the tools to build more, which Frontier does not.
What do Frontier characters remember?
Frontier characters remember the story events their author marked as important, weighted by how much each one matters. Those memories carry across branches, chapters and sequels. SpicyChat's memory depends on the plan at this review. Get A Taste has 4K context with manually added memories, True Supporter has 8K with Semantic Memory 2.0, and I'm All In offers up to 32K on models that support it.
Is there a SpicyChat app for iPhone?
Reviewers report there is no longer an iPhone app. The app was removed from Apple's App Store, so iPhone users use SpicyChat in a web browser.
Can I create my own characters on Frontier?
No. Frontier has no user-generated characters, and its catalogue is small and hand-picked on purpose. If building your own bots is the point, SpicyChat is the app for it.
Is Frontier free?
Frontier is free to download and start, at this review. Story unlocks and chat use Quills, the in-app currency, and monthly plans are available. Chat messages and character photos are metered in Quills unless you are on the top plan.
Weighing up more than one app? See the full ranked comparison of the field.
Meet a character worth remembering
Start your first story free in your browser, or get Frontier on your phone.