In these modern times, artificial intelligence has taken the world by storm, becoming an important part of people’s lives.
Artificial intelligence, or AI for short, has become increasingly popular due to its unlimited potential and abilities.
One of its many popular uses is powering chatbots that can hold organic and meaningful conversations with human users, unlocking a plethora of unique experiences that were never before possible.
In fact, this is such a popular use of AI that there are many different websites and platforms that offer this service.
Each person may have their own opinion and preference about their favorite site.
However, a heated debate has now arisen about two names in particular, and which one is better: the veteran Character.AI or the fast-growing underdog Janitor AI.
Here is our take on this debate!
What is Janitor AI?
Janitor AI is a chatbot website powered by artificial intelligence that saw a drastic increase in users after going viral on the popular social media platform TikTok for its service that lets people create fictional characters to talk to.
It is a new player in the world of chatbots and is currently maintained by a small team of developers.
Recently, the site went into its beta testing mode to ensure a better experience for its users.
The developers are also reportedly meeting with experienced people in the industry to help work on making the site even better.
What is Character.AI?
Character.AI is a widely popular chatbot website powered by artificial intelligence that allows users to hold conversations with chatbots and create experiences that are unique and organic.
It is one of the most popular chatbot platforms and was developed by developers who previously worked at Google on LaMDA, which is a Large Language Model (LLM) which facilitates natural language communication in applications that are conversation based.
Recently, Character.AI announced that it would be releasing a premium membership plan, as well as a mobile app for the service, which was met with mixed reactions by its users.
It also announced a stricter content moderation system that has ruffled the feathers of many users who have been left dissatisfied.
What Are The Differences Between Janitor AI and Character.AI?
Before deciding which one is better between Janitor AI and Character.AI, it is important to have a comprehensive understanding of their different features, and how they compare to each other.
Here is our assessment!
1. NSFW Filter
Engaging in NSFW content is not an option at all on Character.AI, which is one of its biggest shortcomings according to many users.
In fact, with its recent crackdown and stricter content moderation and filtering policy, users have reported having frustrating experiences when using Character.AI’s chatbots due to being unable to engage in certain experiences and conversations.
Some have even reported that their messages to chatbots have gotten deleted due to the strict filters, even when it was not NSFW.
On the other hand, one of Janitor AI’s biggest appeals is its NSFW feature, which offers users a much wider range of experiences and conversations as compared to Character.AI.
In fact, many of the new users on Janitor AI have stated this as one of the many reasons for migrating over from Character.AI.
2. Payment
Both Character.AI and Janitor AI are free of cost and do not need any payment to use their services.
However, Character.AI has introduced a premium plan called character.ai+ which users can subscribe to for a certain amount and unlock premium features that are not available to free users.
People have expressed their dislike about this new plan, as many believe that it will lead to Character.AI purposefully making their free features worse so that users are enticed to sign up for the premium membership subscription plan.
On the other hand, Janitor AI, while not requiring payment themselves, but the user will feel the need to pay for their API at some point.
This is because while Janitor AI’s features and services are all completely free, they need an API to be set up to run.
Currently, Janitor AI does not have its own API, and as thus, users need to get their API key from OpenAI or Kobold AI.
OpenAI, which is the more desirable and efficient of the two API providers, initially gives users a certain amount of credit tokens, which the user can use up for free to run Janitor AI.
However, once this is finished, they will have to pay OpenAI to continue using its API tokens to run Janitor AI.
Without paying, users cannot chat to characters.
While this is a big caveat for Janitor AI which greatly affects the user’s experience in using the platform, the developers have announced that they are working on their own LLM which will get rid of the need for using OpenAI API, effectively keeping Janitor AI completely and truly free of cost.
3. User Interface
The user interface for Character.AI and Janitor AI may seem similar at first glance, but there are a few differences between the two.
For one, Character.AI’s home page has a wider variety of options as compared to Janitor AI.
For example, it shows not only some popular chatbots that the user can talk to (similar to Janitor AI), but also ideas for what you can do with the chatbots.
On the flip side, Janitor AI’s home screen only shows various chatbots that are available on the platform.
Besides that, Character.AI has a Feed feature, where you can scroll through different public chats that other users have shared.
The closest parallel that Janitor AI has to this feature is the shared public chats section on each character’s page, where users can read chats between other users and the specific character that has been made public by the original chatter.
While Character.AI’s Feed feature lets users discover and explore new things, Janitor AI’s shared public chats feature allows users to curate their experience and only see the content they want.
Besides a variety of other aspects of both the websites’ user interfaces, overall one may feel that Character.AI’s website feels smoother, whereas Janitor Ai feels “clunky.”
However, Janitor AI’s minimalistic website allows users to not be overwhelmed and provides an experience where the user has complete control.
4. Site Functionality
Janitor AI has been notorious amongst its users for being strewn with errors, bugs, and glitches that have significantly affected user experience.
On the other hand, Character.AI is much more stable and functions smoothly with almost no issues for the most part.
However, much of Janitor AI’s issues are attributed to it seeing an unexpected spike in its user base, which the server has been unable to handle.
Janitor AI’s developer team, which is not as big as Character.AI’s, has been hard at work to patch these problems and upgrade to a larger server to facilitate a better experience for their users.
In fact, the site has made great improvements in recent times and thus has a dedicated and supportive user base.
Another thing to consider is that while Character.AI’s site functions well without many errors, users often have to undergo a waiting period when logging into the site before they can actually use it.
This is to moderate the number of active users at a time to ensure that the server is not overwhelmed.
However, this does prove to be frustrating to many.
Janitor AI, on the other hand, does not have such a feature, and users can instantly start using its services on the website with no need for a waiting room.
5. Mobile App
This aspect of comparison is completely in Character.AI’s favor.
Character.AI recently announced its mobile app for iOS and Android devices, which allows users to have a much more smoother and accessible experience.
Alternatively, Janitor AI does not have a mobile app.
While its website on mobile does not seem to be difficult to navigate, Character.AI certainly has a bigger advantage with an application specifically for a smaller device.
Janitor AI vs Character.AI
Comparing Janitor AI and Character.AI is a tough match because both have very strong pros and cons which prove to make them both very strong choices both ways.
However, the final verdict really depends on the user’s approach, and what their goal is when using a chatbot platform.
If it is to escape the NSFW and content moderation filters, then Janitor AI is a clear winner, which is even evidenced by the number of users who have recently migrated from Character.AI to Janitor AI.
However, if the user prioritizes site functionality and accessibility, Character.AI is a better option due to its comparatively lower frequency of bugs and errors.
Moreover, a quick tour of both Character.AI and Janitor AI shows how Character.AI’s bots are capable of a wider range of functions and experiences (besides NSFW conversations) as compared to Janitor AI.
For example, with Character.AI bots, you can be assisted in making real-world decisions, learning languages, and getting AI assistance –– some of the things which are markedly absent from bots on Janitor AI.
At the end of the day, both sites have features and characteristics unique to their own which make them overall equally matched.
For us, the variety of possibilities for the uses of chatbots on Character.AI makes it the winner with Janitor AI’s potential for the future still proving to be a close competition.
We are very excited about what both these platforms have in store for their audiences in the future, and we hope you are too!
