AI Dungeon Alternatives: Pick One by the Reason You're Leaving

Why This Isn't a Top Ten List

AI Dungeon has been around since May 2019, when it launched as AI Dungeon Classic. That's a long time in AI years, and it means most people searching for an alternative already know the app. You're not here to find out what AI Dungeon is. You're here because something specific has started to annoy you.

That something matters more than any ranking. A writer who wants better prose and a tabletop player who wants dice rolls need completely different tools, and the app that fixes one problem often ignores the other. So this guide is sorted by complaint, not by a leaderboard. We name the reason, name the pick, and tell you what it costs and where it falls down.

Prices below are stated as of October 2026. Nobody paid to be listed here, and where a feature or price couldn't be confirmed from a pricing page or policy, we say so instead of guessing.

Alternatives at a Glance

If you only want the short version, start here. The third column is the honest one: most of these tools have a catch.

Alternative	Leaving because of	Price from	Free tier
NovelAI	Prose quality, long-form writing	$10/month	Trial only
SillyTavern	Content settings, full control	Free (pay any API)	Free software
KoboldAI	Cost, self-hosting	Free	Free software
DreamGen	Creative freedom, story and roleplay	$7.83/month Starter list	Check site
FictionLab	Scenario roleplay, fewer filters	Not verified	Yes, per reviewers
Friends & Fables	Wants an AI game master with rules	Not verified	Check site
AI Realm, DungeonsDeep.ai, RoleForge, Questsmith	No dice, stats or combat	Not verified	Check sites
Character.AI	Wants characters, not a narrator	$9.99/month c.ai+	Yes, with ads
Perchance	Cost and account creation	Free	Fully free
Secrets AI	One adult character relationship with images	$9.17/month annual	20 messages/day

"I Want It to Write Better"

This is the most common complaint, and the most fixable. AI Dungeon's prose can get repetitive, and long campaigns tend to flatten into the same rhythm.

NovelAI

NovelAI is the pick for anyone who mostly wants sentences that read like fiction rather than a chat log. Plans start at $10/month, and there's a trial but no free tier, so you can't use it indefinitely without paying.

The company says its Kayra XL model is fine-tuned on published fiction. That's NovelAI's own claim and we haven't verified it, so treat it as marketing until your own trial output convinces you. The Lorebook feature re-injects your entries whenever their keywords appear in the text, which is a more reliable memory method than hoping the model recalls a detail from forty turns ago. Image generation is included, and NovelAI says prompts are encrypted.

The catch: the editor has a learning curve, and there's no permanent free option. If you want a closer comparison of the two tools' philosophies, our NovelAI vs AI Dungeon breakdown goes deeper.

"The Filters Keep Blocking Me"

Some people left AI Dungeon after the April 2021 moderation episode, when private stories were reviewed by humans and false positives hit innocent content. Others simply find the content settings too tight for the stories they want to write.

SillyTavern

SillyTavern is free software under the AGPL-3.0 licence. It's a front end: you connect it to a cloud API, a local KoboldAI backend, or AI Horde. That means the content rules are whatever your backend allows, not whatever a single app decides.

It offers World Info, character cards, group chats, plus image and voice extensions. The trade-offs are real. Setup is steep if you've never configured an API key, and cloud APIs charge per message, so "free software" doesn't mean a free hobby. Also worth knowing: OpenAI and Google APIs still forbid explicit content, so routing through them doesn't unlock anything.

DreamGen

DreamGen's Starter tier lists at $7.83/month with 5K context, and the Pro tier raises context to 30K. It's aimed at creative freedom in both story and roleplay. Two caveats: DreamGen ranks itself first in its own comparison roundup, and its dice features need custom scripts rather than shipping built in.

FictionLab

FictionLab uses memory cards and lorebooks, and reviewers report it runs on a model called Ophelia. A free tier exists according to those reviewers, but paid prices aren't verified and its privacy terms are thinly documented. Fine for a test drive; read the policy before you put anything personal in it.

"I Want Dice, Stats and Actual Rules"

AI Dungeon has no fixed rules, stats or dice by default. If you want something closer to a tabletop session, you're looking at a different category of app.

• Friends & Fables supports D&D-style campaigns and automatically tracks character stats. Pricing isn't in our verified data, so check the site.
• AI Realm is inspired by the D&D 5e SRD, though players keep their own notes for memory.
• DungeonsDeep.ai claims a rules engine, a visual battle map and text-to-speech narration.
• RoleForge reportedly uses real dice and deterministic rules, according to comparison guides.
• Questsmith says it tracks up to 500 details per adventure.

Be careful with this group. Most of these features are self-reported, prices are unverified, and much of the praise for Friends & Fables comes from competing apps' own roundups. Try before subscribing, and don't pay annually on the strength of a feature list alone.

"It Forgets What Happened"

AI Dungeon's memory drifts on long campaigns unless you keep Plot Essentials and Story Cards updated by hand. If that maintenance is what broke you, you have two routes: a tool with better built-in memory, or a tool that makes manual notes painless.

Secrets AI puts its best memory tools on the top plans. Lorebooks come with Premium and Ultimate, and Ultimate unlocks group chats of two or three characters. The free plan gives 20 messages a day, annual billing works out to $9.17/month, Premium is $19.99/month and Ultimate is $39.99/month. We rate it 9.9 out of 10. It's built around one adult character relationship with images, though, so there are no quests, dice or world state. If that's the shape of play you want, it fits; if you want a campaign, it doesn't. Our full Secrets AI review covers the token maths.

Plan	Price	Includes
Free	$0	20 messages/day
Annual billing	$9.17/month	Annual rate
Premium	$19.99/month	Lorebooks
Ultimate	$39.99/month	Lorebooks, group chats of 2-3 characters

If you'd rather stay in control of the notes, SillyTavern's World Info and character cards do the same job with no subscription. The cost is your time.

Two other names circulate in memory discussions. Feelin claims the highest percentage of details in its own memory tests, and Aiga_ claims illustrated scenes and real-time voting for multiplayer. Both claims come from the companies' own blogs, and we have no verified prices for either.

"I Don't Want to Pay Anything"

Free options exist, and some are genuinely good. They just come with limits.

Perchance

Fully free, no account needed. Stories are kept in browser storage, which is private but fragile: clearing your browser can wipe them. Memory is weak and page quality varies, so it suits short sessions rather than a hundred-turn epic.

KoboldAI

Free and open source. Run KoboldCpp locally, or use Kobold Lite on AI Horde. It has Adventure, story and chat modes, plus Memory, Author's Note and World Info. The honest caveat: local models are weaker than premium AI Dungeon models, and the good ones need a strong GPU. AI Horde is free but volunteer-run, so speed varies with who's donating compute.

Free tiers elsewhere

Character.AI has a free tier with ads and charges $9.99/month for c.ai+. Secrets AI gives you 20 messages a day. FictionLab reportedly has a free tier. None of these will run an unlimited campaign for nothing.

"I Want Characters, Not a Narrator"

AI Dungeon is a story engine. Sometimes you just want to talk to someone.

Character.AI is the obvious move, but know what you're getting: strict filters block adult themes, and under-18s have been locked out of open-ended chats since 25 November 2025. If you want adult content with a single character, Candy.ai is the better-known option; we rate it 9.8 out of 10. OurDream AI leans on unlimited roleplay priced in Dreamcoins. If you're weighing them against each other, our ranked list by actual cost is the place to start.

Is AI Dungeon Still Worth Staying For?

Yes, for some people. It still has a free tier on free models, and paid plans add memory and premium models. If you play in short bursts, like the loose improvisational feel, and don't need dice or a persistent world, switching buys you very little.

The case for leaving is strongest when you've hit a wall the app won't move: you want real rules, you want prose quality, or you want content settings the platform won't allow. In those cases, staying is just paying for frustration.

Privacy and Safety, Briefly

Hosted apps store your stories on their servers, and staff may be able to read them. Encryption claims don't change that; they protect data in transit, not from the company holding the keys. Self-hosted setups keep stories off company servers, but a cloud API still sends your text to the provider.

Practical habits: use a separate email, keep real names and other people's details out of your stories, and keep every character an adult. Sexual content involving minors or non-consenting real people is banned on all legitimate platforms, and that line doesn't move whichever app you pick.

Who Should Pick What

• Writers chasing better prose: NovelAI, after a trial.
• People who want to set their own content rules: SillyTavern, with a backend you've checked.
• Tabletop players who want dice and stats: Friends & Fables or one of the rules-engine apps, tested before paying.
• Anyone whose main gripe is memory: Secrets AI on a top plan, or SillyTavern if you'll maintain the notes yourself.
• Zero budget: Perchance for short sessions, KoboldAI if you have the hardware.
• Character chat rather than campaigns: Character.AI for free, Candy.ai or OurDream AI for adult content.

Whatever you choose, keep your own notes. Every AI memory system drifts eventually, and a plain text file is the only one that never forgets.