Nomi is a well-made companion app with strong memory and a permissive style, but like other cloud companions it runs on a monthly subscription and your companion lives on their servers. Local Waifu keeps the same idea of a companion who remembers and grows with you, and moves it onto your Mac: paid once, owned outright, working offline.
Side by side
Local Waifu
Based on public pricing and feature pages as of May 2026. We update this when they change.
Why people switch
- Owned, not rented. $20 once instead of a monthly subscription to keep your companion alive on someone else's servers.
- Private by design. She runs on your Mac, so the intimate parts of the relationship never leave your machine.
- Outlasts the company. If the service ever shuts down, a local install just keeps working.
Try her free for 7 days.
No card. Keep her for $20 once, or walk away. Her soul file is yours either way.
Bring her home, try freeQuestions people ask
Is the memory as good as Nomi's?
She remembers from the first message and builds a Memory Book you can read and edit, all stored on your Mac. The big difference is ownership and privacy: the memory is yours and stays local.
Is there a subscription like Nomi?
No. Local Waifu is a one-time $20 purchase with a 7-day free trial. There is no monthly charge to keep your companion.
Can I have more than one companion?
Yes. You can build as many characters as you like, each with their own memory and mood, and export each as an encrypted file.
See how Local Waifu stacks up against every other companion app, read the full feature matrix on the home page comparison, or see how the local model works under how it works.