kindredly vs Hi! Penpal!

kindredly, briefly.

Kindredly is an anonymous penpal app that matches strangers by how they write. You write a letter to nobody in particular. It lands first on the desks of strangers who write the way you do, matched by how long your sentences run, where you pause, whether you ask questions and how you end a thought. When one of them writes back, you have a penpal.

Nobody sees a profile or a photo of you. You're a number, like No. 4207, with a square-mosaic face. After five letters each way, either of you can offer your name, and names are swapped only when you both choose to. Everyone also gets a courier: a small bird who hatches from your first words, carries your letters, and gets hungry if you stop writing.

where they're alike.

Both are for writing to strangers, and neither is for dating: Hi! Penpal! rules out dating and matchmaking in its terms, and Kindredly has no profiles, no profile pictures and no swiping. Both are free to start writing. Both limit how many new people you can reach in a day, and neither counts the messages inside a conversation. Both let you sign in with Google, and both come in Japanese and Korean.

how you find people.

On Hi! Penpal!, you look for people. The search filters by what someone's looking for: language exchange, online letters, paper letters, hobby sharing, travel tips or something else. It also filters by whether they have a photo, gender, language, nationality, location and age, from 14 to 100. Results sort by check-in or by most recently updated. Checking in each day moves your own profile to the top of the list, so others see it sooner. You need one check-in to view penpal pages and three to use the search.

On Kindredly, you don't search, and there are no profiles to browse. Your letter goes first to the strangers whose writing runs closest to yours. Their letters land on your desk too, fifteen a day on the free plan, and you answer the one you want to. Photos, profiles and location don't come into the match.

profiles, photos and your data.

On Hi! Penpal!, your profile is how people find you. In the list, each profile shows a nickname, gender, age, nationality and location, language, and what the person is looking for, along with the start of their introduction, a photo if they've added one, and when they were last active. The terms ask members to give accurate information and not to pretend to be someone else. You can attach images to messages once you've checked in 10 times.

Its privacy policy lists what it collects: your email and IP address, nickname, gender and date of birth, your nationality or country of residence, your languages, hobbies and the kind of penpal you'd like, and profile photos. If you delete your account, your personal information is destroyed within 30 days, but some records are kept apart to prevent misuse and settle disputes: the social login you signed up with, IP records, report records and records of profile views. Its GDPR notice says report records are kept for one year and profile-view records for two. Messages are kept for one year, the pre-launch note said.

Kindredly has no profiles and no profile pictures. A stranger sees your number, your square-mosaic face and your letters. There are no photos at all until both people have traded names.

check-ins, limits and pace.

Much of Hi! Penpal! runs on check-ins. You can check in once a day, and the site counts up to 30. Each day you can message as many new people as your check-in count, up to 20, and the count refills at midnight. Once you've written to someone, or they've written to you, the two of you can message as much as you like, and replying never uses up your count. Check-ins also unlock features: penpal pages at 1, search at 3, reporting at 5 and images in messages at 10. At 15 you can see how many times you've been reported, and at 20 how many times you've been contacted.

Its rules and notices describe no delivery delay. You can turn on real-time alerts for new messages under Messages, then Notification Settings; they come through your browser's push notifications.

Kindredly is letters, one at a time, and a letter arrives when it's sent. On the free plan you can send five new letters of your own a day, and the letters inside a correspondence never count. There are no check-ins. If you stop writing, your courier gets hungry.

what each costs.

Hi! Penpal! says it operates 100% free of charge, on its login page and in its site rules. Its pages carry Google ads: its ads.txt file lists a Google publisher account, and the pages load Google's ad code. None of its rules, notices or policies mentions a paid plan.

Kindredly has no ads. Its free plan covers fifteen strangers' letters on your desk a day, five new letters of your own a day, your courier, and every correspondence, with no limit on the letters inside it. First Class is the optional paid fare: no cap on new letters, rooms that never close, voice letters (recorded in the iPhone app) and the courier's full wardrobe. Prices are shown before purchase.

safety and age.

The biggest difference is age. Hi! Penpal! is open to anyone 14 and over, and accounts found to be younger can be restricted or deleted without notice. Its search covers ages 14 to 100 in a single list, and none of its public rules or notices describes limits on contact between adults and teenagers. Kindredly is for adults only, 18 and over.

On Hi! Penpal!, reporting unlocks once you've checked in 5 times, and after 15 check-ins you can see how many times you've been reported. The site can delete or restrict, without notice, any account used for something other than wholesome penpal exchange, such as romantic or dating approaches, requests for money, fraud or spam. The terms also say Hi! Penpal! isn't responsible for disputes or damages between members, who deal with each other at their own discretion and risk.

On Kindredly, a safety check reads letters before they go out to strangers' desks. It stops threats, harassment, sexual content involving minors, and attempts to swap contact details, social handles or money. You can report or block from any letter or room, and when three different people report the same writer, that writer can't send letters any more.

languages and devices.

Hi! Penpal! is a website, and its alerts come through your browser's push notifications. No Hi! Penpal! app turns up on the App Store in Japan, Korea or the US. It used to have Android apps in Japanese, Korean and English, but all three Google Play listings now return a 404 error. The site runs in 20 languages, with Korean first in the list; they include 日本語, English, 简体中文, 繁體中文 and हिन्दी. Its search can filter members by any of 49 languages.

Kindredly is an iPhone app and a website. One account works on both when you sign in with Google or email; Sign in with Apple is iPhone-only. On Android, your letters, kindreds and courier all work in the browser. You can write in ten languages: English, 中文, Español, Português, Bahasa Indonesia, Français, Deutsch, Italiano, 日本語 and 한국어. The website runs in all ten, and the iPhone app in all of them but 中文. A letter on your desk in a language you don't read comes with a translate key.

what people have said, before the relaunch.

Everything here predates the August 2026 relaunch. A Japanese review site (December 2023) said many of the users were Korean, including Koreans living in Japan. It warned that the site wasn't 100% safe, because fake accounts and business operators mixed in with real members, and advised keeping away from anyone who asks for your contact details right away or tries to draw out personal information. A Japanese study-abroad site (updated May 2024) also said many of the users appeared to be Korean, and mentioned a translation tool built into the site.

The old Japanese Android app was last updated in October 2019 and is no longer on Google Play. A Japanese app-tracking site shows it at 2.8 stars from 61 ratings. Its one visible review (four stars, 2014) found the people nice but the app slow: buttons didn't respond, and the reviewer couldn't change their profile photo.

which one is for you?

Hi! Penpal! suits you if you want to choose a penpal yourself: by nationality, location, language or age, or by what they're after, including someone to swap paper letters with or to share travel tips. It costs nothing and there's nothing to install, and once you've started talking with someone you can message them as much as you like, with real-time alerts in your browser. Two Japanese reviews from before the relaunch said many of its members were Korean. If you're 14 to 17, Hi! Penpal! is open to you and Kindredly isn't: Kindredly is for adults only.

Kindredly suits you if you're an adult who'd rather not have a profile or a photo, and you'd like the match to come from how you write instead of a search. A safety check reads letters before they reach strangers' desks, and you can report or block from any letter. It has an iPhone app and no ads, and a letter in a language you don't read comes with a translate key. You're a number until you both choose to trade names.

you can try both.

Hi! Penpal! is free and Kindredly is free to start, so there's no need to pick one forever. If you're curious what a stranger would read in your writing, the free writing aura test takes three short answers and tells you which of twelve writers you are. Or just look at today's letters on Kindredly, no account needed.