Reframe vs Sunnyside: Price, Coaching, and Who Each Fits

• Reframe if you want a program: a 160-day course of daily lessons, coach-led Zoom meetings through the day, and a large forum. It has a quit track as well as a cut-back track. About $100 a year on the website, 7-day trial.
• Sunnyside if you want less to do each day: a weekly drink plan and a text to log each drink. You can text a human coach when you want one. $99 a year, 15-day trial.
• Both cost about the same. Neither takes insurance. Both say in their own disclaimers that they are not for alcohol use disorder.

Reframe and Sunnyside take different approaches to changing your drinking, even though their annual prices are almost identical. Reframe gives you a structured 160-day course, daily lessons, coach-led Zoom meetings, and a community forum. Sunnyside keeps things simpler: you get a weekly drink plan, text each drink, and can reach a human coach when you want help.

Both trials turn into paid subscriptions automatically. Reframe’s trial lasts 7 days, while Sunnyside gives you 15 days. Try Reframe free for 7 days.

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Reframe vs Sunnyside app comparison

Checked September 5, 2026. Sources: each company’s own site, terms and help center, the Apple App Store and Google Play, Trustpilot, and the 2024 study in Alcohol: Clinical and Experimental Research.

Choose Reframe

If you want more structure, Reframe is the better fit. Especially if you want a program you can work through rather than a simple tracking tool.

• You want lessons. Reframe’s 160-day course explains cravings and habits in daily readings, and the FAQ asks for about 15 minutes a day. Sunnyside publishes no curriculum.
• You want live meetings. Reframe’s coach-led Zoom meetings run through the day and are part of the base subscription.
• You may want to quit rather than cut back. Reframe’s goal setup carries a quit track alongside the cut-back track.
• You do not want to hand over your phone number. Sunnyside’s whole method runs on text messages.
• You want to log half drinks or strong drinks. Sunnyside rounds every drink to a whole number.

Sign up for Reframe’s trial if most of those apply to you, and cancel by day 6 to avoid the annual charge.

Choose Sunnyside

If you want something simpler, Sunnyside asks for less time and attention. You make a plan for the week, log your drinks by text, and can reach a coach when you need one.

• You want to do less each day. Sunnyside asks for a drink plan on Sunday and a text per drink. A r/cutdowndrinking user in 2025 said, “Just simply hitting the plus sign every time I get a new drink is what did me in.”
• You want a coach at the base price without meetings. Sunnyside’s product page says, “We have real human coaches available for when you need a nudge or a bit of motivation. But only if you need it.”
• You want the longer trial and a simpler cancellation. Sunnyside’s trial runs 15 days and Reframe’s runs 7. Sunnyside publishes one cancel deadline and Reframe publishes three.
• You want the app with the published study, and you understand its limits.
• You are curious about naltrexone. Sunnyside Med is a separate telehealth service from the same company.

Reframe vs Sunnyside: price, trials and cancelling

The annual prices are almost the same: Reframe charges $100 on its website, while Sunnyside’s App Store membership is $99.99. Sunnyside’s co-founder also confirmed a “$99/yr” price on Reddit in mid-2026. If you want more coaching from Sunnyside, Premium costs $298 to $299 a year and includes weekly Zoom calls and faster coach replies.

Reframe has more pricing options, but most of them are through the App Store. Its website sells only the annual plan, while Apple offers four annual plans at $59.99, $79.99, $99.99 and $119.99, plus monthly plans at $13.99, $19.99 and $24.99. The price can depend on where you buy the subscription and whether Reframe is running a promotion. On Reframe’s website, the only shorter-term options are gift cards: three months for $19.99, six months for $39.99, or a year for $69.99.

Sunnyside lists its price as “starts at $8.75/mo” today and its co-founder says a monthly plan is available if you email the company during your trial.

The bigger thing to watch with either app is the trial. Both trials automatically convert to paid subscriptions, but their cancellation rules are different.

With Reframe, the App Store terms say the renewal payment is taken 24 hours early, making day 6 the last safe day to cancel a 7-day trial. Reframe’s Terms of Service separately say to cancel “at least thirty (30) days before such renewal,” while its FAQ says to cancel “before the new pay period.” Sunnyside gives a simpler deadline: its Terms say to cancel “at least 1 day prior to the next scheduled payment/ship date.” You can cancel by texting CLOSE to your Sunnyside number.

The refund policies are also a little inconsistent depending on where you look. Reframe’s Terms say “payments are nonrefundable,” but its FAQ says you can receive a full refund if you request it within 24 hours and have not used the subscription. Reddit users also report receiving refunds on request. Sunnyside’s Terms say fees are “non-refundable,” while its product page says, “we’re nice about refunds if it’s truly not right for you.”

User reviews also raise some concerns about billing and cancellation. Reframe’s Trustpilot score is 3.8, with 33 percent of reviews rated one star. Many of those complaints involve the trial converting to an annual subscription or difficulty cancelling. One reviewer in August 2026 wrote, “Impossible to cancel. Impossible to get a refund. Customer support never responds.”

Sunnyside’s Trustpilot score is 4.1, with 12 percent of reviews rated one star. It has some of the same complaints about billing and cancellation. One reviewer in August 2026 wrote, “I canceled my membership and my account was reactivated twice without permission.”

How Reframe and Sunnyside work day to day

Reframe is a course. Google Play describes “a core 160-day, evidence-based education program, progress tracking, a private community, and a multitude of tools.” You read a lesson and log your drinks. You can also join a coach-led Zoom meeting at most hours. A r/cutdowndrinking user 16 days in wrote, “The community you meet over the Zoom meetings are amazing.”

Sunnyside is built around text messages. Its product page says, “Every Sunday we’ll share your plan for the week ahead,” and “Via a simple text-message interface, we’ll remind you to track your drinks every day.” You can log a drink by texting an emoji, a word or a number. The app confirms your total each evening. Progress charts unlock after seven straight days of logging. One r/cutdowndrinking user in 2026 said, “Their timing of checking in is very good. You can also adjust it.”

The text-based approach has a tradeoff. Sunnyside needs your phone number, which Healthline, Oar Health, and Reddit users all list as a con. It also counts whole drinks only. After asking support, one user reported, “If you want to log different sized or strength drinks differently you have to do out the math yourself.” Sunnyside’s co-founder replied in the thread: “our philosophy has been to simplify the tracking component as much as possible … I’m sorry we don’t have it at this time.”

Coaching and community

Reframe includes coach check-ins and daily meetings at the base price. One-on-one coaching is an add-on, but no price is listed on the website. Our Reframe review recorded the add-on prices as of November 2025. A single 45-minute session was $79.99. One session a month with messaging was $129.99, and three sessions a month were $249.99. Reframe’s coaches are described as “certified,” with no credential type stated.

Sunnyside includes on-demand text coaching at the base price. Its FAQ says, “Do I have to talk to a coach? Definitely not. Talking to a coach is completely optional.” Premium adds on a weekly Zoom call.

Sunnyside publishes no coach credentials either, and its 2024 study calls them “peer coaches.” Reviewers disagree about the coaching. An App Store reviewer wrote, “Coaches check in daily and are very responsive to questions.” A Trustpilot reviewer in April 2026 said, “I received cut and paste messages.” Healthline’s tester also found the replies “generic, robotic-like.”

The community experience is different, too. Reframe’s landing page calls its community the “World’s largest online cutback community,” with a forum, group challenges, and the meetings. Sunnyside has an in-app prompt feed and an external Facebook group called The Mindful Drinkers. It also partners with the nonprofit Moderation Management, which runs its own meetings.

Reframe vs Sunnyside for quitting or cutting back

Reframe offers both approaches. Its FAQ says, “80% of current Reframe users are looking to cut back on alcohol, rather than quit completely. We have programs for both moderation practices and abstinence.”

Sunnyside started with moderation as its focus. Its Google Play listing still calls it “the only alcohol tracking, planning, and coaching app focused on mindful drinking and moderation, not sobriety.” On September 5, 2026, the first question in Sunnyside’s signup offered three goals: “Drink Less,” “Complete Zero,” and “I’m Not Sure Yet.” Its homepage now says “drink less or quit entirely.”

So, despite the way the two companies describe each other, both apps can now accommodate someone who wants to quit.

What the evidence says about Reframe and Sunnyside

Sunnyside has a peer-reviewed study behind its program. A 2024 paper in Alcohol: Clinical and Experimental Research looked at 46,411 members who completed a baseline assessment and tracked their drinking at least once. Weekly drink counts fell 33 percent overall, with the largest reductions happening in the first few weeks. People who reported drinking more at the start saw larger relative reductions.¹

There are some important limits to that research. It was a naturalistic study, so members chose to join the program, reported their own drinking, and were not compared with a control group. Sunnyside’s CEO is also a co-author, while the lead author is at Northwell’s Zucker School of Medicine.

Reframe makes a different kind of evidence claim. Its landing page says, “91% report a significant reduction in alcohol consumption within just 90 days” and says the data comes from “over 3 million Reframe users.” At this time the landing page, FAQ, and pricing page do not link to a study or explain how the figure was calculated. Reframe also gives different user counts on its website, including 2 million, 3 million, and 5.6 million.

Neither app is designed to treat alcohol use disorder. Reframe’s footer says, “It is NOT designed to treat alcohol use disorder (AUD).” Sunnyside’s Terms say, “The Services are not intended for individuals that have been diagnosed with or currently undergoing treatment for Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD).”

What users say about the Sunnyside and Reframe apps

The user feedback reflects the same basic difference between the apps: Reframe gets attention for its educational content and community, while Sunnyside appeals to people who want a lighter tracking system.

One Reframe user on r/stopdrinking wrote, “I like knowing why we crave, what’s happening in our brain, what to expect throughout the journey, and there’s a community (much like here) to interact with.” Its critics talk about repetition and billing. One user who tried both summed up the comparison this way: “reframe has some ok lessons but nothing you couldn’t find on google. sunny side is just annoying.”

Sunnyside also has users who report substantial changes. One r/stopdrinking user cut from “nearly 40 a week” to 10. A Trustpilot reviewer in May 2026 wrote, “After drinking every night for 30 odd years, I broke that habit with Sunnyside.”

Its critics also mention plateaus and cost. One r/cutdowndrinking user wrote, “I used Sunnyside for a couple of years. It didn’t really help me. After a while I just plateaued.” Another said, “I’m not overly inclined to pay for Sunnyside.”

When neither fits

Neither app is built for alcohol use disorder, and both say so. If you have a diagnosis or drink heavily enough that stopping brings withdrawal symptoms, you may need a service with clinicians who can prescribe and bill your plan.

Ria Health covers alcohol treatment through Oxford, Magellan and United Medicare Advantage as well as the large national plans. It also takes FSA and HSA money. Workit Health lists Aetna, Humana and Medicaid managed care in eligible states, and puts the insured price at $25 to $35 a month.

Sunnyside also runs a separate service if you want medication without a clinic. Sunnyside Med prescribes compounded oral naltrexone by telehealth in all 50 states plus DC. It costs $99 a month, billed every three months. Naltrexone was approved by the FDA in 1994 for alcohol dependence and is not a controlled substance. Once medication is ordered or dispensed, Sunnyside’s Terms say refunds are “generally not permitted.”