Best CBT Apps of 2024

The Happify app offers “tracks,” or short educational courses, created by PhDs, MDs, therapists, and meditation teachers or coaches. Each “track” features activities designed to help you overcome negative thought patterns, build mindfulness and decrease stress or anxiety. These activities include appreciating the small things, practicing gratitude, empathizing with others, or focusing on your aspirations.

Some unique features of the Happify app are the in-app games, with names like “Negative Knockout” and “Uplift” which ask you to face your negative thoughts and focus on the positive. Happify also has unique learning materials created for dealing with racial stress and discrimination, which sets its content apart from many other apps in this space.

To learn even more about what this app offers, you can read our comprehensive review of Happify.

Evolve is an app designed to help beginners learn about CBT skills and build daily self-care routines. The app includes learning modules called “journeys,” which explore topics like work, relationships, self, and issues specific to the LGBTQIA+ community. Each journey features interactive sessions where you read, journal, or take mini-quizzes about your current mood.

Evolve also features meditations for morning, focus, stress, and anxiety. Each day there is a new journal prompt to complete, along with guided activities including mood check-ins, journal prompts, and reflections.

CBT-i Coach is an app designed by the US Department of Veteran’s Affairs. It is geared towards those who cannot sleep and want to learn better ways to help quiet their minds. There are four main areas of the app and it does not take long to explore them all. An interesting feature is that you log your sleep, or lack of sleep, and the app helps you come up with a plan for better sleep.

A unique thing about CBT-i is that there are plans you can create in advance for nights you cannot sleep. Journaling is not a major feature of this app, as it’s more focused on providing educational materials to help you reframe thoughts. This is a great tool for those who struggle with insomnia due to PTSD.

MoodMission is helpful for anyone, whether they need a simple boost in positivity, or help recovering from depression or anxiety. MoodMission offers mindfulness meditations, relaxation techniques, self-encouraging statements (similar to mantras), fitness activities, yoga practices, and gratitude-boosting activities.

There are also premium “Expeditions,” which are in-depth learning modules, on topics such as the fear of public speaking, fear of spiders, and fear of flying. “Expeditions” are an additional cost.

Clarity (formerly CBT Thought Diary) is a mental health journaling app that utilizes CBT principles to help you improve your mental health. Every day, Clarity prompts you to complete a mood check-in and journal entry. These guided journals are designed to help you reflect on your current mood and what is affecting them. Clarity allows you to choose which journal feels right to you at that time and complete it in the app. After four consistent days of data, Clarity will help analyze patterns and themes in your mood.

CBT Tools is an in-depth CBT diary and activity tracker. It has sections for daily goals and diary entries, mood and activity logs, and also has an area to take various quizzes and assessments. The quizzes are on a variety of topics, from cognitive style and happiness levels to self-concept and fear avoidance. Everything in the app is designed to help you learn to think about yourself and the world around you in a new way.
CBT Tools would be ideal to use between live therapy sessions, as you are able to track several things and do independent learning lessons. This could help you better prepare for your sessions and give you guidance on what to discuss with your therapist.

MindShift is very user-friendly and easy to navigate. You can complete a mood check, learn about different types of anxiety, and click through helpful tools, all from the home screen of the app. There is also a place to set goals and share your progress with others, be it a friend or a doctor. While there is a community space in the app, it seems to be unavailable at the moment.

The app also offers a couple of meditations that are good for beginners or those who have never meditated before, but they don’t do much more than scratch the surface. One unique feature in MindShift is “coping cards,” which are mantras that you can read to yourself when you feel your anxiety creeping in.

MoodTools is a very user-friendly app to help those struggling with depression. There are journaling prompts, videos to watch, activities, and a safety plan to explore. Videos include meditations, soothing sounds, and TED Talks, all on YouTube. However, a couple of the video links seem to be down now.

Activities range from exercise to chores to socializing, all designed to help you refocus your mind away from your depressed state. You can even add your own activity and customize the list.

A really great feature of this app is the safety plan for those who experience thoughts of self-harm. You fill out your safety plan with warning signs, coping strategies, reasons to live, and contacts. You can also quickly navigate to the crisis section and find the number to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.

Stresscoach is a cognitive-behavioral therapy app that focuses on teaching coping skills in just a few minutes a day. The learning materials are lesson plans that focus on topics like letting go of negative thoughts, understanding your own personal psychology, practicing compassion, handling social anxiety, or tackling stress with mindfulness.

Most of the lessons in the app are guided by a little AI bot. Its goal is to help you learn mindfulness skills to tame your stress. There is also a mindfulness section where you can find exercises to help you with panic, acceptance, sleep, and more.

Woebot is an AI therapy app that’s like a little life coach that fits into your pocket. Your main screen will always be the chatbox you share with Woebot, with three main sections at the top of the app to explore. If you choose “topic,” you can talk to Woebot about subjects like the pandemic, managing emotions, or relationships.

If you choose “tools,” Woebot will start chatting with you about what is currently bothering you. After it discovers a problem, it will recommend a tool, like “rewrite negative thoughts” or mindfulness. There is a mood tracker and a gratitude journal, all of which are to be completed with Woebot as your guide.

Youper is a CBT-based AI chatbot designed to help guide you through therapeutic exercises and help you learn CBT skills. Users can chat with Youper about problematic emotions they’re having, work through interactive therapy exercises and more.

What’s Up? teaches you methods to overcome negative thinking patterns, and has areas that focus on breathing and grounding techniques. There are uplifting quotes and affirmations to read, negative and positive habit trackers, and a diary. In the diary, you can note how your day was and rate your feelings on a scale of 1 to 10.

You can customize the look and feel of the app using different colors and themes, although some are in-app purchases. One interesting feature of What’s Up? is its catastrophe scale, which allows you to drag a slider left or right across the screen to help you visually see how serious your issues are or feel at the time.