Mindful drinking, sometimes called the Sober Curious movement, is being intentionally aware of how much we drink and the reasons why we drink alcohol. For many, it can be tough to get into the habit of practicing mindful drinking. Thankfully, there are several mindful drinking apps that can help us create a better relationship with alcohol. Below you’ll find our list of the seven best mindful drinking apps.
Best Mindful Drinking Apps at a Glance
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Our Picks for Best Mindful Drinking Apps
- Best Overall Mindful Drinking App – Reframe
- Best App for 1:1 Support – Sunnyside
- Best Free Mindful Drinking App – TryDry
- Best Alcohol Tracking App – DrinkControl
- Best App with Peer Support – Dry Days by AlcoChange
- Best App with Gamification Strategies – Less
- Best App with Medication Treatment Options – LifeBac
Detailed Reviews of the Best Mindful Drinking Apps
- $24.99 monthly or $119.99 annually
- Seven-day free trial
- Features one-on-one support for mindful drinking with AI and real humans as sponsors
Why We Chose It
Reframe earned our Overall Best Mindful Drinking App because it includes several critical components that help improve a user’s relationship with alcohol.
Pros & Cons
- Seven-day free trial
- Easy to use and intuitive interface
- Uses scientifically-backed strategies
- Provides realistic and achievable steps to help users reach goals
- Not yet compatible with Android devices
- No basic free version
- One-on-one coaching is only offered in the premium version
- You have to complete tasks to earn “coins” to gain access to additional courses
Cost
Reframe costs $24.99 monthly or $119.99 annually and comes with a seven-day free trial. A Reframe premium subscription consists of two plans: Messaging Pass for $99.99 a month or a Coaching Pass for $249.99 a month. Reframe is currently only available on Apple devices, but plans on launching an Android version soon.
Overview
Reframe earned our Overall Best Mindful Drinking App because it includes several critical components that help improve a user’s relationship with alcohol. Reframe begins with a thorough onboarding questionnaire so the program can be customized to target your personal goals. Educational activities and lessons are gradually unlocked as users complete assignments and progress through each module.
Reframe’s educational materials cover the science behind alcohol to help you understand how drinking impacts mental and physical health. In addition to these lessons, Reframe provides a “Toolkit” with strategies to help beat cravings and other essential coping tools, like meditations, games, and breathing exercises.
Reframe also includes virtual daily meetings via Zoom hosted by Reframe coaches, and community message boards for members to share thoughts and experiences on their mindful drinking journey. The educational elements, the coping strategies, and the community support collectively make Reframe one of the best mindful drinking apps currently available.
To learn more, check out our in-depth review of Reframe.
In Our Experience
Reframe provides a “Toolkit” with strategies that helped me beat cravings and other essential coping tools, like meditations, games, and breathing exercises.
- $12.00 monthly, $29.00 every three months, or $99.00 annually
- 14-day free trial
- Features coping tools for cravings, community connection, educational content
Why We Chose It
Sunnyside earned our award for Best Mindful Drinking App with One-on-One Support because of its private texting feature with chatbots and Sunnyside coaches. If you’re looking for more accountability, Sunnyside is the right app for you.
Pros & Cons
- Extensive 14-day free trial
- Offers easy-to-use alcohol tracking tools
- Personalized support with human coaches via private text messages
- Daily reminders to log number of drinks
- Only available on Apple devices
- Members can earn rewards, but only to invite friends to join Sunnyside. Does not offer rewards for progress or reaching goals
Cost
Sunnyside costs $12.00 monthly, $29.00 every three months, or $99.00 annually, and includes a 14-day free trial.
Overview
Sunnyside earned our Best Mindful Drinking App with One-on-One Support award because of its private texting feature with chatbots and Sunnyside coaches. Sunnyside is the right app for you if you’re looking for more accountability. Chatbots send texts to remind you to log daily drinks, and human coaches are there to offer more personalized support. You can text “I need motivation,” or “facing a challenge,” and a human coach will respond with tips and strategies to help you overcome cravings or obstacles.
New users log daily drinks for one week so the app can collect data on typical drinking habits and create a baseline to build goals. After your first week, you’ll continue to log drinks with new targets (e.g., first Monday = 4 drinks, next Monday target = 3 drinks). With the help of reminders, notifications, and private coaching, Sunnyside makes it easy for users to commit to their mindful drinking practice.
To learn more, check out our in-depth review of Sunnyside.
In Our Experience
With Sunnyside, I could text “I need motivation,” or “facing a challenge,” and a human coach responded with tips and strategies that helped me overcome cravings and obstacles.
- Free
- Features drink tracking and progress tracking tools
Why We Chose It
Even though Try Dry is free, it provides several important tools and features that make it a comprehensive mindful drinking app.
Pros & Cons
- All content is free
- Provides tracking tools for money and calories saved, as well as sleep, energy, and mood
- Includes a notes section for journal entries
- Makes it easy to monitor progress
- Lacks peer support features, like community message boards or meetings
- Limited educational components, such as lessons or exercises on the science of alcohol
- Extra in-person support only available in the U.K.
Cost
Try Dry is completely free to join.
Overview
Try Dry’s main screen is your “Dashboard,” where you see your featured stats, like how many dry days you’ve had this week, month, or year. You’ll also see how many calories and money you’ve saved since you began your mindful drinking journey.
To log a drink, you simply click on a day in the “Calendar” section and answer the prompts — did you stay dry, drink, or drink as planned? The “drink as planned” option is helpful because it distinguishes the typical drinking day from a day that you consumed alcohol, but didn’t necessarily plan it. For example, you might do a regular weekly happy hour with friends on Thursday nights (drinks as planned), but notice that you’ve also been in the habit of drinking on Mondays and Tuesdays (not planned). This helps to pinpoint days that you want to curb drinking or be more aware of triggers or cravings.
After you log your drinks or dry days, Try Dry will ask you a series of questions about your experience. For instance, if you had a drink, what was it, how much did you consume, and how did it affect your mood, energy, sleep, and cravings? Try Dry also has a “Notes” section for you to make journal-like entries to help you track other variables that could be contributing to your drinking, like the environment or people around you.
In Our Experience
I love that Try Dry encourages users to track their overall well-being, as well as their drinks, making it a notable free mindful drinking app.
- $3.99 monthly, $11.99 annually, or a one-time payment of $24.99 for a lifetime subscription
- Features multi-faceted alcohol tracking tools
Why We Chose It
DrinkControl is a mindful drinking app that features multi-faceted alcohol tracking tools. You can track drinks, money spent, type of alcohol consumed, and the percentage of alcohol by volume (ABV).
Pros & Cons
- Basic free version includes alcohol tracking tools and progress monitoring, premium version includes a lifetime subscription option.
- Interface is easy to navigate and well-designed
- Users can enter specific types of drinks (wine, shot, beer, etc) and percent of alcohol by volume (ABV)
- Tracks money and calories saved
- Only available on Apple devices
- Can’t customize your limit, only uses suggested limits set by the World Health Organization (WHO)
- No peer support via message boards or meetings, and no one-on-one coaching support from professionals
- Lacks educational tools and lessons
Cost
DrinkControl provides some alcohol tracking features for free, but there is a premium version that costs $3.99 monthly, $11.99 annually, or a one-time payment of $24.99 for a lifetime subscription.
Overview
If you’d like to focus your mindful drinking practice on creating an alcohol-tracking habit, DrinkControl would be a great place to start. It’s incredibly easy to use and allows you to be specific about the drinks you’re consuming, which is why it earns the award for Best Alcohol Tracking app. Most of the tracking tools are free, but users can get extra features, like customizable tracking notifications, with the premium version.
DrinkControl makes it easy to log daily drinks and identify patterns in drinking behaviors with its color-coded system. You can log a drink by going to the “Today” section or the “Calendar” section and tapping on the current day. When you click “Add a Drink,” it’ll show you a list of images of common drinks, like wine, beer, champagne, whiskey, or vodka. You’ll enter the type of drink, the number of drinks you consumed, the ABV per serving, and the cost of each drink. DrinkControl saves your common drinking choices, making it easier to log as you go. When viewing the monthly calendar, each day gets coded by a specific color: green = dry days, blue = drinking within limits, purple = over your limit, and red = binge drinking.
In Our Experience
DrinkControl made it easy for me to log daily drinks and identify patterns in my drinking behaviors with its color-coded system.
- Free
- Invite friends to join sober challenges with you
- Features tracking tools and a community leaderboard
Why We Chose It
Dry Days wins our award for Best Mindful Drinking App with Peer Support because it makes it super easy to invite friends and collectively practice mindful drinking together.
Pros & Cons
- All content is free
- Allows users to invite friends to participate in sober challenges
- Provides tracking tools for money and calories saved, as well as sleep, energy, and mood
- Includes a notes section for journal entries
- Only available on Apple devices
- App would continuously freeze when trying to set up drink profile
- Somewhat difficult to initially navigate; interface could use an upgrade
- No individual support offered from professionals
Cost
Dry Days is completely free to join.
Overview
Dry Days wins our award for Best Mindful Drinking App with Peer Support because it makes it super easy to invite friends and collectively practice mindful drinking together. Cutting back on alcohol isn’t always easy, but facing a challenge like this with friends or family can encourage commitment to your sober curious journey. New users can invite friends to download and join Dry Days by going to the main menu in the right-hand corner of the screen and tapping “Share the App.” Dry Days will send a text to your contact with instructions on signing up.
The main dashboard lists your progress through various metrics, like dry day streaks and money saved over the week, month, and year. To check to see how your month or week compares to a friend, simply click on the “Leaderboard” section, and everyone’s dry day totals will be listed. There’s also a “My Journey” section that shows the data logged for each individual day, including the number of drinks, quality of sleep, energy levels, and overall mood.
In Our Experience
Cutting back on alcohol isn’t always easy, but facing a challenge like this with friends and family on my Dry Days app encouraged me to commit to my sober curious journey.
- Free
- Features games to help you commit to tracking drinks and cutting back on alcohol
- Only available on Apple
Why We Chose It
The Less app has one vital key feature, and that’s keeping your mindful drinking ship sailing smoothly! Less’ entertaining strategy is why it earned the award for Best Mindful Drinking App with Gamification Techniques.
Pros & Cons
- All content is free
- Easy-to-navigate interface and sleek design
- Uses the sailing ship as a motivational tool to help users stay committed
- Easy to log drinks, dry days, and track overall progress
- Only available on Apple devices
- Doesn’t track mood, sleep, or other variables
- No peer support via message boards or meetings, and no one-on-one coaching support from professionals
Cost
Less is completely free to join.
Overview
The Less app has one vital key feature, and that’s keeping your mindful drinking ship sailing smoothly! Less’ entertaining strategy is why it earned the award for Best Mindful Drinking App with Gamification Techniques. While playing a simple game to track drinks may seem silly to some, gamification methods like this have shown strong scientific evidence for influencing behavior changes around unhealthy habits, like quitting drinking or smoking.4
By achieving dry days and keeping your drinking under your weekly limit, the animated ship on your dashboard will continue to sail smoothly while the waters remain calm and the sun shines. If you miss daily logs or consistently go over your limits, the waters become rougher, and storms appear. In addition to the sailing game, the Less app also has a “Tips” section that includes articles and podcasts on mindful drinking and mocktail recipes.
In Our Experience
I enjoyed using Less’s game with an animated ship and captain to encourage me to track drinks. Sticking to my mindful drinking path leads to smooth sailing, and going over my limits causes storms and rough waters.
- $249.00 monthly or $672 quarterly
- Features private coaching and medication treatment options
Why We Chose It
LifeBac is one of the few companies that offers medication treatment options to those who are not necessarily abstaining from alcohol but hoping to moderate their drinking.
Pros & Cons
- Offers medication treatment options for fighting alcohol cravings
- Provides one-on-one coaching support
- Includes an anonymous community message forum for peer support with other LifeBac members
- Follow-up appointments with provider included in subscription
- Does not accept insurance
- Many reviewers report a poor user experience; app often crashes and doesn’t save drink logs
- Background experience and certification of private coaches not listed
Cost
LifeBac subscriptions cost $249.00 monthly or $672.00 quarterly. Both plans include the cost of medication.
Overview
LifeBac is one of the few companies that offers medication treatment options to those who are not necessarily abstaining from alcohol but hoping to moderate their drinking. The process starts with a comprehensive questionnaire on drinking habits and cravings. Then, you’re paired up with a LifeBac medical provider who conducts an intake evaluation.
If your medical provider believes you’re eligible to treat your alcohol cravings with Baclofen, the medication used to fight cravings, it will be automatically mailed to you for free in discreet packaging. Meanwhile, you’re paired with a personal coach to help you set realistic and achievable goals for curbing your drinking. LifeBac offers unlimited phone/text communication with coaches and medical providers to ensure members are on the right track with dosage and personal support.
In Our Experience
If your medical provider believes you’re eligible to treat your alcohol cravings with Baclofen, the medication used to fight cravings, LifeBac will automatically mailed to you for free delivery in discreet packaging.
Best Mindful Drinking Apps
Free Content | One-On-One Support | Medication Options | Medication Options | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Reframe | ||||
Sunnyside | ||||
Try Dry | ||||
DrinkControl | ||||
Dry Days | ||||
Less | ||||
LifeBac |
Free Content | One-On-One Support | Medication Options | Medication Options |
---|---|---|---|
Reframe | |||
Sunnyside | |||
Try Dry | |||
DrinkControl | |||
Dry Days | |||
Less | |||
LifeBac | |||
Final Verdict
If you’re thinking about joining the sober curious movement and you’d like to use an app to cut back on drinking, the mindful drinking apps listed in this guide are a great place to start. Reviewing each app’s key features can help you pinpoint what mindful drinking app suits you and your personal goals.
For instance, if you’d like to create a shared leaderboard with friends in a Dry January sober challenge, Dry Days would be a terrific resource. If you prefer a more sophisticated app with tracking tools, games, support meetings, and educational lessons, Reframe is an excellent option. Practicing mindful drinking can take some time, attention, and patience, but with the help of the right app, you can completely transform your relationship with alcohol.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Does It Mean to Be Sober Curious?
If you’re exploring mindful drinking, you’ve most likely come across the term “sober curious.” Mindful drinking and being sober curious go hand-in-hand because they both involve taking a long look at your drinking habits and asking yourself some important questions about alcohol’s role in your life. Ruby Warrington, author of Sober Curious: The Blissful Sleep, Greater Focus, Limitless Presence, and Deep Connection Awaiting Us All on the Other Side of Alcohol, explains that being sober curious means challenging the dominant drinking culture and questioning the impulses and expectations that lead us to drink.1
Warrington emphasizes that everyone’s sober curious journey is unique and involves different questions and experiences. For instance, some may ask why they feel more comfortable drinking in social situations, while others may question their level of alcohol dependence and if treatment for Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) is necessary. Being sober curious addresses persistent worries that often surface when drinking, like “What would my life look like without alcohol?” or “Am I drinking too much?”
The sober curious lifestyle has been a welcomed trend, especially in the U.S., where one in six adults report binge drinking, with 25% doing it weekly.2 The sober curious community has helped shine a light on drinking culture and validated those concerns that so many of us have about our alcohol consumption. Mindful drinking may lead to significant changes in your drinking habits, total abstinence, or no changes at all. The point is to dedicate time and attention to your relationship with alcohol and determine if modifications can make life better.
What Are the Benefits of Mindful Drinking?
It probably comes as no surprise to learn that mindful drinking can lead to several mental and physical health benefits. First, most who practice mindful drinking end up drinking less, which leads to better sleep, more energy, and a stronger immune system. Mindful drinking also reduces alcohol-related symptoms, like headaches, high blood pressure, and fatty build-up around the liver. Because alcohol can influence how we manage our emotions, lowering your intake can boost your mood and keep anxiety and depression at bay. Finally, many mindful drinkers also report a stronger sense of control over their decisions due to heightened awareness around drinking.3