CBT Thought Diary – Clarity App Review 2024: Pros & Cons, Cost, & Who It’s Right For

Key Takeaways

• Clarity is a journaling app that uses CBT-guided techniques to help users track moods and reframe negative thoughts and behaviors.
• Clarity has a limited free version, and we recommend paying for the subscription to gain the full benefits of the app.
• Clarity has different features for Apple and Android users.

How to Sign Up for Clarity

You can sign up for the app by visiting the Clarity-CBT Thought Diary website.

What Is Clarity?

Clarity is a journaling app based on cognitive behavioral therapy techniques. On both Apple and Android, you will be able to complete daily mood check-ins, learn to identify your negative thoughts, challenge them, and then reframe them. The educational courses are easy to understand and largely text-based. Clarity subscriptions cost $59.99 -$69.99 annually depending if you use Apple or Android.

Clarity is very user-friendly and everything is organized into four main tabs:

• The home screen: On the home screen you will find your daily mood check-ins, guided journal options to complete, and on Apple, everything is organized like a checklist.
• The discover tab: The discover tab is where all of the educational courses are on topics like “Introduction to CBT,” “Tackling Negative Thoughts,” “Productivity,” “Mental Health Guides,” and much more. Apple users will also have even more options to explore like mindfulness and mental health assessments.
• The insights tab: The insights tab becomes available after you complete six entries. You will then be able to view how many entries you have completed, which moods you report most frequently, and any other habits or activities you have logged. In the premium version, you can export all of your entries, which could be helpful to take to mental health appointments.
• The entries tab: The entries tab is where you can review any mood and journal entries you have completed. These will show you the date, time, emotions, activities, and guided journal responses you’ve logged so far.

Guided Journaling

A great aspect of Clarity is that whenever you complete a mood check, you will also be prompted to complete a CBT-guided journal entry. You can do a basic “Analyze Thought” or “Practice Gratitude” journal exercise. Additionally, you can choose from many guided journals like Daily Affirmation, Practice Love Languages, Set a Goal, and many more. These guided journals help you reflect on your current mood and what is affecting them.

Who Is the Clarity App Right For?

Clarity would be a great fit for those wanting a guided journal, easy-to-understand CBT skills, and a self-paced program.

Guided CBT Journals

Clarity has really great guided journals that can be done as stand-alone entries or as a part of your daily mood check-ins. These guided journals ask you questions about a specific topic, like a goal you want to set, and then ask you follow-up questions to further analyze the situation. This is especially helpful for those new to CBT or new to journaling entirely.

Easy-to-Understand CBT Skills

In addition to guided CBT journals, Clarity includes various articles you can read to learn more about what CBT is and how it is used. These articles are usually around three to four short pages and take less than 10 minutes to read through. Unlike other CBT apps, like Noom Mood, you will never be quizzed on anything you read, giving Clarity a more relaxed feeling.

If you want to learn more about their program, you can read our in-depth review of Noom Mood.

Self-Paced CBT Program

Everything in the Clarity app is completely self-paced. This allows you the time to read, learn, and journal on your own time, which is great for people who may feel overwhelmed by CBT programs that are too structured.

Who May Want an Alternative to Clarity?

While Clarity is great for many, some may want to seek an alternative. If you don’t like CBT journaling or you want professional CBT support, Clarity will not be a good fit for you.

You Don’t Like CBT Journaling

CBT really focuses on what is happening in your life now and does not focus on how your past influences and informs your current self. Those who don’t like how CBT is structured may want to find an alternative journaling app. Something like Day One would be a good fit for those who are looking for a dynamic journaling app free of any specific therapeutic modality.

To learn more, check out our in-depth review of Day One.

Seeking Professional CBT Support

Clarity does not offer mental health coaching or live therapy, so those seeking professional help from a licensed professional may want to check out an online therapy platform like Online-Therapy.com. With Online-Therapy, you will have access to a licensed therapist in your state and an interactive online CBT program to complete. To learn all about their online CBT program, you can read our in-depth review of Online-Therapy.

What Users Are Saying About Clarity

The Clarity has a 4.8-star rating from 21K reviews on the Apple App Store and a 4.7 star rating from 6.96K reviews on the Google Play Store. In both app stores, the user reviews are overwhelmingly positive with very few issues or complaints.

Great CBT Journal Prompts

By far the top review I read was that users really loved the CBT journal prompts. Many people pointed out that, not only do the prompts help them with what to write about, but it really helps them focus on how their thoughts and feelings are related.

Great Layout & Easy to Use

A lot of users really enjoyed how Clarity was laid out and found it very easy to use. The app has a great navigation bar at the bottom and everything is easy to find—you don’t have to hunt around for the mood check-ins or the guided journal prompts. Everything is clearly labeled and makes for a great user experience.

Great Tool to Use Alongside Therapy

I noticed, especially in the Apple App Store, that users mentioned this was a great tool to use alongside their normal therapy sessions. For those who have a therapist that uses CBT techniques as a part of their practice, some of the terms and concepts can be difficult to remember. Clarity has a great educational section where you can review concepts you’ve been talking about in therapy and then use them to journal.

Exported Data Is Messy

A fairly common complaint is that the way data is exported from the app can look messy or can be hard to read. Unlike other journals and mood trackers where your data is exported as a CSV or PDF file, Clarity exports just a basic text list. This can be difficult to read, especially if you are logging your moods and journaling more than once a day.

How Much Does Clarity Cost?

Clarity costs $59.99 annually in the Google Play Store and $69.99 annually in the Apple App Store and comes with a seven-day free trial. There is a limited free version, but to get the most out of the app, we recommend purchasing the subscription.

How To Get Started With Clarity

Getting started with Clarity is very fast and takes less than ten minutes to get to your first mood check-in and journal.

1. Go to the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store and download the app.
2. If you use Apple, you will have to answer about 21 questions about your anxiety and depression symptoms prior to getting into the app. This short assessment takes around 5 – 10 minutes.
3. If you use Android, you will click through a couple of screens explaining what Clarity offers.
4. Select a time you want to be reminded to log your moods and complete journals.
5. Choose to sign up for the premium version or wait and try the free version.
6. Log your first mood and complete your first guided journal prompts.

Clarity Free Version: Detailed Review

Clarity’s free version lets you log your moods throughout the day and offers two guided journals to complete. There are also some educational courses available in the free version to aid in learning what CBT is and how to utilize it.

Daily Mood Check-Ins

Clarity encourages you to log your moods throughout the day. You will be able to select an emoji that best fits your mood, select emotions and activities that you’ve experienced, then create a journal entry. All journal entries allow for a title and free writing space. Once this is completed, you will be prompted to complete a CBT guided journal.

CBT Guided Journals

There are only two guided journals available in the free version. One is called “Practice Gratitude” and asks you the simple question of “What are you grateful for?” The other guide journal is called “Analyze Thought” and asks you to write about an unhelpful thought, identify the cognitive distortion, evaluate the evidence, and then reframe your thought.

Educational Courses

The free version of Clarity has select educational courses (called Crash Courses in the app) available to read. These courses are:

• Introduction to CBT (Android Only)
• Tackling Negative Thoughts (called Tackling Unhelpful Thoughts on Apple)
• Cognitive Distortions Explained

All of these courses are a great place to start for those who are new to CBT. The “Cognitive Distortions Explained” course has awesome articles that explain what a cognitive distortion is and common types. While none of these articles have an audio component, they do have really great information and you can read them as slowly or as many times as you need. I really enjoyed going back through the cognitive distortions and studying each one.

Free Content in the Apple App

For Apple users, there are three additional offerings available in the free version that are not available for Android users. You will have access to a stress test, a depression test, and an anxiety test. These tests will assess what your symptoms are like and can be helpful if you are thinking about seeking professional help from a licensed therapist.

Clarity Premium: Detailed Review

The premium version of Clarity unlocks all of the guided journals and all the educational courses. Apple features some exclusive content, like various mental health assessments and several mindfulness audio recordings. A premium subscription costs $59.99 – $69.99 annually, depending on if you are an Android or Apple user. Currently, there is a seven-day free trial available for the premium subscription.

Premium Content on Android

The premium content on Android unlocks all of the guided journals and educational courses, including the mental health guides. The courses unlocked are:

• Sleep
• Stress
• Relationships
• Growth Mindset
• Productivity
• Mindfulness

Each course contains four to six articles you can read, with clear explanations of the concepts. The mental health guides feature articles on anxiety, depression, PTSD, OCD, social anxiety, panic disorder, and bipolar disorder. All of these articles give explanations about what the disorder is, symptoms, treatments, and more.

The guided journals are divided into categories:

• Thoughts & Feelings
• Gratitude
• Rituals
• Relationships
• Goals & Values
• Take Action
• Therapy

Each category contains between four to eight unique guided journals. For example, the Therapy category has four guided journals called “Session Debriefing,” “Session Preparation,” “Your First Therapy Session,” and “Reflecting on Therapy.” All of these journals would be especially useful if you need help decompressing after your therapy sessions.

Premium Content on Apple

By far, Apple has more premium content than Android does, which may explain why the cost is slightly higher.

The Apple version has everything the Android version does plus some additional content:

• Big Five Personality Assessments
• Self Discovery Assessments
• Wellness Assessments
• Addiction Assessments
• Mental Health Assessments
• Developmental Assessments
• Personality Disorder Assessments
• Guided Meditations

The addition of various assessments gives the Apple version of the Clarity a more dynamic feeling. I was disappointed to discover the Apple version offered more than the Android version and I wish that I had known before I purchased the premium version for my Samsung. I would have much preferred to purchase the app on my iPhone to have access to the assessments.

I found the “Big Five Personality” assessments to be really interesting. There were assessments for extraversion, neuroticism, conscientiousness, agreeableness, and openness to experience in this category. All of the assessments are only ten questions long and if they are ever available on Android, those would be the ones I’d want to take first.

There were only four guided meditations in the Apple version, but they were audios, which differed from the mindfulness exercises in the Android version. The longest one was seven minutes and the shortest was four minutes long. I felt these were a fair number of meditations for a journaling app to have and any beginner might find them useful.

Clarity Vs MoodTools

Clarity and MoodTools are all a part of the same company but are different products. MoodTools is more focused on helping those with depression symptoms while Clarity is geared towards almost anyone. MoodTools is also a very barebones app when compared to Clarity, but you can tell that MoodTools is what Clarity grew out of. The journal feature for both apps looks almost the same and allows for a mood check-in, emotion, and activity add-ons, and a free-writing journal space. You can even add a gratitude entry, which is something also available in Clarity.

On Apple, MoodTools costs $4.99 monthly, $29.99 annually, or $199.99 for lifetime use. On Android, it offers a monthly subscription for $1.99. The difference in cost between Apple and Android is something to be aware of for both apps.

Final Thoughts on Clarity

Overall, I would recommend Clarity to those using Apple products more than to those using Android products – the experience on Apple was by far superior in terms of content. Regardless of how different the apps were between the platforms, Clarity is a great tool to learn the basics of CBT and complete daily journaling entries. I genuinely like how the CBT-guided journals were automatically integrated into the daily mood check-ins. This journal helped me analyze why I was having certain negative feelings and helped me come up with strategies to overcome them.

History of Clarity

Clarity was released in 2016 and is a part of the MoodTools brand. MoodTools has released several other apps including a stand-alone anxiety and depression test app, as well as a suicide safety plan app. MoodTools was co-founded in 2014 by Nancy Su and Eddie Liu.

Frequently Asked Questions About the Clarity App

How Do I Cancel My Clarity Subscription?

To cancel your Clarity subscription, go into your account in the app store you use. From there, you can manage your subscriptions and cancel Clarity. If you are having any problems, you can email [email protected] with questions or concerns.

Does Clarity Offer Refunds?

You may be able to receive a refund through the app store you originally purchased your subscription from. To find out more about how refunds work with Google Play or the Apple App Store, please visit their websites.

Please visit Clarity Terms of Service and Privacy Policy for more information.