Inflow ADHD App Review 2022: Pros & Cons, Cost, & Who It’s Right For

How to Sign Up for the Inflow ADHD App

You can find information on where to download the Inflow ADHD App on the Inflow website. Or you can go to the Google Play Store or Apple Store and download the Inflow ADHD App.

What is the Inflow ADHD App?

Inflow is a cognitive behavioral therapy app that can help you learn to manage your ADHD symptoms. The app offers a built-in community, self-paced programs, accountability coaching, live events, and a great resource library all in one convenient place. Inflow is not a replacement for therapy or medication management and the app cannot provide you with a diagnosis. Costs range from $22.49 – $199.99 depending on which subscription you choose and there is a seven-day free trial.

Inflow is unique due to the many different types of support and resources for men with ADHD and women with ADHD. The self-paced modules are available in both audio and written formats, and there are also tools like journaling, key takeaways, brain hacks, and medication reminders. There are also live components to the app, including the co-working and hosted/moderated rooms, coaching, and even a section for community.

Inflow ADHD has a library full of resources designed using CBT for ADHD and is specifically for adults looking to manage their ADHD. There are various modules that are on topics like helping build healthy habits, becoming more organized and staying on-task, all the way to reducing impulsivity and managing your emotions. Each module includes a few lessons that are either audios to listen to or text-based to read. The library will show you upcoming new modules, modules that you have started, your current progress, as well as new modules you can enroll in.

Additionally, you will have access to a community, challenges, and additional tools that help you stay “in flow” with managing symptoms of ADHD.

Inflow Accountability Coaching

Inflow provides a subscription that includes an accountability coach. Talking with your ADHD accountability coach is done in the app and it is similar to texting. These messages work more like email support with replies supposed to come every day. However, sometimes it would take three days for a reply to come, which can be frustrating for those wanting to discuss a specific topic immediately. The infrequency of the messaging does not seem to provide enough value at this time and it may be best to only subscribe to the self-paced content.

There is a “telecoaching” option available in the app that costs $99 for a 50-minute session which might be a great add-on cost to the self-paced content. This service may be limited due to the number of coaches available.

Who is the Inflow ADHD App Right For?

Inflow would be ideal for adults who are curious to learn more about their ADHD in a more structured and guided way and as an additional resource to your current ADHD treatment.

Learn More About Your ADHD

If you have recently been diagnosed with ADHD, or perhaps, you are starting to pay closer attention to your symptoms, Inflow would be a great tool to help you learn more. The app offers educational resources to help you learn strategies to help with focus, organization or time management, and also how to manage your emotions and prevent burnout. There are even resources to help you navigate and reduce the stigma often associated with ADHD or being neurodiverse in general.

Additional Resource to Regular Therapy or Psychiatry

If you are looking for a little more accountability and one-on-one support in between your regular therapy or psychiatry sessions, Inflow could be a good option. With Inflow, you can sign up for a subscription that includes the option to text with an accountability coach. You will also have access to self-paced learning modules and the option to save your favorite lessons, activities, and more.

Who May Want an Alternative to Inflow ADHD App?

Inflow may not be the best fit for everyone and some may need to seek alternative methods for the treatment of Adult ADHD. Additionally, those with other mental health symptoms, those seeking medication management, and those 18-years and younger will not find Inflow the best fit for them.

You Have Other Mental Health Symptoms

While ADHD may cause additional stress and symptoms related to anxiety and depression it is better to find a mental health therapist that can offer a diagnosis and treatment more tailored to your overall daily level of functioning. Therapists are also usually trained to help you work on issues like childhood and past trauma, whereas an accountability coach cannot.

You are Only Looking for Medication

Inflow has made it clear that, although they are using evidence-based practice to coach someone with ADHD, it is not intended to be a replacement for traditional therapy or medication. If you are in search of someone to prescribe you ADHD medication or obtain a formal diagnosis, Inflow will not be the best fit for you.

To find an in-person provider, you can search an online therapist directory to find someone to help you with an ADHD diagnosis. If you wish to seek out online therapy or medication management, consider learning more about Done, an online ADHD medication and therapy platform. For more information about how to sign-up, you can visit the Done website.

Children with ADHD

Inflow is strictly an app for adults, and does not offer support for ADHD in children or ADHD in teens. The only specific topic that is for parents, is learning how to parent with ADHD. Outside of that, the resources and accountability is more focused on you, as the adult and possibly teens 18+, experiencing symptoms of ADHD.

What Users Are Saying About the App

The Inflow ADHD App has a 4.2-star rating from 1,9000+ reviews in the Apple Store and a 4.6-star rating from 2,000+ reviews in the Google Play Store. If you broaden your search and look beyond your phone’s app store, you will find an interesting discussion thread on Reddit. Users seemed to either really love Inflow or they found some big issues with the app.

Just What I Needed

Many users mentioned that Inflow was an app they found easy-to-use with understandable CBT lessons. They also felt the app really helped them manage their ADHD and that it was exactly what they needed. As a licensed therapist with lived experience, I really enjoyed the different modules available and really helped to understand daily experiences that could be affected by ADHD.

Does CBT Work for ADHD?

Some of the user reviews I read questioned whether CBT for ADHD was worth the money. They felt that through using this modality, the app developers were able to inflate the subscription costs.  From my experience working with clients, CBT can sometimes be challenging for someone with ADHD, especially if trying to incorporate a lot of mindfulness and visualization. In my opinion, it is worth paying the monthly subscription for access to the lessons and daily community support. Monthly costs will most likely be cheaper than going to therapy, however, depending on the individualized support that you need may be worth saving your money and going to see a therapist.

Questionable Refund-Policy

There were several reviews that shared their disappointment in Inflow’s refund policy. In the Reddit review we found, one person shared that they felt pushed into purchasing an annual subscription over the monthly subscription. Another reviewer felt the refund-policy was unclear and needed to be fixed. When I was reviewing the app, I found that you can only request a refund through the app store you purchased your subscription from. This feels like a lot of steps for someone with ADHD.

How Much Does Inflow Cost?

Inflow costs $22.49 – $199.99 depending on which subscription plan you choose. Currently there is a seven-day free trial and a discount may be available to students.

Inflow ADHD App on Apple costs:

• Monthly – $22.49 without coaching or $47.99 with coaching
• Annual – $95.99 without coaching or $199.99 with coaching

Inflow ADHD on Google costs:

• Monthly – $22.49 without coaching
• Annual – $95.99 without coaching

At the time of this review, Inflow is not able to provide accountability coaching for those who sign up through the Google Play Store. Subscriptions without coaching provide you full access to the educational resources library. The app developer is working to resolve the coaching issue with the Google Play Store, but there was no timeline for when the issue would be resolved.

Get a Free Trial Of the Inflow App

Telecoaching

For an additional cost, you can sign-up for one-on-one coaching that is more like traditional coaching sessions. Each session costs $99 and last 50 minutes. However, there are only two coaches you can choose from and it seems to be a very limited service.

Inflow Discounts

Inflow offers discounted plans for students and through their scholarship program called the Access Program. The Inflow student discount gives students 50% off the annual or monthly subscription price on just the self-paced ADHD program. The Access Program offers free access to a limited number of new users per month. Currently, Inflow is experiencing wait times of around six months for both of these programs.

Inflow ADHD App Key Features

Inflow has great features like a journal space, educational learning modules, and accountability coaching. There are monthly and annual subscriptions available and you can choose whether or not you want to add coaching. You will be eligible for a seven-day free trial with either subscription plan.

How To Get Started With Inflow ADHD App

Getting started with Inflow is incredibly easy and as simple as downloading the app from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store and creating an account. You will first complete an assessment that takes less than 10 minutes, then you can choose the free trial and a subscription option or choose the free trial and apply for financial aid.

Home

Daily routine which is a focus for the day, learning module currently working on, and daily challenges that you may have signed up for. You don’t have to login to multiple apps to continue to make progress or reflect on your goals, which makes it really convenient.

Additionally, there is a live events tab with various times being hosted. An important thing to note, these live events are hosted via Zoom and not inside of InFlow. Additionally, the times of the live events seem a bit sporadic, and appear to not be in the same timezone as someone living in the United States.

Learning

The Learning section is where you can find the resource library, which by itself is worth the monthly subscription to Inflow. There are a variety of learning modules you can take at your own pace that range from managing the physical symptoms of ADHD to managing the executive functioning challenges as a result of ADHD. These lessons are available with audio (with options to change playback speed) or text to read along. At the end of the lesson, there are three “Key Takeaways,” a journal prompt with the option to share your response with your coach, and possibly even a quiz.

Each learning module features a handful of bite-sized lessons, which you are encouraged to only study one at a time in order to not become overwhelmed. Someone with ADHD may prefer to have the flexibility to jump around or listen to a few lessons back-to-back. While this is possible, Inflow will sometimes have a message that pops up encouraging you to take a break.

Challenges

This section includes various challenges like “Use Inflow” or “Practice Mindfulness”. The app does not automatically track that you have done these things and acts more like a to-do list. Once you complete a “challenge” you can check it off.

Community

The community tab allows you to view a new daily question that you can respond to. This works similarly to a social media feed like Facebook, where you can view what others have said, like, comment, and share. The community is very active and there are great posts throughout the day.

Tools

The tools section offers areas called “Brain Hacks,” “Journal Entries,” “Key Takeaways,” “Medication Reminders,” and “Past Events.” For people who experience symptoms of ADHD, certain aspects of daily life can fall into a category I call “out of sight, out of mind.” Having all of these essentials in one spot made it much easier for me to build a consistent routine in using the Inflow app.

The “Brain Hacks” and “Key Takeaways” are little highlighted concepts from a lesson that was previously completed. Working memory for a person with ADHD works in a different way(s) than a neurotypical individual and having easy access to these concepts, along with the name of the lesson and the date you completed helps revisiting it later much easier.

What I really enjoyed about the “Brain Hacks” and “Key Takeaways” was it gave me the strategies and concepts I wanted immediately. By eliminating the need to retake the entire lesson, I was able to find what I needed and move on. I do, however, wish that this “Tools” section allow you to search for specific keywords. Additionally, the option to be able to share my journal responses with my coach helps to eliminate multiple steps in order to share what I have written or reflected upon. At the end of the day, the less steps that have to be taken or apps that you have to switch, the better.

Accountability Coaching with Inflow

Accountability coaching with Inflow allows you to connect with a professional mental health coach that will support you while you use the app. You are connected with a coach pretty quickly and I was matched with a coach almost instantly. All coaching sessions take place via text and it is more similar to using your phone’s native messaging app. Generally, it took about a day or so to receive a reply back once I sent my coach a message.

As a therapist, I felt an ADHD coach should be someone who was going to take what I’ve discovered in my self-paced lessons and expand into further growth and development. I anticipated coaching sessions that had more daily interaction and conversation than what I received. As an app designed for people with ADHD, I hoped for a bit more “back and forth” with my coach. While I realize this may not be realistic due to time zone differences and working hours, I felt disappointed. When I asked my coach about the lack of messages exchanged, I was told to think of it more like email support with replies every day or so during the week.

I do admit that, at times I would forget to reply to my coach as they would often reply to me while I was unavailable. However, even when I would reply less than five minutes after receiving a response, it would take 1-3 days (or longer) to receive a response back. Since my coach did not respond to me in a manner that works for my ADHD, I would forget my previous stressor and already be onto the next one by the time she would reply.

Frankly, I don’t think the additional expense for a coach is worth it. The infrequency of messaging does not seem to provide enough value for me to recommend paying more than the monthly or yearly subscription for their self-paced content. Due to my own experience with ADHD, by the time my coach replied, I was already onto the next stressor and would be recommended to try another module.

There is a section for “telecoaching” where you can hire a coach for an additional $99 for 50-minute sessions, which is more along the lines of the style of coaching I was hoping for but for an additional expense.

Inflow ADHD App Vs. Competitors

If you are an adult recently diagnosed with ADHD there are plenty of apps that can help you with managing and understanding your symptoms. Some of these apps help with time management, such as RescueTime and Brili, or are a note-taking app like Evernote to keep you organized. When compared to these apps, Inflow offers something entirely different. Inflow provides you with information to gather the basic knowledge and understanding of ADHD and the impact it has on daily living.

Inflow Vs. RescueTime

RescueTime is a time management app that tracks your time spent on your computer, separating it into personal and professional use of your time. This helps you identify what activities distract you most and helps you develop better habits that make better use of your time. These insights can be used individually and as an employer for your team. While RescueTime primarily focuses on the ease of getting distracted, which is often a symptom of ADHD, Inflow has many more lessons that can help with other symptoms related to ADHD. Additionally, Inflow does not offer any sort of live time-tracking or time management strategies, only self-paced modules or the pomodoro challenge.

RescueTime is for the person that has extreme “time blindness” and has difficulty with finding (or admitting) the root cause of their distractions. RescueTime is also helpful for their employers to understand how to build better productivity habits and create a more focused and efficient work environment. Inflow is more geared towards personal use and navigating one’s own experience with ADHD across a variety of areas. As previously noted, Inflow does not have any live time-management tracking features available at this time, nor does it appear this is something that is in their future roadmap for development.

You can learn more about how to sign-up on the RescueTime website.

Inflow Vs. Evernote

While Inflow helps to keep all of your journal entries in one place and engage in positive habit-changing challenges, the main purpose when comparing Inflow vs. Evernote is vastly different. Evernote is moreso used as a hub to gather, organize and store information from websites, notebooks created within Evernote, manage a calendar and keep track of to-do lists. Additionally, Evernote is very much an “input your own information” into the app, versus Inflow providing you essentially all of the lessons and materials you could need when learning about managing ADHD. There are free and paid versions of Evernote, with the free version limiting the amount of devices that it can sync with and the amount of storage available. There are monthly and yearly plans for both personal or professional use depending on your needs.

Evernote would be good for the person that enjoys taking notes digitally, has a lot of bookmarks, tabs and resources saved in various places. Evernote is great for the creative person looking to brain dump and gather their thoughts in one place. Inflow is more for the person on a guided journey of understanding their ADHD with the daily journaling and reflections provided throughout a module or lesson.

To learn more about their subscription options, please visit the Evernote website.

Inflow Vs. Brili

If you are someone that needs help with developing healthier habits, Brili provides routine solutions for adults and for families, depending on your needs. Brili has monthly or annual payment options that range from $6 – $50 after a 30-day free trial. Brili is really great for those that experience “time blindness” and find the use of visual cues extremely helpful.

Brili and Inflow are similar in that they celebrate even the tiniest of progress, which, in the world of living with ADHD, those micro-wins are great for our dopamine. If you are looking to improve your daily living by having better routines, or need your family to begin implementing better routines, Brili may be the better app for your needs. If you are looking to understand your ADHD in a little more depth, Inflow is the better option.

To learn more about how you can develop healthier habits, please visit the Brili website.

History of Inflow ADHD App

The Inflow ADHD app is fairly new, with the company being founded in 2020, by George Sachs, Levi Epstein and Sebastian Isaacs, and the app being launched in 2021. Inflow continues to gain popularity and funding, with over $3 million in money raised during two rounds of fundraising. ¹ The latest round of funding Inflow completed raised $2.3 million in seed money and it was led by Hoxton Venture. ² Inflow is already gaining recognition as being the #1 ADHD App in the app stores and their fundraising efforts show the company’s dedication and commitment to success.

Final Verdict

Inflow offers a variety of learning modules through audio and text, and features key takeaways and related journal prompts. Everything is designed to help prevent those with ADHD from going into information overload or hyperfocus. However, I found the coaching not worth the extra expense and felt it would have been better to just sign-up for the basic monthly subscription. Coaching with Inflow is not like traditional coaching with back-and-forth, frequent conversation. Rather it is a periodic check-in to see how things are going or which module to recommend based on what your current stressor was about. Overall, I believe that Inflow is great for a guided understanding of ADHD and its related symptoms, but it’s not as accessible as it could be.

Visit Inflow

For Further Reading

• Children and Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder
• All Kinds of Minds
• Is ADHD Genetic?
• CBT for ADHD
• Adult ADHD: Symptoms, Causes, & Treatments
• Adult ADHD Medication: Types, Side Effects & Risks
• ADHD & Lying: Connection & How to Respond
• ADHD & Relationships: Potential Challenges & Tips for Improvement
• ADHD & Anxiety: Connections, Differences, & Treatment Options
• 15 Best ADHD Podcasts for 2021 – Choosing Therapy
• 10 Best ADHD Books for 2021 – Choosing Therapy