Best Mental Health Apps

Calm is a mindfulness and meditation app, but it offers so much more. The free version of the Calm app is very limited and offers only select meditation courses, mood check-ins, and breathing techniques to learn. Ultimately you will have to sign up for a premium subscription which costs $14.99 monthly or $69.99 annually.

While the Calm app can feel overwhelming and a little chaotic at first, it does become a little easier to navigate the more time you spend in the app. For some, a sense of disorganization may remain as the app offers very little guidance on a defined place to start. Unlike apps like Headspace or Ten Percent Happier, which give you a roadmap of sorts to follow.

To learn which meditations are free in this app, please read our comprehensive Calm app review.

Headspace is an easy-to-navigate meditation app that teaches fundamental breathwork techniques and mindfulness exercises through progressive courses. It is especially helpful for those just starting out with their meditation practice, but they also have courses for more advanced practitioners. Headspace does not have any free content and costs $12.99 monthly or $69.99 annually.

Headspace has a number of unique, topic-specific meditations like ‘How to Communicate With Care’ and ‘Finding Confidence After Unemployment’, as well as mindfulness tutorials that target common obstacles in meditation, such as ‘How to Handle Anxiety While Meditating’ or ‘How to Stay Awake During Meditation’. Headspace’s direct competitor, Calm, offers topic-specific meditations also but very few mindfulness tutorials.

For more information about their beginner course, please read our in-depth Headspace review. Or you can read our head-to-head review of Headspace and Calm to find out the key differences and similarities between the two apps.

Ten Percent Happier is a mindfulness and meditation app that helps users build a foundation for their meditation practice. Unique features such as meditation video introductions and in-app podcasts truly sets Ten Percent Happier apart. There is a fairly limited free version and a premium version for $99.99 annually.

This app is largely geared toward those who are new to mindfulness, skeptics of meditation, or haven’t practiced meditation for a while. The free version has a great beginner meditation course, called ‘The Basics’. This course features seven, short (under 10 min) meditation sessions to start you on your journey. In the premium version, you get access to all of the meditation courses, stand-alone meditation sessions, sleep meditations, and podcasts.

To learn more about how this app can change your perspective on meditation, please read our in-depth Ten Percent Happier app review.

The Mindfulness app features mindfulness courses for beginners, intermediate, and experienced meditators. In the free version, you will have access to the “Welcome Course”, which explains what The Mindfulness App can help with, tips on how to meditate, and explains how to use the app. The Mindfulness app has a premium version that unlocks over 30 courses and costs $9.99 monthly or $144.99 annually. Currently, the annual subscription is discounted to $54.99 and comes with a seven-day free trial.

Getting started with The Mindfulness app takes less than 10 minutes. You will select your familiarity with meditation, what you want to improve (e.g., sleep or focus), set a reminder to meditate, then create your account. On the home screen, you will find quick access to all the mindfulness and meditation courses, as well as a timed session option. You can customize your timed sessions by selecting how often you want to hear the bells ring and by adding additional background sounds like waves, forest, or rain.

Breathwrk is an app that provides several tools to help users build a breathing practice. It’s easy to use and designed for anyone who wants to use breathwork to work towards a specific goal, such as enhancing sleep, increasing energy, or reducing stress. Breathwrk has a limited free version and costs $7.99 monthly or $76.99 annually on Apple, and $11.99 monthly or $59.99 annually on Android. Seven-day free trials are available, depending on which app you use.

You can personalize your experience by selecting a goal and scheduling breathing exercises for different parts of your day. Breathwrk also has curated breathing exercise schedules to build habits according to your lifestyle and needs. Beyond creating daily routines and habits, Breathwrk offers pre-recorded classes and 7-day challenges.

To learn all about how this app can help sleep, increase energy, and reduce stress, please read our in-depth Breathwrk review.

Wysa is an AI chatbot-guided app that teaches CBT techniques and offers meditation, yoga, and guided journaling activities. There is a free version and a premium version, as well as an option for mental health coaching. The premium version cost starts at $68.99 per year, and coaching starts at $29.99 per 30-minute text-based session.

With the Wysa app you will have access to a mental health coach. While they call this “therapy” in the app, it is not. Coaches are either US-based or licensed therapists located in India. Since some of these therapists do not live in the US,  they cannot provide diagnoses or treatment. However, they do hold graduate degrees in clinical or counseling psychology and can offer you support and encouragement.

To find out more about how AI chatbots can help you in your CBT journey, please read our comprehensive Wysa app review.

Woebot is like a little life coach that fits into your pocket. Your main screen will always be the chatbox you share with Woebot, along 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 rewriting negative thoughts or completing a mindfulness exercise. There is a mood tracker and a gratitude journal, which can be completed with Woebot as your guide.

CBT Thought Diary can help you identify your emotions and analyze how and why you’re feeling a certain way. It can teach you to challenge negative thoughts and gives you ways to reframe them. You can use this app as a mood journal, a thought record journal, or a gratitude journal. CBT Thought Diary costs $4.99 monthly or $59.99 annually on Android and $9.99 monthly or $69.99 annually on Apple.

Educational materials are very text-heavy, but cover important topics like negative thoughts, distortions, anxiety, depression, and bipolar disorder. A unique feature in CBT Thought Diary are the guided journals, of which there are over 20! The guided journals cover topics from self-compassion to recognizing your strengths and really make you want to keep journaling.

For more about how the guided journals can help you throughout your day, please read our in-depth CBT Thought Diary review.

Calmerry is a subscription-based online therapy platform, very similar to Talkspace, that offers weekly half-hour therapy sessions with a licensed therapist for $227.96 – $359.96 monthly. A few interesting features of Calmerry are the option to purchase additional therapy sessions for $45 and the access to an AI chatbot called Coa. Currently, Calmerry does not accept insurance.

Unlike Talkspace, however, Calmerry only has 30-minute sessions versus Talkspace’s 45-minute sessions. You can pay for additional therapy sessions if you’d like, at $45 per session, or bundle two or more for $40 per session. Calmerry does not limit the number of sessions you can attend in one week, but how often you are actually going to see your therapist depends on their availability.

To read more about what these three subscription options offer, please read our in-depth Calmerry review.

Teen Counseling is a therapy service that allows teens (13+) to be quickly matched with a licensed counselor or therapist. With Teen Counseling, teens can see their therapist for weekly video, phone, or live-texting sessions, whichever they prefer. In between live sessions, teens can keep in touch with their therapist by sending text messages in their private chat room and can expect replies once daily. Teen Counseling costs $240 – $360 monthly (advertised as $60 – $90 weekly), making it an affordable out-of-pocket therapy option for teens.

Teens will usually attend the first live session with their parent/guardian present, so everyone can be on the same page about what to expect during the sessions. After the first session, the teen has a session with just their therapist, which gives them the space to open up to the therapist. Whatever the teen says to their therapist will stay between them, with a few specific exceptions – if a teen expresses the wish to harm themselves or others, or mentions any abuse or neglectful situations, the therapist will notify the correct people, including parents.

For more about how exactly your teen can start therapy today, please read our detailed Teen Counseling review.

Brightside specifically focuses on comprehensive treatment for anxiety and depression, offering medication management and CBT-focused therapy sessions. While it may be slightly more expensive than other competitors, like Cerebral, it also gives you access to skills-building tools and ways to monitor your progress. Brightside Health costs $95 – $349 monthly, depending on the subscription plan you choose. There are additional fees for medication delivery and purchasing more therapy visits.

If the provider you are matched with decides to prescribe medication, it will be delivered to you within about a week. Refills can also be sent to you as needed. Brightside providers do not offer prescriptions for controlled medications like Xanax or Klonopin.

To learn how their subscriptions work, please read our in-depth Brightside Health review.

Cerebral is a subscription-based service, similar to Brightside, that offers online medication management and therapy. Cerebral accepts insurance and offers a range of services and subscription options starting at $85 a month. They can treat conditions like depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety, insomnia, ADHD, and alcohol and opioid use disorders. Because of the range of mental health disorders they treat, the Cerebral team includes physicians and physicians’ assistants in addition to psychiatric providers.

Cerebral was the news due to overprescribing controlled medication and is currently being investigated by the DOJ. Two weeks after this news broke, Cerebral lost its CEO and stopped prescribing controlled substances to new patients. Despite this, Cerebral is still a great choice for those seeking out-of-pocket medication management and therapy subscription plan.

For more about this platform, please read our in-depth Cerebral review.

Unwinding Anxiety is an app dedicated to helping people overcome their stress, anxiety, and other strong feelings. In the app, you will have access to daily learning lessons, tools like stress tests and mindfulness exercises, as well as the ability to join weekly calls with the app’s founder Dr. Jud Brewer.

In the free version of Unwinding Anxiety, you can complete the first four modules in the app. These modules will have daily lessons that are part article, part video, and part mindfulness exercise. Once you complete two or three of these modules, tools like a stress test and stress meter will become unlocked. Once you upgrade to the premium version, you have access to all of the learning modules as well as a journal and community space and the option to join live weekly calls with Dr. Brewer.

Bloom is currently an Apple-exclusive app that describes itself as a “self-therapy” and is based on cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) techniques. There are plans for Bloom to expand to Android in the fall of 2022. While Bloom can help you learn about and build CBT skills to manage stress or anxiety, it does not offer live therapy or any interactions with a licensed therapist. Bloom costs $14.49 per month, $59.99 per year, or $399.99 for a lifetime subscription.

The Bloom app features interactive and expert-guided video lessons that use CBT skills to reduce anxiety and stress, improve self-love, and more. All of the in-app activities, journals, mindfulness, and breathwork exercises are easy for beginners. CBT skills are taught in a non-intimidating way, which encourages you to continue practicing.  All of the video lessons are written by licensed CBT psychologist Seth Gillihan, and guided by certified CBT coaches, Mike or Sherinta. They lead you through the lesson and an in-video activity meant to help you recognize how your thoughts and feelings affect your daily life.

To learn more about how “self-therapy” works, read our in-depth Bloom app review.

MoodTools is a very user-friendly app to help those struggling with depression. MoodTools costs starting at $1.99 monthly or $29.99 annually. 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. Activities, like exercise, chores, and socializing, are designed to help you refocus your mind and move away from a depressed state.  You can even add your own activity and customize the list.

A vital 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.

SuperBetter is a self-care and motivation app that features games, challenges, and journaling. The games and challenges in the app help you work towards achieving your goals and overcoming your negative thoughts, habits, and actions. SuperBetter was created by Jane McGonigal after she suffered a concussion that left her in a deep depression.

SuperBetter has three main components: Quests, Power-Ups, and Bad Guys. Quests are like action steps you use toward a goal, Power-Ups are like self-care activities, and Bad Guys are your negative thoughts, habits, and actions that hold you back. Each time you complete a quest, power-up, or bad guy you get points and level up in the app. You can also add Allies, people who support you, or complete Future Boosts, which are like journal entries. SuperBetter is a fun app with great information but needs an interface update.

Tide is a meditation app that features meditations for sleep, nap, focus, and more. With Tide, you can complete full meditation courses or listen to single meditation sessions. There are even soundscapes to listen to as you sleep or work! Tide has some content for free, with most of their courses available in the premium version. A premium subscription costs $11.99 monthly or $59.99 annually.

Tide and Calm are very similar apps, but with Tide, you can select what you want to focus on and it will feature that content more prominently. When you select your focus as Sleep, all of the meditations and sleep sounds will be quick and easy to find.

The White Noise app features over 50 unique background noises to help you fall asleep. There is a free version of the app and a premium version for $0.99! While the free version has in-app ads, these are not audio ads and will not interfere with the sound you choose to listen to.

White Noise is great for your everyday life, too. You can choose sounds that help you focus during work, block out unwanted noises while traveling, ease tinnitus, or even soothe a fussy baby. While there are no meditations or stories in this app, it works really well and does not lag, glitch, or cut out.

The 12-Step AA Companion app is an upfront cost of $1.99 on Android or $2.99 on Apple. However, once you pay for the app you can read The Big Book in digital format, and access all of the prayers and the 12-steps. There is a space called notes which would make a helpful mini-journal for after attending meetings.

A truly great perk to the AA Companion app is the ability to find meetings local to you, no matter what state you are in. Those who regularly attend meetings but want to travel can now have fast access to meetings while on the go. This may be especially helpful for those visiting somewhere new or for those who are new to the program.

Pear reSET-O is an 84-day prescription digital therapeutic (PDT) for those with opioid use disorder and are 18+. This app is only available through a prescription from a licensed clinician. reSET-O uses cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) in addition to outpatient treatment that includes transmucosal buprenorphine.

Your doctor will have access to a dashboard that shows all of your information. This includes CBT lessons completed, self-reporting substance use, craving & triggers, medication use, and more. While this is only available with a prescription and in conjunction with outpatient treatment, it is a fantastic option for those seeking recovery from opioid use.

Rise Up uses self-monitoring skills and is designed for anyone struggling with food, diets, activity, and body issues. The app reports being a “perfect addition” to professional eating disorder treatments.

Rise Up + Recover provides an extensive resource catalog, inspirational quotes, reminders to maintain recovery, and even access to available eating disorder professionals in the area. These tools paired with the ability to log meals and check-in with emotions and behaviors makes Rise Up + Recover a great service in a free app.

Brighter Bite (BB) is a highly-rated app that’s relatively new, with it launching only in 2020. Because of how new it is, there are not as many user reviews available in the app stores.

BB was started by someone in recovery from bulimia nervosa, and is available for free to both Apple and Android users. The app developers based the app on the therapy techniques of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Dialectical Behavioral Therapy. It features a decent sized library of resources, coping skills, and exercises, like meditations.