Best Mental Health Apps

Calmoffers so many fantastic features it’s no surprise that millions of users love it. Every detail of the app is designed to create calm in your life, right down to the interface, which allows you to choose from 40 different backgrounds for the home screen—each with its own soothing sound, such as rushing water or rain on leaves. When using the app in the evening, the background is dimmed for a more soothing experience.

Navigating the app is simple; each of the numerous categories is clearly organized by type and length. Categories include meditation, breathing, sleep, movement, soundscapes, wisdom, check-in, and kids. Don’t know where to start? Click the “explore” tab and choose from one of the recommended exercises.

Calm allows you to begin each day with a Daily Habit such as a daily stretch or meditation; from there, the options seem endless. Train your mind with guided exercises led by NBA legend LeBron James, calm your child with a rendition ofWinnie the Poohread by actor Tom Hiddleston, or learn how to meditate, fall asleep easier, or improve focus. The kids' section boasts several character favorites who teach mindfulness basics, including Peppa Pig, Thomas the Tank Engine, the Trolls, the Minions, and Kung-Fu Panda. The “Parenting Mindfully” collection offers a guided suite of content and tools to help you manage the stress of raising children.

If you work from home, Calm offers an entire section dedicated to wellness tools for your workday. This app lives up to its name by offering every imaginable resource to alleviate the most stressful moments of daily life.

Calm offers a seven-day free trial period to give everyone the ability to check out the app prior to making any commitments. Two main subscription plans are available. If you opt for the monthly plan, it will cost more, but it affords you the freedom to cancel your app anytime. Opting for the yearly plan is the most cost effective, saving you nearly 40% over 12 months, but it cannot be canceled or refunded prematurely. If paying monthly, Calm costs $15; paying for the whole year costs $70.

Calm also offers group plans for either five to 20 people or 21 or more people, as well as family plan options. While the app does offer a few free exercises, they are rather limited. Calm allows you to cancel your subscription anytime, but will not refund you for fees already charged for the most current subscription period; you will be able to continue the services you paid for until the end of the charged time frame.

BetterHelpoffers one-on-one professional online mental health treatment through “the world’s largest network of licensed, accredited, and experienced therapists.” Once you are matched with a therapist, the app allows you to communicate with them via text, chat, phone, or video—however is most convenient.

With thousands of professionals on staff, BetterHelp takes the stress out of prioritizing your mental health. A simple sign-up process will walk you through a series of pointed questions to match you with a therapist that meets your individual needs. While all sessions and conversations take place virtually, users report a high level of satisfaction and ease with the process, feeling heard and experiencing patience and understanding from their therapists.

An advantage of virtual communication with BetterHelp is the flexibility available for those with busy or unpredictable schedules, those with few local options or those who prefer the anonymity of virtual platforms. Sessions are not covered by insurance, but BetterHelp generally costs less than in-person therapy.

BetterHelp offers one therapy subscription, which includes four 30- to 45-minute teletherapy sessions per month delivered via phone, video, or live chat, unlimited messaging with your therapist in a private portal, and access to group therapy sessions. The subscription ranges in price from $60 to $90 a week (billed every four weeks until you cancel). The price you pay varies based on which therapist you’re matched with, where you live, and the demand for therapy in your area.

Headspacehas aimed to normalize mental health support and mindfulness since 2012. With literally thousands of exercises to choose from, anyone can find what they need using Headspace. Mini one- to three-minute meditations introduce users to the practice of mindfulness and good meditation habits. Be it three minutes or 10, the app provides activities of all lengths, ensuring that Headspace will fit seamlessly into any schedule. Meditations are available for the morning commute, getting ready for the day, de-stressing before a huge test, or calming down after an emotional episode.

Inability to afford high treatment costs is the top obstacle reported for unmet mental health needs.While Headspace is not free to use, the app creators strive to ensure availability by offering free trials, monthly and yearly plans, free access to teens, and discounts for students and families. Not only is Headspace affordable, but it's also inclusive, catering to every need and community. One way Headspace has made inclusivity a priority is in its acquisition of theShine app—which was created by two BIPOC women. The team from Shine has brought more content to Headspace to address mental health issues within marginalized communities.

Headspace offers paid subscription plans called “Headspace Plus.” The standard Headspace Plus plan is $13 per month or $70 per year. Headspace also offers discounted subscriptions for students (from $10 a year) and families (up to six users for $100 per year). All plans offer free trial periods which automatically charge your payment method once completed and auto-renew at the beginning of the new payment period.

Headspace does not offer any refunds for partial subscription periods. For example, you cannot cancel your annual subscription in the middle of the year and receive a refund for the remaining time.

Anxiety disorders are the most common mental health concern in the United States. Over 40 million adults in the U.S. have an anxiety disorder, andTalkspacedoes particularly well in its treatment of anxiety.Talkspace is an online therapy platform, not a self-guided app with pre-recorded exercises. First, an online assessment appraises your symptoms and determines if you are living with excess anxiety.

After receiving the results, you can review your symptoms and talk to a mental health professional. After your scheduled live session, your matched therapist is available for messaging at any time you need to reach out, never making you wait to share what is on your mind. If you want to go beyond messaging, live sessions with a therapist are also available via video, phone, or chat.

Talkspace is not just for anxiety or individual adult sessions. The service also offers couples and teen therapy, and psychiatry and medication management services for the treatment of a wide range of mental health concerns. Talkspace also accepts a number of insurance plans, making treatment even more affordable. For those that are not covered or who prefer to pay out-of-pocket, pricing begins at just $65 per week, with differing options for billing cycles. And you can switch therapists seamlessly at no additional cost.

Talkspace offers subscription plans billed monthly, quarterly, or biannually. You'll pay $65 per week for messaging-only therapy, $99 per week for video and messaging therapy, or $109 per week for video, messaging, and workshops. An initial psychiatry session is $249, followed by $125 per session. However, Talkspace accepts several health insurance plans.

Circlesprovides an open and rewarding experience for users with its intimate group support setting. There are many pathways to tackling addiction, and part of the healing process is learning to live with sobriety. Circles helps bring together people experiencing similar situations and allows them to seek peer-to-peer support in professionally led group sessions. To find your circle, simply sign up online and choose your initial area of interest. After that, you can choose from as many additional categories as you would like so that Circles can place you with the right group and facilitator.

Members have access to weekly online group meetings, 24/7 online chat with facilitators and group members, and professional guidance from a mental health expert.

清醒会话可用的自由version of Circles, making the support of like-minded peers accessible to anyone with an internet connection. Circles offers a free weekly trial to help new users determine if it is a right fit. After that, one plan is available for $79 per month. Circles allows you to cancel your account anytime, but if you cancel early to mid-month, you will not be entitled to a refund for the rest of that month’s balance.

Smiling Mindis an app specially developed by psychologists and educators to help children and adults prioritize mental health on a daily basis. Smiling Mind launched in 2012 and calls itself a “leader in the pre-emptive mental health space.” Research has found that more than 60% of all mental illnesses first emerge before the age of 25, and more than a third emerge before the age of 14.Smiling Mind provides children, teens, and young adults tools for managing mental health with methods that make it accessible, easy, and fun.

Smiling Mind has numerous different meditation program tracks for children, such as The Bubble Journey, Snow Globe, Smiling Starfish, and Thrive Inside. Smiling Mind also prides itself on being inclusive, offering programs in multiple languages as well as giving special care to those in the LGBTQIA+ community.

微笑是一家非盈利企业,箴言ides the app for free. The app does not request any payment method upon sign-up, but you will need to create an account using a valid email address. Donations are accepted and appreciated but not required.

Urban Healthknows that there is much more to getting a good night’s sleep than soothing music. This award-winning app tracks users’ sleep and activity patterns to recommend the best sleep times, tailoring the experience to their specific needs. The app “tracks sleep, steps, and mindfulness” giving “deeper insight into your mind, body and sleep.” The app can help you manage anxiety, stress, or pain—anything that may prevent a restful night.

The trick, according to co-creator Kshitij Jaggi, “is to get users engaged and then to keep them that way…Urban Health starts out by suggesting very short exercises—a two-minute sleep exercise, say—to new users and then encourages users to engage in more demanding sessions over time." Data-driven technology helps users track and visualize daily, weekly, and monthly progress. Urban Health also offers a feature where you can chat with a health coach to help support your progress. All that, plus one of the lowest price points among mental health apps, earns Urban Health a well-earned spot on our list.

In addition to the free basic app offerings, it costs $3 a month to unlock the premium features and you can cancel anytime.

Breathwrkis broken into five categories: Calming, Nighttime, Energizing, Perform, and Health. Other breathing apps only focus on breathing for stress, anxiety, and sleep; Breathwrk is unique in its additional health-focused aspects. The Perform sections help those training to climb to high altitudes build lung capacity or stamina. The Health section has an incredible variety of exercises, including exercises for COVID-19 support, pregnancy and labor, asthma, migraines, hiccups, and beyond. In addition to the guided exercises in each category, Breathwrk offers quick one-minute exercises, short expert-led classes, and daily challenges. Go ahead and test your lungs in the app beforehand so once you begin practicing you can see how much you’ve improved.

The top criticism users have is the lack of free options on the app. While this is a valid concern, Breathwrk aims to make the app accessible to all. Breathwrk offers discounts to students, families, first responders, and military members. Even with strict limits on the number of free exercises, the app does offer the most popular exercises and classes for free daily. Breathwrk uploads lots of free content to its TikTok and Instagram accounts as well. The most impressive feature, though, is its Scholarship and Buy-One-Give-One programs. With these, the company gives out a free membership for every paying member.

Breathwrk offers several subscription types, including a free trial, a monthly subscription ($14), or a yearly subscription ($70). Choosing the yearly rate over the monthly plan will save you almost $100. But, similar to other apps, you can't recover any fees you've prepaid if you cancel your subscription mid-cycle. So the monthly plan might be best for you if you want the freedom to be able to cancel anytime.

Mindshift CBTis an entirely free mental health app that uses the scientifically proven methods of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to help ease feelings stemming from and associated with anxiety and depression.这种以证据为基础的治疗方法可以帮助您的identify negative patterns of thinking and replace them with more positive thinking. This app was developed by the non-profit organizationAnxiety Canada, considered a “leader in developing free, online self-help, and evidence-based tools to help manage anxiety,” Mindshift is one of the best mental health apps for anxiety based on price and ease of use. The app is well-organized and very user-friendly, with everything neatly and attractively displayed on the front dashboard.

Mindshift offers exercises for all seasons and situations. Ease your anxiety in the moment using helpful Coping Cards to readjust your thinking with five categories of coping thoughts. You can even create your own coping cards with thoughts and mantras of your own. Dump your thoughts out into the app’s Thought Journal or jump into the Chill Zone to calm your mind with one of Mindshift’s two- to six-minute guided meditations. One particularly unique feature is the organization of anxiety tools by type of anxiety, such as "general worry" or "phobias." This helps to target your exact needs without the added stress of navigating an overly complicated app interface.

Mindshift CBT is a fully free app. Anyone over the age of 18 can sign up and use the services without any payment required. An account is required, though, so you need a valid email address. Anyone under the age of 18 will need a guardian’s help in order to create an account and use the services.

Happifyis an all-encompassing app with over 100 tracks to choose from. Usingscience-based activities and games, this app helps reduce stress and improve emotional well-being. The exercises found in this app are developed by leading scientists and specially designed to motivate regular usage for optimal improvement. Happify reports that 86% of people who use the app regularly report feeling better about their lives in as little as two months.

One of the complicated aspects of stress is how broad it can be. Happify takes this loaded word and narrows it down into categories, or tracks. Select a track created by a psychologist, for example, aimed at helping you cope with racial stress and discrimination. Alternately, try out the free track aimed at defeating loneliness and learning how to make new friends and connections. Did your nest just become a bit emptier? Try the “Empty Nest, Full Life” track. Happify recognizes how easy it is to experience a general sense of stress and works to create content and games to alleviate that daily pressure while having a bit of fun. It also offers articles about a range of topics affecting our daily lives.

Happify allows you to sign up through a social media account or with an email. Unfortunately, there is no free trial period with this app; a commitment of at least one month is required to try their services. Happify offers a few plan options, including a monthly plan for $15, a yearly plan for $140, and a lifetime subscription for $450. As with the other fee-based plans on our list, all payments are required upfront and are charged automatically at the start of the next billing cycle. No refunds are provided if you cancel your subscription mid-cycle.