We Tried Over 50 Mental Health and Self-Care Apps — These Were Our Favorites

The most common goal of mediation is to settle the mind and body to help achieve relaxation and reduce stress. Headspace is a mental health app that intends to teach anyone how to meditate.

One of the best things about Headspace is that it’s always available, even on the go. That means you can pop in your earbuds and meditate on your lunch break or take a quick breather while parked in the car waiting to pick up your kids after school.

Headspace is a great way to start and deepen your meditation practice, with no prior experience necessary. However, one of the biggest drawbacks to the app is that its lessons and practices are more geared toward beginners. Once you master the basics of meditation, you may need to find an app that goes beyond a beginner level or meet with a professional teacher.

Calm offers more than 11 groupings of meditations and sounds, including one subsection that is dedicated to improving sleep. If you enjoyed being tucked into bed with a story as a child, Calm’s “Sleep Stories” is just the thing to help you fall asleep and stay there. Some of the stories are narrated by famous voices (like Matthew McConaughey and Jennifer Garner) and work by utilizing a combination of quiet voice narration, subtle sensory background sounds (like rain or wind), and a pace that leads the listener into a relaxed state. The stories don’t contain conflict and have an overall peaceful tone.

If you don’t want to drift off to sleep with a story, Calm also offers sleep meditations, peaceful nature sounds, and ambient music meant to promote relaxation and get you ready for bed. You can set a timer to have the sounds gradually fade out. The app also allows you to track your sleep and gauge the quality.

Talkspace is one of the most recognizable mental health therapy platforms for good reason. It offers talk and text-based therapy for people dealing with life stressors, such as major transitions and relationship challenges, as well as mental health conditions like major depression, anxiety, trauma, and more. Its user-friendly interface and large provider directory have allowed Talkspace to expand its services to support:

• Individuals
• Couples
• Teens
• LGBTQIA+ people
• Veterans
• Companies

Regardless of the services you need, Talkspace makes it easy to get them. Our reviewers indicated that Talkspace’s platform is intuitive and the technology simple to navigate. Clients have portals where they can chat with providers, either in between sessions (if the highest-tier plan is chosen) or during chat-specific appointments. The app is easy to download and allows clients to get the therapy they need from anywhere and at any time, with some therapists offering extended or evening hours.

The biggest complaint is that sessions are shorter with Talkspace compared with in-person appointments or even with other online platforms (30 minutes per session compared with the average length of 45 to 55 minutes on most competitor platforms).

Enter DailyBean. Don’t let its cute appearance deceive you. Not only is the app user-friendly and fun to look at, but it’s also a powerful source of data about your mood and its relationship to other habits, symptoms, and environmental factors.

While the app has default templates to use for tracking basic moods and sleep, our tester Sam Dylan Finch found the app most powerful for understanding the relationship between his chronic illness symptoms, his mental health, and the various treatments and interventions he was trying.

For example, the app correctly identified over time that his chronic pain symptoms actually improved with mild to moderate exercise, but worsened with more strenuous exercise. He also brought the app’s data to his doctor to better report how frequently he experienced different symptoms. This data helped correctly steer his diagnoses and treatment.

If you don’t have a chronic illness, though, the app is completely customizable to track whatever habits, moods, symptoms, sleep, nutrition, or environmental factors are important to you. It can also tell you what percentage of the time you’re experiencing a positive mood over the course of a month to help flag when you may need extra support.

With a premium subscription the app will compile trends over the course of a month or the entire year, helping you to understand which habits or actions contribute to a positive or negative daily mood.

But you can also keep it simple. If you’re just curious to track your mood and nothing else, Finch says this is a fun app to do it with.

Aside from crisis care, Brightside offers people the opportunity to receive both medication management and therapy at a monthly subscription rate that is bundled together or available separately. Common conditions treated through Brightside psychiatry include anxiety, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and bipolar disorder, among many others.

Our reviews ranked Brightside high in ease of use and availability of matches. A monthly subscription (paid in advance) gives users one 45-minute therapy session and a 15-minute check-in with a psychiatrist every month for medication management.

However, the biggest drawback was the provider matching. The app matches you based on location, answers to the intake questionnaire, and your preferences shared upon sign-up, meaning a provider is chosen for you rather than selecting one yourself (though this is not uncommon for online telehealth platforms). What is more unusual is that if you want to be rematched, Brightside will reassign you again rather than giving you the ability to choose.

The most convenient method of communication for many of us might very well be texting. Since the advent of the smartphone, more people have chosen the confidentiality and ease of texting over phone calls. BetterHelp understands how beneficial texting with a therapist can be, so it offers the option. The best part is it is all done through the HIPAA-compliant app, which ensures discretion.

BetterHelp is one of the most popular telehealth platforms due in part to the variety of modalities of therapy it offers. People who need help with a wide range of mental health struggles can speak to a licensed practitioner via phone, video, and chat. The BetterHelp portal gives each user a unique experience by offering a journal and exercises that come directly from the therapist.

The text or chat option can be used instead of video or voice. Sessions can be conducted in real-time over chat. Transcripts are saved and can be accessed through the portal, which is great for remembering key details or exercises the therapist recommended. BetterHelp offers flexibility in subscriptions, and you can change it to include live chat therapy.

Many of us already know that in order to integrate the habits that benefit our well-being the most, it helps to have some structure. However, incorporating new habits and following a routine can feel challenging for some — and downright impossible for others.

Our tester Sam Dylan Finch, a former ADHD and executive function coach, not only uses Routinery himself for keeping up a consistent routine, he also witnessed firsthand its efficacy in many of his neurodivergent clients.

Routinery is a visual timer app that can store multiple routines and uses icons, sounds, notifications, and customizable text to help guide you through your routine while minimizing distractions. The time-tracking function increases time awareness while also helping users understand which tasks are taking longer than anticipated, allowing for adjustments where needed.

The ability to create multiple routines and assign them to specific days also allows for flexibility and the potential to create unique and custom flows that aren’t just limited to basic morning or evening routines.

If you’re looking for an app that helps keep you on track, Routinery is one of the superior and more affordable options.

Whether you’re self-employed but have a hard time staying focused, struggling to finish (or to even start) that novel you want to write, or just need to fold the mountain of laundry that’s been sitting on your bed for six weeks, it’s okay to admit that you need a little support.

Focused Space is best described as a neuroscience-informed, coach-led community that offers wake-up calls to jump-start your day, drop-in focus sessions to tackle your work, and weekly planning sessions to map out the week ahead, all of which take place over video.

Members also get access to an app, which helps with setting goals and planning, integrates seamlessly with the live sessions, and, if desired, can be shared with one of Focused Space’s coaches, who will reach out at the end of the day to check in on your progress.

If you’re someone who benefits from “body doubling” — meaning, you’re more productive when folks are around you while you work, even if you’re not interacting much — this community is essentially a drop-in space led by facilitators who offer more structure, guidance, and gentle accountability.

Additionally, members get access to live and recorded workshops led by experts on topics like procrastination, ADHD, goal setting, and more.

Finch writes: “When I made the leap into freelancing again, the first thing I did was reach out to the team at Focused Space. I knew I couldn’t do it alone, and I’m so grateful I didn’t try to. The accountability is supportive without feeling like pressure, the structure is thoughtful and helps reduce overwhelm, I feel much less isolated as I work, and the positive vibes are the perfect start to my day.”

While there are other body doubling apps like Focusmate and Flow Club, the flexibility of Focused Space’s offerings (camera on or off, drop in when you’d like) allows for a more personalized experience, the addition of educational workshops and member-only platforms makes the membership feel fairly priced, and the hosts truly make the experience feel more engaging, connected, and supported.

The most significant drawback our tester identified is that the accountability offered may be too lightweight for some. “If you don’t show up for a call (or even stop attending for weeks at a time), there doesn’t appear to be an option for a host to check in or a notification that prompts you to get back on track,” Finch says. “This low-pressure approach is great for some, but it may be a drawback for others who need the push.”

Goblin Tools is best thought of as a toolbox. It utilizes AI in simple and accessible ways, mainly to offer support in tasks that neurodivergent people may find challenging, such as editing emails for tone, answering questions with plain language, making decisions, and creating recipes.

There are eight tools in total:

• Magic ToDo will help you create a to-do list and will break down tasks into the smallest possible steps to make them more approachable.
• Formalizer will take text that you’ve written and change its tone to be more professional, more friendly, more to the point, etc.
• Judge will “read” text you’ve received or will be sending and offer feedback on the tone (for example, this can answer questions like “Am I being too harsh?” or “Does this person seem mad at me?”).
• Professor will answer any question you ask in the simplest possible way, offering examples to help contextualize the information.
• Consultant will make a pros-and-cons list with advice if you’re struggling to make a decision based on the situation you describe.
• Estimator can help guess how long a task will take.
• Chef can help come up with a recipe based on your available ingredients and any restrictions or limits you describe (for example, “must use an air fryer”).
• Compiler can take a “brain dump” (basically any notes about what’s stressing you out) and create an accessible list of action items to help make the anxiety more approachable.

Finch says: “As someone with AuDHD [autism and ADHD] who finds tools like ChatGPT to be a bit overwhelming, Goblin Tools has been amazing for me. Whenever I’m stressed out, there’s a tool I can reach for to make things feel more manageable.”

For example: “Not sure what to cook? Tell the Chef what ingredients I have and how much energy I have for preparing food. Overwhelmed by a big decision? The Consultant can make an immediate list of pros and cons, which is always a good starting place. And the Magic ToDo has saved me many times when I know where I need to be, but my brain is glitching and I’m not sure how to get there.”

Whether you’re in a long-term relationship or newly coupled, therapy can provide a way to get closer to your partner and learn more effective communication. Couples therapy is as much for the prevention of problems as it is for the proverbial rough patch. OurRitual is one of the only telehealth platforms dedicated to offering relationship-focused therapy. My husband and I tried it not long ago and found the company’s approach unique and helpful.

OurRitual is an app-based program that goes beyond weekly therapy sessions. It gives users access to exercises (pathways) to enhance the talk-therapy sessions. My husband and I had our own pathway work, starting with communication, and we could go at our own pace. The exercises are devised using both emotionally focused therapy (EFT) and the Gottman method, which are traditional modalities used in couples therapy.

The pathway work was beneficial, and the 40-minute weekly Zoom couples session utilized some of the work we’d done on our own. The biggest drawback to OurRitual was the price: $310 for one month, with a discount for multiple-month commitments. The company doesn’t take insurance, which might not be ideal for some couples.

If you struggle to find time for traditional therapy appointments but want to get in contact with a qualified practitioner, Mindful Care’s “MicroTherapy” might be the answer. These 20-minute appointments afford maximum flexibility and give you a lot of help in a short amount of time. Mindful Care is probably best for people who have been in therapy before and want to focus on a specific, practical issue for a dedicated few weeks.

The app allows you to set regular appointments with the same therapist or drop in and schedule same-day or next-day sessions. In some states Mindful Care also offers psychiatric services and group therapy. I was one of the reviewers for Mindful Care’s MicroTherapy sessions and found my provider attentive, empathetic, and quick to provide actionable feedback.

Mindful Care is very low pressure with high reward. The only drawback was the multiple phone, email, and text reminders for upcoming appointments. I was unable to find a setting where I could turn them off.

Circles is an app-based support group that differs from a therapy group. While many of the support group facilitators on Circles are mental health professionals, some are not. Sessions take place through audio only, which is a plus for those who wish to remain private about their identity. There is also a group chat feature.

With many support groups running at all hours of the day and night, the ease of access is a definite bonus. However, some groups don’t have many or any participants. It may take a bit of trial and error before you find one that fits.