I'm suspicious of mental health apps, and I'll tell you why before I tell you which ones I'd use.
My phone is already part of the problem. It's where I doom-scroll at 1 a.m., where I fall into three-hour hyperfocus holes, where every app wants a little more of my attention. Asking that same device to fix my head feels a bit like asking the bar to help you stop drinking.
Then there's privacy. When the Mozilla Foundation reviewed mental health and prayer apps in 2022, it put its "Privacy Not Included" warning on 28 of the 32 it looked at. That's the stuff you tell an app at your lowest moment, potentially going to advertisers.
So what are the best mental health apps? In my opinion: free ones built by governments or non-profits that don't need to make money off your bad nights, plus a very short list of commercial apps with a decent privacy record. Here's the short list, the dead ones, and the ones I'd skip.
Which mental health apps are actually worth using?
Insomnia Coach (US Department of Veterans Affairs)
Free, and built on CBT for insomnia, which is usually what sleep specialists try before pills. It has a weekly training plan and a sleep diary. The VA describes it as a stand-alone self-care tool, but says people with conditions like sleep apnea or bipolar disorder should check with a provider first. It's in English only. If sleep is your thing, I wrote about it in why I can't sleep.
Its sibling, CBT-i Coach, is built for use with a therapist, so pick that one only if you're doing CBT-I with someone.
PTSD Coach (US Department of Veterans Affairs)
Free tools for managing trauma symptoms: grounding exercises, ways to ride out a bad moment, information about PTSD. It was designed for veterans, but anyone can download it, and the VA is clear it doesn't replace treatment. Mozilla named it one of the "Best Of" apps for privacy in its 2023 follow-up review.
Wysa
An AI chatbot that walks you through CBT-style exercises, with optional paid coaching. Mozilla also gave it "Best Of" in 2023, partly because conversations stay private and you can delete them. Wysa itself says it's for self-help and not for crisis or serious, long-term illness.
My caveat: it's still a company, and Mozilla's ratings are from 2023. Policies change. Reread the privacy policy before you start pouring your heart into it. And an AI is not a person. If you notice you're talking to the bot instead of the people in your life, that's worth paying attention to.
Which mental health apps have shut down?
This matters because old "best apps" lists are still floating around.
Woebot. The AI CBT chatbot that used to top every list. Its consumer app shut down on June 30, 2025, and the company moved to selling through healthcare partners. If you see it recommended, the list is out of date.
MindShift CBT. Anxiety Canada's free CBT app, and a good one, announced it would stop getting updates and delete user data after March 31, 2025. Then Anxiety Canada itself stopped operating on April 1, 2026, and points people to other resources. Don't build your coping plan around it.
Which apps would I skip?
Replika. An AI "companion" app. Mozilla called it perhaps the worst app it had ever reviewed for privacy. Lonely people deserve better than that.
BetterHelp, with eyes open. It connects you with real therapists, and some people get real help there. But in 2023 the US Federal Trade Commission reached a $7.8 million settlement with the company over sharing users' sensitive data with third parties. If you use it, go in knowing that.
Anything that's free with no clear way of making money. If you can't figure out how the app pays its bills, the answer is usually you.
As for the big meditation and mood-tracking apps, the Headspaces and Calms and so on, I haven't dug into their current privacy policies, so I'm not going to vouch for them either way. Look them up on Mozilla's Privacy Not Included before you sign up, keeping in mind that some of Mozilla's reviews are a few years old.
How do I check if a mental health app is safe?
Five minutes before you download. Here's what I look at:
- Who made it. A government health agency or a university is a different animal from a startup chasing growth.
- How it makes money. Subscription, ads, selling to employers, or nothing you can see.
- Can you delete your data, for real, from inside the app?
- Does it share with advertisers or "partners"? Search the privacy policy for those words.
- Does it pretend to be therapy? Good apps tell you what they aren't.
And one of my own: does using it make me put the phone down sooner, or later?
What about crisis apps?
For a crisis, skip the app store and reach a person. In Canada and the US you can call or text 988. In Québec, 1 866 APPELLE (1-866-277-3553), text 535353, or chat at suicide.ca, all of which work from the phone you already have. For other countries, the numbers are on the Get help now page. Save them in your contacts tonight. It takes less time than downloading anything.