To make it easier for you, we did the research to find the best online therapy platforms to fit your budget.
Engaged in ongoing independent researchMystery shopped each of the brandsContacted the brands’ customer service teams to ask questions and gauge responsivenessBecame customers of online therapy providers ourselvesReviewed academic research into the efficacy of online therapy versus in-person therapyRead hundreds of verified customer reviews from trusted third parties such as the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and Trustpilot
Learn more about how we researched and evaluated the best online therapy brands via the methodology page.
$276/month (unlimited messaging only)
$99/session without insurance
$10-$40 (copay) with insurance In our pursuit of the most affordable online couples counseling, we compared ReGain to providers like Bound Together Counseling ($225 for 50 minutes) and the Relationship Suite ($185–$350 a session), as well as bigger companies like Advekit ($150–$275 a session). ReGain was more affordable per month, especially if you or your partner are eligible for financial aid. While websites like E-Therapy Cafe offer couples counseling for $40–$50 per 30 minutes of therapy, it had only 10 clinical therapists and two life coaches accepting new patients. ReGain, meanwhile, has more than 11,000 accredited psychologists, licensed clinical social workers, and licensed therapists on staff.
How Much Does ReGain Cost?
Therapy with ReGain costs $60 to $90 per week. The exact cost depends on where you’re located and any additional preferences you enter during your assessment, like a specialty in a certain area of practice. We signed up for three different accounts using various preferences and locations, and ReGain quoted us $320 a month each time.
Monthly subscription $240 to $360 per monthBilled every four weeksAbility to send unlimited messages to your therapist, via audio, video, and chatFour 30- to 45-minute sessions per monthCancel at any time
Financial Aid With ReGain ReGain offers financial aid for those who can’t afford therapy. Complete the online form to see if you’re eligible. You may be eligible for a discount if you or your partner are:
A veteranDisabledUnemployedEmployed but low-incomeFinancially impacted by the coronavirus
Your financial aid will apply to the next three months of your membership, but you may be able to extend it. A few days before the start of your third month, ReGain will send you a reminder email to apply for financial aid again. With veteran status, our monthly payment dropped from $320 per month to $260 per month.
How Does ReGain Work?
ReGain is the sister site of BetterHelp. While they both offer individual therapy, Regain also offers couples therapy and specializes in relationships. Either partner can start the service by enrolling on its site. You have the option to register for individual therapy or couples therapy during sign-up. You can also invite your partner to sessions at any point after being matched to a therapist. To enroll, you’ll provide information like your gender, age, and sexuality before providing details about your relationship, such as whether you live together and why you’re looking for therapy. Some common reasons include:
Communication problemsDeciding whether to separateAdulteryUnequal workloads at homeLack of sex or intimacyIssues around raising kids
Therapist Preferences and Matching ReGain will ask what you’re looking for in a therapist, with options like someone who listens or proactively checks in on you. You can add preferences like:
GenderAgeReligious or nonreligiousLGBTQ+-friendlySpecialties such as compassion fatigue or caregiver stress
ReGain notes that it may not be able to honor all your preferences based on the available therapists. We verified this when we requested someone 45 or older and got matched with a therapist in her late twenties. But you can request a new therapist if you’re unhappy with ReGain’s pick. Therapy Options You have a few options for therapy with ReGain: Your membership includes four 30- to 45-minute audio or video therapy sessions a month. We had to complete a questionnaire to find this information. We contacted ReGain to inquire about session length and were told that whether you end your session at 30 minutes or extend it to 45 is up to you and your therapist to decide together. Your membership also includes unlimited text messaging to your therapist. According to our review team’s April 2022 survey of 1,000 online therapy users, 48 percent of ReGain customers received a response within a day. ReGain offers three-way calling, too, so you don’t need to share a screen or phone with your partner for each session. And if you decide you want to work with your assigned therapist in a one-on-one session, ReGain allows you to do that. Potential Issues One thing you may have trouble with is scheduling. Our therapist only had 9:30 a.m. slots open for the next two weeks, though ReGain says you can contact your therapist to see if they have additional availability. That, coupled with the potential therapist change if you’re unhappy, may lead to longer wait times before receiving the care you need.
ReGain Reviews
Trustpilot reviewers gave ReGain a score of 3.29 out of 5 stars, and BBB reviewers gave ReGain a score of 3.1 out of 5 stars. Positive reviews mention quick therapist matching and affordability, while negative reviews mention difficulty reaching customer service, billing issues, and difficulty finding accommodating appointment times outside of traditional 9-to-5 hours. Brightside’s therapy plus medication plan is $349 a month, a bit steeper than Cerebral’s $329 a month for a similar offering. While both services offer free shipping for medication, you’ll only pay $15 per medication with Brightside, versus $10 to $45 with Cerebral, depending on the medication.
How Brightside Works
Brightside’s initial intake involves a comprehensive assessment of your depression and anxiety symptoms, including how much they impact your quality of life. All the questions come from the Patient Health Questionnaire Anxiety-Depression Scale, which mental health care professionals use to evaluate the severity of your depression and anxiety, according to an article published in the July–August issue of the journal Psychosomatic Medicine. Your results will produce a chart of your depression and anxiety symptoms in your Brightside app. Every 14 days, Brightside will ask you to take the assessment again. These mood check-ins help you monitor how you’re doing over time and help your provider determine if you need corrections to your treatment plan. Therapist Matching You can’t choose your own therapist with Brightside or ask for a preferred age or gender. The ability to switch therapists is also not guaranteed and depends on who is available and licensed in your state. To see if you’re able to switch, log in to your account and contact the Brightside support team. What to Know About Brightside Therapy Brightside’s therapy plan costs $299 a month and includes four 30-minute video sessions. You can ask your therapist to turn off their camera, but you’ll need to keep yours on so your therapist can read and understand your body language. Medication With Brightside If you decide you’d like to start medication, Brightside can help with that, too. Its unique medication-matching technology, called PrecisionRx, can help your psychiatrist suggest the most effective medication based on more than 100 factors about you and your symptoms. But Brightside will not prescribe you controlled substances such as Xanax or Adderall. You’ll have weekly video meetings with your provider to check up on you and discuss potential side effects. You have unlimited video follow-ups, so you can request more for free if needed.
Brightside Reviews
Brightside has six reviews from the BBB and three reviews from Trustpilot, with ratings of 1.71 and 2.2 out of 5 stars, respectively. The positive reviews mention good experiences with providers, while the negative reviews mention billing issues, confusion about medication management, and difficulty using the website to schedule appointments.
How Much Does Amwell Cost?
Amwell will prompt you to enter your insurance information during sign-up to confirm coverage. Your cost will depend on your individual plan. If you pay out of pocket, you can choose a therapy or psychiatry plan:
Therapy $108 per session for a therapist with a master’s degree$128 per session for a therapist with a doctoral degreePsychiatry $279 for your initial consult$109 for every 15-minute follow-up
How Does Amwell Work?
You can register for Amwell via desktop or through its app for iOS devices like iPads or iPhones. During or after registration, you can enter your insurance information to see if Amwell accepts it. To sign up for an appointment, you just need to log in and click the behavioral health section of the site. Amwell’s therapists, psychologists, and psychiatrists can help individuals as young as 10 in every state. Available mental health services include:
TherapyPsychiatryAdolescent therapyMenopause counselingPregnancy and postpartum therapy
Every provider profile will include information such as a headshot, next available appointments, years of experience, professional education, applicable specialties, and a bio. Appointment Tips Be sure to schedule an appointment at least 24 hours in advance, even if you see an opening for a provider the same day. Customer support told us that therapists sometimes don’t update their availability, and if you try to schedule an open same-day appointment, the provider might cancel it. Billing and Rescheduling You’ll need to enter your billing information in order to book an appointment, and once booked, the appointment will appear in your app. If you need to cancel or reschedule for any reason, be sure to do so at least 24 hours before your scheduled time. Amwell discloses that it has the right to charge you $40 for a missed appointment.
Amwell Reviews
Trustpilot reviewers gave Amwell a score of 2.6 out of 5 stars, and BBB reviewers gave Amwell 1 out of 5 stars. Since the Amwell platform offers both medical care and mental health care, reviews mentioned both. Positive reviews about mental health care indicated that the platform exceeded their expectations, while negative reviews mentioned therapists not showing up for appointments and difficulty getting refills for mental health medications.
How Much Does Calmerry Cost?
Calmerry offers three plans: unlimited messaging, unlimited messaging plus one live video session, and unlimited messaging plus four live video sessions. The unlimited messaging plan is $227.96 per month and includes unlimited audio and text messaging with your therapist. Calmerry also offers two plans with live video options, although there are platforms with cheaper monthly plans on the market for similar options.
Unlimited Messaging Plus One Live Video Session* $297.96 per monthFirst month $207.96One 30-minute live video session a monthUnlimited Messaging Plus Four Live Video Sessions* $359.96 per monthFirst month $269.96Four 30-minute live video sessions a month
Calmerry bills at the same time every month and does not accept insurance. Calmerry offers a 30 percent discount for your first month. With a messaging-only plan, that amounts to $167.96 for your first month.
How Does Calmerry Work?
We received three therapist suggestions, all of which included the therapist’s name, their title, and paragraphs the therapists had written about themselves. Calmerry allows you to switch therapists for free. How Text Therapy With Calmerry Works Once you start your subscription, you can write or send audio messages to your therapist. You could write longer journal-like entries, quick impulsive messages, or reflective emails. The Calmerry mental health assistant confirmed that your therapist checks the app a few times a day, Monday through Friday. Self-Care and Mood Tracking With Coa Calmerry’s app includes a mood assessment chatbot called Coa. Each day, you can log broader things like your mood or more in-depth reflection notes.
How daily check-ins work:Log how you’re feeling each day: Good? Fair? Poor?Nail down your specific emotions: Embarrassment? Tension? Surprise? Anxiety?Write what you did that dayHow reflection notes work:Write journal entries or whatever thoughts you have that dayLabel your feelings and emotions about it. Anger? Sympathy? Sadness?
You can share these entries with your therapist or keep them private. Every note is assigned to the date you write it in your journal app, so you can see how your mood changes over time and gain more insight into your emotions, such as thought patterns you may commonly fall into.
Calmerry Reviews
Trustpilot gives Calmerry 4 out of 5 stars. Positive reviews mention supportive therapists, successful sessions, and prompt customer service. Negative reviews mention slow response times from therapists and therapists canceling sessions at the last minute. There aren’t any reviews for Calmerry from the BBB. While Talkspace has a similar plan with live video or phone sessions and unlimited messaging, it’s $396 a month, which is $36 more than the maximum you’d pay with Teen Counseling. Talkspace doesn’t offer financial aid either, aside from a discount on your first month. We felt Teen Counseling did the best job at accommodating teens and their potential resistance to therapy at an affordable price. If eligible for financial aid, this is an even better and cheaper option for online teen therapy.
How Much Does Teen Counseling Cost?
Teen Counseling does not accept insurance and will not submit any information to your insurance company. The service costs $60 to $90 per week and, like ReGain, depends on where you live, therapist availability, and what specialties they have.
Monthly subscription $240 to $360 per monthBilled every four weeksFour weekly 30-minute therapy sessionsUnlimited text messagingCancel at any time
Teen Counseling offers financial aid for eligible families.
How Does Teen Counseling Work?
Teen Counseling is one of BetterHelp’s online therapy sites focused on teens ages 13 and older. Either you or your teen can start the therapy matching process on its homepage. Teen Counseling will ask the standard intake questions about your teen such as their age, gender, and location. If your teen starts the process, they can choose the specific issues they want therapy for, including:
StressAnxietyDepressionSchool challengesFamily conflictsTrouble sleeping or insomniaRelationships with friends
Parents can choose from options like school challenges, criminal behavior, substance abuse, or relationships with peers. Teen Counseling will ask if your teen has been to therapy before and to rate their relationship with you. Then the questions delve deeper into their home life, such as whether they go to school, whom they live with, and the last time they thought about suicide. Your teen would need to write a little snippet about why they want therapy if they signed up themselves. Once enrolled, they will see a screen that includes their next steps, an explanation of how and why their parents are involved in the process, and how much therapy will cost. In two separate sign-ups, we were quoted $320 a month. Link Your Teen’s Account With Yours If your teen initiated the process, Teen Counseling will ask them for your name and email address on the confirmation page. You should receive an email within a few seconds. From the email, you’ll be able to register for an account, fill out the parent consent form, and pay for the subscription. This will link your accounts together. The information your teen shared during their questionnaire will not be shared with you. In our experience, we didn’t receive a therapist match until both parties signed up. Therapist Matching and Chat Rooms Teen Counseling will use the information from the questionnaire to pair your teen with a licensed therapist. With unlimited messaging, both you and your teen can message the therapist in your own private chat room. There, you can ask any questions you have about the process and how much the therapist can share about their discussions with your teen. Likewise, your teen has their own chat room to discuss more personal details with their therapist whenever they want. Teen Counseling does not disclose how quickly its therapists respond. Parents will not have access to this room. Teen Counseling Therapy and Scheduling Your child can conduct their therapy sessions through live chat, video, and telephone. Either you or your child can choose the appointment times. If you don’t see a time that fits your schedule, you can reach out to your therapist to see if they have additional availability, though it isn’t guaranteed. Each appointment lasts 30 minutes. With live chat, you or your child arranges a therapy time as you would for a video or phone session, and it counts toward one of the four monthly sessions. The therapist would log on at that time and be able to answer any of your teen’s questions in an instant messaging format.
Teen Counseling Reviews
Teen Counseling receives 3.3 out of 5 stars on Trustpilot. Seven out of 13 reviews were positive, citing compassionate therapists and accommodating appointment times. The six negative reviews mentioned therapists not showing up for appointments and billing issues. The platform isn’t rated by the BBB. MDLive is similar to Teladoc in price, structure, and online reviews but offers therapy for $109 per session. We chose Teladoc because it was cheaper and had more open appointments than MDLive outside of 9-to-5 business hours.
How It Works
Teladoc is a simple, no-frills approach to online therapy that lets you pay per session. To get started, you just need to start an account. You’ll enter details like your name and location, contact information, and potential insurance. Click “Don’t have a health plan or insurance?” to see how Teladoc charges for each visit. After signing up, you can request an online therapy appointment from your account’s home page. Find Your Teladoc Therapist We requested a therapy appointment and were able to customize our therapist matches by specialty and gender. On our results page, we could see who the therapist was, their credentials, and when they were available. How Do I Schedule an Appointment? There are a few different things you’ll see when figuring out an appointment time:
Potential time slots you can immediately bookInformation from Teladoc about when the provider is usually availableA button to request an appointment time
If you need to request an appointment time, you can list three different times that work best and any additional information that would make it easier for the therapist to schedule your appointment. On the same page, before booking your appointment, you need to fill out a questionnaire asking about your emotional health status, too. It’s a simple, 23-question form that asks about your mental health issues over the past two weeks and how much they have affected your life. Once you submit your appointment request, Teladoc will ask for your billing information. It will not charge you until after your first visit. Teladoc will then reach out to you to confirm the cost and bill $99 for the session.
Teladoc Reviews
Like Amwell, the Teladoc platform offers both medical care and mental health care, so reviews mentioned both types of services. Trustpilot reviewers gave Teladoc 4.3 out of 5 stars, and BBB reviewers gave Teladoc 1.18 out of 5 stars. Negative reviews mentioned unprofessional therapists, therapists not showing up for appointments, and difficulty reaching customer service. Positive reviews mentioned ease of use and a convenient app.
What is your deductible? If you can’t afford your deductible, even over time, you may want to consider a platform that offers therapy on a sliding scale, where your salary dictates how much they charge a session.
What mental health services does your insurance cover? Maximizing your in-network benefits, if the deductible isn’t too high, may be cheaper than paying completely out of pocket.
Is the platform in-network for your insurance? Just because a brand works with your insurance doesn’t mean it will be cheap. “In-network” status means that the company made a deal with your insurance to charge only a certain amount per visit. If they use your out-of-network benefits and submit a bill to your insurance, also known as a superbill, they can charge whatever they want. Your insurance will pay only part of it, and you’ll be stuck with the rest.
Most bad reviews we read for different online therapy platforms involved being hit with a surprise bill and not understanding how the platforms worked with their insurance. The American Psychological Association (APA) says to always call your insurance, not the platform, to confirm this information.
How much are you paying per month for therapy? Weekly breakdowns may seem cheaper, but it’s always better to do the math to compare how much you’re paying per month. Consider your monthly budget and how the overall cost of therapy will fit, especially as you pay over months or years.
Do you like working with your therapist? Therapy is about building a rapport, and you should be with someone you like and are comfortable with.
How do they keep your private information safe and secure? The APA suggests looking for sites that encrypt your data and are compliant with U.S. privacy laws.
Is cheapest always best? Be sure to weigh all the pros and cons of each therapy service you look at. Mental health care is like any other healthcare — you may not want to sacrifice the quality of your treatment to save a few dollars.
Are you mentally prepared for the long-term investment? “A major obstacle during the therapy process is the belief that healing will take place immediately or quickly,” says Jennifer Weaver-Breitenbecher, a licensed mental health counselor in North Providence, Rhode Island. “We don’t have magic wands, and we can’t speed up the therapeutic process, but we can promise that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel — no matter how long the tunnel may be. Be patient and trust the process,” she adds. Together, we’ve researched prominent brands through the experiences of real customers collected by trusted third-party reviews sites such as the BBB and Trustpilot. We’ve also consulted with independent psychologists and other mental health professionals to better understand why people seek out online therapy and read the latest research on the efficacy of online therapy versus in-person therapy. When evaluating each company, we consider the session types they offer, the modes of therapy they specialize in, the credentials of their therapists, their business reputation and reported customer satisfaction, as well as the ease of registration and how easy it is to use the service. Price, payment options, and whether the company accepts insurance are all crucial components to consider. We always try to recommend a range for all budgets, with special consideration for lower budgets. After our experts have selected the best online therapy platforms on the market, a practicing and independent licensed therapist reviews our picks to audit each company as a whole and ensure that every selection we recommend is appropriate for the users we identify. If you prefer a subscription, be sure to weigh the pros and cons and remember to look at the total cost per month, not per week, to see if it makes sense for your financial situation. You can also reach out to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) National Helpline at 800-662-HELP (4357). The SAMHSA help line is a free, confidential, 24/7, 365-days-a-year treatment referral and information service for individuals facing mental or substance abuse disorders.
