Comparison

Thrive at UT vs Equa

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Thrive at UT

This app supports University of Texas students in navigating campus life. It offers guidance on friendships, mindfulness, and challenges through videos and interactive activities. The goal is to help students make positive changes for a better daily experience.

Highlights
  • Campus life navigation
  • Friendship building guidance
  • Mindfulness techniques
  • Challenge management
  • Student video stories
  • Interactive learning activities
Features
Read full description

Specifically designed for students throughout the University of Texas system, Thrive at UT helps you live your best life. Eight topic areas including building friendships, becoming more mindful, and managing challenges help you better navigate the ups and downs of campus life. There are short videos of students sharing their own stories as well as interactive activities to help you learn more about yourself. Thrive helps you make small, simple changes that can have a powerful impact on your daily life!

About

Equa

This app offers a personalized mindfulness training experience with interactive feedback to build attentional control, mental resilience, and overall well-being. It addresses common challenges faced by new meditators by providing guidance and support throughout the practice.

Highlights
  • Attentional control training
  • Mental resilience building
  • Personalized mindfulness coaching
  • Interactive feedback system
  • Well-being improvement
  • Guided meditation practice
Features
Read full description

Build your attentional control skills, mental resilience and well-being with Equa – a mindfulness coach in your pocket. A key reason many new meditators fall off is because they do not receive feedback in their learning process, or guidance on what is working for them and why. This can lead to confusion, agitation and often, a clean break from their practice. Equa's interactive experience provides the feedback you need to make your training experience relevant and impactful. Because meditation is not meant to be practiced alone. SUBSCRIPTIONS & PRICING Prior to subscribing, we welcome you to see how it feels to train with Equa – completely free of charge. Your first three days in Equa (we call these Units) are on us! After this, Equa offers two auto-renewing subscription options: Six Month Intro Series Subscription Price - $29.99 This subscription is for six months and auto-renews after six months. - Title of auto-renewing subscription: Six Month Intro Series Subscription - Length of subscription: Six months - Price of subscription: $29.99 - Privacy policy can be found here https://equahealth.io/privacy-policy. - Terms of Use (EULA) can be found here https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula. Year Subscription Price - $64.99 per year This subscription is for 12 months and auto-renews after 12 months. - Title: Annual Membership - Length of subscription: 1 year - Price of subscription: $64.99 - Privacy policy can be found here https://equahealth.io/privacy-policy. - Terms of Use (EULA) can be found here https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula. The prices above are for U.S. based customers. Pricing may vary by country and charges may be converted to local currencies depending on the country of residence.

Screenshots

Thrive at UT4 screens
Equa4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Thrive at UT at none against Equa's 12. Thrive at UT also leads on review sentiment (100% vs 68%) and iOS requirement (11.0 vs 15.1). Equa's advantage is update cadence (fortnightly vs every 6 months) and rating (4.9 vs 4.5). On price, ads and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Equa sells 12 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month. Thrive at UT asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Equa holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 4.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Equa has 240 ratings behind it against 12, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 100% of Thrive at UT's written reviews are positive against 68% of Equa's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Thrive at UT ships an update every 6 months, Equa fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on August 19, 2026 and September 21, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
Thrive at UT versus Equa: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterThrive at UTEqua
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.5 (12 ratings)4.9 (240 ratings) — better
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews — better67.9% of reviews
Number of ratings12240 — better
Update frequencyEvery 6 monthsFortnightly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterSubscription
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS11.0 — better15.1
Further details — not scored
Size17 MB94 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperTHE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTINEqua Health, Inc.

Customer experience

Thrive at UT

All ratings12 ratings
Positive91.7%
Neutral0.0%
Negative8.3%
Written reviews8 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Equa

All ratings240 ratings
Positive97.9%
Neutral0.8%
Negative1.3%
Written reviews28 reviews
Positive67.9%
Neutral10.7%
Negative21.4%

Bugs and requests

Thrive at UT

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

Equa

Reported bugs

6 issues
  • Login page not working
  • Tapping feedback not detecting double taps
  • Accomplishments not logging accurately
  • Cannot proceed past lesson 13 as a premium subscriber
  • App redirects to subscribe screen for premium content
Show 1 more
  • No way to reset user's meditation experience level

Requested features

8 requests
  • Add more content/lessons
  • Sync with Apple Health
  • Improve tapping detection accuracy
  • Provide more guidance on dashboard usage
  • Offer more than one reminder for micro-exercises
Show 3 more
  • Add ability to reset profile/experience level
  • Clarify course structure/outline
  • Add more lessons beyond the initial 41

In-app purchases

None

Thrive at UT

No in-app purchases

12 purchases

Equa

Subscriptions12
  • Monthly Subscription7 Days trial$0.991 Month
  • Monthly Subscriptoin7 Days trial$2.991 Month
  • Monthly Subscription7 Days trial$4.991 Month
Show 9 more
  • Monthly Subscriptoin7 Days trial$7.991 Month
  • Monthly Subscription1 Month trial$11.991 Month
  • Monthly Subscription7 Days trial$12.991 Month
  • Monthly Subscription7 Days trial$14.991 Month
  • Monthly Subscription7 Days trial$17.991 Month
  • Resilience Starter Kit7 Days trial$29.996 Months
  • Yearly Subscription1 Year trial$39.991 Year
  • Annual Membership7 Days trial$64.991 Year
  • Yearly Equanaut7 Days trial$149.991 Year

Questions

Is Thrive at UT free?
Thrive at UT is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Equa free?
Equa is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Thrive at UT or Equa?
Equa is rated higher. Thrive at UT averages 4.5 out of 5 from 12 ratings, while Equa averages 4.9 from 240 ratings.
Do Thrive at UT or Equa have ads?
Neither Thrive at UT nor Equa shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Thrive at UT or Equa?
Thrive at UT ships an update every 6 months, and Equa fortnightly. Most recently, Thrive at UT was updated on August 19, 2026 and Equa on September 21, 2026.

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