PHQ vs Simple Depression Test
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
PHQ
This application is a self-report tool for screening and diagnosing mental health disorders, including depression and anxiety. It is based on a copyrighted inventory developed by Pfizer Inc. as a diagnostic tool.
- Depression screening
- Anxiety screening
- Mental health disorder diagnosis
- Self-report inventory
- Based on PRIME-MD
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The Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ) is a multiple-choice self-report inventory copyrighted by Pfizer Inc, that is used as a screening and diagnostic tool for mental health disorders of depression, anxiety, alcohol, eating, and somatoform. It is the self-report version of the Primary Care Evaluation of Mental Disorders (PRIME-MD), a diagnostic tool developed in the mid-1990s by Pfizer Inc.
Simple Depression Test
This tool screens for depressive and anxiety disorders by calculating scores and tracking trends. It offers multi-user management, data storage, and exportable PDF reports. Supports multiple languages and assessment types.
- Depression and anxiety screening
- Multi-user management
- Data storage (local, Firebase, iCloud)
- Trend tracking with charts
- Multi-language support
- Printable PDF reports
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This app provides some features to help people to detect and screen depressive disorder and anxiety disorder. - Automatically showing the result by calculating the scores and differentiate between the new user and follow-up user. - Multi-user management. - Store and retrieve records from the built-in database, Firebase and iCloud. - Select and delete the user's record by tap and long tap gestures in the bar chart view. - Barchart and Linechart can be selected for better tracking the trend. - Support in-app switching languages between English, Spanish and Chinese. - Switching between PHQ-9 and GAD-7. - Print and Export PDF report. All the personal information including scores and results from users will be stored in their own devices and cannot be gathered by any other party without permission. About Privacy Policy: https://app.termly.io/document/privacy-policy/2645d519-70d2-4f9b-9192-70178543786f Medical Disclaimer: https://timyuzhang.com/medical-disclaimer/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: PHQ at 100% against Simple Depression Test's 50%. PHQ also leads on iOS requirement (8.0 vs 15.6). Simple Depression Test's advantage is rating (4.4 vs 3.6). On price, ratings volume, update cadence and ads 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Simple Depression Test holds the better App Store score, 4.4 against 3.6. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 7 and 13 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 100% of PHQ's written reviews are positive against 50% of Simple Depression Test's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on September 9, 2026 and June 1, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | PHQ | Simple Depression Test |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.6 (7 ratings) | 4.4 (13 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better | 50.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 7 | 13 — better |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly | Fortnightly |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 8.0 — better | 15.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 32 MB | 19 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 12+ |
| Developer | Andrey Fetisov | Yu Zhang |
Customer experience
PHQ
Simple Depression Test
In-app purchases
PHQ
No in-app purchases
Simple Depression Test
No in-app purchases
