Comparison

One Step Recovery vs Self

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

Head to head
About

One Step Recovery

This app helps individuals in recovery track their progress and maintain accountability. It offers daily motivational quotes, communication tools, meeting information, and scheduling features to support sobriety.

Highlights
  • Track recovery progress
  • Daily motivational quotes
  • Chat/messaging functionality
  • AA meeting locator
  • Agenda and scheduling
Read full description

One Step's app is built for those in recovery in order to track their recovery progress and help keep themselves accountable. Features include daily motivational quotes, chat/messaging, AA meetings, agenda/scheduling and more! One Step is used by over 20,000 people in recovery.

About

Self

This app offers gentle observations and practical techniques for navigating difficult moments and learning to be alone. It provides a steady, non-judgmental voice with no pressure to perform or maintain streaks. Access resources for professional help when needed.

Highlights
  • Daily observations and techniques
  • No streaks or performance pressure
  • Collection of revealed cards
  • Links to authoritative sources
  • Resources for professional help
  • Focus on self-compassion and regulation
Features
Read full description

Sometimes a person is suddenly alone. The relationship ends, the family dissolves, the friend moves, the old life goes quiet. Or they have been alone a long time and are learning that solitude is a skill the culture didn't teach them. Either way, when they reach for their phone in a hard hour, they want one steady voice. Not a coach, not a therapist, not another self-help framework. Someone who has been there. This is that. Self-Reliance Tips is a hundred small observations from someone who has been in a hard hour and made it through. Each one opens with "You might..." or "Consider..." or "Some people find..." The choice always lives with you. There is no card that begins "You should." Three cards wait face-down each day. Tap as many as you want. The cards you reveal stay in your Collection forever, so you can come back to them on a different hard hour. There is no streak. No notification asking you to be consistent. No progress meter measuring whether you "showed up." What you'll find: A hundred cards across the small spectrum of a real life: nervous-system regulation, micro-actions, self-compassion, solitude as a skill, connection without performance, grief, identity, and witness-staying. Cards on subjects with documented mechanisms (slow exhale, 5-4-3-2-1 grounding, self-compassion break, facial-feedback, weak-tie research) link to authoritative sources for the curious: Cleveland Clinic, APA, Healthline, self-compassion.org, Greater Good Berkeley, Harvard Health. Drew's note in Settings names what he was going through when he built this app. Brutal honesty over performance. What you won't find: No subscription. No streaks. No ads. No data collection. No advice voice. No "you should." No promise that things will be fine. If the hour you are in is bigger than this app, the resources at the bottom of Settings are real people on the other end: 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, Crisis Text Line, Veterans Crisis Line, NAMI HelpLine, SAMHSA, RAINN, plus three therapist finders that filter by insurance and sliding-scale options. You are allowed to call them even if you are not sure it is bad enough. Self-Reliance Tips is not therapy. It is not a substitute for professional care. It is steady company. For the person who has heard enough fix-it speak. For the four-in-the-morning hour. For the days you are learning, slowly, how to be alone with yourself in a way that holds.

Screenshots

One Step Recovery4 screens
Self4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Self at 5.0 against One Step Recovery's 4.4. Self also leads on update cadence (daily vs fortnightly). One Step Recovery's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 4) and ratings volume (184 vs 1). On price, ads, monetization model 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. Self sells 4 one-off in-app purchases. One Step Recovery asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Self holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: One Step Recovery has 184 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

One Step Recovery ships an update fortnightly, Self daily. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 28, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
One Step Recovery versus Self: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterOne Step RecoverySelf
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.4 (184 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Positive reviews86.4% of reviews—
Number of ratings184 — better1
Update frequencyFortnightlyDaily — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.1 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size30 MB253 MB
Age rating17+4+
DeveloperOne Step Software Inc.Drew Douglass

Bugs and requests

One Step Recovery

Reported bugs

7 issues
  • App shuts down if left open too long or too many tasks are performed
  • Check-in feature either doesn't respond properly or users forget due to lack of service
  • Crashes frequently when trying to check in/out, save notes, or create documents
  • App won't work at all for some users
  • Frequently needs to be deleted and reinstalled to function
Show 2 more
  • Check-in feature isn't tracking meetings
  • Check-in at home button disappeared

Requested features

2 requests
  • Dark screen/dark mode option
  • Option to pay for membership and fees virtually

Self

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

One Step Recovery

No in-app purchases

4 purchases

Self

One-time4
  • A warm cup$1.99
  • One step taken$4.99
  • A view of dawn$9.99
Show 1 more
  • A long quiet evening$19.99

Questions

Is One Step Recovery free?
One Step Recovery is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Self free?
Self is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, One Step Recovery or Self?
Self is rated higher. One Step Recovery averages 4.4 out of 5 from 184 ratings, while Self averages 5.0 from 1 ratings.
Do One Step Recovery or Self have ads?
Neither One Step Recovery nor Self shows ads.
Which is updated more often, One Step Recovery or Self?
One Step Recovery ships an update fortnightly, and Self daily. Most recently, One Step Recovery was updated on October 24, 2026 and Self on October 28, 2026.

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