Comparison

ACT iCoach vs Spiral Up Lite

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

Head to head
About

ACT iCoach

Learn and practice Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) skills through video lessons, animations, and interactive tools. Track your mood, journal your thoughts, and monitor progress with analytics. Share data with your therapist for real-time engagement and motivation.

Highlights
  • Video lessons and animations
  • Mood and emotion tracking
  • Journaling and ACT measures
  • Progress summaries and analytics
  • Therapist sharing
  • Over 100 exercises
  • 1000+ meditations
Features
Read full description

ACT iCoach is a comprehensive app that covers all aspects of Acceptance Commitment Therapy Learn and practice ACT skills using video lessons and fun animations which helps you to remember skills longer. Features over video lessons and easy to read content from some of the leading ACT Practitioners and researchers in the world. You can also take notes on these lessons for future use. User friendly tools to track your mood, emotions, journal and ACT measures. Summary screens to check your progress. Analytics to get insight into your own behavior as you learn new skills. Ability to share with therapists and care team. Track your progress on how you are doing and get motivated to obtain new skills. Get awards for tasks done towards obtaining new skills or keeping up with one you already know. Complete exercises and practice ideas that are similar to worksheets in actual ACT Therapy. There are over 100 exercises. Each of the exercise link directly to lessons. Over 1000 meditations ranging across multiple themes from some of the best teachers in the world. Favorites list to save skills and meditations you use frequently. Weekly and Daily ACT Measure tracking. Finally, the app integrates with a clinician app. If your therapist is signed up and you are set up to share your diary card and exercises then you don’t have to share via email every week. Your therapist can engage with you in real time. The app also integrates with Apple's HealthKit to record your meditation minutes to Health Kit mindfulness. Payment will be charged to iTunes Account at confirmation of purchase *You have a choice of being billed monthly for $9.99/month or a discounted price of $49.99 every six months. • Subscription automatically renews unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24-hours before the end of the current period • Account will be charged for renewal within 24-hours prior to the end of the current period, and identify the cost of the renewal • Subscriptions may be managed by the user and auto-renewal may be turned off by going to the user's Account Settings after purchase • Any unused portion of a free trial period, if offered, will be forfeited when the user purchases a subscription to that publication, where applicable. Privacy Policy:https://www.resiliens.com/privacy Terms of use: https://www.resiliens.com/terms DISCLAIMER: This is not a substitute for a Therapist or a Medical Professional. It works best when you use as a companion app along with your ACT Therapist / Counselor.

About

Spiral Up Lite

This app helps you break cycles of stress and anxiety by understanding your reactions to past traumas. It uses simple, brain-savvy questions to activate your brain's natural ability to clear toxic stress and improve emotional well-being.

Highlights
  • Stress and anxiety reduction
  • Understand emotional reactions
  • Break negative cycles
  • Brain-savvy questioning technique
  • Quick daily use (1-3 minutes)
  • Developed by a health psychologist
Features
Read full description

Mindfulness distracts you from stress and anxiety Spiral Up™ releases your stress and clears away anxiety. Be more specific A friend doesn’t respond to your text and you binge eat. A car cuts you off and you explode. A colleague criticizes you and you devolve into negative self-talk. We overreact to these (admittedly unpleasant incidents) because the incidents aren’t what we’re reacting to: We’re subconsciously reacting to a traumatic event or relationship hurt from our past – romantic, platonic, or familial. That cycle can repeat itself for decades and separate you from being in control of your life. Spiral Up™ helps you break this cycle. It helps you understand why you do what you do – then do something about it. Hmm. How? Your brain is already neurologically equipped to change those reactions, and clear toxic stress chemicals. Spiral Up activates that process via a series of simple, brain-savvy “How are you?” style questions. Answering these questions (which takes 1 - 3 minutes) causes a surge of feel-good neurotransmitters. You may even feel some joy. Every moment is not joyous — many are uncomfortable, sad, boring, strenuous, etc.— but the brain rewards us for clearing stress. That’s why endorphins bubble up. This app contains those simple questions. And only those questions. There aren’t a thousand meditations or cheeky quizzes or rainforest sounds. Just the questions and the relief they elicit. Relief you deserve. Who made this? Laurel Mellin, PhD, a health psychologist, who developed Emotional Brain Training (EBT) with colleagues on the UCSF faculty in the School of Medicine. She is a NYT Bestselling author. How often should I Spiral Up? Use it whenever you have a moment of irrational panic, boredom, or feel bad for any reason. Spiraling Up 5x per day trains your brain to override your reflexive response to situational stress and anxiety. Your brain learns to spiral up spontaneously, so you feel better faster– even between uses of the app. Download our free app and start a more emotionally connected life. We overreact to these (admittedly unpleasant incidents) because the incidents aren’t what we’re reacting to: We’re subconsciously reacting to a traumatic event or relationship hurt from our past – romantic, platonic, or familial. That cycle can repeat itself for decades and separate you from being in control of your life. Spiral Up™ helps you break this cycle. It helps you understand why you do what you do – then do something about it. Read the terms and conditions here: http://wwwspiralup.com/terms-and-conditions Read the privacy policy here: https://wwwspiralup.com/privacy-policy

Screenshots

ACT iCoach4 screens
Spiral Up Lite4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Spiral Up Lite at none against ACT iCoach's 2. ACT iCoach's advantage is update cadence (every 4 weeks vs every 2 months) and ratings volume (186 vs 19). On price, rating, review sentiment 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. ACT iCoach sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per month. Spiral Up Lite asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Spiral Up Lite holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: ACT iCoach has 186 ratings behind it against 19, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 85% of ACT iCoach's written reviews are positive against 83% of Spiral Up Lite's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

ACT iCoach ships an update every 4 weeks, Spiral Up Lite every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on October 18, 2026 and October 13, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
ACT iCoach versus Spiral Up Lite: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterACT iCoachSpiral Up Lite
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.6 (186 ratings)4.8 (19 ratings) — better
Positive reviews84.6% of reviews — better83.3% of reviews
Number of ratings186 — better19
Update frequencyEvery 4 weeks — betterEvery 2 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationSubscriptionFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS14.113.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size66 MB18 MB
Age rating12+4+
DeveloperResiliens Inc.Institute for Health Solutions

Customer experience

ACT iCoach

All ratings186 ratings
Positive89.8%
Neutral1.1%
Negative9.1%
Written reviews91 reviews
Positive84.6%
Neutral1.1%
Negative14.3%

Spiral Up Lite

All ratings19 ratings
Positive94.7%
Neutral0.0%
Negative5.3%
Written reviews6 reviews
Positive83.3%
Neutral0.0%
Negative16.7%

Bugs and requests

ACT iCoach

Reported bugs

9 issues
  • App freezes after every entry or assessment
  • Failed to connect to store error
  • Login page resets during account creation
  • Account existence conflicts (user exists/does not exist)
  • Intermittent crashes and connection issues
Show 4 more
  • Premium membership status not persisting after reinstall
  • UI elements not aligned properly on older iPhones
  • Scroll functionality issues preventing access to all answer options
  • Data loss when signed out of Apple ID

Requested features

7 requests
  • Offline functionality
  • Goals section in addition to journal
  • Better onboarding tutorial ("ACT & This App 101")
  • Clearer password requirements during signup
  • Clinician subscription bundling options
Show 2 more
  • Free trial period before requiring payment
  • One-time purchase option instead of recurring subscription

Spiral Up Lite

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

2 purchases

ACT iCoach

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly subscription3 Days trial$9.991 Month
  • Six Month Subscription$49.996 Months
None

Spiral Up Lite

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is ACT iCoach free?
ACT iCoach is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Spiral Up Lite free?
Spiral Up Lite is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, ACT iCoach or Spiral Up Lite?
Spiral Up Lite is rated higher. ACT iCoach averages 4.6 out of 5 from 186 ratings, while Spiral Up Lite averages 4.8 from 19 ratings.
Do ACT iCoach or Spiral Up Lite have ads?
Neither ACT iCoach nor Spiral Up Lite shows ads.
Which is updated more often, ACT iCoach or Spiral Up Lite?
ACT iCoach ships an update every 4 weeks, and Spiral Up Lite every 2 months. Most recently, ACT iCoach was updated on October 18, 2026 and Spiral Up Lite on October 13, 2026.

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