Comparison

FreeCBT vs Meta Learn

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

Head to head
About

FreeCBT

This app provides a digital thought diary to practice Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). It helps users identify and challenge negative automatic thoughts, retrain their brains, and ultimately improve mood and behavior. It's an open-source tool for self-help and as a companion to traditional therapy.

Highlights
  • Thought diary
  • Challenge automatic thoughts
  • Identify cognitive distortions
  • Train alternative thoughts
  • Open source
  • CBT self-help tool
Features
Read full description

FreeCBT is an open source thought diary for Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is the "gold standard" of psychotherapy and is widely considered to be one of the most effective, evidence backed treatments for depression, anxiety, and panic. If you go into just about any therapist or psychiatrist, CBT will likely be one of the first treatments they try. FreeCBT is a companion and self-help app for one of the most common formats of CBT. You may have heard it called "the three column technique" or "catch it, check it, change it." Your brain is really good at making you feel exactly what you're thinking. Often, we find ourselves thinking "automatic negative thoughts" that lead us to fume on something that may not be true. That can cause us to feel depressed or anxious. CBT helps you record "automatic thoughts," challenge them with cognitive distortions and then train your brain with an alternative thought. If you do it enough, you can change your thoughts, your moods and your behavior. FreeCBT, a fork of Quirk, is open source under the GPL. You can find the code on Github at: https://github.com/erosson/freecbt

About

Meta Learn

This app offers tools and exercises to help manage overthinking, stress, and restlessness. It provides personalized programs based on your responses to foster calm, focus, and mental clarity. Track your progress and understand the connection between your thoughts and well-being.

Highlights
  • Exercises to reduce overthinking
  • Tools to manage stress
  • Support for low mood
  • Personalized programs
  • Track mental progress
  • Metacognitive therapy principles
Features
Read full description

Overthinking, stress, restlessness or low mood? Get tools for calm and clarity. Short introduction: Meta Learn helps you if you struggle with overthinking, stress, restlessness, or find it hard to quiet your mind. Many people use the app when they can’t stop their thoughts, overthink constantly, or have trouble sleeping due to worries. The app adapts to your responses and creates a personalized program with exercises tailored to your situation. What you get with Meta Learn: • Exercises to reduce overthinking and inner restlessness • Tools to manage stress and worries • Support during periods of low mood • Simple strategies for more calm, focus, and mental clarity • Personalized content based on your responses How it works: When you start Meta Learn, you answer a few questions about your situation. Based on your answers, you automatically get a personalized program with exercises that match what you’re experiencing right now. You can adjust it anytime. Exercises that work in everyday life: The exercises are simple, practical, and designed to help you change how you respond to your thoughts. You’ll learn how to: • stop unnecessary worrying • reduce overthinking • handle inner restlessness in your body • create more calm in your mind • improve your mood The exercises are especially helpful if you: • can’t stop your thoughts • experience overthinking at night • overthink throughout the day • feel stressed over a longer period If you have trouble sleeping because of thoughts or worries, the exercises can also help you find more calm. Your knowledge and progress: Track your mental progress, keep an overview of your exercises, and better understand the connection between your thoughts, actions, and wellbeing. Scientific foundation: Meta Learn is primarily based on principles from metacognitive therapy developed by Adrian Wells. This approach focuses not on the content of your thoughts, but on how you relate to them. You learn to reduce overthinking and worrying through practical mental strategies. Designed for self-help: Meta Learn is built for self-guided use with interactive and progressive exercises, making it easy to improve your mental wellbeing at your own pace. Terms of Use can be found at https://metalearnapps.com/terms.

Screenshots

FreeCBT3 screens
Meta Learn4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: FreeCBT at none against Meta Learn's 12. FreeCBT also leads on ratings volume (143 vs 3). Meta Learn's advantage is update cadence (every 9 days vs every 9 months) and rating (5.0 vs 4.8). On price, review sentiment, 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. Meta Learn sells 11 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month. FreeCBT asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Meta Learn holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: FreeCBT has 143 ratings behind it against 3, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 96% of FreeCBT's written reviews are positive against 100% of Meta Learn's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

FreeCBT ships an update every 9 months, Meta Learn every 9 days. The most recent releases landed on September 23, 2026 and August 5, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
FreeCBT versus Meta Learn: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterFreeCBTMeta Learn
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (143 ratings)5.0 (3 ratings) — better
Positive reviews96.2% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings143 — better3
Update frequencyEvery 9 monthsEvery 9 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFreemium
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.113.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size35 MB68 MB
Age rating12+4+
DeveloperEvan RossonMeta Learn ApS

Customer experience

FreeCBT

All ratings134 ratings
Positive94.0%
Neutral2.2%
Negative3.7%
Written reviews79 reviews
Positive96.2%
Neutral2.5%
Negative1.3%

Meta Learn

All ratings3 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Bugs and requests

FreeCBT

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • Swiping from distortion page selects/deselects distortions unintentionally
  • App update deleted all past user entries
  • Keyboard covers answer input area on some screens
  • Swipe navigation doesn't work properly on certain screens
  • Inconsistent touch response during navigation

Requested features

12 requests
  • Dark mode option
  • Analytics to track thoughts and patterns over time
  • Export feature to share entries with therapist or notes app
  • Cross-device synchronization
  • Bottom navigation bar
Show 7 more
  • Ability to tag or categorize thoughts by topic
  • Filter and view thoughts by category
  • Evidence section with for/against columns
  • Worst case scenario section with probability assessment
  • More detailed examples for alternative thought step
  • Additional cognitive distortion options (jumping to conclusions)
  • Better help documentation and explanations

Meta Learn

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

FreeCBT

No in-app purchases

11 purchases

Meta Learn

Subscriptions11
  • Monthly Subscription$3.991 Month
  • Yearly Subscription$9.991 Year
  • Monthly Subscription$12.491 Month
Show 8 more
  • Yearly Subscription$14.991 Year
  • Yearly Subscription$17.991 Year
  • Yearly Subscripsion$17.991 Year
  • Yearly Subscription2 variants$19.991 Year
  • Yearly Subscription$22.991 Year
  • Yearly subscription$23.991 Year
  • Yearly14 Days trial$25.991 Year
  • SpecHealth Offer14 Days trial$39.991 Year

Questions

Is FreeCBT free?
FreeCBT is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Meta Learn free?
Meta Learn is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, FreeCBT or Meta Learn?
Meta Learn is rated higher. FreeCBT averages 4.8 out of 5 from 143 ratings, while Meta Learn averages 5.0 from 3 ratings.
Do FreeCBT or Meta Learn have ads?
Neither FreeCBT nor Meta Learn shows ads.
Which is updated more often, FreeCBT or Meta Learn?
FreeCBT ships an update every 9 months, and Meta Learn every 9 days. Most recently, FreeCBT was updated on September 23, 2026 and Meta Learn on August 5, 2026.

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