FreeCBT vs CPT Coach
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- Thought diary
- Challenge automatic thoughts
- Identify cognitive distortions
- Train alternative thoughts
- Open source
- CBT self-help tool
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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
CPT Coach
This app provides support materials for Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) to help patients manage their treatment. It includes between-session assignments, mobile worksheets, readings, and PTSD symptom monitoring. It is designed for use with a mental healthcare provider.
- Between-session assignments
- Mobile CPT worksheets
- Readings and educational materials
- PTSD symptom monitoring
- Treatment management tools
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CPT Coach is for people who are participating in Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) with a professional mental healthcare provider. This app contains support materials for a complete course of CPT to help patients manage their treatment, including between session assignments, mobile versions of CPT worksheets, readings, and PTSD symptom monitoring. CPT Coach is not intended to be used as self-help without the guidance of a professional mental healthcare provider. CPT Coach was made by the mobile mental health team of the National Center for PTSD, Dissemination & Training Division.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: FreeCBT at 96% against CPT Coach's 42%. FreeCBT also leads on rating (4.7 vs 3.6) and ratings volume (170 vs 25). CPT Coach's advantage is iOS requirement (13.0 vs 15.1). On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases 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.
FreeCBT holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 3.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: FreeCBT has 170 ratings behind it against 25, 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 42% of CPT Coach's.
FreeCBT ships an update every 9 months, CPT Coach every 5 months. The most recent releases landed on October 23, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | FreeCBT | CPT Coach |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (170 ratings) — better | 3.6 (25 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 96.2% of reviews — better | 41.7% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 170 — better | 25 |
| Update frequency | Every 9 months | Every 5 months — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.1 | 13.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 35 MB | 133 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 17+ |
| Developer | Evan Rosson | US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) |
Customer experience
FreeCBT
CPT Coach
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
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- 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
CPT Coach
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
FreeCBT
No in-app purchases
CPT Coach
No in-app purchases








