GritX vs HeartMath
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
GritX
This app offers evidence-based mental health and wellness skills for students to navigate life challenges and emotions. It features guided self-reflection, emotional processing tools, and a conversational chatbot for personalized support.
- Xpeditions for guided content bundles
- Emotionally intelligent chatbot companion
- Self-Interview for self-reflection
- Skills Studio for emotional processing
- Self-Care Toolkit for coping techniques
- Guided Journaling for stress relief
- Breathing Room for mindfulness
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The only Social and Emotional Support in Distance Learning resource recommended by the California Department of Education dedicated to students. University of California, San Francisco's (UCSF) GritX is the most robust mental health and wellness resource to learn and practice to learn evidence-based health and wellness skills to help with life challenges, emotions, and personal growth. Don’t know where to start? Try out one of our Xpeditions for the most relevant content across GritX for your specific life challenge or goal. Want a more personalized and engaging experience? Talk to our new conversational emotionally intelligent chatbot that will be your guide to the perfect self-care tool (and also makes a good companion!). Self-Interview: This is a great way to begin your self-reflection, especially if you’re not exactly sure of what it is that’s challenging you. It walks you through, step by step, to help find what’s right for you to address your challenge. Skills Studio: A selection of skills that can help you learn, understand and process your different emotions. Ask our chatbot for specific skills related to Anxiety, Fear, Happiness, Sadness, Anger, Relationships, Trauma or discovering your Best Self. Self-Care Toolkit: Allows you to customize a toolkit for when you need a quick, go-to coping technique to help when things get intense, or something just to help you take care of and show compassion for yourself. Journal: Journaling provides so many self-reflective and healing benefits. Each journal prompt will provide you with a space to write out and process those thoughts, emotions, and stressors. Breathing Room: Allows you to get into the present moment, by literally giving you a space to breathe. The breathing room helps to calm and bring you back to center. It’s a good starting point for approaching a challenge or difficulty. Sketchbook: This is a space for your artistic and creative self-expression to help you get grounded, calm, heal, or get inspired. Xpeditions: This can help you get started with a bundle of content around a specific difficulty or challenge. A GritXpedition will have a little bit of everything (skills, journals, self-care tools, etc) in order to give you a holistic experience. Backpack: Self-care tools are quick, go-to coping techniques that help you come down from overwhelming or intense emotions. Take care of yourself and show yourself some self-compassion by adding your favorite ones to your Backpack for easy access. Gritx helps you learn principles of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), Acceptance Commitment Therapy (ACT), Mindfulness Meditation, and other evidence-based skills. You can develop self-reflection in the Self-Interview, learn emotional regulation and life skills in the Skills Studio, practice breathing patterns to calm yourself in the Breathing Room, write about your experiences with a guided Journal or collect some coping tools in the Self-Care Tool Kit and more! GritX addresses the major lack of access to quality mental health resources by providing free evidence-based psychoeducation and interactive wellness tools online. Our goal is to democratize mental healthcare so that mental wellness resources and self-care tools are available to anyone, anywhere, anytime. As a team, we share a these values: Accessibility: Provide quality, evidence-based, mental health resources to everyone without barriers. Best-Selves: Cultivating well-being and life skills that transform lives through personal growth and authenticity. Creativity: Creating technology-enabled digital learning experiences that engage young adults. Diversity: Valuing each person as an individual and embracing cultural humility. Equity: Personalizing effective mental health care wellness for everyone to meet them where they are at.
HeartMath
This app helps you manage stress, improve focus, and achieve optimal performance by aligning your heart, mind, and emotions. It offers guided sessions, immersive journeys, and coherence practices based on over 30 years of research.
- Real-time HRV Coherence Measurement
- Coherence Training
- Scientifically Validated Techniques
- Guided Learning Sessions
- Progress Tracking
- Heart-Brain Coherence Benefits
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Align your heart, mind, and emotions to help you manage stress, improve focus, and perform at your best. Enjoy HeartMath’s free intro experience to access your heart’s natural intelligence and see your heart-brain coherence as real-time feedback. Then start your 7-day free trial to explore a comprehensive collection of guided sessions, immersive journeys, and coherence practices designed to help you experience greater calm, focus, clearer thinking, and a more balanced you. **Inner Balance Coherence Plus sensor owners: Use your sensor to unlock a lifetime subscription.** Built on 30+ years of research on the heart-brain connection and supported by over 500 research studies, HeartMath is used in wellness and resilience programs at organizations including Stanford Healthcare and Kaiser Permanente, as well as in professional sports, the military, law enforcement, leading universities, non-profit organizations, and major corporations. It is used by coaches, trainers, and health professionals for stress education and resilience training. The HeartMath system is more than stress management: it’s a journey to more heart-centered living. This app puts HeartMath’s practical, research-supported tools right at your fingertips. Make mental and emotional well-being an achievable part of your daily life. The HeartMath technology is for stress education and resilience training. It is not a medical device. We encourage you to consult a health professional before making any medical decisions. KEY FEATURES • Real-time HRV coherence feedback: Use your phone’s camera or upgrade to the Inner Balance Coherence Plus sensor for a more precise signal and a free app subscription. • Coherence training: Whether you choose the game or the guided mode, watch your heart-rhythm pattern and coherence change in real time. • Research-Supported: Techniques developed from 30+ years of scientific research to help boost focus, positive feelings, and your ability to manage stress. • Guided learning: Explore guided meditations, courses, and videos led by HeartMath trainers. • Progress tracking: View your progress over time with a variety of chart options. WHAT REGULAR COHERENCE PRACTICE CAN SUPPORT Heart-brain coherence is a balanced, focused state you create yourself through calm breathing and positive focus. Coherence supports the body’s natural ability to shift from tension to calm, helping you manage everyday stress and build inner balance. • SUPPORTS STRESS MANAGEMENT & EMOTIONAL BALANCE • SUPPORTS FOCUS AND MENTAL CLARITY — coherent states are associated with more focus, clarity, and creativity. • SUPPORTS RESILIENCE — regular practice can help you adapt to and recover from challenging situations more quickly. • ENHANCES EMOTIONAL WELL-BEING AND SELF-AWARENESS — practice can support a greater sense of inner calm and a more mindful relationship with your emotions. Subscription terms: • Subscriptions renew automatically at the end of each year. • You can cancel your subscription at any time in your account settings. • You will not be refunded for any unused portion of a subscription. • Price is subject to change. • Subscriptions are not available in all countries. • Full subscription terms: https://my.heartmath.com/terms If you’d like to purchase an Inner Balance Coherence Plus sensor to unlock complimentary lifetime access to the HeartMath app, please visit the HeartMath website.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: HeartMath at 4.9 against GritX's 4.1. HeartMath also leads on ratings volume (4.6K vs 28). GritX's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 5) and review sentiment (85% vs 74%). On price, 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. HeartMath sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $39.00 per year. GritX asks for nothing beyond the download.
HeartMath holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 4.1. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: HeartMath has 4.6K ratings behind it against 28, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 85% of GritX's written reviews are positive against 74% of HeartMath'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 every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 24, 2026 and October 16, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | GritX | HeartMath |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.1 (28 ratings) | 4.9 (4.6K ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 84.6% of reviews — better | 73.8% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 28 | 4.6K — better |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks | Every 3 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Freemium |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 11.0 — better | 26.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 29 MB | 185 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 4+ |
| Developer | WSC Technology Inc | HeartMath Inc. |
Customer experience
GritX
HeartMath
Bugs and requests
GritX
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
HeartMath
Reported bugs
4 issues- Sensor connection issues on newer devices
- App crashes and freezes on iPhone 16 Pro
- Inaccurate heart rate and coherence readings
- Screen sleep behavior disrupting sessions
Requested features
5 requests- Add dark mode option
- Allow playing music/sounds during sessions
- Provide audio feedback on coherence levels
- Add session history customization and details
- Improve sensor compatibility with older devices
In-app purchases
GritX
No in-app purchases
HeartMath
- HeartMath Premium7 Days trial$39.001 Year
- HeartMath Premium7 Days trial$59.001 Year
- HeartMath Premium7 Days trial2 variants$79.001 Year
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- HeartMath Premium7 Days trial$99.991 Year









