The Self Compassion App vs Spiral Up Lite
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
The Self Compassion App
This app offers scientifically-validated practices from Compassion Focused Therapy to help users feel happier, calmer, and more connected. It provides over 50 tools, including guided meditations, breathing exercises, and journaling prompts, to manage stress, anxiety, and self-criticism.
- Compassion Focused Therapy practices
- Guided meditations and mindfulness audio
- Breathing tools for present moment awareness
- Journaling for positivity habits
- Reflective exercises for difficult emotions
- Progress tracking surveys
- Sleep stories and yoga videos
Read full descriptionHide full description
The Self-Compassion App is for you if you want to feel happier, calmer & more connected. Whether you get caught up in cycles of stress and anxiety, regularly give yourself a hard time or struggle to relax and enjoy the moment – this app can help. The app includes scientifically-validated practices from Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT), with 50+ tools to help you when life gets hard. Be guided by Drs Chris Irons and Elaine Beaumont – leading authorities on self-compassion, who collectively have 40+ years of experience as therapists and have helped tens of thousands of people. This app has undergone a nationwide study, with participants showing significant reductions in stress, anxiety, self criticism, and increases in wellbeing. Anyone can develop self-compassion and enjoy all its benefits – we look forward to showing you how. Why self-compassion? We are often our own harshest critic, talking to ourselves in ways that we would never do our close friends. Given that we spend more time with ourselves than anyone else, isn’t it strange that many of us don’t treat ourselves with the same level of kindness, care and support as we do our close friends? Now is your time to start. With evidence based ideas and exercises from CFT, this app will teach you how to cultivate compassion for yourself and others. Through the course, you’ll learn how to strike a balance between self improvement & self acceptance: teaching you how to have a realistic but kind view of difficulties that arise in life, and giving you the confidence you need to achieve your goals in life, work and relationships. A toolkit for managing the ups and downs of life. Reduce anxiety, stress & depression Improve mood & wellbeing Reduce feelings of shame & low self-esteem Better understand yourself Increase your confidence Improve your productivity Appreciate the good in every day Develop your relationships Feel calm & grounded Be kinder to yourself And more... There’s something for everyone: Visual breathing tools to bring you back to the present Sleep stories & meditations HIIT and yoga videos to get you moving Mindfulness audio guides Cutting-edge tools to measure & improve your heart rate variability Journaling to create habits of positivity Step-by-step reflective exercises to help you manage difficult emotions Surveys to measure your progress And more! About Chris Irons & Elaine Beaumont Dr Chris Irons and Dr Elaine Beaumont are leading therapists and researchers in the field of CFT and compassionate mind training. They have written extensively about the topic, publishing the best seller The Compassionate Mind Workbook: A Step by Step Guide to Cultivating your Compassionate self. Join our community We’re so excited to see you all loving the app – we’re passionate about the benefits of self-compassion and feel very lucky to be able to share the joys of it with others. "I've had a problem with low self-esteem, always thinking that I'm not good enough and this app has helped me immensely." Stacey Hodkinson "It's been really helpful and made me much more aware of my negative thought patterns ... I'm feeling more confident and more courageous." Patricia Quinn "It's almost like 28 therapy sessions, but with tools to support you when you need." Dan Stone We know how tricky it can be on your own to turn advice into action. That’s why we’ve created this app – to guide you into applying the best insights from CFT to your own life in daily, actionable steps so that you can create meaningful change. We know therapy isn’t an option for everyone – our mission is to create an app that is more effective than a book, and more accessible than therapy. Terms of use https://www.psyt.co.uk/terms-and-conditions/
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.
- 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
Read full descriptionHide 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
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Spiral Up Lite at none against The Self Compassion App's 2. Spiral Up Lite also leads on ads (none vs shown). The Self Compassion App's advantage is ratings volume (243 vs 19) and review sentiment (94% vs 83%). On price, rating, update cadence 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
Both are free to download. The Self Compassion App sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $56.99 per year. Spiral Up Lite asks for nothing beyond the download.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.8 for The Self Compassion App against 4.8 for Spiral Up Lite. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: The Self Compassion App has 243 ratings behind it against 19, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 94% of The Self Compassion App's written reviews are positive against 83% of Spiral Up Lite's.
The Self Compassion App ships an update monthly, Spiral Up Lite every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on October 16, 2026 and October 13, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | The Self Compassion App | Spiral Up Lite |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.8 (243 ratings) — better | 4.8 (19 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 94.1% of reviews — better | 83.3% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 243 — better | 19 |
| Update frequency | Monthly — better | Every 2 months |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 13.0 | 13.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 476 MB | 18 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 4+ |
| Developer | PSYT | Institute for Health Solutions |
Customer experience
The Self Compassion App
Spiral Up Lite
Bugs and requests
The Self Compassion App
Reported bugs
2 issues- Abrupt ending of audio sessions
- Occasional issues with sound and connectivity
Requested features
3 requests- Quarterly payment plan option
- Improved synchronization across devices
- Simpler version with fewer features
Spiral Up Lite
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
The Self Compassion App
- Self-Compassion Premium7 Days trial$56.991 Year
- Self-Compassion App Premium3 Days trial$56.991 Year
Spiral Up Lite
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is The Self Compassion App free?
Is Spiral Up Lite free?
Which has better reviews, The Self Compassion App or Spiral Up Lite?
Do The Self Compassion App or Spiral Up Lite have ads?
Which is updated more often, The Self Compassion App or Spiral Up Lite?
Other comparisons















