Comparison

The Self Compassion App vs Ascend

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

Head to head
About

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.

Highlights
  • 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
Features
Read 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/

About

Ascend

Features
Read full description

Ascend is your daily companion for building discipline — track the habits that matter one day at a time, and watch your streak grow. WHAT YOU CAN TRACK • Daily workouts (two-a-day support) • Water intake • Diet adherence • Steps (auto-synced from Apple Health) • Reading • Progress photos • Weight • Mood • Sleep • Skincare • Cycle tracking BUILT AROUND YOUR CHALLENGE Set up your own challenge — choose which rules to track, set your goals, and pick your duration. Running the standard 75-day format, or something custom? Ascend adapts to whatever challenge you're running. APPLE HEALTH INTEGRATION Connect Apple Health once and Ascend automatically pulls in your steps, workouts, sleep, and water intake — no manual double-entry. STRAVA INTEGRATION Connect Strava and your workouts sync in with their correct activity type automatically — no more re-entering runs, rides, or lifts by hand. YOUR DATA, YOUR ICLOUD Ascend stores your data in your own private iCloud account, not on a company server. Sign in with Apple — no usernames, no passwords, no account to leak. Nobody but you can see your logs, not even us. STAY MOTIVATED Track your streak, review weekly and monthly analytics, and earn badges as you hit milestones. See exactly how consistent you've been at a glance. Ascend is ad-free, doesn't sell your data, and doesn't track you across other apps or websites.

Screenshots

The Self Compassion App4 screens
Ascend4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Ascend at none against The Self Compassion App's 2. Ascend also leads on ads (none vs shown). The Self Compassion App's advantage is iOS requirement (13.0 vs 15.1). On price, 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. The Self Compassion App sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $56.99 per year. Ascend asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

The Self Compassion App ships an update monthly, Ascend every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on November 3, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
The Self Compassion App versus Ascend: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterThe Self Compassion AppAscend
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (248 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews94.1% of reviews—
Number of ratings248 — better—
Update frequencyMonthly — betterEvery 2 months
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases—
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS13.0 — better15.1
Further details — not scored
Size476 MB47 MB
Age rating12+12+
DeveloperPSYTGEORGE O'CONNOR

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

Ascend

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

2 purchases

The Self Compassion App

Subscriptions2
  • Self-Compassion Premium7 Days trial$56.991 Year
  • Self-Compassion App Premium3 Days trial$56.991 Year
None

Ascend

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is The Self Compassion App free?
The Self Compassion App is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Ascend free?
Ascend is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do The Self Compassion App or Ascend have ads?
The Self Compassion App shows ads; Ascend does not.
Which is updated more often, The Self Compassion App or Ascend?
The Self Compassion App ships an update monthly, and Ascend every 2 months. Most recently, The Self Compassion App was updated on November 3, 2026 and Ascend on October 25, 2026.

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