Comparison

Quietly Sober vs Instead

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

Head to head
About

Quietly Sober

This app offers a private space for individuals seeking to live alcohol-free. It provides tools for tracking sobriety, engaging in guided reflections, connecting with a supportive community, and finding a sponsor. Celebrate milestones and manage your recovery journey with personalized tools and private interactions.

Highlights
  • Sobriety tracking and milestone celebration
  • Guided reflections for daily, recovery, and meeting check-ins
  • Daily log for private journaling
  • Alcoholics Anonymous meeting finder and attendance verification
  • Sponsor finder to connect with mentors
  • Supportive community discussions
  • Private by design with user control over shared information
Features
Read full description

Quietly Sober is a private recovery companion and supportive community for people choosing a life free from alcohol. Whether today is Day 1 or you’ve been sober for years, Quietly Sober gives you a place to reflect, connect, celebrate your progress, and keep moving forward one day at a time. You don’t have to do this alone. RECOVERY, YOUR WAY Track your sobriety, celebrate meaningful milestones, and watch your recovery journey grow over time. Quietly Sober keeps the focus on today while still giving you a place to look back and see how far you’ve come. GUIDED REFLECTIONS Take a few minutes to slow down and check in with yourself. Quietly Sober includes guided reflections for: • Daily Reflection • Recovery Reflection • Meeting Reflection • Prayer Reflection Prefer to simply write? Use the Daily Log to capture what’s on your mind without turning it into a conversation. YOUR RECOVERY JOURNEY Your reflections and recovery moments become part of your personal journey, giving you a quiet place to revisit the days, thoughts, and experiences that helped shape your recovery. MEETINGS & ATTENDANCE Join Quietly Sober Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and connect with others in recovery. When attendance verification is needed, Quietly Sober provides a private process designed to keep verification information separate from your public community identity. SPONSOR FINDER Finding the right sponsor matters. Sponsor Finder helps people in recovery introduce themselves, discover potential sponsors, and start a conversation while keeping the experience simple and respectful. COMMUNITY Connect through discussions with people who understand the ups, downs, victories, questions, and ordinary days that come with recovery. Share as much or as little as you choose. Your recovery belongs to you. CELEBRATE YOUR PROGRESS Quietly Sober recognizes sobriety milestones throughout your journey with medallions and celebrations. You decide whether your sobriety medallion appears with your community profile. PRIVATE BY DESIGN Recovery can involve deeply personal information. Quietly Sober is built around keeping private recovery information private and giving you control over what you share with the community. QUIETLY SOBER SUPPORTER The core Quietly Sober experience is available free. Quietly Sober Supporter unlocks the full collection of guided reflections and adds a Supporter badge while helping support the continued development and operation of Quietly Sober. Supporter is $4.99 per month and includes a 7-day introductory free trial for eligible new subscribers. Supporting Quietly Sober never changes your recovery standing, milestones, or place in the community. ONE DAY AT A TIME, TOGETHER Recovery isn’t about being perfect. Sometimes it is simply about making the next good decision, getting through today, talking with someone who understands, and showing up again tomorrow. Quietly Sober gives you a place to do that. One day at a time. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://www.quietlysober.com/privacy.html Subscriptions are managed through your Apple ID and automatically renew unless canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the current subscription period. You can manage or cancel your subscription in your device’s subscription settings.

About

Instead

This app offers quick, ninety-second activities to help you manage cravings and difficult emotions. Choose from guided breathing exercises or physical challenges to ride out intense feelings. It also provides emergency contact options and tracks your progress without requiring an account.

Highlights
  • 90-second activities
  • Guided breathing exercises
  • Physical challenges
  • Emergency contact shortcuts
  • Streak tracking
  • Journaling
  • Data privacy
Features
Read full description

A craving is loud, and it feels like it will last forever. It won't. Most peak and pass in about ninety seconds. Instead gives you something to do with those ninety seconds. Open it when the craving hits. Pick how you feel, stressed or restless, and it hands you one thing to do until the wave passes RIDE THE WAVE A breathing circle to match: four seconds in, hold, five out. Calm music if you want it, silence in one tap if you don't. WORK IT OFF When sitting still is the problem. Fast taps, a climbing combo, a score to beat. Ninety seconds of somewhere else to put it. WHAT YOU KEEP Your streak, counted in days. The money you DIDN'T spend, Milestones at 24 hours, 72 hours, a week, a month, ninety days, six months, a year. Every craving you have beaten. A journal, if you want one: a blank page, capture you thoughts in the moment. IF YOU SLIP Your clean days move to a lifetime total instead of vanishing. The counter restarts. The total does not. You keep what you earned. WHEN IT IS MORE THAN A CRAVING One tap to call or text someone you chose in advance, and one tap to reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. Set your person up now, while things are calm, so the decision is already made when they are not. YOUR DATA IS YOURS No account. No sign-in. Your journal and your streak never reach us — they live on your phone, and in your own private iCloud or Google backup if you use one, so they come back on a new phone. Export a separate copy whenever you like. Instead is not therapy, medical care, or a crisis service, and it does not replace them. It is a way to get through the next ninety seconds.

Screenshots

Quietly Sober4 screens
Instead4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Instead at none against Quietly Sober's 3. Quietly Sober's advantage is update cadence (every 8 days vs every 2 months) and device support (4 vs 2). On price, rating, ratings volume 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Quietly Sober sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Instead asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Quietly Sober against 5.0 for Instead. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1 and 2 respectively.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Quietly Sober ships an update every 8 days, Instead every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on October 30, 2026 and October 19, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Quietly Sober versus Instead: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterQuietly SoberInstead
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (1 ratings)5.0 (2 ratings)
Positive reviews—100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings12 — better
Update frequencyEvery 8 days — betterEvery 2 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFreemiumFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — betteriPhone, iPod
Requires iOS15.0 — better15.1
Further details — not scored
Size128 MB28 MB
Age rating17+12+
DeveloperCalvin EllisMadApps Studios, LLC

Customer experience

Quietly Sober

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Instead

All ratings2 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

3 purchases

Quietly Sober

Subscriptions2
  • Quietly Sober Supporter Monthly7 Days trial$4.991 Month
  • Quietly Sober Supporter Yearly$9.991 Year
One-time1
  • Quietly Sober Forever$39.99
None

Instead

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Quietly Sober free?
Quietly Sober is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Instead free?
Instead is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Quietly Sober or Instead?
Quietly Sober and Instead are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 1 and 2 ratings respectively.
Do Quietly Sober or Instead have ads?
Neither Quietly Sober nor Instead shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Quietly Sober or Instead?
Quietly Sober ships an update every 8 days, and Instead every 2 months. Most recently, Quietly Sober was updated on October 30, 2026 and Instead on October 19, 2026.

Other comparisons