Comparison

CBT for Beginners vs Velarium Studio

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

Head to head
About

CBT for Beginners

This app offers a structured, science-based approach to managing anxiety and overthinking. It guides users through Cognitive Behavioral Therapy techniques to improve emotional regulation and develop healthier thinking patterns. Features include thought analysis, mood tracking, and personalized daily plans.

Highlights
  • Structured thought processing
  • Emotional progress tracking
  • Science-based CBT techniques
  • Personalized daily plan
  • AI-generated suggestions
  • Expert articles on mental wellness
Features
Read full description

CBT Therapy: Mental Health Journal is a structured, science-based tool designed to help you reduce overthinking, manage anxiety, and develop healthier thinking patterns. Based on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), the app guides you through proven techniques that support emotional regulation, clearer thinking, and long-term mental wellness. This journal is built for users who want a practical, evidence-based approach to understanding and improving their thoughts, emotions, and daily reactions. What the app offers Clear and organized thought processing Write freely or use structured CBT prompts to analyze situations, challenge distortions, reframe negative thoughts, and build more balanced perspectives. Tracking emotional progress Monitor your mood, thought patterns, progress indicators, and long-term trends. Understand how your mindset changes over time. Science-based CBT techniques Access a library of practical tools, including thought reframing, anxiety reduction exercises, grounding strategies, stress-management techniques, and cognitive restructuring. Personalized daily plan Follow a structured, goal-oriented plan built around your needs, whether you aim to reduce overthinking, manage anxiety, improve self-awareness, or strengthen emotional resilience. AI-generated suggestions Receive personalized, context-aware recommendations based on your journal entries. AI provides practical next steps rooted in CBT principles. Expert articles and educational content Explore clear, accessible explanations of CBT, emotional regulation, stress, anxiety, cognitive distortions, and thought management. This app is not a medical device and is not a substitute for professional diagnosis or therapy. *EULA*: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Terms of Use: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VOv3UmT0DFJfL1vxY3gHq0W8C_umJ9v8tKzQ1H8MafE/edit?usp=sharing Privacy Policy: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yWoYqTDPyGKYWc_IySIl6N3jdS6v5j1_HnjfMU3ScL4/edit?usp=sharing

About

Velarium Studio

This app offers a private digital space for creative expression and mindfulness. Engage in drawing, painting, journaling, or music creation. It also provides guided sensory grounding and sleep visualizations designed to be calming and non-intrusive.

Highlights
  • Drawing and painting with optional guidance
  • Journaling with open-ended prompts
  • On-device music creation
  • Sensory grounding exercises
  • Guided sleep visualizations
  • Customizable day/night moods
Features
Read full description

Velarium is a trauma-informed art therapy companion. A quiet room you can step into when the day is too loud — to draw, paint, journal, make a little music, ground through your senses, or drift off to sleep with a guided visualization. Nothing here is trying to optimize you. There are no streaks chasing you. No push notifications begging for your attention. No social feeds. Just exercises, your own creative output, and a way to look back gently on what you made. — What's inside — • Drawing & painting. Pencil-friendly canvases with gentle, optional guidance. Save what you finish to a private gallery on your device. • Journaling. Open-ended prompts paired with a calm editor. Mood check-ins use weather metaphors instead of numbers. • Music. Soft on-device piano, bells, ambient pad, strings, and marimba. Export your composition as a real audio file. • Sensory grounding. Guided practices for tactile and visual grounding when you need to return to your body. • Sleep tapes. Guided visualizations of moonlit oceans, autumn villages, falling snow, distant cities, and rainforests in the rain. Body scans and color meditations include calm on-device narration. • Day and night moods. Tap the sun or moon in the corner to shift the entire app's palette to match how you feel. — Designed for nervous systems that have had a day — Every part of Velarium follows trauma-informed design principles: • Soft motion and slow transitions • Permission-style language ("you might let your shoulders soften") instead of commands • No timers chasing you through exercises • Reduce Motion fully respected • Gentle haptics, never sharp ones • You can always exit, never penalized for stopping early — Privacy by default — Velarium does not collect, transmit, or share any of your data. Your drawings, paintings, journal entries, music compositions, sleep playback history, and goals live only on your device. There are no servers, no analytics, no advertising SDKs, and no third-party trackers. The app works fully offline. Sleep tape narration uses Apple's on-device speech synthesizer, so even the spoken cues never leave your phone. For the highest voice quality, download a Premium voice in iOS Settings → Accessibility → Spoken Content → Voices; Velarium will use it automatically. — Built with care — Velarium ships zero third-party dependencies. Every drawing canvas, every breath of procedural ambience, every visual scene, every body-scan glow is rendered from scratch on your device with Apple's frameworks. There's nothing here you didn't already trust when you installed iOS. Made for anyone who needs a slower, gentler corner of the App Store.

Screenshots

CBT for Beginners4 screens
Velarium Studio4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: CBT for Beginners at Free against Velarium Studio's $0.99. CBT for Beginners also leads on update cadence (monthly vs every 3 months) and ratings volume (28 vs 1). Velarium Studio's advantage is rating (5.0 vs 4.6). On ads, in-app purchases 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

CBT for Beginners is free to download; Velarium Studio costs $0.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Velarium Studio holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: CBT for Beginners has 28 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

CBT for Beginners ships an update monthly, Velarium Studio every 3 months. Both last shipped on October 24, 2026.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
CBT for Beginners versus Velarium Studio: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterCBT for BeginnersVelarium Studio
PriceFree — better$0.99
Rating4.6 (28 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings28 — better1
Update frequencyMonthly — betterEvery 3 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree — betterPaid
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.1 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size51 MB8 MB
Age rating12+4+
DeveloperDmytro HrechkoAndreea Buraga

Customer experience

CBT for Beginners

All ratings23 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews3 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Velarium Studio

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

In-app purchases

None

CBT for Beginners

No in-app purchases

None

Velarium Studio

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is CBT for Beginners free?
CBT for Beginners is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Velarium Studio free?
Velarium Studio costs $0.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, CBT for Beginners or Velarium Studio?
Velarium Studio is rated higher. CBT for Beginners averages 4.6 out of 5 from 28 ratings, while Velarium Studio averages 5.0 from 1 ratings.
Do CBT for Beginners or Velarium Studio have ads?
Neither CBT for Beginners nor Velarium Studio shows ads.
Which is updated more often, CBT for Beginners or Velarium Studio?
CBT for Beginners ships an update monthly, and Velarium Studio every 3 months. Most recently, CBT for Beginners was updated on October 24, 2026 and Velarium Studio on October 24, 2026.

Other comparisons