PureCBT vs Steady
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
PureCBT
This app provides evidence-based cognitive behavioral therapy tools for managing anxiety, depression, and stress. It offers guided exercises, mood tracking, and educational lessons, with premium features available through a one-time purchase. All data is kept private on your device.
- Thought Records
- Mood Tracking
- CBT Journal
- Guided Programs
- Behavioral Activation
- Sleep Log
- Core Beliefs Work
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PureCBT brings the full power of cognitive behavioral therapy to your iPhone. Whether you're working through anxiety, depression, sleep difficulties, or everyday stress, PureCBT gives you the same evidence-based tools used in clinical practice — structured, guided, and completely private. CORE TOOLS — FREE - Thought Records — The gold standard CBT exercise. A guided 7-step wizard walks you through identifying automatic thoughts, examining evidence, spotting thinking traps, and building balanced perspectives. - Mood Tracking — Daily check-ins with emotion tagging, notes, and trend charts so you can notice patterns and track progress over time. - CBT Journal — Reflect on your day with clinically-informed prompts tailored to your focus area. Tag entries by emotion and revisit them anytime. - Progress Dashboard — See your mood trends, emotion patterns, thinking trap insights, and consistency streaks at a glance. - Introductory Lessons — Learn the foundations of CBT with 10 illustrated lessons covering the Five-Part Model, identifying moods, goal-setting, and more. - Dark Mode & App Lock — Protect your most private thoughts with Face ID and a personal PIN. UNLOCK PREMIUM (one-time purchase) Go deeper with the full CBT toolkit: - Guided Multi-Week Programs — Structured courses for anxiety, depression, social anxiety, and sleep, designed as progressive weekly curricula. - Full Lesson Library — Unlock all 49 illustrated lessons spanning thinking traps, behavioral experiments, core beliefs, and long-term strategies. - Behavioral Activation — Schedule meaningful activities and track how they affect your mood. A core technique for overcoming depression and low motivation. - Sleep Log — A CBT-i style log that calculates sleep efficiency and shows your 7-day trends. - Core Beliefs Work — Use the downward arrow technique to uncover and reshape the deep beliefs beneath your automatic thoughts. - Anxiety Hierarchies — Build exposure ladders and log your progress through feared situations, step by step. - iCloud Sync — Keep your data in sync across iPhone and iPad through your private iCloud account. - CSV Data Export — Export your mood entries, thought records, and journal for review with your therapist. PRIVACY BY DESIGN All data stays on your device. No servers, no accounts, no sign-ups. No analytics, no ads, no tracking. Optional iCloud sync uses only your private iCloud container — we never see your data. Your mental health journey is yours alone. BUILT ON SCIENCE PureCBT is grounded in cognitive behavioral therapy as developed by Aaron T. Beck and refined through decades of clinical research. The sleep tools follow CBT-i principles established by Charles Morin. Every lesson, exercise, and program is based on peer-reviewed evidence. PureCBT is not a substitute for professional mental health treatment. If you are in crisis, please contact the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by calling or texting 988.
Steady
This app offers a private, shame-free companion to help manage body-focused repetitive behaviors like nail biting, skin picking, and hair pulling. It uses habit-reversal training and decoupling techniques with one-tap logging and guided exercises to help users soften these patterns at their own pace.
- One-tap logging for urges
- Guided competing response tools
- Habit-reversal training modules
- Pattern insights and trend analysis
- Customizable reminders
- Data export for therapists
- Apple Watch companion app
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Bite your nails? Pick your skin? Pull your hair? You're not alone — millions live with body-focused repetitive behaviors (BFRBs) like skin picking (dermatillomania, excoriation), nail biting (onychophagia), hair pulling (trichotillomania), and lip or cheek biting. Steady is a calm, private companion that helps you soften the pattern — without shame. There are no streaks to lose here and nothing ever resets to zero. Steady never scolds. Awareness counts, resisted urges count, and even noticing after the fact counts — because that is how these patterns actually soften. HOW IT WORKS • Notice the urge — one-tap logging keeps you aware • Meet it with a plan — a short competing response or guided decoupling exercise • Watch the pattern ease over weeks — at your pace, without pressure or red warning colors Steady is built on habit-reversal training (HRT) and decoupling, the self-help methods with the strongest research support. FREE FOR EVERYONE • One-tap logging — capture a moment or a resisted urge in seconds • Urge Help — breathing, grounding and competing-response tools for the moment an urge hits • Decoupling training — a short guided motor exercise you can repeat through the day • My Plan — a gentle glide path toward the pace you choose, never a countdown • This week at a glance — your log, your awareness streak, your week • Learn — six short modules on the science of BFRBs, from why they happen to when to seek help, each with its published sources • Soft reminders — a few caring nudges a day at most, fully optional • Home-screen widget that keeps awareness gently in view • Export your log as a spreadsheet to share with a therapist STEADY PLUS — GO DEEPER • Pattern insights — time-of-day patterns, trends over weeks, and quiet observations about your triggers • Smart reminders that learn your risk windows • A clinical PDF report to bring to appointments • Custom tags for your own situations • The Apple Watch companion app PRIVATE BY DESIGN Everything stays on your device. No account, no tracking, no data collection. Steady Plus is $6.99/month, $29.99/year with a 7-day free trial, or a one-time lifetime purchase of $49.99. Payment is charged to your Apple Account; subscriptions renew unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the period ends. Steady is an educational self-help tool, not a medical device or a substitute for professional care. TERMS & PRIVACY Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://mda25.github.io/steady-site/privacy.html
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: PureCBT at 5.0 against Steady's 4.0. PureCBT also leads on update cadence (every 4 days vs fortnightly) and ratings volume (3 vs 1). Steady's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1). On price, ads, monetization model 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. PureCBT sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Steady asks for nothing beyond the download.
PureCBT holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.0. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 3 and 1 respectively.
PureCBT ships an update every 4 days, Steady fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on October 5, 2026 and October 3, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | PureCBT | Steady |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (3 ratings) — better | 4.0 (1 ratings) |
| Number of ratings | 3 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 4 days — better | Fortnightly |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Freemium |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, Apple Watch |
| Requires iOS | 18.0 | 17.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 191 MB | 10 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 12+ |
| Developer | Yazeed Alaudah | Matthis Damm |
Customer experience
PureCBT
Steady
In-app purchases
PureCBT
- PureCBT Premium$14.99
Steady
No in-app purchases









