8 Online Text Therapy Companies We Tested and Recommend in 2023

We asked ten people to test Talkspace’s text-based services from a variety of different states, including North Carolina, Missouri, and New York, in order to see how useful this messaging-based therapy was for people from different backgrounds and careers. And overall, we were impressed.

In all these plans, we could message our therapist anytime, and we were guaranteed to receive at least one response a day five days a week—though some therapists responded more than once. Usually, it only took a couple of hours to hear back—unless we messaged late on a Friday. 

This form of therapy was particularly convenient when we were busy: We could write to our therapist during our commute to work or on our coffee break, for example, without worrying about having to carve out 30 to 45 minutes for a live therapy session during the workday. So we’d recommend this service (and Talkspace’s text-therapy-only plans) to parents, busy professionals, or anyone who finds it difficult to make time for their mental health due to their packed schedule. 

It is worth noting, though, that we found the quality of our therapists’ responses to vary quite a bit based on who we were working with. For example, a few responses from therapists were somewhat phoned in and even boilerplate, while other therapists (including those that said they preferred this form of communication) seemed to take the time to read our messages and respond with long, thoughtful, and engaging responses that asked us questions and prompted us to do some reflection. So if you think text-based therapy is something you think you’re going to use frequently, be sure to indicate that when you sign up so you’ll be matched with a therapist who’s more experienced with text therapy. 

However, this form of chat isn’t for everyone: It can be kind of awkward to type something, then have to pause and wait for your therapist to type a response. At times, we found it difficult to get our thoughts across quickly enough in a live chat format because we wanted to rush to finish typing so our therapist could respond. That said, we found this format to work very well for teens since this is an age group that uses live chat and text more often than older generations. 

Talkspace offers three subscription plans for teens (ages 13 to 19) and adults that range in price from $69 to $129+ a week, depending on where you live. All plans include unlimited messaging with your therapist, though the more expensive plans also include live sessions.

There is only one couples therapy plan, which costs $109 a week and includes one live video session a week as well as messaging therapy. 

You can also add on psychiatry sessions ($249 for an initial evaluation, then $125 for every follow-up visit).

Most of the 105 users we surveyed were satisfied with the care they received at Talkspace. Nine out of ten said their overall experience at Talkspace was generally positive, and 92% were impressed with their therapist’s qualifications. 

Many users also described their experience at Talkspace as user-friendly, with 88% of people reporting that the platform was helpful in connecting them to a therapist and 56% of users saying that Talkspace’s app was easy to use in comparison to its competitors. A little less than half said they’d use Talkspace again if they were starting their therapist search over, and 15% said they made that decision based on whether the therapist was available by text.

We had three people (from New York, North Carolina, and California) test Brightside’s services—and one of our testers was a therapist herself—in order to determine if its specializations in anxiety and depression allowed it to deliver the quality care we were looking for. And we’re pleased to report that it did: We found Brightside’s therapists offered useful, comforting support for anxiety and depression via messaging, in virtual therapy sessions, and with its weekly check-in quizzes. We appreciated that unlimited messaging comes with every plan available, making it an ingrained aspect of Brightside’s approach to care. This allowed us to connect with our therapist in between weekly 30-minute live video sessions for continued emotional support and advice.

We also found that the text-based therapy services at Brightside worked better than most of the 79 other services we reviewed. Our therapists were typically prompt when responding, and never sent canned answers. Our therapists would also routinely assess our progress along the way, providing two-way feedback via message to make any necessary changes to our treatment plan.

The text-based therapy was also supplemented with other online self-care resources, such as self-paced lessons, skill-building exercises, and online worksheets. Our therapist would reference those resources during therapy sessions and would use the chat function to direct us to helpful worksheets that we’d discussed in our session. They could see our check-in quizzes and message us about them via our private portal. 

Brightside therapists regularly use cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) since it’s shown to be successful in treating anxiety and depression. One aspect of this treatment style is implementing self-care resources such as worksheets, check-in quizzes, and self-paced lessons. While “homework” like this might not be everyone’s favorite thing, it is one way CBT helps people change their behavior—by reinforcing healthier habits and choices. We also liked that our Brightside patient portal saved all our completed self-help homework even if we switched therapists—something we often found wasn’t the case with other services we tested. 

Brightside has three subscription plans and accepts insurance (pricing below is based on out-of-pocket costs):

• Medication only: $95 per month, plus your pharmacy copay or $15 for medication; includes an initial 15-minute video consultation with a psychiatrist, ongoing provider care and monitoring, and self-care tools to use at your own pace
• Therapy only: $299 per month; includes unlimited messaging and, after an initial 45-minute session, one 30-minute therapy session per week (additional video sessions can be purchased for $59 per session)
• Therapy + medication: $349 per month; includes everything in the other two plans
  

Nine out of ten of the 105 Brightside users we surveyed rated their experience with Brightside as excellent, very good, or good. 

About half said they were looking for depression treatment, while 60% reported dealing with anxiety symptoms, and 18% said it was important to have multiple communication options including text. Nearly a third of the Brightside users we surveyed said they were looking for an online therapy platform that accepted their insurance and 62% said they’d use Brightside again if they were starting their therapist search over again.

We had two people test Circles—one was a therapist herself and the other was someone who had recently experienced a loss—and overall, we had positive experiences. Group chat therapy isn’t a common option among the online therapy platforms we tried, but Circles’ unique groups and affordable cost are what made it stand out against the other 79 companies we evaluated. 

Circles offers two ways to join groups: for free and with a subscription model. The free version offers audio-only support groups on a variety of issues such as body image and chronic illness. The paid model (called Circles+) is $79 a month and gives you access to one professionally-led group for 12 weeks, a 24/7 chat with the group members, and online resources like self-help exercises and a blog. The groups are kept small—typically around 10 to 15 people. You can also drop into other live group chats, share thoughts, and ask questions (this is separate from the small group that you commit to for 12 weeks). 

When you sign up, you’ll be asked to choose one topic you’d like to explore, such as parenting issues, relationship difficulties, anxiety, divorce, grief and loss, infertility, caregiving, cancer, veterans, body image, LGBTQIA+ concerns, or chronic illness. You’ll then be presented with a few groups or “circles” that correspond to that topic. Each group is facilitated by a licensed mental health therapist who guides weekly live video chats (but you can keep your camera off and just text in the live chat, which is what we opted to do) for at least 12 weeks. 

We appreciated that the group facilitators encouraged group members to add questions to a live chat ahead of a session—this helped the group to get the ball rolling more quickly and made for a more lively, constructive conversation.

We also liked how professional yet warm the group facilitators were. After setting the ground rules and reiterating that the group chat is a safe space, one facilitator even shared their own experience with the topic (childhood trauma), which helped establish a sense of trust with us and among the group members.

One thing to keep in mind, though, is that when you drop into a group, you might end up joining one with only the facilitator present. This happened to us once, and it was somewhat unnerving. However, if you use the group chat function, which is available 24/7, you can get a sense of who might be joining a particular session ahead of time. You can message the group as a whole or message the facilitator and any other group member(s) privately to get emotional support, resources, and advice.

Circles only has one subscription plan that costs $79 per month. It gives you access to your assigned group, the chat, and additional content such as self-help exercises, blogs, and webinars. 

Each circle is designed to offer 12 weeks of support, but you can stay in any chosen group as long as you like. 

More than three-quarters of the 105 Circles users we surveyed had a positive experience with Circles, rating the overall service as good, very good, or excellent. Sixty-six percent of users were satisfied or very satisfied with their facilitators and 62% noted that their Circles facilitator seemed to be more experienced and/or qualified than other mental health providers they’d worked with in online therapy. What’s more, 80% of users said that Circles offered them excellent, very good, or good value for their money.

We had four people test E-Therapy Cafe’s services in Colorado, Michigan, and California to see how well the company delivered therapy across the country, and we were impressed with the sheer number of therapy communication options it offered: We could schedule live video sessions, live e-chats, or an “e-journaling” option, which allowed us to write to our therapist and receive a response within 24 to 48 hours. 

While the chat function is designed more for quick questions and replies, we really liked how easy it was to use via our patient portal and how quickly therapists responded to our messages. We also had access to e-journal sessions where you can write up to a 700-word message to your therapist, and they’re supposed to respond within 48 hours with a more elaborate answer than what you get in the basic chat. And while the e-journaling wasn’t our preferred method of communication—it felt long to have to write out our feelings in 700 words and then tedious to wait for a response—we appreciated the flexibility, because this method might work well if we were on a trip or commuting and didn’t have the time for a live session. We felt the e-journal feature was especially useful for completing the homework our therapist assigned us. That said, while our therapist responded within 24 hours—as quickly as was promised on the website—due to technical difficulties, we couldn’t access her response via the portal. The therapist reached out to customer service on our behalf, and the company was able to correct the error within three days. 

We also appreciated E-Therapy Cafe’s mix of providers: At sign-up, we could choose our own therapist and we had a wide list of options, including licensed therapists, psychologists, and certified life coaches. We could read therapists’ bios directly on the website, which made it easier to pick a mental healthcare provider who suited our needs. Compared to similar online therapy platforms we tested, E-Therapy Cafe seems to offer a wider variety of specific counseling types. For example, we could have signed up for not only talk therapy and couples therapy, but also pre-wedding coaching, military and veteran counseling, therapy for college students, trauma counseling, and counseling for people in the LGBTQIA+ community. It is also possible to get a letter of support and a prescription for an emotional support animal. 

The biggest drawback of E-Therapy Cafe is that its live sessions (both over video call and live chat) are only 30 minutes long. This is on the shorter side compared to the other companies we tested, but the price of therapy at E-Therapy Cafe offsets this downside in our opinion: E-Therapy Cafe offers the least expensive subscription therapy service out of the 80 companies we reviewed. It’s also one of the most flexible in terms of scheduling—therapists were able to meet early in the morning and late into the evening to accommodate us. 

E-Therapy Cafe offers three subscription plans; sessions are 30-minute live videos, e-journal entries with a 700-word maximum, or 30-minute instant chats. 

• The E-Therapy Basic Four plan includes four 30-minute sessions for $196 a month. 
• The E-Therapy Eight plan includes eight sessions for $360 a month. 
• You can also opt for pay-as-you-go sessions if you don't want to commit to a subscription. Each session costs $55. Sessions expire within 30 days of purchasing them.

When we surveyed 105 E-Therapy Cafe users, most told us they had a good experience, with 82% saying they were very likely or likely to recommend the service to a friend and another 82% saying some or all of their needs were met. Meanwhile, 68% of users thought E-Therapy Cafe was either very affordable or affordable and nearly nine out of ten said they were impressed with the number of qualified therapists available.

We asked five people to test Online-Therapy.com from California, New York, and South Dakota. Two of our testers were also therapists well acquainted with CBT as a therapy technique. so we could really assess how well the Online-Therapy.com therapists were using the technique with their patients. And of all the companies that utilize CBT (or specialize in it), Online-Therapy.com stood out: It offers live video sessions, live chat sessions, e-journaling, and asynchronous messaging with your therapist. Plus, you get a lot of useful resources through your patient portal (such as self-guided worksheets and yoga videos), and the therapists are knowledgeable and supportive. 

After we signed up for Online-Therapy.com, we immediately had access to all of these different types of therapy sessions as well as self-guided resources. While we could message our therapist at any time, we didn’t always receive a response—even though daily check-ins via text messaging are supposed to be guaranteed. That said, depending on your subscription, you can get “express replies”—guaranteed replies within a set amount of time (the website doesn’t make it clear what that amount of time is, though, and we didn’t test express replies ourselves).

One thing to note: A major aspect of CBT is homework outside of therapy sessions. As such, our therapists regularly sent us numerous worksheets to complement our treatment. We appreciated what this aspect of therapy is designed to do, but, at times, the amount of paperwork could feel overwhelming and like we were back in school. That said, we liked that we could use the e-journaling chat function to complete this homework since we could write about two pages' worth in the journal. Our therapist could easily refer to and comment on the work we did, which helped us see where we were making progress.

Online-Therapy.com’s virtual technology occasionally left something to be desired.

When it came time for our session, our therapist didn’t appear to be present, so we messaged her in our patient portal, and she said she was having technical difficulties. We tried to have the chat session, but it was filled with long lags between responses. Our therapist was very understanding, though, and offered us a free video session the make up for the technical issues, which we very much appreciated. 

Online-Therapy.com would be ideal for people looking for text-based therapy, especially those who prefer to go at their own pace (as long as they’re tech-savvy and don’t mind occasionally troubleshooting). Customer support is available 24/7 (although we noticed responses typically take several hours) and regular weekly CBT-based exercises will help you gauge your progress as you move through the program.

Online-Therapy.com has four subscription plans, all of which offer messaging with your therapist and daily responses from your therapist. Costs are broken down by week, but you’ll pay an upfront, monthly rate.

• The Basic plan: This is purely text-based therapy and costs about $50 per week. You also get access to worksheets, yoga videos, the online journal, an activity plan, and daily replies from your therapist on worksheets on weekdays. 
• The Standard plan: This includes everything in the basic plan, plus weekly live sessions, for roughly $80 per week.
• The Premium plan: This includes everything in the basic and standard plan, plus two weekly live sessions and express replies, for roughly $110 per week.
• The Couples Therapy plan: This plan also costs $110 a week and includes everything above, but the live session is one 45-minute couples therapy session per week conducted via video, text, or voice. 

Online-Therapy.com does not accept insurance.

Among the 105 users we surveyed, 83% said they were impressed with the therapist options provided at Online-Therapy.com. Over half (52%) of users reported seeking out therapy for help with depression symptoms, while another 35% of users said they were looking for help with stress management. Overall, 85% of surveyed users described their experience with Online-Therapy.com as excellent, very good, or good, and nearly three-quarters found a therapist that met most or all of their needs.

When it comes to free mental health resources—especially those available 24/7 or to people in crisis—most are phone lines where you have to call in and speak to someone. But this is not the case with the Crisis Text Line, which offers free, 24/7, confidential emotional support via text from trained volunteers across the U.S., the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Canada. That’s why we felt it was important to include on this list. And while we did not test this service in the same way we tested the 80 online therapy services (which all require payment), we did speak with staff editors who have used it and licensed mental health professionals—all of whom recommend it to those in need.

If you need someone to speak to via text, all you have to do to reach the Crisis Text Line is text HOME to 741741 or reach out on WhatsApp. When you do so, you’ll immediately receive a response back letting you know that you have been connected and the service is looking for a volunteer to message you. The time to connect, it will tell you, is generally within five minutes but during particularly busy times, it can take longer (though you will receive messages checking in and letting you know they are still looking for a volunteer for you).

Once you are connected with a volunteer, that volunteer—who is not a licensed therapist but is a trained crisis counselor—will introduce themselves and ask you what is bothering you. You can then text them about how you’re feeling and you’ll receive messages back, sometimes asking further questions or offering support. Sometimes, they may also offer you calming exercises or suggest helpful tips you can try to feel better. 

Text conversations at the Crisis Text Line have no set time limit, though most last between 15 to 45 minutes. Your assigned crisis counselor will continue responding to you if you are still messaging. If you stop messaging for any reason or step away, they will ask you if you’re still there and wish to continue before disconnecting. They will also help wind the conversation to a close before disconnecting on you to make sure you’re comfortable ending the chat.

While the volunteers at Crisis Text Line aren’t medical providers or licensed mental healthcare professionals, it stood out to us that all volunteers must pass a multi-stage application process, background check, and training program (200 hours) to become a volunteer. They’re also guided by a group of supervisors (all of whom have relevant Master’s degrees or crisis intervention experience). As such, they can provide key support, advice, and information about resources in your area. We also appreciate the Crisis Text Line’s international availability and bilingual services—this made it stand out among other similar crisis helplines we evaluated.

The Crisis Text Line is free to use anytime and as often as you’d like. 

We did not survey users of the Crisis Text Line, but we did speak with editors who shared they had used the service and with three licensed therapists about the service’s value to people in need of emotional support as soon as possible. 

“Sometimes, in moments of crisis, a connection of any kind—even through text—is enough to keep someone from hurting themselves,” explains Owens. “Texting is also a great option for someone who does not have the privacy you’d need for a phone call or who does not feel comfortable talking on the phone, especially about something as personal and serious as self-harm.”

To test Teen Counseling, we asked five parents and their teenagers to sign up from different states, including Michigan, Florida, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut. Both the teens and their parents tried out the service, but we did not ask parents to sit in on their teens’ sessions; rather, we only had them report what their teens felt comfortable sharing. 

We were pleased with the results of our testing: the therapists were adept at working with and connecting with adolescents and handling issues many teens face, such as bullying, depression, anxiety, stress, self-esteem, body image, issues with school and relationships, and eating disorders. We felt our therapists were good listeners and validating (they often repeated what we said to make sure they understood), and the text-based therapy was easy to use (and popular with this demographic). 

We also appreciated the way the service handled parental involvement in the process. When you sign up with a teen, both of you get your own private online “room” to message your therapist. This means that neither you nor your teen can see what you say to your therapists, which builds trust in the process (especially for the teen) pretty quickly.

The text-based therapy component also works well: you can message your therapist asynchronously through the app or your portal anytime, day or night, and you’ll hear back from your therapist at least once a day, five days a week. We found the therapists responsive, as advertised, and the responses were engaged and thoughtful. The text-based format also seems to be appealing to teens who prefer to message about their feelings as needed rather than at a scheduled time. 

You can schedule live chat sessions, too, which again seems to be a good format for teens that don’t like speaking on the phone, though we did find that the flow of conversation is disjointed in this format because you’re constantly waiting for one side to type a response. This means that, in the end, you’ll cover less ground in a session. 

Teen Counseling’s subscription prices range between $240 to $360 per month, depending on your location, preferences, and therapist availability. A monthly subscription includes four live sessions in the format of your choice (live chat, phone, video chat), plus 24/7 messaging with your child’s therapist. 

The company does not accept insurance. 

In our survey, anxiety was the most common concern reported by Teen Counseling users, with about two-thirds saying they were seeking help for anxiety symptoms. Eighty-five percent of users had a positive experience with the service, rating it as excellent, very good, or good. Additionally, 88% of users said the platform was better than similar ones they’d used in the past. More than three-quarters felt that all or most of their needs were met by their therapist, and 85% reported that their therapist’s qualifications were good to excellent.

We’re currently testing this service and will update our experience once we have new insights to add. In the meantime, we did survey users from the previous year and gained a lot of insight from their experience. Generally, we felt 7 Cups was quite affordable for the services it offers (ranging from free for peer support to $150 a month for text therapy), and the platform is relatively easy to use and navigate. 

7 Cups is available in over 150 languages and across over 190 countries, making it one of the most accessible, free peer support services available today. The company has a wide variety of free peer-based group chats as well as messaging-only therapy. Common chat room topics include grief, loneliness, breakups, chronic illness, and caregiving. Other free resources at 7 Cups include self-help and mental health guides and online chat rooms.

While we appreciated the number of chat rooms available, considering there are literally millions of users, going in and out of chat rooms can feel overwhelming and impersonal at times. 

If you’re looking for text-assisted therapy services from a qualified mental health provider, you can sign up for a monthly subscription for $150 per month. You can message your therapist anytime you like and as often as you like in a designated, secure “room” on the 7 Cups app or website. They’ll respond with advice and support one to two times per day from Monday to Friday. But remember, 7 Cups only offers only text-based therapy rather than live chat, video, or audio sessions.

7 Cups is free to use if you just want to use it for group chat rooms, private peer chats, and access to “active listeners.”

A monthly subscription costs $150 and gives you access to a therapist you can message anytime, but they will only respond up to two times a day via asychronous messaging. 

Our latest user survey data, from 2021, found that 66% of users felt that 7 Cups was a good value for the cost, and three-quarters said their therapist’s qualifications were good to excellent. Seventy-four percent were pleased with their therapist’s response times, but 32% said they switched therapists at least once. About two-thirds said the service was better or much better than similar services they’d used in the past.