- We spent more than 10,000 hours researching over 70 online therapy platforms and mental health apps, and our testers signed up for 30 of the most popular mental health apps to bring you our top picks.
- We surveyed over 2,000 people who use online therapy and mental health apps, conducted focus group interviews with users and therapists, and consulted over 60 mental health experts.
- We conducted in-depth usability testing on 30 mental health apps, evaluating factors like user interface, content quality, engagement features, and data privacy practices.
- To test Noom Mood, we signed up for the platform and used it for two weeks. We went beyond the paywall to find out how the app works and who could benefit from using it.
- Learn more about how we tested Noom Mood.
Key takeaways
- We recommend Noom Mood for people seeking science-based strategies for reducing stress and building emotional awareness.
- Noom Mood is a subscription-based app with a single, pre-set, auto-renew plan: $149 for four months.
- Subscriptions include a live coach available via chat and full access to the detailed Noom Mood curriculum, broken down into daily lessons.
Managing stress is an important part of building better mental health. While some stress can help motivate you to complete challenging tasks, chronic stress can lead to anxiety, sleep problems, and even heart disease. Interventions like meditation and exercise are known to help alleviate stress for many people, but it can be challenging to fit these activities into a busy schedule.
Noom Mood, a smartphone-based mental health app, uses the principles of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to help people learn better ways of managing their stress and improving their overall mood. Designed to be used for just 10 to 20 minutes per day, Noom Mood offers a variety of tools for reducing stress, including meditation, breathing, and mindfulness exercises. In our review of the best mental health apps, we named Noom Mood the best app for stress relief.
Read our Noom Mood review to find out what our testers have to say about this mental health app, and find out if it might be right for you.
Noom Mood highlights
Features
- Best for: Stress relief.
- Cost: $149 for a four month auto-renew plan.
- Insurance accepted? No.
- Free trial? No; a “choose what you pay” seven-day trial.
- Works with: iOS and Android. Not available on desktop.
Pros and cons
Our experience with Noom Mood
We like that the content on Noom Mood is rooted in CBT techniques and that the daily lessons help reinforce the stress-reduction tools it teaches. While the curriculum requires the user’s dedicated focus—it’s a lot of reading and listening—the time commitment is relatively minimal at just 10 to 20 minutes per day.
The app offers some custom features our testers like, such as a mood tracker and a chat-based personal coach. Overall, though, our testers say that Noom Mood would be better if they could customize it more. One example our testers give is that you have to work through each day’s module in a specific order and can’t skip ahead, even if you feel you’ve already mastered a topic or if that day’s lesson doesn’t resonate with you.
Still, our testers were impressed with the wealth of information they got from Noom Mood. The daily lessons explain psychological principles—like thought distortions and the fight-or-flight stress response—in simple terms. Psychological principles are paired with actionable steps to help users manage their stress.
Noom Mood does not offer mental health evaluations or treatment plans, and it should not be considered a replacement for therapy. If your chronic stress feels unmanageable, or you’re experiencing symptoms of depression or an anxiety-related disorder, Noom Mood is not designed to address these conditions. Noom Mood can be used as an educational resource and self-help tool, but only a licensed mental health professional can diagnose and treat a mental health condition. Read our review of the best online therapy platforms if you need a virtual therapy option.
Who might like Noom Mood? This app is a great option for anyone who can dedicate 10 to 20 minutes a day to learning and practicing strategies for reducing stress. It may be particularly helpful for people who are new to CBT and stress management skills like mindful breathing.
Who might want to avoid Noom Mood: Noom Mood could be helpful for people who feel stressed out, but it’s not a replacement for therapy. People experiencing symptoms of anxiety or depression should seek help from a licensed mental health provider.
The Noom Mood app asks users to spend 10 minutes daily learning to reduce stress, though our testers say it was often closer to 20 minutes a day.
What is Noom Mood?
Noom offers a suite of app-based services, including the original Noom, a lifestyle-based weight-loss program; Noom Med, which combines the Noom weight-loss approach with prescription weight-loss medications (for eligible users); and Noom Mood, a stress reduction app. Each Noom app uses a psychology-based approach, teaching strategies that may help people to manage cravings, stress triggers, and anxious thoughts.
Noom Mood teaches CBT techniques through specific strategies like mindful breathing, focusing on the moment, disrupting negative thought patterns, and taking self-compassion breaks. CBT focuses more on addressing current circumstances rather than analyzing past events, and its approach is rooted in practical, in-the-moment steps that are designed to produce specific outcomes. A 2022 review of studies suggests that internet-delivered CBT can be effective in helping people minimize stress.
From one of our experts:
“Because CBT is an action-oriented form of therapy, it can be a great fit for individuals who are ready to learn and implement new tools. CBT can be especially useful for identifying how one’s thinking influences their perception of what’s prompting stress. Some people find CBT to be quite empowering for that reason. Learning how to change their thinking patterns can lead to a substantial reduction in stress levels.”
–Halle Thomas, licensed professional counselor (LPC)
How does Noom Mood work?
Noom Mood users are given a short mental health lesson each day. Over the course of a week, users collect a set of “tools,” skills that are designed to help reduce stress. Each tool needs to be completed before the next tool is unlocked; there is no option to skip one to go to the next.
One of the first tools in the series is “create space,” which simply encourages users to take 15 minutes to do whatever they want—read a book, take a walk, or just sit quietly. The app offers a 15-minute timer and some suggested activities, while reminding the user that “the best stress-free activities are phone-free activities you enjoy.” One of our testers used this time to do a short yoga session next to their desk.
Other skills in the Noom Mood Toolbelt include the following:
- Meditation.
- Guided breathing.
- Grounding (focusing on the present).
- Practicing gratitude.
- Reframing thoughts.
- Mood Tracking.
From one of our Noom Mood testers:
“One of the big benefits of Noom is the focus on spending about 10 minutes per day on your mental health in some way, shape, or form. So many of us feel like we don’t have time for ourselves, and the app is a way to get some of the tools you would get in therapy in a much faster, portable format. While I don’t think it takes the place of therapy, I do think that anyone who feels overwhelmed and unable to take time for themselves can benefit.”
Once you finish your daily Noom Mood lesson, you’re done for the day. Even if you’d like to get started on the next lesson, you can’t work ahead. This was frustrating for some of our testers, especially when the day’s lesson didn’t feel applicable to their situation.
Also, one tester who had extensive personal experience with CBT therapy and mindfulness meditation found that most of Noom Mood’s content was already familiar to them. This tester still found value in reviewing and applying the strategies, but some people with previous knowledge of CBT strategies may not find the app as useful as people who are new to CBT.
How to sign up for Noom Mood
You can begin the Noom Mood sign-up process on either your desktop or mobile device by heading to the Noom Mood main page and clicking “Get Started.” From there, here’s how the Noom Mood sign-up process works:
- Answer a series of questions about your identity and mental health.
- After entering your email address, Noom Mood will show you its four-month personalized plan, with a visual representation of how your mood may improve after using the program as intended.
- Sign up for a seven-day trial (you can choose how much you want to pay for the trial, with payment options starting at 50 cents).
- Download the Noom app and follow the instructions (sent via text message) to access the Noom Mood program in the app.
The Noom app is compatible with Android and iOS mobile devices; it is not available on desktop.
Noom Mood key features
Noom Mood’s main feature is its organized daily curriculum, which is available to all of its users. Other elements our testers appreciate include its chat-based personal coach and the ability to save your favorite lessons.
Toolbelt and lesson library
Noom Mood offers two features that make it easy to go back and practice what you’ve learned. The first is the Toolbelt tab, which lists the app’s stress-reduction tools—behaviors that can be put into practice by the user to decrease stress. Each individual tool is “unlocked” after the previous tool has been completed, but only one tool can be completed each day. Through the Toolbelt, you can review and access your unlocked tools anytime so that you can continue using the guided lessons. Our testers also like the Lesson Library feature. If a lesson resonates with you, you can bookmark and save it to your Library.
Personal coach
A few days into your Noom Mood journey, you’ll be asked if you’d like the support of a personal coach, whom you can contact through the app’s chat feature. There is no additional cost for working with a coach.
In our testers’ experience, the coaches were responsive, offering support and encouragement, as well as helpful tips for using the app. The specificity of the coaches’ responses to our testers’ messages indicated to us that the coaches are real people, and not chat bots.
Mood graph
You’ll be prompted to log your mood in the app daily to track your feelings. Over time, the app will create a mood graph that helps pinpoint your main stressors. Our testers like that the mood graph provides a bird’s eye view of their moods and stress levels. For example, you can easily see if you’re more stressed on certain days of the week.
Noom Mood compatibility with other apps
From the Settings tab of the Noom Mood app, users can connect to their Apple Health or Fitbit app. Noom Mood is also compatible with some other apps and devices, including Garmin watches and the Daily Burn app.
How much does Noom Mood cost?
Noom Mood offers a “choose what you pay” seven-day trial with a suggested price of $10, though you can pay as little as 50 cents. After the trial ends, if you decide to continue with the app, you’ll be charged $149 for a four month subscription that renews automatically. This is Noom Mood’s only subscription plan, and it is more expensive than some of the other mental health apps we’ve reviewed.
If Noom Mood isn’t in your budget but you want to try a smartphone-based mental health app, consider a more affordable option like Headspace.
How to save money on Noom Mood
Noom is not covered by insurance and has no financial aid option. However, when one of our testers tried to cancel their subscription (selecting “too expensive” as the reason), they were offered a deep discount if they signed up again. (Please note that this is not a guarantee that all users will be offered the same discount.)
Our experience with Noom Mood customer service
Noom customer support is available 24/7 through the app’s chat feature. Noom also has phone-based customer service at (888) 266-5071. Noom’s website claims that representatives are available by phone seven days a week from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. ET, but our testers were on hold for longer than 10 minutes when they tried to call customer service during these hours. The on-hold recording encourages callers to use the chat feature on the website or in the app to contact customer service.
Our Noom Mood testing experience
Our Handbook Team members research, download, and personally test mental health apps to find the best ones. Our testers subscribed to 30 of the top mental wellness apps to test mindfulness, meditation, sleep, and other features. Our Handbook Team testers explored the Noom Mood platform for two weeks, reading and listening to audio sessions, engaging with activities, and practicing the stress-reduction techniques.
We instruct our testers to try the platform through the lens of a real user, paying attention to how easy or difficult it is to integrate these activities into their daily routine. They log their experience in a diary and share their findings from their weeks of testing. During that time, we do the following:
Fill out the intake assessment.
Subscribe as a new user.
Read or listen to all lessons provided in the app.
Practice featured breathwork, guided meditations, and sleep activities.
Explore the features within the app, including guided meditations, progress trackers, and breathing exercises.
Contact customer service.
Cancel subscription.
Mental health apps vs online therapy platforms
Mental health apps and online therapy platforms fulfill different needs. Mental health apps can support people in building healthy habits, such as meditation, compassionate self care, and mindfulness. Online therapy platforms and apps often have built-in features that support mindfulness and self care, but their main benefit is access to one-on-one therapy with a licensed mental health provider.
Though you can use mental health apps on their own to help build healthy habits, the mental health professionals we spoke to for this review recommend using the apps in combination with therapy if you’re dealing with depression, anxiety, or other mental health concerns. If you are looking for online therapy, we recommend you try one of the best online therapy platforms we’ve tested, such as BetterHelp, Talkspace, or Brightside.
In a mental health emergency
Mental health apps are not adequate in a mental health crisis. If you or someone you know is a danger to themselves or others, it is an emergency and cannot wait. You can find help immediately by:
- Calling 911.
- Visiting your local urgent care or emergency room.
- Calling or texting 988 for the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.
- Chatting online at 988lifeline.org.
- Calling the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)’s Helpline at 1-800-662-4357 or texting your zip code to 435748.
All the above options will connect you with trained professionals who can provide crisis support. You can find even more resources, including international options, on our helpline directory page.
Compare Noom Mood to other mental health apps
Compared to some of the other mental health apps we’ve reviewed, Noom Mood is more expensive. At $149 for a four month subscription, that breaks down to $37 a month. Headspace, Calm, and Mindfulness.com are more affordable, but they focus more on meditation and mindfulness than on overall stress reduction.
| Our take | Best for stress relief | Best for meditation | Best for sleep | Best for people new to meditation and mindfulness |
| Monthly cost | $37 (four-month auto-renew plan for $149) | $13 (or $70 annually) | $15 (or $70 annually) | $17 (or $85 annually) |
| Insurance accepted? | No | No | No | No |
| Free trial? | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Our final verdict
We recommend Noom Mood for people who are considering investing in a mental health app for stress relief. While it should never be considered a replacement for therapy, the app offers CBT-informed tools that are designed to actively transform negative thoughts and lessen stress through the consistent practice of learned skills like mindfulness, meditation, and gratitude.
At $37 per month (and a required four-month commitment), Noom Mood is pricey compared to some of the other mental health apps we’ve tested. It does have several helpful tools that our testers found helpful, though, like a daily mood tracker and a Lesson Library for saving favorite lessons.
If you would like to learn new tools for dealing with stress, it might be worth using an app that reminds you to take breaks and teaches you everyday techniques for bringing your stress level down. We like Noom Mood’s simple approach to lowering stress by taking 10 minutes each day just for yourself.
Frequently asked questions
The original Noom app is a weight-loss program that treats healthy eating and exercise as a lifestyle. Noom Mood is accessed through the Noom app and is focused on helping users to reduce stress. Both Noom and Noom Mood use a psychology-based approach to making behavioral changes.
While some Noom Mood lessons suggest journaling as a stress management strategy, journaling is not an integral part of the app.
You can easily switch from Noom Mood to Noom’s weight-loss program within the app, but you can’t use Noom Mood and the Noom weight-loss program at the same time.
- Svärdman, F., Sjöwall, D., & Lindsäter, E. (2022, September). Internet-delivered cognitive behavioral interventions to reduce elevated stress: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Internet Interventions, 29. Link