SonderMind vs BetterHelp: Which Is More Affordable?

SonderMind accepts many different insurance providers, which can significantly reduce the cost of therapy.

But that doesn’t mean it’s more affordable than BetterHelp.

In fact, in many cases, BetterHelp online therapy can be just as, if not more affordable than SonderMind.

Costs aside, both providers also have a few distinct differences, which, if left unchecked, can result in vastly different therapeutic experiences compared to what you might have expected before signing up.

In this article, we weigh in on the SonderMind vs BetterHelp debate, and recommend your best option as of 2024.

Overall Best: BetterHelp is our preferred online therapy provider because it is, in many cases, more affordable than SonderMind, has much better customer reviews, a larger network of therapists (30,000+), and has global coverage.

To get started with BetterHelp, click here to fill in their brief questionnaire.

Discussing Psychology readers get 15% off their first month with BetterHelp.

SonderMind vs BetterHelp: How do they compare in 2024?

While BetterHelp only focuses on virtual talk-therapy sessions, SonderMind offers both online and in-person therapy which can also extend to psychiatric support.

There are also major differences in customer reviews, insurance coverage and overall affordability, all of which are covered in the table below.

Features	BetterHelp	SonderMind
Price	From US$65 to US$90 per week, billed every four weeks. 1 session per week.	If you have compatible insurance, you can expect to pay approximately US$50–US$180 per session.
Insurance accepted	No.	Yes.
Customer Reviews	Average 4.6 to 4.8 rating out of 5 stars across major review platforms.	Average 1.4 to 2.5 rating out of 5 stars across major review platforms.
In-Person or Online?	Online only.	Online and/or in-person (the latter where possible).
Services Provided	Talk therapy for individuals. Group webinars are also available.	Talk therapy and psychiatric services for individuals.
Communication method to therapist	Live video, audio, and chat sessions. Members can message their therapist anytime.	Video, in-app messaging, audio, and in-person therapy.
Payment method	Credit card or Paypal	Credit card powered by Stripe.
Provider website	Click here to visit BetterHelp.	Click here to visit SonderMind.

Now that we have a high-level understanding of how each platform differs, let’s take a closer look at what each provider does.

BetterHelp Online Therapy

BetterHelp is an ‘all-in-one’ talk therapy platform that connects you with licensed therapists.

The platform supports communication across live chat messaging, video, audio calls, and more, all with your dedicated therapist.

BetterHelp is the largest online therapy provider, with over 30,000 therapists and more than 3 million users.

All BetterHelp therapists are licensed, hold a master’s degree or higher in their fields, and have at least 3+ years and 1,000 hours of experience helping patients.

Patients across the world utilize BetterHelp therapy to address mental health challenges, relationship difficulties, self-image problems, depression, anxiety, stress, and much more.

Online therapy prices starting at $65 per week. Cancel anytime.

SonderMind Therapy

Like BetterHelp, SonderMind is an online platform that connects you with mental health professionals.

However, a key difference is that SonderMind can connect you with local therapists directly in your area for in-person therapy.

If there are no therapists in your area, or you’d prefer online therapy, like BetterHelp, the platform also supports online therapy.

SonderMind has a history spanning almost nine years in the space, with its first iteration being founded in 2014.

All therapists on the platform are licensed and carry the same qualifications as required for private practice therapy.

“Improve mental health access, usage and outcomes, while decreasing the stigma associated with seeking mental health care.”

SonderMind

Sondermind claims their data shows many clients see results in less than six sessions, which is under the 2-month mark when using their platform.

That’s a very impressive statistic.

Let’s take a closer look at the strengths and weaknesses of this therapy provider.

BetterHelp vs SonderMind: Cost

BetterHelp

BetterHelp pricing works on a subscription basis, billed once every four weeks.

The cost of BetterHelp varies based on several factors, with the main ones being:

• Your requirements
• Location
• Therapist availability

However, broadly speaking, the cost of BetterHelp works out to be approximately US$260–US$360 billed once every four weeks.

On a per-session basis with your therapist, that works out to be approximately US$65-US$90 per session.

This cost per session can make BetterHelp more affordable than SonderMind in many cases.

The platform’s subscription includes one live session with your therapist per week, with each session lasting between 30–45 minutes on average.

A subscription also allows you to utilize the BetterHelp app and associated features.

Cancellation & Payment Method

You can cancel your BetterHelp subscription anytime via your account details section in the platform’s app.

Payment can be made to the platform using a credit card or PayPal.

SonderMind

The exact cost per SonderMind therapy session heavily depends on your location and insurance plan.

Overall, SonderMind therapy sessions typically cost between US$50 and US$180 per session after insurance subsidies.

If you do one session per week with your therapist, this, on average, makes SonderMind more expensive per session than BetterHelp.

However, there are exceptions.

In certain cases, the SonderMind cost per session can actually be lower than BetterHelp, coming in at US$50 per session (not including the cost of your insurance).

To determine what is more affordable for you, you can use the SonderMind therapy cost calculator.

This calculator factors in your insurance provider and region to help calculate the approximate cost per therapy session that you’ll pay.

Cancellation & Payment Method

SonderMind works on a pay-as-you-go basis, where you are billed for each session. 

To stop therapy, you do not need to cancel a membership or subscription. You would just need to cancel future booked therapy sessions with your matched therapist.

The platform accepts payment via credit card, managed by payment processor Stripe.

Services Offered by Each Platform

BetterHelp

BetterHelp therapists offer a range of psychotherapeutic services that can address a broad range of mental health issues and challenges.

The network itself has over 30,000 licensed therapists, many of whom offer common therapeutic treatments, including, among other modalities:

• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
• EMDR Therapy
• Exposure Therapy
• DBT Therapy
• Mindfulness-Based Therapy
• And much more

However, it’s worth noting the treatment you receive is based on the therapist with whom you can be matched with.

The therapist with whom you get matched depends on your responses in your brief sign-up questionnaire when first joining the platform.

The mental health challenges with which BetterHelp can assist include and are by no means limited to:

• Attachment issues
• Depression
• Social anxiety
• Relationship issues
• Problems with intimacy
• Care-giver issues and stress
• Dissociation
• Emptiness
• Panic attacks
• And much more.

A BetterHelp subscription allows full utilization of their app.

With the app you can contact your therapist, schedule sessions, do additional homework tasks, record your thoughts in your own journal and much more.

In many ways, BetterHelp’s platform offers end-to-end management of non-psychiatric therapeutic services, which is very useful if you’re looking for one centralized service for your mental health management.

Last, unlike SonderMind, BetterHelp does not offer psychiatric services.

This means you won’t be able to get prescription medications from any of their therapists.

Get 15% off your first month with BetterHelp here.

SonderMind

Unlike BetterHelp, SonderMind doesn’t just offer psychotherapy (talk therapy).

SonderMind also lets you connect with licensed psychiatrists, who can prescribe medication as part of your treatment plan.

Theoretically, it could be said that because of the option to do both talk therapy and psychiatric treatment, SonderMind can address a broader range of conditions than BetterHelp because treatment plans involving medication can be integrated.

SonderMind’s network is made up of:

• Licensed therapists
• Psychiatrists, and
• Psychiatric nurse practitioners.

All of these professionals provide an extensive range of mental health support, covering many different types of conditions.

With psychiatric support, SonderMind can also offer very targeted treatment for conditions that may require medication, such as:

• Bipolar disorder
• Depression
• Anxiety
• Insomnia
• And much more.

“With severe depression or severe anxiety, in 9 to 10 weeks on average we can get (many) people to subclinical and we are able to prove that with an immense amount of data.”

– Mark Frank, CEO & Co-Founder of SonderMind

It’s worth noting that SonderMind isn’t the only virtual service providing medication management. Platforms like Cerebral and it’s popular alternatives can also prescribe medication for psychiatric conditions.

SonderMind offers both the option for online and in-person therapy.

This is a great choice to have if you want to alternate between video calls for convenience and in-person therapy when you feel you require this to build a deeper connection with your therapist.

A subscription to SonderMind grants you complete access to their phone app.

Communication with your therapist can be done via video, in-app messaging, audio, and in-person talk therapy.

As of the writing of this article, SonderMind is only available in the USA and covers only 16 states within the USA:

• Arizona
• Colorado
• District of Columbia
• Georgia
• Indiana
• Kentucky
• Maine
• Maryland
• Massachusetts
• Missouri
• Nebraska
• New Hampshire
• Ohio
• Texas
• Vermont
• Virginia

Therapy Details: A Closer Look at both Providers

Therapy Details	BetterHelp	SonderMind
Psychiatric support?	No.	Yes.
Choose therapist?	You may select your therapist after your initial match.	Choose from matched therapists.
Time taken to match with a therapist	Can be matched within 48 hours or less.	Matched within 24-72 hours
Frequency and duration of therapy sessions	1 session per week. Each session is 30–45 minutes.	Patient chooses the number of sessions per week. Sessions are typically 30–60 minutes in duration.
Can you change therapists?	Yes.	Yes.
Licensed?	Yes.	Yes – however, exact license requirements are unknown.

BetterHelp Therapists

BetterHelp has over 30,000 licensed therapists across their global network.

Each therapist must have at least 3 years and 1,000 hours of direct experience and hold a master’s degree in their relevant field.

Therapists must also submit proof of identity and hold appropriate certifications from respective licensing boards.

SonderMind Therapists

SonderMind has completed over 1.5 million sessions since its inception.

The platform also has over 2,500+ active therapists.

Active, in this case, means a therapist who has done a session with a client in the last 30 days, which is a very impressive figure.

If you were looking at the total number of therapists available on the platform, the figure would be much higher.

SonderMind therapists are also fully licensed, meaning they would be able to operate in private practice if they wished.

Each therapist is also background-checked and screened for credentials by the SonderMind team.

SonderMind Resources

Website Resources

The SonderMind website has an Education & Resources section for clients seeking therapy, which is publicly available at no cost.

A very helpful feature in the resources hub is the ability to filter informational articles based on where you’re at in your therapy journey by choosing between two options:

1. I’m New to Therapy
2. I’ve Been to Therapy

Overall, SonderMind has a very impressive collection of resources available to help educate its clients about therapy.

SonderMind App

Although the SonderMind app itself has robust communication support across video and messaging, the in-app resources and features themselves are quite limited.

When compared to BetterHelp’s app, the SonderMind platform lacks interactive features that can support your therapeutic journey.

For example, the SonderMind app does not have an in-built goal-setting feature, personalized worksheets sections, and a journaling space.

Although these features aren’t necessary, they are nice to have.

The app also has a dedicated Help Center, but it has minimal supporting resources.

This Help Center provides only a handful of articles in total, some of which are more than two years old.

To better service clients with immediate informational support, SonderMind could focus more on building their Help Center into a much richer knowledge base that can support clients without clients needing to lodge a ticket directly with customer service.

In comparison to leading providers in the market, both SonderMind apps (client and therapist apps) are harder to use and also present technical errors and glitches.

This has been reflected in the reviews of the SonderMind for Clients Apple AppStore ratings:

As well as the SonderMind for Therapists Apple AppStore Reviews, with both apps hovering close to 2 out of 5 stars in their reviews.

Frustratingly, in my experience, the SonderMind Client app also logs you out whenever you exit the application.

It would be better if the app had facial recognition software to login, a feature that is increasingly common among leading mental health apps.

Total Brain Acquisition

On a positive note, SonderMind has recently acquired a mental health and brain performance app called Total Brain.

As per their website:

“(Total Brain) combines monitoring capabilities from assessments, screenings, biometrics and genetics with personalized self-care support tools”.

This is a very exciting development.

If the two apps are integrated during client treatment, the SonderMind app for therapy and Total Brain to support client self-care, this would make for an incredibly comprehensive treatment plan.

SonderMind has previously stated their therapists may use official clinical questionnaires where necessary, such as the PHQ-9 for depression or the GAD-7 for anxiety.

If client results are measured against clinically approved questionnaires by SonderMind therapists, and then self-care tasks are administered in the Total Brain app, then this could make for a very potent and self-sufficient treatment option.

BetterHelp Resources

Website Resources

BetterHelp has an incredibly comprehensive resource and advice section freely available on their website.

You can filter the resources section by different topics, which cover anything from counseling information to anxiety, body dysmorphic disorder, and even topics on sociopathy.

All articles are also medically reviewed by a licensed therapist.

BetterHelp App

The BetterHelp client app has a comprehensive list of features to support therapeutic treatment, including:

• A journaling space
• Messaging and video capability
• Calendar tool for scheduling therapy sessions.
• Goals and worksheets sections—after many of my sessions, my therapist would share personalized PDF resources based on topics we discussed in therapy.
• FAQ tabs
• Dedicated app settings page
• Therapy tools section

With all these different in-app features for clients, BetterHelp provides far more comprehensive support via their app when compared to SonderMind, and this is reflected in their reviews:

BetterHelp’s Apple App Store reviews average a whopping 4.8 out of 5 in its ratings across approximately 99,900 client reviews.

This is much higher than SonderMind’s average of 2.1 out of 5 stars.

Therapy Resources

BetterHelp therapists may, at their own discretion, give you additional resources to review and tasks to complete.

In this way, you can shift from theoretical discussions in-therapy, to ‘homework tasks’ which help implement theory into practice for longer lasting changes.

After some of my sessions, my therapist sent me resources via the in-app messenger, which was very useful. I could also find them in the ‘Worksheets’ section as PDFs which was handy for if I wanted to review them on a later date.

One feature I found really helpful was the ‘goals’ section of the app. My therapist set specific goals for me to work on, which I would then have to complete before our next session.

I found this helped keep me accountable for difficult tasks, especially ones that provoked significant anxiety.

I also received many worksheets that challenged the distorted thoughts I had that were creating anxiety:

My therapist and I also created flashcards together for me to go over every morning to practice self-acceptance.

Overall, I was very impressed by the BetterHelp app and how comprehensive all the resources were.

BetterHelp vs SonderMind: Account Setup & Communication

Sign-Up Process

Both providers have a very similar sign-up process.

Each provider has a brief online questionnaire which can help you match with a therapist.

However, after the questionnaire is completed, the sign-up process diverges for each provider.

In BetterHelp, you are asked to submit your payment information and which enters you into the platform’s subscription billing cycle.

Then, typically, within about 48 hours, you can be matched with a therapist.

In SonderMind, however, you are first given a short list of therapists with whom you were matched based on your questionnaire.

It is only after you choose to match with a therapist that you’re prompted to set up your billing information.

Communication

Both platforms’ apps support in-app messaging and video calls directly with your therapist.

BetterHelp also supports audio calls, while on SonderMind audio calls can be arranged on a case-by-case basis, depending on your therapist.

Importantly, because SonderMind connects you with local therapists, you have the option to schedule in-person talk therapy, if available, with your specific therapist.

BetterHelp, on the other hand, only supports online therapy, which can be a challenge if you prefer in-person, face-to-face discussion as a way of communicating and building rapport with your therapist.

On the plus side, with a BetterHelp subscription, members can message their therapist at any time.

Customer Reviews

Looking at large review sites such as Trustpilot, there is a very large disparity between ratings for both SonderMind and BetterHelp.

On TrustPilot, BetterHelp averages 4.6 star reviews across almost 6,000 reviews, which is a very high score.

SonderMind on the other hand averages 1.7 star reviews across just over 30 reviews.

The customer comments are alarming—touching on faulty billing practices and issues with co-pay insurance.

We also noticed similar complaints when comparing Thriveworks with BetterHelp, suggesting this is quite a common issue among therapy providers that accept insurance.

It’s worth noting that 30 or so reviews for SonderMind are not a very large data set to conclusively decide whether the provider is deserving of such a low rating.

However, looking through other review sites such as Yelp, SonderMind has similarly low ratings—scoring just 1.5 out of 5 across almost 30 reviews, while the platform’s Apple App Store reviews average 2.1 stars out of 5 for SonderMind.

Just like Trustpilot, it appears these negative reviews are again due to SonderMind having issues across incorrect billing amounts, insurance refunds, poor customer support, and technical issues with the phone app.

In contrast, BetterHelp has overwhelmingly positive reviews across thousands of customer ratings, which is a key reason why our editorial team chose BetterHelp as our favorite online therapy platform of 2024.

From almost 100,000 Apple App Store reviews and more than 360,000+ reviews left on their website, BetterHelp averages a whopping 4.8 out of 5 stars in its reviews, which is incredibly high.

Overall, when it comes to customer reviews and client feedback, BetterHelp is the clear winner, with their average review score more than doubling SonderMinds ratings.

Online therapy prices starting at $65 per week. Cancel anytime.

Platform Technology: BetterHelp vs SonderMind

The technology behind both platforms is, on the surface, quite similar.

SonderMind and BetterHelp both:

• Have questionnaires during user signup which can help connect you with a therapist.
• Utilize their own tech stack, with all-in-one centralized apps for scheduling sessions, in-app messaging, chat therapy, video sessions, and more.
• The apps may request patient feedback to monitor therapist performance.

However, as previously stated, a closer look at both platforms shows BetterHelp has implemented its technology in a more effective manner.

This is because BetterHelp has:

• Much higher client reviews across major review platforms.
• A more user-friendly interface (there are not many cases of reported software glitches in customer reviews. I also found their app much easier to use than SonderMind’s app).
• Many more additional features in-app to support treatment (eg: journaling section, goal-setting feature etc.).

Final Verdict

It can be tempting to group SonderMind and BetterHelp together as if they are more or less the same platforms.

After all, both are leading online therapy providers with robust tech stacks. Each platform is also backed by well-known brands with strong reputations.

But a closer look at each provider shows there are a few distinct differences that have made us choose BetterHelp over SonderMind.

BetterHelp is in many cases more affordable than SonderMind, has much better client reviews across all comparable platforms, and has more advanced technology in place to support treatment.

In general, if you’re looking for typical therapeutic ‘talk-therapy’ with a licensed therapist, we recommend BetterHelp as your best option.

To match with a therapist at BetterHelp, simply fill in this questionnaire and a member of their team will be in touch shortly.

Online therapy prices starting at $65 per week. Cancel anytime.

FAQ

Are free trials available?

Neither BetterHelp nor SonderMind offer free trials.

Do either platform support insurance?

While BetterHelp does not accept insurance, SonderMind accepts a wide range of insurance providers.

Click here to see the list of insurance providers SonderMind currently accepts.

How do I cancel my subscription?

BetterHelp works on a subscription basis, whereby you are billed once every 4 weeks.

If you cancel your plan with BetterHelp, your subscription will finish at the end of your billing cycle.

You can cancel anytime with BetterHelp under your Account Settings in the app.

SonderMind, on the other hand, does not operate on a subscription basis.

Instead, you pay for each session as you go, making it a very flexible service from a billing perspective.

However, you may be billed a cancellation or no-show fee if you cancel within 24 hours of your scheduled appointment or fail to attend a session without an appropriate cancellation notice.

Online or in-person therapy: which is the right fit for me?

There is no general answer to which is better between offline face-to-face therapy or online therapy.

Some clients may prefer in-person therapy because they may find it easier to bond with their therapist.

Others may prefer online therapy because it can be more convenient and doesn’t require a commute.

Interestingly, emerging research suggests that popular therapeutic treatment models such as CBT may be just as effective when facilitated online as compared to in-person therapy.

Most importantly, when it comes down to choosing between in-person and online therapy, more than anything, it may come down to your own personal preference and budget.

Does each platform offer customer support?

BetterHelp customer support is contactable via email, while SonderMind’s customer support is accessible via both email and phone.

How We Select Products

Product reviews, comparisons and write-ups are based on personal testing experience, customer review analysis and/or product research.

All product review information is liable to our product review process.

For Emergencies

In the case of an emergency, online therapy is not suitable. If you are at risk of self-harm or require emergency mental health assistance, contact your country/states emergency or suicide hotline.

If you are in the US, your emergency line is: 911. US Suicide Hotline: 988.

For an international list of suicide hotline numbers, visit this link here.