Our BetterHelp Review 2024: Tried and Tested
Two of our employees tested this platform for more than a month for our BetterHelp review. Read along with their experiences and see if this online therapy platform could be good for you.
BetterHelp is an online therapy service that allows you to message and meet with a licensed, accredited therapist 24/7. This article discusses how BetterHelp works, what it costs, and who it might be right for. We also tested their service for over a month to provide user experience feedback.
Read on to learn what we liked and didn’t, and get some insight into other users’ experiences through our 2022 Healthline Survey on Online Therapy.
A quick look at BetterHelp Online Therapy
About our testers
Editor Parisa Syed (she/they) tried BetterHelp and was satisfied with her experience. While her regular therapist was on maternity leave, Syed was looking for someone who could help her keep up with the progress she’s made so far, a therapist of color with experience discussing matters related to LGBTQIA+ topics.
“I was looking for someone who could understand the background of a first-gen American, [the] family dynamics associated with that, and someone who was honest and wasn’t afraid to push back,” she said. “My [assigned] therapist was all of those things, plus funny, empathetic, and easy to talk with.”
Laramy Applekamp (she/her), content project manager for Healthline, also recently tried BetterHelp for free for 6 months. She wanted to find a therapist who was a “good fit and had the flexibility to fit her schedule, which [she] could talk through some of [her] current life challenges with.”
Applekamp had a positive experience with BetterHelp and intends to continue using it, even after submitting her review. She loved how the questionnaire took the “guesswork of researching and finding your therapist.”
Healthline’s 2022 Online Therapy Survey
In February of 2022, our team conducted an online survey looking at how people use online therapy. We gathered thoughts, concerns, and suggestions from 315 respondents.
Out of the 12 therapy platforms in the survey, the four most used were BetterHelp, Doctor on Demand, MDLive, and Talkspace. Our study breaks down 208 respondents’ answers about these platforms.
We discuss some of our results about BetterHelp throughout the article.
Getting started with BetterHelp
Syed found the onboarding quite simple, if not a bit tedious. The process started by answering a long list of questions for BetterHelp’s survey. These questions asked about what she was looking to accomplish in therapy and her current mental state.
Applekamp found the process straightforward but noted that it took her about 20 minutes to complete the survey. “I messed up one question, and when I navigated back to change it, the interface instead took me to the beginning of the quiz, and I had to restart.”
The next step is to create an account. You can sign up using your email or your Facebook or Google account. At this stage, you only need to enter your first name or nickname.
Once you’ve verified your account, BetterHelp will ask what you want your therapist to have experience with. You’ll also have an opportunity to describe, in your own words, why you’re seeking therapy.
You’ll be asked for your credit card information now, or you can apply for financial aid.
Matching to an in-state counselor can take anywhere from a few hours to a couple of days.
Syed was matched with a therapist within 2 hours of completing the forms, while Applekamp was matched within 18 hours.
“I received a notification via email and a text,” Syed said. “I had the option to schedule an appointment with her or to choose another therapist. I made an appointment with her, and it’s been great so far!”
The initial appointment lasted for about 50 minutes. A lot of what Syed was looking for in a therapist was established in this initial appointment.
Features of BetterHelp
A great perk of BetterHelp is the ability to communicate with your therapist. Syed chose to meet over video instead of a call, messenger, or call.
“It was just like hopping on a Zoom meeting,” she said. “Super simple.”
Both of our testers liked that you can change the method of contact based on preference. Syed liked talking on the phone if she wished instead of meeting over video.
She also had access to a chat room with her therapist and group support options. Applekamp used this in-app messaging system and got a text message whenever her therapist responded.
Chat room and live chat
Once matched with a counselor, you can immediately start messaging them in a 256-bit encrypted chat room.
The chat room is accessible anytime, as long as your device has reliable internet. You’re free to message your counselor at any hour of the day, though the chat will not be live. When your counselor replies, the app will notify you of their response. Your counselor will reply with questions, guidance, homework, or feedback.
For a live chat session, you must still book a time slot with your matched therapist before chatting with them. The session works like a live text conversation when it’s time for your appointment.
The conversations are saved in the chat room, so you can reflect and reread whenever you’d like. You can also unsend if you want to delete a particular message by clicking the “remove message” button. If you want to delete a chat, click the “shred” button.
Group support
BetterHelp offers more than 20 live interactive group seminars each week. These are called groupinars. If you want to attend a groupinar but can’t attend the meeting, you can email a link to the recording.
Topics of the groupinars vary from sleep to self-care to anxiety and depression.
Phone calls
If you prefer to discuss concerns without showing your face, you can schedule a phone call with your counselor.
The system does not share your phone number with the counselor. Everything is done through the BetterHelp app.
Journaling
BetterHelp includes an online journal that is yours and yours alone. It will not be visible to anyone else unless you choose to share it.
The journal feature may be helpful if you want to try writing down your thoughts and feelings. BetterHelp offers journal prompts that can help you get started in your journaling.
BetterHelp therapist qualifications
According to BetterHelp, counselors are licensed, trained, experienced, and accredited psychologists, marriage and family therapists, clinical social workers, or licensed professional counselors.
Applekamp mentioned she could see her therapist’s profile once she was matched. “BetterHelp shows you your therapist’s profile, which includes their licensure information, specialties, other areas of experience, services offered (messaging, live chat, phone calls, video calls), and a descriptive blurb they craft about themselves, as well as reviews of that therapist.”
All the company’s counselors have a master’s or doctorate degree and at least 3 years and 1,000 hours of experience as mental health professionals. BetterHelp also assigns potential therapists a case study and grades them to verify their practice. It claims that only 25% of applicants make it through the screening process.
If you don’t like who you’re paired with, you can request to be matched with a new therapist. Applekamp found this feature to be guiltless. “The introductory message also made the process of changing therapists very clear, if you didn’t feel this first therapist was the right fit … Being able to switch therapists quickly and easily was very convenient, and reduced any anxiety surrounding having to “fire” my first therapist.”
Applekamp ended up switching therapists after four sessions because she didn’t feel a personal connection with her first one.
Syed, however, found her first therapist to suit her needs, like 57% of other BetterHelp users.
How much does BetterHelp cost?
Syed noted that BetterHelp pricing is one of the more affordable online therapy options she’s seen, especially since there are several different ways to communicate with your therapist.
However, 26% of BetterHelp users in Healthline’s 2022 online survey thought BetterHelp could have more affordable pricing.
The cost of BetterHelp ranges from $65 to $95 weekly, depending on how many live sessions you want to schedule. You’ll be billed monthly.
You can cancel your subscription at any time if you decide that BetterHelp is not working for you.
While BetterHelp does not accept insurance, there are other online therapy platforms that take insurance and other platforms that may be more affordable for you. Free and low-cost resources and services are also available to those who need help.
Financial aid and insurance plans with BetterHelp
BetterHelp offers financial aid for those who qualify, such as people who are unemployed or experiencing financial difficulty.
If you want to apply for financial aid, you’ll do so during the sign-up process. You’ll be asked to fill out a questionnaire to check your eligibility. The questionnaire will ask about your employment status and current monthly income. You may be asked to verify this information with a recent tax return or other official documentation that confirms your financial status.
If you’re approved for financial aid, the entire cost might be covered, or you might be asked to pay on a sliding scale. The reduced rate will be calculated based on your monthly income.
Insurance coverage
BetterHelp does not accept insurance, and Medicare or Medicaid does not cover the services. Most insurance companies won’t cover the treatment because therapists don’t provide diagnoses or prescriptions.
BetterHelp says it will provide itemized invoices if you want to try to submit to insurance companies for reimbursement. However, whether you’ll get this reimbursement depends on your plan and what’s covered. BetterHelp will not submit information directly to your insurance company for you.
BetterHelp does accept health savings account (HSA) and flexible spending account (FSA) funds. The service is an eligible expense under most HSA/FSA providers, so if you have one of these accounts, you can offset some or all of the costs.
Read more about BetterHelp insurance coverage.
BetterHelp vs. competitors
There are a variety of online therapy services available. You can take a look at the following to see which online therapy service could work best for you. To see them stack up against more platforms, check out our article on the best online therapy platforms.
Rx = Prescriptions offered
BetterHelp reviews and ratings
BetterHelp is rated as a top teletherapy platform for a variety of mental health concerns. Users generally report positive experiences with BetterHelp’s network of therapists, services, and the effectiveness of the therapy sessions.
At the time of publication, BetterHelp’s reviews have an average of 4.04 out of 5 stars on Better Business Bureau (BBB) from over 550 customer reviews. The site also gives it an A- rating, which is based on the BBB’s opinion of the company’s reputation and trustworthiness.
Our testers’ BetterHelp reviews
Applekamp, who used BetterHelp until her free trial had expired, had a great experience with her platform. “While I’ve had success with in-person therapy in the past, there are a lot of draws to online therapy, and my experience on BetterHelp was a positive one.”
“I appreciated the questionnaire that went into matching me with a therapist (trying to research an in-person therapist felt very overwhelming, so I appreciated the guesswork being taken out of it). I also appreciated how I still had to log in to view any of my messages with my therapist to keep that confidentiality if I was discussing anything sensitive.”
Applekamp also loved how easy it was to navigate the website, that there were plenty of reminders so you don’t miss a session, and that these reminders don’t display confidential information.
Applekamp did mention, though, that the word “therapy” and the time of the session are still in the notification, an FYI if “that’s information you’d rather not be visible.” And though she did love the notifications, she mentioned that at first, the notifications ended up in her spam folder, and there were a lot of them. (Note that you can update your email preferences to help solve this.)
While Syed enjoyed her therapist and the help she received, she noticed that the therapist seemed distracted and worked on other things during their sessions together.
“I don’t mind if my therapist is eating or taking notes, but I sometimes noticed when I would be talking about something important to me or opening up, my therapist from BetterHelp would distractedly answer and wasn’t exactly helpful in giving feedback to my situation,” she said. “It was a bit discouraging for me.”
Discussing our survey results
About 53% of respondents were likely to recommend their therapy platform to others. BetterHelp’s rating came in a bit below average, with 50% of respondents choosing to share their therapy platform.
About 67% of BetterHelp users felt they got the most value out of their service, which is a substantial percentage, but it performed the lowest out of our top four.
Overall, 20% of users liked that the BetterHelp website and app were easy to use and navigate, and 19% liked the number of available therapists. What they didn’t like was the overall price.
While 26% of respondents said that price was an issue, 17% believed the pricing could be more affordable, 5% believed payment plans or bundles could be offered, and another 5% believed emergency services could be available for free.
However, 23% of respondents believed there was nothing to improve about BetterHelp’s service, and that it was great the way it is.
BetterHelp privacy and security
Although BetterHelp has helped many people access mental health services, the company has faced significant controversy related to its effectiveness, ethics, and privacy practices.
The platform’s marketing tactics have been criticized for being misleading and predatory.
Some social media influencers were accused of capitalizing on their viewers’ mental health issues by promoting the app for personal gain. While affiliate links are common in the influencer world, promoting a mental health app to followers with mental health conditions has been viewed as exploitative.
Transparency around the qualifications and training of therapists on the app has also been called into question, with many users complaining about therapists who fail to show up for sessions, who are unresponsive and unhelpful, or who flat out deny service.
BetterHelp’s privacy practices have also been a source of controversy, with users expressing concern about the collection and sharing of their data with third-party companies without adequate disclosure or consent.
BetterHelp also displayed HIPAA seals on different pages of its website and claimed it was HIPAA certified. However, the Federal Trade Commission found this to be deceptive, as there was no information indicating that BetterHelp was reviewed by a third party and determined to be HIPAA complaint.
Pros and cons of BetterHelp
Is BetterHelp right for you?
If you enjoy the ease of texting and 24/7 communication without leaving the house, BetterHelp may be a great fit for you.
While traditional therapy offers the quiet comfort of facial expressions and affirmations, even that can be closely mimicked through BetterHelp’s live video sessions.
That being said, since online therapists are distant from the client, it may be difficult to respond immediately or effectively when a crisis or tragedy happens. It’s also hard for an online therapist to pick up on certain facial expressions, body language, or vocal signals that may occur in real-world interactions.
Applekamp mentioned that the 24- to 48- hour timeframe to connect with a therapist worked for her, “but it could be a problem if you’ve got more urgent issues you’d like to start working through right away.”
Who BetterHelp would be best for
“Clients who live in remote areas or who have limited mobility or limited access to transportation may be more motivated to participate in online therapy,” said Sheava Zadeh, PhD, LEP, BICM, a psychologist and the founder of Pamper Your Brain. “It allows for more flexibility in scheduling, as clients have access to more specialists and can select the specialists who can work with their schedules.”
Who should not use BetterHelp
Consider in-person therapy rather than virtual therapy if you:
- connect better with in-person interactions
- dislike virtual communication
- don’t have stable internet access
Also, BetterHelp therapy sessions may not be suitable for people who want more intense treatment options, such as dialectical behavioral therapy and psychodynamic therapy.
BetterHelp is not a replacement for emergency services. If you are experiencing a mental health emergency or crisis, call 988 (the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline), 911, or local emergency services.
Frequently asked questions about BetterHelp
It depends on your goals and needs.
BetterHelp gives you access to a network of thoroughly vetted, licensed, board certified, and experienced counselors who are available to help with a variety of mental health needs. This is similar to office sessions with a qualified therapist.
BetterHelp’s online therapy sessions may benefit anyone who’d like to prioritize and improve their mental health.
However, unlike certain in-person therapists, BetterHelp’s therapists cannot diagnose conditions, prescribe medication, or meet a court order.
Also, in-person therapy sessions are a more appropriate fit for managing severe mental health conditions.
When it comes to therapy, it’s difficult to quantify success because everyone goes into therapy with different goals. What defines success for you may be different from what someone else is looking for.
In general, lots of reviewers say they found BetterHelp very helpful and they’re impressed with the quality of the therapists.
There are a few downsides of BetterHelp.
The first is that the online therapy platform doesn’t take insurance, including Medicare and Medicaid. Because of this, you’ll have to pay out of pocket.
On that note, BetterHelp professionals don’t diagnose conditions or prescribe medications, so if you need this additional support, you’ll have to use another platform.
You also can’t choose your therapist. You’re matched with a therapist based on an extensive questionnaire that you take when signing up, but you can’t read therapist profiles and pick the one you want. You can request a new therapist if you don’t click with yours, though.
During testing, our Healthline editor also noticed that the therapist seemed distracted at some points in the conversation. Because the therapy is done online, over video chat, it can be easier for your therapist to lose focus than it would be if you were talking in person.
Also, because therapy is done online, there’s the possibility of technical glitches or connection interruptions. You’ll also need a phone or computer to access the video chats, so this can add to the overall cost if you don’t have one already.
No, BetterHelp does not accept insurance and is not covered by Medicare or Medicaid.
You’re also unable to get an insurance reimbursement for the costs of using the platform. One reason is that BetterHelp professionals do not provide official diagnoses or prescribe treatment. Insurance companies need these details before they can cover the cost and for recordkeeping.
Additionally, BetterHelp notes that even if your insurance plan covers your cost for teletherapy sessions, your insurer’s copay may be more than the total cost of your sessions.
Because of the recent FTC settlement, BetterHelp has updated its privacy policy and how it protects your information. To view more about how it protects your privacy, view the FAQ on “How is my privacy and security protected?”
Your information with your therapist remains confidential, but there are limited exceptions to what information they share to their respective governing boards and state laws. For example, if you threaten harm to yourself or to an identifiable victim, the therapist is required to report this information to relevant authorities.
You can delete all conversations with them anytime you want just by clicking the “shred” button. There’s also a “remove message” button so you can remove any messages you want to unsend to your therapist.
You can also sign up on the platforms using a nickname so you can remain anonymous. However, in case an emergency arises during sessions, you’ll be required to give your contact details when you start therapy.
BetterHelp recently became certified with HITRUST, a certification that provides the highest level of information protection and compliance assurance. They’re also working in coordination with the FTC to improve their privacy practices.
BetterHelp’s databases are 265-bit encrypted and scrambled. They become unusable should a third party interfere with them.
If you’d like to share your information with a third party, you first have to notify your therapist. They’ll give you an authorization form to fill out before they can release your information.
Takeaway
There are many pros when it comes to online or teletherapy.
If you’ve never been to in-person therapy before or are new to therapy in general, this text-based approach can be an easy way to work toward getting comfortable with the process. It’s highly customizable and personalized, and you can switch whenever you feel like it’s not a good match.
BetterHelp is an affordable, convenient option that offers solutions for people who prefer to talk on the phone or via video call.
However, BetterHelp should not be used if you’re in immediate danger or need emergency mental health services.
If you need immediate assistance in the event of a mental health emergency, call 911, local emergency services, or the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988.
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