The best online therapy is the one that fits what you actually need. BetterHelp or Talkspace if you want a licensed therapist quickly and can pay a weekly subscription, Brightside if depression or anxiety may need medication alongside therapy, Open Path Collective if money is the barrier, and the Psychology Today directory or an insurance network like Headway or Alma if you want to choose your own licensed therapist and use your insurance. Whichever you pick, what decides whether it works is your relationship with the therapist.
If you are in crisis or thinking about suicide, call or text 988 (the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline in the US) now.
It’s late. You’ve got five tabs open, each promising a licensed therapist within days and a discount on the first month. Part of you thinks you’re not bad enough for therapy, other people have real problems.
I’m Figs O’Sullivan, a licensed marriage and family therapist (LMFT #79062). I spent seventeen years as a couples therapist in San Francisco, and I also built Figlet, an AI coaching tool. Judge my bias accordingly. Where someone else fits you better, I’ll say so. The prices below are what I could verify in October 2026. They change often, so check each site before you sign up.
Which online therapy is best for me?
When talking turns into the same fight
Talk it through with Figlet right now. Private, judgment free, built on 17 years of couples therapy.
- BetterHelp: the fastest route to a licensed therapist by video, phone or messaging. About $70 to $100 a week, billed monthly, limited insurance.
- Talkspace: licensed therapists and psychiatry, and you can check your insurance before signing up. Self-pay runs about $69 to $109 a week depending on the plan.
- Brightside: therapy and psychiatry together, built for depression and anxiety. Self-pay is about $299 a month for therapy, $95 for psychiatry, $349 for both, and it accepts many insurance plans, including Medicare.
- Open Path Collective: a sliding scale network. A one-time $65 membership, then $40 to $70 per individual session, $40 to $80 for couples and families.
- Psychology Today, Headway, Alma: you choose an independent licensed therapist who works online, often in network with your insurance.
- Coaching, including Figlet Life Coaching, which I built: help moving forward from where you are. It is not treatment, and it’s free to start.
What makes online therapy actually work?
None of those tables measure the thing that matters most, which is fit. When I started as a couples therapist I thought I was exceptional. Then I noticed about 40% of my couples weren’t coming back after the first session. I asked a friend how many of his came back for a second. He looked at me, confused. Everyone comes back for a second session. That humbled me enough to learn.
So the platform is a delivery system. What you’re buying is a person. The best therapy is the one you’ll keep showing up to, with someone you trust. You should leave the first session feeling a little more met than when you walked in. If you’d find it easier to start with a man, ask for one. You’re allowed to be picky about who gets to see you.
If after a handful of sessions you still feel like a stranger in the room, ask for someone else. I’ve said it to clients for years: no couples therapy is better than bad couples therapy. The same holds for individual work.
BetterHelp or Talkspace: which should I pick?
These are therapist matching platforms. They solve the access problem, but they don’t change the therapy model. You still get a human therapist with variable skill levels, so fit still decides it.
BetterHelp suits you if you’re paying out of pocket and want to start this week; its price depends on your location and therapist availability, and some people qualify for financial aid. Talkspace tends to cost more out of pocket, but it is often covered by insurance and offers psychiatry. If you have insurance, check Talkspace first. If you don’t, compare BetterHelp’s quote with Open Path.
If you are deciding between those two, I compared BetterHelp vs Talkspace side by side.
If cost is the real barrier, I put together a guide to free online therapy and the low fee options that actually exist.
What if I might need medication, or something has a clinical name?
Some things should go to a licensed clinician first, not a coach, including the coaching I’ve built. If you’re having panic attacks, if old memories are flooding you, if you’re drinking to get through the day, if you can’t sleep or work, or if part of you has started thinking you’d be better off not here, please talk to a licensed therapist where you live. The same goes for depression, OCD, ADHD, addiction, trauma, eating disorders or bipolar disorder. That isn’t failing. It’s putting the ground in first.
If medication might be part of it, Brightside and Talkspace both pair therapy with psychiatry. Online care may not suit severe mental illness or eating disorders, and controlled medications may require an in-person visit. For those, find a psychiatrist or clinic near you.
And if someone at home is hitting you, threatening you, blocking the door, controlling your money or your phone, or following you, that is not a communication problem to work out in an app. Get help today. The National Domestic Violence Hotline is 1-800-799-7233.
What is the cheapest online therapy, and does insurance cover it?
If money is the barrier, Open Path Collective is where I’d look first. You can also work with a newly licensed clinician for less than you’d pay someone like me, and still get solid care. Community mental health centers and graduate training clinics often have income based fees too.
If you have insurance, use it. Online sessions are generally covered on the same terms as in-person sessions, as long as the clinician is in network. Headway charges no subscription fee; you pay only your plan’s cost share. Alma, now part of Spring Health, works with commercial plans. Psychology Today lets you filter by state, insurance and online sessions. Listings go stale, so confirm the therapist takes your plan.
If depression is the main reason you are looking, I compared the best online therapy for depression separately.
I built Figlet partly because I was frustrated by how expensive therapy is. But cheap help of the wrong kind isn’t cheap.
Is online therapy as good as sitting in the room?
For most people, yes. The research on online therapy, particularly for anxiety and depression, has become solid, and it gets people in the room who would otherwise never show up.
Through a screen I lose something. In the room, I can see one partner’s body close down before they even speak. Online, you lose a lot of the body below the shoulders. But certain conversations go better online. When shame is running the show, some people find it easier to say hard things when they’re not making direct eye contact. My preference is in-person when it’s available and when it isn’t the barrier that keeps you from starting at all. If you and your partner live in California and want a licensed couples therapist, that’s what we do at Empathi couples therapy.
Do I need a therapist, or would a coach do?
Coaching is how we go from where you are now to where you want to go. We only address the past when it emerges in the present. In psychotherapy, we more freely mine the past. A licensed therapist is trained, and accountable, to assess and treat what’s underneath.
The question isn’t “how bad is it?” It’s “how loud is the past right now?” If you’ve got some ground under you and the old stuff speaks in a voice you can hear, coaching can do a great deal. If the broadcast is so loud you can’t stand on anything, you need ground first. A problem in the open ocean is unmanageable. Put the exact same problem in a teacup and you’re not going to drown.
Years ago I sat the exam that decides whether you can practise as a licensed psychotherapist in California. I was so sure I’d walk through it that I’d barely studied. I failed. I had three couples on my calendar that afternoon, so I wiped my tears and went and sat with them, carrying the shame in my body the whole time. The word “licensed” isn’t decoration. No AI is a therapist, including mine. Figlet is coaching, and it will tell you plainly if what you’re carrying sounds like more than coaching can hold.
If the pain is your relationship, the fight you keep having, an individual therapy subscription may not be the right tool. You can start Figlet relationship coaching on your own, even if your partner won’t come.
Why is it so hard to press “book”?
I asked myself whether I needed help for about ten years, with less excuse than most. My mother is a therapist. My father is a therapist. My sister is a therapist. A whole family who could have named my shame, and I didn’t ask. When I finally went to live at Esalen, a facilitator stopped me mid-story and said, “Feelings are sensations in your body. You were asked how you’re feeling, not what you’re thinking.” That’s how I knew I’d needed help. Not from the size of my problems. From how shocking it was to be met.
When you tell yourself “my problems aren’t bad enough,” that is exactly how shame hides. The comparison is a protector doing its job, keeping you from the thing the nervous system treats as more dangerous than the pain itself: being seen in it. For men, I wrote I’m a man and I think I need to talk to someone.
What should I do tonight?
Write two sentences. “What I want is…” and “What keeps happening is…” Read the second one slowly. If it’s mostly about where you’re going, that’s coaching shaped. If it’s old, loud and familiar, that’s worth a therapist. If it’s both, start with the therapist and add coaching later.
Then book one first conversation this week, and say this, word for word: “Is this something you’d treat, or would coaching fit better?” A good therapist will tell you honestly.
What if it’s someone I love who needs help?
Don’t send them a list of platforms. What most people need first is to say one true sentence to someone who won’t rush to fix it: “I haven’t been fine for a while.” Be that someone. Let it land, then offer to sit with them while they book the consult.
Where to go from here
If you’re still deciding between kinds of help, read do I need a therapist or a coach. If you’re curious about AI, read my honest take on AI therapists first. If your pain lives in your relationship, start with the couples therapy apps compared.
And if what you need tonight is help moving forward rather than treatment, I built Figlet for exactly that. It’s a coaching tool, not therapy. You tell it what happened, it shows you the pattern you’re caught in and gives you one line to say. Start Figlet Life Coaching free tonight.
Frequently asked questions
Is Talkspace actually free?
Not for most people. Self-pay plans run about $69 to $109 a week. It can cost you little or nothing if your insurance or employer covers it, so check your coverage on its site before you pay.
What is remote therapy?
Remote therapy, also called telehealth or online therapy, is therapy with a licensed clinician by video, phone or secure messaging instead of in an office. In the US, your therapist generally needs to be licensed in the state where you live.
What is the 2 year rule in therapy?
It usually refers to a professional ethics rule. The American Psychological Association’s Ethics Code bars psychologists from sexual relationships with former clients for at least two years after therapy ends, and even after that the psychologist must show there has been no exploitation. Some other professional codes are stricter.
Is online therapy as effective as in person?
For most people, yes. Studies comparing online and in-person therapy for anxiety and depression find similar results. Fit with your therapist matters more than format.
Does insurance cover online therapy?
Often, yes. Online sessions are generally covered on the same terms as in-person sessions when the clinician is in network. Talkspace, Brightside, Headway and Alma all work with insurance. BetterHelp’s insurance is limited.
What is the cheapest online therapy?
Open Path Collective is among the cheapest licensed options: a one-time $65 membership, then $40 to $70 per individual session, or $30 with a supervised student intern. If you have insurance with a low copay, an in-network therapist through Headway or Psychology Today may cost even less.
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When talking turns into the same fight
Figlet is relationship coaching built on 17 years of couples therapy. Talk through what is happening the moment it matters, get a clear next step, and stop circling the same fight. Private, judgment free, ready whenever you are.
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Figs O'Sullivan
Founder · EFT couples therapist
“What I would tell you at 10pm, if I could.”
