The Online Therapy Services We’d Use

Over the years, we’ve spoken to several researchers and doctors who specialize in telehealth, including mental-health services. We’ve also consulted therapists who provide therapy in person, online, or both. And we’ve conducted anonymous surveys and pored over customer reviews, as well as therapy (and therapist) communities on Reddit, to gain additional insight on everything from customer service to billing snafus to reimbursement rates.

We’ve also looked at many peer-reviewed studies on online therapy, and we’ve considered news coverage on BetterHelp’s privacy breach, Talkspace’s corporate practices, and pre-pandemic online therapy availability and uptake.

Video therapy is nearly as old as the web itself. Psychiatrist Peter Yellowlees, past president of the American Telemedicine Association, saw his first patient over video in 1991, when he was living in rural Australia and was the only psychiatrist in an area the size of California. The setup, including hardware, cost over $100,000—on each end.

At the time, it may have been hard to see how that could be a practical treatment option. But today, most talk-therapy sessions in the United States are held virtually, according to a 2023 study. When it comes to online video therapy, “the evidence says it can work in all types of people,” said John Torous, who evaluates mental-health apps for the American Psychiatric Association.

Seeing a therapist remotely, through your computer or phone, may be ideal for a number of reasons.

If it’s difficult for you to go to a therapist’s office, for whatever reason, seeing someone online allows you to have an appointment without ever leaving your home.

If you’re having trouble finding a therapist you like, video appointments allow you to expand your search beyond your immediate geographic area. Since licensed therapists are required by law to provide therapy only to patients in states where they are licensed, some states and areas have more therapists available than others. Because therapists can often procure licensure in multiple states, telehealth “can address a lot of the barriers and logistical issues that come with accessing therapy,” said psychologist Vaile Wright, senior director of Health Care Innovation at the American Psychological Association. Indeed, the same 2023 study also found that online-therapy users were more likely to keep a schedule of seeing their therapist at least once every six weeks (versus missing, cancelling, or giving up on in-person appointments).

If therapy is pushing the limits of your budget, depending on where you live, online therapy may cost less than traditional, in-person therapy per appointment—and not just in out-of-pocket costs. It’s also easier to book appointments less regularly if rationing funds is a must. And with online therapy, you don’t have to pay for transportation or possibly take as many hours away from work.

Having expanded options might also make it slightly easier to find someone who takes your insurance. Check Psychology Today’s therapist finder—or another therapist-finding service—to compare online prices against those of the other options in your area.

If you feel anxious about going to see a therapist, an online session may be less daunting. You can curl up with a favorite blanket and a cup of tea during your appointment. “All of the studies we’ve seen suggest that telehealth is as effective as face-to-face therapy, and satisfaction levels remain really high,” Wright said.

In addition, if you’re fed up with the process of emailing and calling new therapists to see whether they have availability, the process of booking on online-therapy platforms may feel quick and easy by comparison (though that depends on the availability of therapists in your state).

Finally, keep the following in mind: Though in this guide we recommend the best online-therapy platforms to begin looking for a therapist, finding the right therapist for you is much more important than the platform you use.

We can think of few things that would be worse than having our therapy sessions made public without our consent. Any platform you use needs to follow the federal guidelines known as HIPAA; this set of guidelines ensures that health information stays between you and your doctor. (Look for third-party verification, such as a credential from NCQA or URAC, to confirm that the company offering therapy is actually following the rules it claims to be following.)

Ultimately, your relationship with a therapist and the services a therapist provides matter far more than the platform you use to connect. The best platform for you is the one where you find a therapist you connect with. But there are a few things any platform you use should have, and there are a few more that make finding and connecting with someone who’s a great fit more likely. Going by our research, we looked for the following:

Licensed therapists: The most basic requirement is that the service connects you to licensed therapists; states issue these licenses, confirming that providers have one of a variety of degrees that prepare them for this work. That means not a chat robot, and not some kind of coach.

Security: Accreditation from either NCQA or URAC, as well as certification from independent security companies like Hitrust, indicate a commitment to giving high-quality care and keeping your data safe.

Video: We focused on recommending services that provide video therapy. Though recent studies suggest that text-based therapy can be effective for some patients (in particular when the alternative is no therapy), there’s still no scientific consensus on text therapy, either as a standalone mental-health service or in relation to video therapy.

Number of therapists: Having more therapists registered to work on a platform means you’re more likely to find someone you want to keep seeing.

Choice of therapists: We focused on platforms where you get to handpick your therapist—not platforms where the therapist is chosen for you.

Nationwide availability: Though we did encounter some promising boutique platforms that operate in only a handful of states, we focused on national platforms for this guide. However, a platform can still work for you as long as it has a therapist licensed in your state, and you get along with that person.

Insurance: We sought platforms that accept insurance. It’s a good idea to call your insurer directly before booking an appointment.

Cost: The price of online therapy appointments without insurance is typically around $110 for a 45-minute video session. On some platforms, the cost can be $80 to $200 more, often depending on whether your therapist has a master’s degree or a doctorate.

Every year since 2018, Wirecutter journalists living in different states have browsed the video platforms that have met our requirements. We look carefully at the appointment-making processes and the video interfaces of each platform, to determine ease of use and general pleasantness. And over the years we’ve had close to a dozen individuals schedule therapy appointments on these platforms and report back on their overall experiences.

One basic fact has hit home throughout our testing: Finding the right therapist is more important than finding the right platform. Some of our testers’ favorite sessions were with therapists they linked up with through platforms other than our picks. For this reason, one of our picks might end up suiting you much better than another. Or you may find that the best online therapist for you works with a company we haven’t tried.

Information was accurate as of December 2023.

MDLive is a great place to start searching for an online therapist. Its platform is secure and accredited. And it had the most therapists across four states of any platform we tested in 2023, so there’s a greater chance you’ll find a good fit. All of our testers have had positive experiences when using the service.

It had more therapists than other platforms in three of our four test states, and scheduling is simple and customizable. Scheduling therapy on MDLive is simple, in part due to the impressive number of therapists. It’s also easy because it lets you book many therapists instantly, and it’s the only platform with a “request appointment” button, so you can directly request alternative time slots to see a therapist who interests you.

The maximum appointment cost is the same as or less than most out-of-pocket therapy sessions. The maximum cost of a 45-minute session through MDLive is $108; this is $1 to $21 less than with Amwell and $76 less than with Doctor On Demand. MDLive accepts some insurance.

The platform is accredited and certified. MDLive is accredited by NCQA. While our other picks are accredited by both NCQA and URAC, we considered only one of these two accreditations necessary. MDLive also earned a certificate from the Hitrust Alliance, an independent organization that evaluates data security.

It’s easy to book therapy in multiple states. MDLive makes it easy to switch states back and forth to see providers and book appointments in other locations. This is a benefit for someone who travels often, who might like to plan therapy sessions with a different therapist when they’re in different states, especially if they spend long amounts of time in another state.

The platform uses inclusive language and makes searching for therapists easy. MDLive also offers a non-binary gender option at signup. The default provider search is by availability, but you can also sort by specialty, gender, and languages spoken.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

Unlike with Amwell video therapy, with MDLive you can’t hide your view of your own face while talking with a therapist. But you can always place a sticky note over the portion of the screen displaying you, as one therapist on another platform suggested to one of our panel testers.

Amwell is another secure place to look for online therapy, and it’s the only platform among our picks that allows you to hide the view of your face (just on your own screen), which some people find helpful.

It offers fewer providers and sometimes costs more. When we compared Amwell with MDLive, we found far fewer therapists to choose from on Amwell in almost every state of the four we considered. And while it costs only $1 more (maximum out-of-pocket) than on MDLive to see many types of therapists on Amwell’s platform, people paying cash who are seeking a therapist with a doctoral degree (versus a master’s) have to pay $21 more for therapy than at MDLive (which charges the same price for you to see any type of therapist). Amwell works with some insurance.

The platform is accredited and certified. It is accredited by NCQA and URAC and has a certificate from the Hitrust Alliance.

Booking therapy in multiple states is simple. Like MDLive, Amwell makes it easy to toggle between states to see providers and book appointments.

The platform does not use inclusive language during signup, and it does not make it easy to search therapists. Unlike MDLive and Doctor On Demand, Amwell does not offer the option of choosing non-binary or transgender when signing up—just “male” or “female,” which may be alienating to people who don’t identify with either. “If I weren’t testing this, I probably would have bounced at that stage,” noted a tester who identifies as non-binary. Further, the default provider search is by date or the option to browse different providers, and you can sort only by gender, language, and whether you want to see a therapist with a doctorate degree (which costs more). Unlike our other picks, Amwell offers no way of sorting therapists by areas of focus; you have to click the photo of each individual therapist and read their bio to figure out their specialities, which can be labor-intensive and off-putting.

Amwell’s video platform allows you to hide the view of your face on your own screen. This feature is unique among our picks, and it results in an experience that’s most like an in-person conversation. Some testers said that when they video-chatted with therapists on Amwell, hiding their own faces made the experience feel most like a traditional therapy session. Without the distraction of seeing themselves, they were best able to focus on the conversation. By hiding your view of yourself, you see only video of your therapist on the screen; your therapist can still see you during the video chat.

If you don’t find a therapist you like through MDLive or Amwell, consider Doctor On Demand by Included Health. Doctor On Demand is NCQA- and URAC-accredited, and, like our other picks, it has a certificate from the Hitrust Alliance.

It offered fewer providers in our four test states, and it costs more. Across our test states, we found that Doctor On Demand generally had fewer providers than MDLive. And overall, Doctor On Demand is more expensive than the other online-therapy services we recommend (though insurance coverage may make this less of a concern). The maximum out-of-pocket cost for a 50-minute session is $184, making this the priciest of all the platforms we recommend. Doctor On Demand also gives an option for an appointment that lasts 25 minutes. Though at $134, it’s still pricey—and way shorter than a standard therapy session. Like our other picks, Doctor On Demand accepts some insurance.

But its providers can also serve young kids. Doctor On Demand is the only one of our picks that has providers who may see children of all ages. MDLive and Amwell start at age 10.

You can’t schedule sessions from out of state. Because the site determines where you are via your computer’s location, it’s impossible for you to schedule out-of-state therapy sessions in advance or to plan future therapy sessions while you’re on a trip in another state, even if you change the state in your profile. Doing this isn’t a problem with the other services we recommend.

The platform uses inclusive language and makes searching for therapists easy. Doctor On Demand’s signup page has a field for gender labeled “other,” a feature that makes this platform feel a little more inclusive. You can search therapists by availability, focus area, gender, and languages spoken.

If you want the lowest price for self-pay online therapy: Walmart Health Virtual Care costs $85 for a 50-minute session, via either video or phone. That makes it the lowest-cost option of any platform offering therapy with licensed mental health professionals we tested—by far.

We saw quite a few providers available within two weeks, in all of the states we checked on this NCQA-accredited platform. Our tester found it easy to schedule and access their appointment. The Walmart Health Virtual Care signup page has fields for gender labeled “other” or “unspecified,” which makes the site feel more inclusive. However, Walmart Health Virtual Care doesn’t take insurance as a direct form of payment, though you can submit receipts to your insurance to see if reimbursement is possible.

Online therapist-finding services don’t directly offer therapy sessions. Instead they connect those seeking therapy to the bios and contact details for dozens—sometimes hundreds—of therapists licensed to practice in their state. Often, therapist-finding sites focus on specific niches to make finding the support you need a simpler, less stressful process. As always, therapist availability and services can vary widely, as can costs and insurance-network participation (if any).

We have not tested the following therapist-finding sites, which offer free or low-cost services to help you find mental-health providers who practice online, in-person, or both. It’s always a good idea to ask potential therapists found through these sites questions about their licensure, as well as how the platforms they use for online-therapy sessions handle data privacy and patient care.

If you can’t find what you’re looking for in this list, try a web search for your specific needs or interests, adding “in [state]” to further narrow options to those that are useful. Sometimes, providers offering the kind of therapy you seek don’t invest in search engine optimization, as the heavy-hitter major platforms do, so try scrolling through a few pages of results before moving on.

Psychology Today’s Find a Therapist is perhaps the most well-known therapist-finding website. It is free for people seeking therapists. And you can search the dozens (sometimes hundreds) of therapists licensed to see you, filtered by practice specialties, insurance-network participation or self-pay options, therapist gender (including non-binary), patient ages they treat (from toddlers to elders), preferred languages, faith, sexuality, and “ethnicity served” (which is not an effective or comprehensive filter). While the Find a Therapist directory includes therapists who offer both online and in-person sessions, Psychology Today also has a specific repository for online therapists. Psychology Today’s therapist listings are international. Therapists pay a monthly fee to be listed.

Alma is a newer, nationwide therapist network that is free to use for people seeking therapists. First you input the type of therapy you’re looking for—individual, couples, family, or child—as well as your zip code, whether you’re using insurance, and whether you’re seeking online, in-person, or both types of sessions. Then you can search available therapists by their identity, specialty, languages spoken, therapeutic approach, degree type, ages served, and whether the provider offers sliding-scale fees. Therapists pay a monthly fee to be listed.

The Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies’ Find a CBT Therapist service is a searchable, nationwide index of therapists who practice cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and possibly other forms of therapy. It includes an option to search according to professionals who provide therapy online.

Inclusive Therapists offers an extensive therapist database searchable by identifiers such as disabled, transgender, neurodivergent, whether they are a person of color, and provider identity, among many others. You can also search by the therapist’s reported spiritual or cultural knowledge, therapeutic approach, focus, office facilities, virtual availability, whether they take insurance or work on a sliding scale, and more. Not surprisingly, with all of these options for you to consider, the site can be a tad unwieldy to use. Most therapists pay a monthly fee to be listed, though the site has some free and sliding-scale options for providers, too.

Therapy for Black Girls is an international therapist-finder meant for Black women and girls seeking a Black licensed therapist. You can search by location and whether the provider offers online therapy, as well as whether they see groups, are accepting new clients, can prescribe medication, or take insurance. Therapists pay a monthly fee to be listed.

Therapy for Latinx connects patients to Latinx therapists nationwide. After inputting a keyword or location, you can search by patient age and/or therapist availability, gender, identity, sexuality, treatment approach, languages spoken, payment options, and whether therapists are accepting new clients or participate in any insurance networks. Therapists pay a monthly fee to be listed.

South Asian Therapists has a global directory of therapists who intentionally serve the South Asian diaspora. You can search available therapists by location, region, type of session, and preferred language. Therapists pay a monthly fee to be listed.

National Queer & Trans Therapists of Color Network offers therapist-finding services designed for queer and trans Black people, Indigenous people, and people of color. After inputting your location, you can search available therapists by languages spoken, whether they provide online therapy, whether they work with patients on a sliding scale, and those who are accepting new clients.

Therapy for Black Men includes listings for 45 states plus the District of Columbia. It offers therapist-finding services designed for Black men seeking a Black licensed therapist of any gender. Patients can search by gender, location, type of therapy, ages served, whether the provider accepts insurance, and whether they offer sessions in-person or online, as well as whether they accept couples, families, and groups, or just individuals. Therapists pay a monthly fee to be listed.

The Neurodivergent Therapist Directory helps connect neurodivergent therapy-seekers with neurodivergent therapists across the US and internationally. It includes listings for 44 states plus the District of Columbia, including a handful of overlapping providers who are licensed in multiple states. It has no search function, but it lists many providers with direct contact information. Therapists pay a one-time fee to be listed.

For a $65 up-front lifetime membership fee for therapy-seekers, Open Path Psychotherapy Collective provides access to a directory of therapists willing to work on a sliding scale. A company representative described Open Path as “a referral agency, like Psychology Today, except we cater to people that are un- or under-insured.” It has some suggested membership restrictions, including household income.

Headway is a startup that is free to use for people seeking therapists who are insured with certain insurance providers. Therapists pay a commission for every appointment booked. It’s currently available in 48 states plus the District of Columbia.

A popular text-based therapy option, Talkspace offers weekly 30-minute video therapy sessions with licensed therapists in conjunction with “unlimited text, audio, and video message” interactions with that same therapist. For weekly video sessions plus messaging, the company’s subscription plan costs $99 per week, billed monthly. Talkspace often has discounts or other promotions available.

You don’t have the same autonomy in choosing your Talkspace therapist as you do with our picks. Instead, you’re presented with a selection of three therapists to consider; you can refresh indefinitely until you find someone who works for you (or run out of options). If you don’t click with your first therapist, it’s easy enough to switch around—choosing from another group of options—until you find someone you like. Talkspace therapists are expected to respond to a client’s unlimited messages a couple of times a day.

One of our testers loved video-chatting with her Talkspace therapist, at the time finding them a better match than any of the therapists she saw on other platforms. This reinforced the idea that, in the end, it’s the therapist—not the platform—that matters most.

Talkspace accepts some insurance.

We previously recommended Teladoc as an alternative to our picks, but a representative informed us that the company no longer offers a self-pay option and instead now works only with certain employers and insurance plans.

In 2023 BetterHelp was fined nearly $8 million after the Federal Trade Commission charged the company with sharing customer data with advertisers. The company is neither accredited nor certified. It offers text-chat and video options, as do BetterHelp brands Faithful Counseling, Pride Counseling, Regain, and Teen Counseling. However, the BetterHelp pricing scheme isn’t available until you start signup, and you do not get any say as to what type of therapist you are assigned (our 2021 tester who asked for a woman of color was routinely assigned men). And, as other reports have indicated, we found some of the company’s practices to be predatory, such as offering “financial aid” (a short-lived discount), if you try to decline the service following signup, and refusing to give a prorated refund, if you fail to cancel a free trial before the week is over (at which point you are billed for a full month, a charge between $240 and $400 per month). BetterHelp does not take insurance.

National Deaf Therapy is a platform offering online therapy services in ASL, with licensed therapists in 22 states focusing on a variety of specialties. The platform is not NCQA- or URAC-accredited, nor is it Hitrust-certified.

Rula (formerly known as Path Mental Health) is a platform offering online therapy services in 43 states and the District of Columbia. It isn’t NCQA- or URAC-accredited, nor is it Hitrust-certified.

HealthSapiens advertises itself as a 24/7 messaging and phone telehealth service with a virtual therapy component. The site’s FAQ section notes that between therapy sessions, you can speak to a “counselor or therapist” as many times as you need for “pre-clinical sessions,” which the company defines as ranging “from talking over relationship issues to having a bad day at work all the way to diagnosis of mental health issues, such as depression or anxiety.” However, this site is not NCQA- or URAC-accredited. It also does not take insurance.

Then there’s 7 Cups, a largely peer-to-peer chat platform that offers therapy with licensed counselors. However, that service doesn’t yet offer video options, nor does it have therapy available in every state. The 7 Cups therapy service costs $150 per month.

Previously text-only, AbleTo now offers phone and video options as well, but only to employees on certain company-sponsored health plans. Headspace (with the service formerly known as Ginger) has also introduced video therapy, but it’s available only to employees of companies that sign up for its services.

If you are having thoughts of suicide, call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, or go to Speaking of Suicide for a list of additional resources. See this list for resources outside the United States.

Shannon Palus contributed reporting in 2018.

This article was edited by Tracy Vence and Kalee Thompson.