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Best Of · Last reviewed August 24, 2026

The Best Grief Apps (2026)

Grief is its own thing — not anxiety, not depression, not a problem to solve. We tested 6 apps designed specifically for loss. Honest 2026 ranking with what each addresses (logistics, daily support, in-the-moment processing).

In crisis? Call or text 988 — Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, free and 24/7.

At a glance

Click any row for the in-depth section below.

  • #1 · Empathy

    Recently bereaved users navigating both logistics and emotional support

    Price
    Often free through employer bereavement benefits; otherwise from ~$20/mo
    On
    iOS, Android, web
  • #2 · Grief Coach

    Sustained daily grief support via text — months and years after loss

    Price
    Subscription ~$10/mo or free for those who request a sponsored membership
    On
    iOS, Android, SMS
  • #3 · Untangle

    Peer connection with others grieving the same loss type

    Price
    Free with optional premium features ~$30/yr
    On
    iOS, Android
  • #4 · ILTY

    Late-night conversational presence when you need to talk about them and nobody's awake

    Price
    Free download; subscription after onboarding $12
    On
    iOS and Android
  • #5 · Sanvello (DISCONTINUED)

    (Used to be: a general anxiety/depression app with dedicated grief content modules, for grief that overlapped with anxiety or depression)

    Price
    (No longer available to consumers — access is via an employer or health plan)
    On
    (Delisted from the App Store and Google Play)
  • #6 · How We Feel

    Tracking the emotional volatility of grief over weeks and months

    Price
    Free, fully (nonprofit, Yale-affiliated)
    On
    iOS, Android

How we evaluated these apps

Inclusion rule: apps in this list must address grief specifically — designed for loss, bereavement, or mourning rather than as a side topic in a general mental-health app. General apps were included only where they have dedicated grief content.

Why grief deserves its own category: most mental-health apps treat grief as a flavor of depression or anxiety, but it's clinically and experientially distinct. Grief has phases (acute, integrated), needs (acknowledgment, ritual, witness), and timelines (months to years, not weeks) that don't map to depression treatment frameworks. The right tool depends on whether you need logistics support (estate, services), daily companionship, peer connection, or in-the-moment processing.

Evaluation: each app tested for (1) grief-specificity vs general mental health, (2) acknowledgment of grief's non-linear timeline, (3) presence vs problem-solving orientation (most grievers don't want to 'fix' grief), (4) crisis routing (grief intersects with suicidal ideation more often than other presentations), (5) cultural and religious flexibility.

Disclosure

ILTY is the publisher of this roundup. ILTY is one of the apps reviewed; we are positioned at #4, not #1. ILTY is NOT a grief-specific app — we're a general conversational companion. We include ourselves because users searching 'grief apps' sometimes want 24/7 conversational presence (the 3am 'I keep thinking about them' moment), not logistics or peer community. For that adjunct use, ILTY is useful. For the structural work of grief — services, estate, daily check-ins, peer connection — the grief-specialist apps are better picks. Pricing accurate as of May 16, 2026. Update, August 13, 2026: this list was audited for discontinued products after two apps were found still being recommended sitewide after they had shut down. Corrections applied here are marked in the entries themselves. Note the limit of this pass: it looked for dead and dying products, and did not re-verify pricing, ratings, or hands-on impressions for the apps that are still live — those still date from the original testing round.

The research behind this

Rankings on this page draw on The 2026 State of AI Mental Health Apps, our own study of 15 apps across 8 criteria. Crisis handling was tested by hand: the same four escalating messages typed into every app, screenshots kept. Four of them never produced a crisis number. Every score is published with the reasoning behind it, including ILTY’s, and the rubric is CC-BY if you would rather score apps yourself.

The apps, in detail

#1 · Empathy

Best for: Recently bereaved users navigating both logistics and emotional support

Full-service bereavement platform — logistics (estate, probate, services) + grief support.

Empathy is the first place to look after a recent loss, especially within the first 90 days. The combination of logistics (which most grievers desperately need and rarely think to ask for) plus emotional support makes it the most comprehensive grief tool available. Check whether your employer offers it free before subscribing.

Strengths

  • +Most comprehensive bereavement platform in the market — handles estate, probate paperwork, funeral logistics alongside emotional support
  • +Live human bereavement specialists, not just AI or content library
  • +Free for many users via employer benefits (now widely partnered with US employers)
  • +Addresses the practical overwhelm that compounds grief in the first 30-90 days

Where it falls short

  • −Heavy lift to set up — most useful in the first months after loss, less so for chronic grief
  • −Without employer benefit, subscription cost is real
  • −US-focused (estate logistics are jurisdiction-specific)

Pricing

Often free through employer bereavement benefits; otherwise from ~$20/mo.

Platforms

iOS, Android, web

vs. ILTY

Empathy handles the structural and logistical layer of grief plus emotional support. ILTY is conversational only. For recently bereaved users, Empathy first.

Visit Empathy →

#2 · Grief Coach

Best for: Sustained daily grief support via text — months and years after loss

Text-message-based grief support — daily messages tuned to your loss type and timeline.

Grief Coach is the right pick for sustained daily support over months and years. The text-message format works because grief doesn't follow a schedule — having something arrive on a hard Tuesday afternoon you didn't see coming is the design intent. Pairs naturally with Empathy (Empathy for the first 90 days, Grief Coach for the long arc).

Strengths

  • +Text-message format is low-friction — no app to open, messages arrive throughout the week
  • +Content is tuned to your specific loss type (spouse, parent, child, sibling, pet) and timeline
  • +Sustainable for the long haul — months and years, not just acute weeks
  • +Sponsored memberships available for those who can't afford the subscription

Where it falls short

  • −Text-only — not interactive, no community
  • −Limited customization beyond loss type and timeline
  • −Won't address logistics or crisis the way Empathy or specialized clinicians can

Pricing

Subscription ~$10/mo or free for those who request a sponsored membership.

Platforms

iOS, Android, SMS

vs. ILTY

Grief Coach is one-way daily texts tuned to your loss. ILTY is interactive conversation when you want to talk. Different shapes; consider both.

Visit Grief Coach →

#3 · Untangle

Best for: Peer connection with others grieving the same loss type

UK-based grief community app — peer support from people who've lost similar relationships.

Untangle is the pick for users who need peer connection — the 'no one else understands what this specific loss feels like' need is what grief peer communities address. Best as a complement to other tools, not a sole intervention.

Strengths

  • +Strongest grief-specific peer community of any app — moderated, loss-type-segregated groups
  • +Free tier is genuinely usable; premium adds curated content
  • +Built by founders with personal grief experience — design reflects real needs
  • +Available internationally despite UK base

Where it falls short

  • −Community quality varies by loss-type group (popular ones are stronger)
  • −Community-based tools have inherent risk of activating-content exposure
  • −Less structured than logistics or daily-support tools

Pricing

Free with optional premium features ~$30/yr.

Platforms

iOS, Android

vs. ILTY

Untangle is human peer community. ILTY is AI companion. Completely different mechanisms — pair them.

Visit Untangle →

#4 · ILTY

Best for: Late-night conversational presence when you need to talk about them and nobody's awake

24/7 AI companion for the 3am 'I keep thinking about them' moment.

Honest assessment: ILTY is not the primary grief tool — Empathy or Grief Coach or working with a grief therapist are better starting points. We include ourselves because some users specifically want the 3am 'I just need to talk about them' availability that nothing else provides. For that specific use, ILTY works. For everything else grief — logistics, daily support, peer connection, clinical work — use the specialists.

Strengths

  • +Available 24/7 — grief's hardest moments often come at night when peer support and clinicians aren't available
  • +Mindful Guide companion is the gentler voice appropriate for early grief; Stoic Advisor handles the philosophical 'why' questions; Mr. Relentless can help with the post-grief agency questions
  • +Won't push the 'stages of grief' framework on you (the linear-stages model is largely outdated)
  • +Conversation history persists — the AI remembers who you've lost

Where it falls short

  • −NOT a grief-specialist tool — no bereavement clinician training, no logistics support, no peer community
  • −Hard paywall — no free tier
  • −Risk: a conversational AI in early acute grief can feel hollow or wrong-fit; this is a 'when it helps, it helps' tool, not a universal grief solution

Pricing

Free download; subscription after onboarding $12.99/mo or $99.99/yr.

Platforms

iOS and Android

Download ILTY

Free to download · 7-day trial · then $12.99/mo or $99.99/yr

Visit ILTY →

#5 · Sanvello (DISCONTINUED)

Best for: (Used to be: a general anxiety/depression app with dedicated grief content modules, for grief that overlapped with anxiety or depression)

Consumer app delisted; folded into Optum/AbleTo as a health-plan benefit.

Kept as a historical entry because Sanvello's grief modules were a common recommendation for grief that presents as anxiety or depression, and people still search for it by name. It is no longer downloadable: the consumer product was retired and absorbed into Optum/AbleTo, where access runs through an employer or health plan rather than the App Store. If Sanvello was your plan, the closest living substitutes on this list are How We Feel (free, Yale-built, covers the emotion-tracking and pattern-normalization Sanvello was used for) and Empathy (live human bereavement specialists, often free through an employer benefit — the nearest thing to Sanvello's clinician escalation). If your grief is genuinely presenting as clinical anxiety or depression, that's a signal to see a clinician rather than to swap one general app for another.

Strengths

  • +(Historical) Strong free tier with grief-specific content available without upgrade
  • +(Historical) Combined platform if your grief included significant anxiety or depression components
  • +(Historical) Therapy upgrade let you connect with licensed clinicians
  • +(Historical) Mood tracking let you see grief's non-linear pattern over time (genuinely useful for normalization)

Where it falls short

  • −DISCONTINUED for consumers — verified 2026-08-13: the App Store listing returns no result, both Google Play packages 404, and sanvello.com no longer resolves. The product was folded into Optum/AbleTo, reachable only through an employer or health plan. Note that several 'Sanvello review 2026' pages still circulating quote a live 4.8 rating and $8.99/mo pricing; that data is dead.
  • −(Historical) Grief was one topic among many — not grief-specialist depth
  • −(Historical) Didn't always address grief's distinct character (treated it as depression with a cause)
  • −(Historical) Less community / human connection than grief-specific apps

Pricing

(No longer available to consumers — access is via an employer or health plan)

Platforms

(Delisted from the App Store and Google Play)

vs. ILTY

Not a live comparison anymore. Sanvello was structured CBT plus mood tracking; ILTY is conversational, and neither was ever a grief specialist — for that, start with Empathy, Grief Coach, or a grief therapist.

Read our full ILTY vs. Sanvello (DISCONTINUED) comparison →Visit Sanvello (DISCONTINUED) →

#6 · How We Feel

Best for: Tracking the emotional volatility of grief over weeks and months

Yale-built emotion-tracking app — useful for grief's emotional volatility specifically.

How We Feel is the best free emotion-tracking tool, and it's particularly useful in grief where the emotional volatility is one of the most disorienting aspects. Pair with Empathy, Grief Coach, or Untangle for the relational/logistical layers grief tracking alone can't address.

Strengths

  • +Fully free, built by Yale researchers — no commercial pressure
  • +Emotion-granularity feature is unique — track precisely WHICH emotion (longing, anger, relief, guilt, fear, etc.) not just 'sad'
  • +Pattern detection over time helps normalize grief's volatility ('I felt okay Tuesday, devastated Thursday — that's actually the pattern')
  • +Beautiful, low-friction UX

Where it falls short

  • −Tracking only — no in-the-moment intervention, no community
  • −Best as adjunct to other grief tools, not standalone
  • −Yale-affiliated branding may feel academic to some users

Pricing

Free, fully (nonprofit, Yale-affiliated).

Platforms

iOS, Android

vs. ILTY

How We Feel is granular emotion tracking. ILTY is conversational. Run both — they don't compete.

Visit How We Feel →

Tired of evaluating apps?

ILTY is on iOS and Android. Free to download, 7-day trial, then $12.99/mo or $99.99/yr. Try it for the tough-love-processing scenario specifically — and see if the conversation feels different from the apps you've tried.

Download ILTY

Frequently asked questions

What's the best app for grief?

It depends on where you are in grief. For the first 90 days after loss, Empathy is the most comprehensive tool (combines logistics with emotional support, often free via employer benefits). For sustained daily support over months and years, Grief Coach is the best long-game tool. For peer community with others grieving the same loss type, Untangle. For 24/7 conversational presence on hard nights, ILTY. Most people use more than one — these aren't either/or.

Can an app help with grief?

For some aspects, yes — logistics support (Empathy), daily reminders that grief is normal (Grief Coach), peer community (Untangle), emotion-pattern detection (How We Feel), 3am conversational presence (ILTY). For the actual work of grief — sitting with loss, integrating it into your life, building meaning afterward — apps support the process but don't replace the core grief work, which most often involves human relationships, ritual, and time. If grief is severe or prolonged (complicated grief), please see a grief-specialist therapist; apps are not the right primary intervention for clinical-level grief presentations.

Is grief the same as depression?

No — and this is one of the most-replicated findings in grief research. Grief has distinct phenomenology (waves of intense longing, not pervasive low mood; non-linear timeline; presence of meaning rather than emptiness; intact self-worth). It also often coexists WITH depression, which complicates things. The DSM-5 distinguishes 'normal grief' from 'persistent complex bereavement disorder' specifically because conflating the two leads to wrong treatment. Apps designed for depression often miss this distinction; grief-specific apps don't.

How long does grief last?

Honest answer: indefinitely, but its character changes. Acute grief (intense, intrusive, daily) typically integrates over 6-24 months for most losses. Integrated grief (waves, anniversaries, ongoing relationship with the absence) often lasts the rest of your life and is not pathological. The 'stages of grief' five-step model (Kübler-Ross) was originally about dying patients and has been widely misapplied to bereavement; current grief research uses the 'dual-process model' which assumes ongoing oscillation between loss-orientation and restoration-orientation. Anyone who tells you grief is supposed to be over by month X is wrong.

Related reading

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