SoberTool alternatives: 4 different flavours of sobriety app

Short answer: If SoberTool's daily readings and craving help work for you, stay with it. For peers and pledges, pick I Am Sober; for clocks shared with accountability partners, pick Nomo; for a customisable counter with a forum, pick Sober Time. Pick Sobermark if you want a private tracker with no social layer.

SoberTool (now listed in the stores as Sober) is a recovery app developed with an addiction counsellor. It is known for daily readings and in the moment craving help, and it has a distinct recovery programme flavour, closer in spirit to a sponsor and a daily meeting than to a simple counter. Plenty of people find that exactly right, and the fact that it is free is a genuine strength.

But that flavour is also why people look elsewhere. If the programme style readings do not speak to you, or you want a cleaner tracker, a community of peers, or just a different feel, there are good options. The four below each take a different approach, so this is less a ranking and more a menu.

Full disclosure: Sobermark is our app, so we are not neutral. We have tried to keep everything below fair, and we tell you when a rival is the better fit.

I Am Sober: the community flavour

I Am Sober is one of the most popular sobriety counters, available on iOS and Android. Its centre of gravity is the daily pledge, you commit in the morning and review at night, and a large community of users sharing experiences, grouped by habit and by how far along they are.

Where SoberTool gives you a counsellor's voice, I Am Sober gives you thousands of peers. If what you miss in SoberTool is other people, reading a message from someone on day 9 while you are on day 9 yourself, this is the strongest pick on the list. It covers many habits beyond alcohol. Parts of it sit behind a subscription, so check the store listing for current pricing.

Sobermark: the private tracker flavour

Sobermark goes the opposite way from both SoberTool and I Am Sober: no programme, no feed, no community, by design. It is a calm, private tracker for whatever you are quitting, alcohol, smoking, vaping, weed, gambling or a custom habit, with a day counter and money saved, time reclaimed and units avoided calculated from your own numbers.

It is not bare, though. There are craving SOS tools (a hold on breathing exercise and a ride it out timer), a journal with moods, milestones and badges, and Bern, a friendly blue bear mascot who offers steady encouragement without ever scolding. A slip resets the counter and nothing more is said about it. There is no account or sign up, and your entries stay on your phone.

It is on both Google Play and the App Store. Sobermark gives every new user a 3 day free trial, then costs £17.99 a year, or you can pay weekly, and Google Play also has a one-off lifetime option.

Nomo: the free clocks flavour

Nomo is built around free sobriety clocks. You can run several at once, one per habit if you like, and it was made by someone in recovery, which gives it an unpretentious, practical feel. Its standout idea is accountability partners: you connect with people who can see your clocks and be there when a craving hits.

If SoberTool's free version was a big part of its appeal and you mainly want counters plus a little human backup, Nomo is the natural alternative. It is available on both iOS and Android. The design is more utilitarian than the newer apps here, which bothers some people and not others.

Sober Time: the customisable counter flavour

Sober Time is a long standing sobriety counter for iOS and Android that handles multiple addictions and is known for customisable counters, you can change how your progress is displayed until it looks the way you want. It also has a community forum, though the community is a feature rather than the whole point, as it is with I Am Sober.

It sits somewhere in the middle of this list: more social than Sobermark, less programme like than SoberTool, more visual polish than Nomo. If you want a straightforward counter you can make your own, with a forum available when you feel like company, it is a sensible choice. As ever, check the store listing for what is free and what is paid at the moment.

What the evidence says

• Relapse rates for substance use disorders are 40% to 60%, similar to illnesses like asthma and high blood pressure, according to the US National Institute on Drug Abuse. A slip is common, not a verdict.
• The US National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism says “urges to drink are short-lived, predictable, and controllable”, and advises riding one out because “it will soon crest like an ocean wave and pass” (Rethinking Drinking).

Who should pick what

If the daily readings and counsellor written craving help in SoberTool actually work for you, stay put. It is free, and none of the apps here replicate that recovery programme voice.

Want peers and pledges: I Am Sober. Want free clocks with accountability partners: Nomo. Want a counter you can customise, with an optional forum: Sober Time. All three run on iPhone and Android, as does Sobermark.

Want the quiet option, a private, judgment free tracker with craving tools and no social layer at all, on Android or iPhone: that is Sobermark, and it is the one we would obviously point you to.

Common questions

Is SoberTool really free?

It is free to download, but it now shows ads and offers a paid Premium tier. As with any app, check the current store listing in case anything has changed.

Which alternative is most like SoberTool?

None of them exactly. SoberTool's daily readings and recovery programme tone are fairly unique. I Am Sober's daily pledges are the closest ritual; Sobermark and Sober Time are closer to plain trackers.

I do not want anyone to see my progress. Which should I pick?

Sobermark is the most private by design: no account, no community, entries stay on your phone. Sober Time and Nomo can also be used quietly, just skip their social features.

Do any of these work on iPhone?

I Am Sober, Sober Time and Nomo all run on iOS, and so does Sobermark, on both Google Play and the App Store.