I Am Sober reviews
What users love and hate, from real reviews
A sobriety tracker and day-counter for every kind of addiction — from alcohol to self-harm — wrapped in a supportive community, whose central tension is that almost everything valuable sits behind a paywall while half its teenage audience gets banned for being underage.
What users love
The day counter and visible progress are what keep people here
Reviewers say again and again that the growing day count itself — and the fear of breaking the streak — keeps them sober better than anything before: watching the days, months and years pile up is the motivation.
The fear of breaking the streak has really helped me unlike before that I just imagine them in my head, but now that I fear to end the streak has helped me of addiction for up to a week now
It's very nice to know how many people are sharing the same milestones with me. You are not alone.
I love how easy it is to setup and use, just hit 500 days sober!!
The community is a lifeline: "you are not alone"
People call the community the part that literally saves lives: it's easier to talk about addiction with others who get it than with anyone else, and the mutual support and check-ins keep them from relapsing. Many admit they wouldn't have made it this far without it.
Everyone who posts supports each other and checks in on you. If not for the community I wouldn't have made it to as far as I have. It feels so good to know theres others like me
i like the community feature. it's hard to talk about any addiction with someone who doesn't understand it, but it's welcoming to be around people who get it
welcoming and supportive community. Unlike any other social media / support platform.
Daily pledges and motivational reminders pull you back into focus
The daily pledge, reminders and motivational messages land well: they keep people mindful, stop them letting their guard down, and remind them why they started. The ability to write down your own reasons to quit and reread them is a particular favorite.
I like the daily pledges they have you do where you can add photos/texts and it creates a montage of all the reasons why you're staying sober.
Sometimes i forget about them and make the mistake of letting my guard down. And that's usually when i relapse. But now I'm always conscious of my negative behaviors.
the reasons for quitting section really helps to keep you going, as well. I like to read over them and add a new one here and there
Works for any addiction — not just alcohol
Despite the name, the app covers a huge range: self-harm, smoking, vaping, porn, nail-biting, drugs, eating issues. People value how specifically they can tailor it to their own struggle, triggers and goals.
Though named 'I Am Sober' this creation of art has a wide category of things you may be dealing with besides alcoholism.
I also like how specific you're able to get with your struggles, triggers, and goals.
it has everything from smoking drinking skin picking and much more
Doesn't shame you for relapsing — a gentleness people single out
A key trait: the app doesn't make you feel bad after a slip and reminds you it's okay to make mistakes. For people in a fragile state that non-judgmental tone is itself a reason to stay — and for some it literally gave them "a reason to stay alive."
it doesn't make you feel bad about yourself when you do it again.
this app reminds me that it's okay to make mistakes. It helps me remember why I want to get better.
I really think it was helpful for me it gave me a reason to stay alive
What users hate
Almost everything useful is locked behind a $40–120/year subscription
The tools you need most in a crisis — logging urges, the "urge breakers," extra addiction slots — are all paywalled. Users say bluntly: if someone is struggling enough to download the app, give them at least one working tool for free instead of a $40–120-a-year journal.
if I'm actively struggling so hard I downloaded an app at least give me 1 urge breaker I can actually use. you might as well just go buy a journal because that's all this is unless you want to spend 40-120 dollars a year
why do you have to pay for everything?!?!? can't we just have an app that we can recover our addiction and not have to worry about paying for it ?!!
it shouldn't cost money to reclaim your life
Underage bans wipe out half the actual audience
Users get permanently banned for being "underage" — often adults, often by what looks like AI moderation — and the ban wipes every post and story along with the account. The irony is that much of the audience is teenagers, so the ban cuts off exactly the people who need the community most and triggers relapses.
banned me permanently for posting from an underage account, im an adult. like 50% of the users are teenagers so it doesnt make any sense. i lost my acc and all the stories from 2023 till now for absolutely no reason
apparently underage people aren't allowed to be sober and share about their experience. got banned for wanting to interact with other people in the community 0/10 do not recommend
They banned my account saying I'm underaged. Do I have to prove them my age now? I lost all my posts and relapsed as well.
Your progress doesn't survive a new phone — backup is paywalled too
Without a subscription progress doesn't sync: a new phone, a reinstall, or a stolen phone wipes every day, story and workbook entry, and there's often no way to log back into the old account. Several people directly blame this lost progress for relapsing.
I was robbed and lost everything I owned including my phone the fact that they can't even have our progress saved and backed up without the subscription is absurd I hope they know they're the reason I relapsed again
terrible app. if you get a new phone it will force you to make a new account. the option to log into your old one is non existent.
I hate how backing up the app is blocked behind a paywall. I recently had to get a new phone because my old one stopped working suddenly and having all of the progress and my workbook entries wiped
The subscription is sprung only at the end of a long onboarding
You only find out the price and that payment is mandatory after filling in a pile of questions about why you want to quit. It feels like a trap: you do all the emotional work and the reward is a paywall with "no way out," even when a free trial is promised.
makes you pay after filling out all the questionnaires on why you want to be sober and there's no way of getting out of it even when they say there's a free trial
It would have been nice to know the price before adding all my info. Boooo
Makes you go through a lengthy setup then offers you their forced subscription.
Auto-moderation flags harmless posts and cuts you off from the community
The auto-moderator repeatedly flags totally harmless posts (about dyeing your hair, wanting a pet) as guideline violations and blocks them. In a "support app" you end up isolated from the community precisely when you need it most.
everytime I try and post a story about wanting to dye my hair or wanting a pet because I feel off or I'm bored the app tells me I'm violating guidelines when I'm not it's annoying
so much for a "support" app when im litterally isolated from the community bc of this useless automod. quit getting on me so much for posting the same stuff everyone else is
it's good but I don't even post anything against the guidelines and it blocks me from posting. what the hell man?
The free tier is strangled: only 2 addictions, no urge logging
Even loyal users hit the free-tier ceiling: only two addictions at once, no urge logging, no helpful techniques. Anyone fighting several things at the same time is forced to pay or live with a crippled tool.
I do like the premium, but I wish the free version allowed you to track more than two addictions at a time.
I wish I could do 4 kinds of addictions without paying money or log my urges without paying money
it's not very helpful because all it does is show how long you haven't done your issue but you want log urges with out paying
Pledge notifications are flaky and quietly die
The daily-pledge and review reminders work for a day or two, then go silent, while community-reaction notifications keep coming. For forgetful users that's critical — reminders are the whole point — and they constantly have to reset them.
The pledge reminder and review reminder notifications constantly need reset. You will get those alerts for a few days then the just stop.
the app has completely stopped giving me notifications about daily pledges/review after 1 or 2, which is not very good if your forgetful. it still gives notifications about community posts and people giving reactions
Reset my counter with no warning and for no reason.