Reframe: Drink Less & Thrive reviews
What users love and hate · 500 reviews analyzed · ★ 3.1
A science-based app for cutting back on or quitting alcohol, with education, tracking and community — powerful for those who stay, but greeting newcomers with a long questionnaire and a paywall at the exact moment they've poured their heart out.
What users love
The science of alcohol is the most-loved part: you understand what's happening to your brain and body
For happy users the heart of the app is the neuroscience and education: research-based daily material explains how alcohol affects brain and body, which lifts the "I'm broken" feeling and restores control through understanding.
lifesaver. seriously. always thought I was "broken" - quitting attempts failed for that reason. Reframe is teaching me the SCIENCE behind alcohol. it's not our fault!
I like the emphasis on the science behind the strategies.
great information on neurological impacts of alcohol, emotional, mood and perception changes from alcohol
Community, coaches and Zoom meetings: the support people stay for
Live Zoom group calls, forums and coaches make people feel they're not alone — you can join without camera or voice. Many call the community the best part of the program and rate it above AA for its non-judgmental feel.
great app. daily tasks, in a "ok to skip and come back to later" way. amazingly, there are live zoom group meetings! wow!
The best thing about the program is the group meetings. The sense of community is so meaningful in this journey.
this is a fantastic app I like having the ability to attend meetings without actually leaving my house I didn't even have to turn on my camera or talk if I didn't want to
A gentle path with no cold-turkey or religion: an AA alternative
The approach of small, steady change instead of cold turkey, and without the religious frame of the 12 steps, gives hope to those AA didn't fit. No pressure to quit entirely, no shaming — just learning to change your relationship with alcohol at your own pace.
I love the approach of small, consistent change instead of cold turkey like AA. It's given me hope that I can kick this habit and keep it gone for the first time in years.
I had a really hard time swallowing the AA program due to the religious aspect of it.
This is a great alternative to 12 step and religious programs, and is very informative.
Drink tracking and daily tasks that keep you on track
Drink logging, cut-back goals and short daily tasks with check-ins create accountability and visible progress — plus they clearly show money saved and day-by-day health improvements.
Tracking my alcohol intake and setting goals had helped so much! One week in and it's made a huge difference!
The short daily tasks are perfect for me.
its great having daily reading materials based on scientific studies and also encouraging to see my logged drink progression.
More than just alcohol: mental health, habits and lifestyle
Many note the app works on the whole person, not just drinking: sleep, anxiety, diet, neuroplasticity, relationships and finding meaning. Courses and meditations make it useful even for those simply on a wellness kick.
Way more than just a drink tracker. If you want to work on yourself as well as cutting down / stopping drinking this app is for you!!!
Much more than an alcohol control app, reframe touches almost every aspect of successful living.
Puts all of the mental health tools I've been learning over the past 20 years in a concise, simple format.
What users hate
Long questionnaire, then a paywall: a bait-and-switch feeling
By far the most common grievance: tens of minutes of questions about how much you'll save by quitting, a promise of a plan — and then a hard paywall at the very end, with no free version at all. People call it predatory, a scam, a con precisely because the cost isn't disclosed up front.
after a long questionnaire, they do not offer even a single free simple version
scam. it seems free, takes you through a LONG quiz, just to finally tell you that it's an expensive subscription
paywall after setup. classic con. get lost.
A trial that charges immediately or silently when it ends
"7 days free" turns into a charge on the day you sign up, or a sudden yearly bill with no promised reminder. Amounts run from $40 to $89, and people often find out only from their bank statement.
I signed up for a 7 day trial 3 days ago and this app charged me immediately. I want a refund.
7 day trial ended and I was supposed to be notified. There was no notice and they charged my card for $80!
I was charged over $40 during my trial week.
No support: emails to the team vanish into the void
Despite a "we're here to help" slogan in every email, refund and help requests go unanswered — people get ghosted after a first reply, or fobbed off with canned responses. Against an addiction backdrop, the silence feels especially cynical.
There's absolutely no support for this app. Plastered all over the app and also in every email that they send me it says "we're here to help"
worst customer service, they don't get back to you if there is a problem, I have emailed several times and asked for a response
I emailed the same day requesting a refund. No response. I followed up a week later and still received no response.
Login broken: email code never arrives, password "incorrect"
The barrier starts at sign-up itself: the verification code never arrives, not even in spam, and on account creation the app keeps insisting "incorrect password" with no reset option. Some people can't get in at all — sometimes after already paying.
I have downloaded this app twice now, a few months apart, but have never been able to use it as the code sent to my email adress never comes through, not even filtered to spam.
won't even let you sign up keeps saying wrong password??
Can't even get past the email verification. No verification code sent. used multiple emails. even checked spam folder.
Buggy and crashing: freezes on the questionnaire, crashes on open
The app freezes at the same point in the questionnaire, drops into an infinite loading loop, or crashes right after opening — and reinstalling doesn't help. Android owners (Pixel, Galaxy S24) complain especially that screens won't scroll.
App freezes at the same place preventing you from going any farther. this happens even when uninstalling and reinstalling.
keeps crashing or locking into an infinite loop. That's shoddy programming.
couldn't even make it thru the questions section as it wouldn't scroll. (Have a Pixel 7a for a phone.)
Can't unsubscribe or get a refund: auto-renewal that won't let go
Cancellation is buried so deep that people resort to disputing the charge through their bank; some get billed again after cancelling — a yearly sum months later. Refunds get denied citing "policy," sometimes keeping half the money.
It's really difficult to cancel. They use automatic renewal, and you really have to search to cancel.
Long after you give up and forget the "service," you'll get slammed with a six month autrenewal. Surprise! It's their real revenue model.
tried to unsubscribe and still got billed.
Price feels high, especially when treating addiction with the money "saved on drinking"
$80–160 a year is out of reach for many, and for this audience specifically: financial hardship is a common cause of drinking. Charging someone the exact amount they'd save by not drinking strikes many as ethically indefensible.
Financial hardship is one of the main causes of alcoholism, someone seeking help, does not need to be reminded they do not have money after completing a long questionnaire.
To charge someone with an alcohol problem the money they'd be 'saving' not drinking in exchange for that money to go to a subscription price is heinous.
what a gip, makes like it cares then asks $120 a month
Android version is cut down and wipes entries: a platform penalty
Even for loyal users the Android build trails iOS: rotating the screen erases everything typed into the journal, there's no Dry January challenge, group chats arrive empty — all at the same price as iOS.
if you are journaling and the phone goes from landscape to portrait (or vice versa), everything you have written is erased. So very frustrating.
the app is made for apples so if you're an android user you are paying the same price for half the features.
it only gets 4 stars because of the serious inconsistencies with the android app and the iOS app. I have to use my iPad to access some features that I cannot get on my phone.