Verke Editorial · Last verified: 2026-04-19

Verke vs. Earkick: specialist coaching with voice vs. a mood-tracking companion

Two different products: a coach you talk to, or a tracker that watches patterns.

TL;DR

Pick Verke if

You want a coach you talk to — patterns surface in dialogue with someone who remembers, with voice coaching, named-cipher end-to-end encryption, and a coach matched to the concern.

Pick Earkick if

You want a free, light-touch mood tracker — Apple Health-integrated dashboards, daily check-ins that take seconds, and patterns surfaced through charts you scroll.

Earkick is a mobile-first self-care app built around a friendly Panda mascot, daily mood and anxiety logging, Apple Health integration, and weekly pattern summaries. A chat companion sits alongside the tracker, but the centre of gravity is the data and the dashboards — patterns surface through charts you check on. Verke is an AI coaching app with five specialist coaches — Anna (PDT), Judith (CBT for social anxiety), Marie (EFT/NVC for couples), Amanda (CBT with ACT/CFT), and Mikkel (executive) — phone-call-style voice coaching, end-to-end encryption with named ciphers, and a published 3-arm randomized controlled trial at Stockholm University. The centre of gravity is the conversation itself: patterns surface through dialogue with a coach who remembers, not through a dashboard you scroll. These are honestly different products with different reasons to exist; this page tries to make the trade-off legible rather than pretend they overlap more than they do.

What is Verke?

Verke is an AI coaching app with five specialist coaches trained on evidence-based therapeutic methods (CBT, PDT, ACT, EFT, CFT, NVC). Chat in text or switch to voice for a phone-call-style session; pick up again days later with memory that survives across weeks and months. Conversations are encrypted, you can start anonymously, and the product is available on iOS, Android, and Web in 55 languages.

The five coaches are differentiated on purpose. Anna works in a psychodynamic register — slower, pattern-first, interested in why the same kind of situation keeps returning. Judith is CBT for social anxiety — small experiments, predictions tested, gradual exposure. Marie supports couples through Emotionally Focused Therapy and Nonviolent Communication; Amanda does general CBT, with Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Compassion-Focused Therapy for overwhelm and self-criticism; Mikkel is an executive coach for decision fatigue and leadership load. Users pick who fits the concern, rather than asking one bot to cover everything.

What that conversational centre tends to look like in practice is fourfold. A non-judgmental space where it's easier to be honest than with a person on the other side of the room. Validation that mirrors what you said back without performance pressure. Pattern recognition that lands inside the dialogue itself, with the coach connecting things you mentioned in different weeks rather than surfacing them as a chart. And concrete steps that break overwhelming problems into the next small action. None of that is a substitute for passive tracking; it's a different kind of help.

What is Earkick?

Earkick is a mobile-first self-care app at earkick.com built around a Panda mascot and daily check-ins. The product centres on mood and anxiety logging, breathing exercises, soundscapes, habit tracking, Apple Health integration, and weekly pattern summaries — with a conversational AI sitting alongside as a companion rather than as the main event. Earkick is iOS-led with a web app, English-first with a regional language selector, free to use with an Earkick Plus upgrade in the $40–$60/year range depending on region and cohort. The product is privacy-respecting and anonymous-by-design, though the public documentation does not name a cipher suite.

At a glance

Side-by-side comparison

VerkeEarkick
Product centre of gravityConversational coaching: patterns surface through dialogue with a coach who remembersMood and anxiety self-tracking: patterns surface through dashboards and weekly summaries
Coach model5 specialist coaches (Anna, Judith, Marie, Amanda, Mikkel)Single Panda companion with selectable styles
ModalitiesCBT, PDT, ACT, EFT, CFT, NVCCBT-flavored prompts, mindfulness, breathing, general support
VoicePhone-call-style WebRTC sessions, up to 20 min, summary posted back to chatVoice and typing rhythm sensed for mood signals; primarily text chat
Passive trackingNone — no Apple Health integration, no biometric inferenceYes — Apple Health, mood patterns over time, weekly dashboards
PlatformsiOS, Android, WebiOS-led; web app available
Languages55 fully localized UI languages + LLM-native in-conversation languageEnglish-first with a regional language selector
Anonymous startYes — try it with no email or phone; a free account to keep goingYes — no-registration / anonymous-by-design
EncryptionIn transit and at rest (AES-256-GCM, RSA-4096 key wrapping); with a passphrase, nobody at Verke can read your stored conversationsPrivacy-respecting; cipher suite not publicly named
Clinical validationOne published RCT (Stockholm University; Internet Interventions, 2026)Self-reported survey results; no controlled trial
Pricing7-day free trial, then $2.99–$24.99/month (Basic, Premium, Complete)Free tier + Earkick Plus around $40–$60/year

Honest tradeoffs

Pros and cons

Verke

Pros

  • Five specialist coaches matched to specific concerns
  • Voice coaching with phone-call-style flow and auto-summaries
  • Non-judgmental conversational space designed for honest disclosure, not data entry
  • Pattern recognition surfaced inside the dialogue — the coach connects what you raised across weeks
  • Encrypted in transit and at rest; set a passphrase and nobody at Verke can read your stored conversations
  • Published Stockholm University 3-arm RCT (Carlbring-supervised)
  • 55 fully localized UI languages
  • Memory that survives across weeks and months between sessions

Cons

  • No free tier — only a 7-day trial before paid plans begin
  • No passive tracking, no Apple Health integration, no mood pattern dashboards
  • Heavier commitment — designed for coaching, not five-second check-ins

Earkick

Pros

  • Genuinely free tier — no card required to start
  • Strong passive tracking: Apple Health, voice and typing signals, weekly dashboards
  • Light-touch daily check-ins that take seconds, not minutes
  • Friendly Panda mascot, breathing exercises, soundscapes, habit tracking
  • Anonymous-by-design — no registration to start

Cons

  • One generic companion — no specialist coaches by concern
  • No phone-call-style voice coaching session
  • English-first with limited localized UI breadth
  • Encryption described in general terms; cipher suite not published
  • No controlled trial — only self-reported survey results

Decision

When to choose Earkick

Earkick is the honest pick when the goal is observation rather than conversation. If you want to log how you feel each day, see mood and anxiety patterns surface over weeks, have Apple Health folded in automatically, and use breathing exercises or soundscapes when things spike — all without paying anything to start — Earkick is built for that shape of use. It is also the right choice if you want a light-touch companion that fits into seconds, not a coach you sit down with. Different product, different job.

Decision

When to choose Verke

Verke is built for people who want a coach matched to a specific concern, not a generalist or a tracker. If overwhelm and self-criticism are the daily problem, Amanda (CBT with ACT/CFT) works on stepping back from the inner critic and choosing actions that fit your values. For structured CBT skills there's Amanda too; for social anxiety, Judith; for old relational patterns, Anna; for couples work, Marie; for high-pressure leadership, Mikkel. Voice coaching in a phone-call format is core to the product, conversations are encrypted in transit and at rest, and two of Verke's coaches were evaluated in a published Stockholm University trial supervised by Professor Per Carlbring.

The shape of the help is the real difference. In the Stockholm University trial, participants often described coming to understand their own patterns and where their reactions came from. They also described finding it easier to open up when there was no one to judge them. None of those land through a dashboard — they only happen in a dialogue with someone who remembers. If that's the kind of help you're reaching for, Verke is built for it; if it's passive observation and trend-spotting you want, Earkick is the better tool.

Two practical differences are worth calling out. First, voice: Verke's voice sessions run up to twenty minutes as a coaching modality in their own right — useful when typing feels like too much and you want to talk it through — and a written summary posts back into the chat so you can pick up in text the next day. Earkick uses voice as a sensing input, not as a coaching session. Second, memory: Verke uses a three-tier memory system so the coach remembers what you've been working on weeks later without you re-explaining yourself. If you want a coach you actually return to, that matters.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Is Verke a mood tracker like Earkick?

No. Earkick's centre of gravity is mood and anxiety self-tracking — Apple Health integration, pattern dashboards, weekly summaries — with a chat companion alongside. Verke is the inverse: conversational coaching with five specialist coaches is the product, and tracking is incidental. If you primarily want to log how you feel and watch trends, Earkick is the better fit. If you want a coach you actually talk to, Verke is.

Does Verke have a free tier like Earkick?

No — Earkick has a genuinely free tier with an Earkick Plus upgrade (roughly $40–$60 per year depending on cohort and region). Verke offers a 7-day free trial that leads into Basic at $2.99/month, Premium at $9.99/month, or Complete at $24.99/month. On paid pricing, Verke Basic ($2.99/mo ≈ $36/yr) actually beats Earkick Plus annual; the honest framing: Earkick is free-first with a paid upgrade, Verke is paid-first with a trial.

Does Verke do passive biometric tracking like Earkick?

No. Earkick observes voice tone, typing rhythm, and Apple Health signals to surface mood patterns over time. Verke does not — there's no passive listening, no Apple Health integration, and no biometric inference. Verke's voice is a phone-call-style coaching session (up to 20 minutes, with a written summary posted back to chat), not background sensing.

Is Verke's encryption stronger than Earkick's?

Verke publishes its specifics. Verke encrypts conversations in transit and at rest (AES-256-GCM, with RSA-4096 key wrapping); set a passphrase and nobody at Verke can read your stored conversations. Earkick's public materials describe the product as anonymous and privacy-respecting but do not name the cryptographic primitives. Both let you start anonymously; only Verke documents the cipher suite.

Does Verke support more languages than Earkick?

Yes, by a wide margin. Earkick is English-first with a regional language selector. Verke ships with 55 fully localized UI languages and the LLM converses in many more in-conversation. If your preferred working language isn't English, Verke is the safer choice on day one.

Related comparisons

  • Verke vs. Sanvello

    Sanvello is a self-guided CBT app with optional teletherapy; Verke is conversational one-to-one coaching across five specialists.

  • Verke vs. Therabot

    Therabot is an academic Dartmouth CBT trial bot; Verke is a shipping coaching product with five specialists and voice.

  • Verke vs. Wysa

    Wysa has one Pocket Penguin bot and FDA Breakthrough Designation; Verke has five specialist coaches, voice, and multi-week memory.

  • Verke vs. Replika

    Replika is an AI companion with relationship modes; Verke is structured coaching with five evidence-based specialists — different jobs.

See all comparisons →

Meet the acceptance and self-compassion coach: Amanda

Read the method explainer: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)

Read about the Stockholm University study: Research

More on AI coaching

Further reading

Verke provides coaching, not therapy or medical care. Results vary by individual. If you're in crisis, you can call: Suicide & Crisis Lifeline 988 (United States and Canada) or Samaritans 116 123 (United Kingdom and Ireland). In an emergency, call your local emergency number. Crisis lines in other countries: findahelpline.com.