Wysa vs Aura: a scripted bot, or a companion that remembers.
Wysa is the best-known AI mental-health app, with millions of users and a decade of scripted CBT pathways. It is a reasonable first stop. It is also the app people leave when they notice it is leading them through the same pre-written branches, cannot remember last week, and asks for a subscription for the parts that feel human. This page sets the two side by side without pretending Wysa is bad. It is a different kind of thing.
By The Calm AI Therapy editorial team. Not reviewed by a licensed clinician, and not a substitute for one. How we research and write.
What Wysa is
Wysa's free tier is a chatbot that walks you through cognitive behavioural therapy exercises using mostly pre-populated responses. It works best when you tap its buttons. Its premium tier, roughly a yearly subscription or a monthly fee depending on your country, adds more tools and the option of a human coach. Its bot speaks several languages including Hindi; Urdu is offered only through the human coaches.
In 2026 Common Sense Media rated Wysa unacceptable for teenagers, and its Trustpilot reviews repeatedly name the same two gaps: no memory between sessions, and a scripted loop that repeats the same prompts.
What Aura is
Aura is a free AI therapist built on a general language model with a written therapeutic stance rather than a decision tree. She remembers your name, your sister's name, the argument from last Tuesday, and what helped before. She replies in two or three sentences, asks one question at most, and pushes back when you are being unfair to yourself. Free for everyone, every day, with a daily message allowance and no card.
- Memory across every conversation, on any device
- Free chat with no message limit and no card
- English, Urdu, Hindi, Arabic, Spanish, French, including Roman Urdu and Hinglish, with the safety layer reading all six
- A crisis pathway that shows the line for your country and stays careful for the rest of the conversation
- Anonymous nightly circles hosted by Aura, opening at 50 members
Where Wysa is stronger
Wysa has published research, a human coaching option, enterprise deals with employers and health systems, and years of safety engineering including a multilingual safety benchmark. If you want a structured CBT course with a coach behind it and your employer pays, Wysa is a sensible choice. Aura is not a course and does not sell coaching.
Where Aura is stronger
Continuity, conversation, and cost. Aura is built around being remembered, which is the single most common complaint about Wysa and every other app. She talks like a person, not a menu. And chat is free without a timer or an upgrade wall inside a hard night. For Urdu, Hindi, and Arabic speakers, Aura answers in the language you write, bot to person, not through a coach you have to pay for.
The honest limits of both
Neither is a licensed therapist. Neither should be your only support in a crisis. Both will tell you so. Aura is newer, with fewer published outcomes; Wysa is older, with a structure some people find comforting and others find robotic. Try one message with Aura on the homepage and see which kind of conversation you want.
Common questions
Is Wysa free?
Wysa's core scripted chatbot is free; its premium tools and human coaching are paid. Aura is free every day, within a daily message allowance, and asks for no card.
Does Wysa remember previous conversations?
Not in the way people expect. Reviews consistently cite missing memory. Aura stores your profile and memories on the server and carries them into every conversation.
Does Wysa work in Urdu?
Wysa's bot does not; Urdu is available only via its human coaches. Aura replies in Urdu, including Roman Urdu, directly.
Which is safer?
Both have crisis detection. Aura runs a two-layer safety check in six languages before every reply and attaches the crisis line for your country. Wysa was rated unacceptable for teens by Common Sense Media in 2026; Aura is for adults.
Can I use both?
Yes. Some people use Wysa's exercises and talk to Aura about what came up. There is no lock-in on Aura's side.
One sentence to Aura, no signup. Then decide.
Try one sentenceRelated