2.8 Million. That’s how many apps are on Google Play today.
From to-do lists to banking to online shopping, utilizing apps improves and streamlines certain areas of our lives.
So, why not our marriage? What couples app out there can improve your relationship?
These relationship-building, game, therapy, intimacy, finance, organization, and exercise tracking apps (free and paid) for married couples are the best ones for 2023.
the best apps for married couples
For better or for worse, our lives are tied to technology.
While many wish they could unplug from technology, there’s no doubt that we also benefit from the convenience of our phones and the services they provide.
Out of the millions of apps out there, can any phone app help our relationship?
Ryan and I decided to do what we do best: research and study the best apps out there for married couples to improve our relationship.
After almost 5 years of testing, here is what we found: the good, the bad, the ugly. We tell you which apps for married couples are worth it, and which relationship apps you should skip.
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The 11 Best Apps For Married Couples in 2023
Here’s your comprehensive guide to the best apps for married couples in 2023:
1. Hey Ritual – Best Overall Relationship App, with video counseling (paid)
2. Love Nudge – Best Relationship Building App (free)
3. Evergreen – 2nd Best Relationship Building App (paid)
4. Gottman Card Decks – Best Conversation App (free)
5. MasterClass – Best Intimacy Course on App (paid)
6. Coral – 2nd Best Intimacy App (paid)
7. Cozi Family Organizer – Best Shared Calendar & Lists (paid)
8. Monarch – Best Shared Finance App (paid)
9. BODi (formerly Beachbody) – Best Exercise App (paid)
10. Walk the Distance – Best Walking Competition App (free)
11. 1Password – Best Password Manager & Security App (paid)
Not what you were expecting?
Here’s the deal: Ryan and I have been researching and using these apps and updating this article for years. We cannot tell you how many apps disappear, quadruple their prices for no reason, don’t add as much value as a YouTube TedTalk, and are a plain waste of time.
We also cannot tell you how many app developers email us to put their budding, rinky dink apps on this list… aka the apps for married couples industry is a big business.
Clearly, there are strong feelings here (hah!) but in all seriousness, these apps will TRULY help and grow your relationship. They’ve stood the test of time, are worth every penny, and we’ve used them all personally for a long time.
That’s why there are only 11 recommended apps for married couples on this list — all highly curated and approved by two relationship experts and a husband-wife duo.
Some apps aren’t couple-specific because we took a holistic view of all parts of your relationship: from sex, family finances, and everything in between.
Don’t worry, at the bottom of this article, we tell you the couples apps to never pay for. This includes the self-proclaimed #1 Couples Counseling App despite not offering any one-on-one counseling (cough, cough, Lasting). These apps are okay to use as their free versions, but aren’t worth the high subscription costs in our opinion.
Okay, let’s get on with it and help better your relationship!
1. Hey Ritual
The Best Marriage Therapy App
- With 20% Duo Life Discount it’s $208/month for couples ($128 for individual counseling)
The Hey Ritual couples therapy app is hand-down the best relationship coaching app.
Other paid apps like Relish, Lasting, and Paired (all recently removed from this list in November 2023) offer great relationship growth instruction, however, they lack the human connection required to make great strides.
“85% of people in couples therapy think their relationship problems are their partner’s fault.”
Ritual is the perfect balance of online learning, partner exercises, and real-life coaching. Meaning a virtual Zoom call with a licensed relationship therapist! Yes, you read that right. Everyone on Ritual is paired with an relationship therapist via Zoom meetings.
Honestly, it’s extremely hard to make any headway if you go at things on your own, even with a great app. Video couples coaching calls help tremendously, and straight away.
Where Hey Ritual gets it right is the combination of both live video calls and lessons in the app. We share more below, but essentially we started down a track on the app thinking that’s where our problem lay… and realized that wasn’t it. The “tracks” available on the app helped us save time, money, and effort by sussing out where we truly needed to be (whether you want to admit it or not!)
That’s the winning combination. Here’s our story.
When we signed up, we got Shirley and had weekly sessions with her and homework assignments through the app.
Shirley hand-picked lessons based on our real video conference conversations. Our first lesson was learning how to adjust to life after kids. That was right up our alley! Or, so we thought.
This wasn’t our first time in relationship therapy. We feel like we have a strong relationship but we always want to continue improving, and our therapist and the app completely understood that.
But, after going through a few lessons of “life after kids,” we realized it wasn’t resonating. Orlee noticed right away in our written responses to the lessons. She said, “You don’t have problems with life after kids. Really, what’s up?”and started skillfully prying the key struggles out of us.
Our struggle turned out to be our recurring argument. According to Shirley, 70% of recurring arguments have no solution.
We have had the same recurring argument since we started dating 12 years ago. We figured it was solution-less, which is why we didn’t bring it up on our own… until Hey Ritual and Shirley solved it in our second session.
Over the years we’ve used a variety of couples coaching apps. We’ve recommended several through our newsletter and blog. So while Hey Ritual isn’t the first relationship help app we’ve used, it’s the best. (And we’ve scored a 20% discount code just for you).
Both you and your partner can be on the same subscription, with the app downloaded to both of your phones. Or, if you partner doesn’t want to join, you can sign up as an individual.
Hands-down, this is the best couples therapy app and our most highly recommended app for couples. Additionally, if you are a couple with trust issues, this is the app for you.
After using the app and completing several sessions, we share our full review of the Ritual Relationship app for more details on our story and experience with the service.
2. Love Nudge
The Best Relationship Building App
Love Nudge is the newly released app by Dr. Gary Chapman, a marriage pioneer and author of The 5 Love Languages.
Hands down, this was the most helpful free marriage app for couples that we tested. It’s well designed, simple to use, genuinely helpful, and totally free app for married couples.
Ryan and I talk often in our Just Duo It program how important it is to express love to your partner in an optimal way.
For example, what’s the point of giving gifts to your spouse if they only care about spending quality time with you? For free marriage counseling, nothing beats the Love Nudge.
This app guides you through a love language quiz, recommends actions that you can do for your partner, and then asks you to set goals to achieve them.
The goals can be pre-scheduled, like giving a back rub or sending an “I love you” text, with alerts. From there, the app tracks how often you meet these goals, plus how satisfied you are that day with your relationship.
The coolest part? Both you and your partner’s accounts are linked, so you can actively see how happy your partner is over time (a weekly, monthly, and yearly calendar of data is shown), and also what your partner’s love language quiz results are.
There’s also a chat section where you can have a private conversation together.
As two engineers, we love this data and the ability to quantify how happy you are within your relationship.
This is a great app for relationship building and it’s an app for every couple, no matter how many years you’ve been married. It’s probably the most helpful relationship tool in your toolbox if you’re not already in couples coaching and therapy.
3. Evergreen
The 2nd Best Relationship Building App
- Paid: $49.99/year
- Download on the App Store
- Download on Google Play
Evergreen is an app that’s like a combination of several on this list, namely Love Nudge, the Gottman Card Decks, Coral, and even aspects of Cozi Family Organizer. If you’re looking for an all-in-one paid app that includes just about everything except counseling, go with this one!
What we like about using Evergreen is it’s fun interface, great variety of questions and quizzes based on science, and a special section where you can submit your favorite date night for real life inspiration.
But our absolute favorite part is the “Our List” section. (Duh! As authors of The Ultimate Bucket List for Married Couples journal, we’re all for lists.)
The idea of the “Our List” is to create an elevated to-do list for your relationship. This could include bucket list items, new restaurants to try or movies to watch, or any other thing that strikes your fancy. How about a sexual bucket list anyone? (More on that below in the MasterClass app.)
We gave Evergreen the runner-up designation for the best relationship building app simply because it’s a paid version of several free apps.
Plus, we believe that all couples could benefit for couple’s coaching (otherwise known as couple’s therapy) — even healthy couples. Evergreen does not offer therapy, which is why Hey Ritual is still #1 for us.
4. Gottman Card Decks
The Best App to Improve Couple’s Communication
Dr. Gottman is arguably the world’s leading researcher on couples, and this is his app.
Similar to card decks, one person can download this app on their phone and read and discuss the questions together.
We were impressed with the Gottman Card Decks app. The truth is, we were expecting it to be corny, but it wasn’t. It was a great relationship app.
After Love Nudge, this is the next best free, relationship building app for married couples. But this is different because it’s a game app for couples.
The categories span topics like “Date Questions,” “Sex Questions,” and the relationship-building “Love Maps.” Here were some of the questions we got:
Date Questions: “What is something small that really makes your day?”
Sex Questions: “What, for you, is the difference (if any) between making love and having sex?”
Open-Ended Questions: “How have your friendships changed lately? Have you grown closer to some friends? More distant from others?”
Additionally, a few categories like “Give Appreciation” and “Expressing Empathy” are designed for one person to review and see how they can work on incorporating more of them into their day.
What Ryan and I liked so much about this app for married couples is that the questions were surprisingly thoughtful and high quality. It even goes into a “Salsa” series of mild, medium, and hot ideas on how to spice up your sex life.
The purpose of this couple app is to create connections and improve communication, and we think it achieves that. Even as a couple who has been together for nearly a decade, we found the questions relevant, new, and fun.
Plus, it’s free! Even our couple’s therapist from Hey Ritual recommended we download the Gottman Card Decks as one of our “homework assignments.”
Our favorite app/streaming service for personal development continues to be MasterClass. We have been sharing a membership for the last two years.
But why is it on our apps for married couple’s list? Two words: Emily Morse.
The Sex and Communication MasterClass with Emily Morse is one that will improve every intimate relationship. She talks about it ALL, and it’s amazing, empowering, funny, and relatable.
The reason why this is #1 (and we have a runner-up below) is because conversations and lessons about sex don’t happen when you’re alone on your phone. They happen together, and watching Emily Morse’s approachable sex class together was so much fun, increased our conversation, and spiced up everything else.
She also gave us the idea of a sexual bucket list which is brilliant.
Finally, the runner-up app below is a paid app as well… so while MasterClass is more expensive, you get a hundred times the value.
For us, we love it because it watches like Netflix except is far more enriching. To learn more, read our full review, “Is MasterClass Worth It?” What’s more worth it and relationship-enriching to watch other classes together, from cooking with Gordon Ramsey to tennis with Serena Williams?
Anyways, if it sounds like I’m preachy, it’s because I love MasterClass. We’ve had our subscription for almost five years already.
The cost of an Annual MasterClass Membership is $142.80. Sometimes, over the holidays, they have a 2-for-1 offer.
6. Coral
Second Best Intimacy App to Spice Things Up
- Free 7-day trial with $59.99 yearly subscription
- Download on the App Store
- Download on Google Play
Coral is everything we want in a couple’s app: science, data, and experimentation. And the fun part? It’s all about intimacy and sex. This is our favorite love app for couples.
All couples! This app is completely inclusive.
Curated by sex therapists, Coral can be downloaded to both you and your spouse’s phones for a shared account.
Take personal quizzes to learn more about your personal sexuality, as well as tackling what you want out of your intimate life with your partner.
The goal is to improve your health and happiness, and exercises are given for you to do together.
As you may be wondering… yes, some of these exercises are sexual.
The reason why it’s a runner-up to the MasterClass course, “Emily Morse Teaches Sex and Communication,” is because there’s something fun, communicative, and sexy in watching MasterClass videos together. With the app, everything is done separately and there are missed opportunities for discussion.
When it comes to talking about sex, we’d rather not have you study on your phone in private, but instead watch a motivating and inclusive speaker bringing it all out into the sunshine in all its power and giggly-ness.
Also, since you’re paying for a subscription no matter what, MasterClass adds tons and tons more value. Specifically for sex, the Emily Morse class covers pretty much the same stuff that you’ll see in Coral, but delivered in a fun and relaxing way.
Just our 2 cents. Here’s more on what it’s like to use Coral:
While our first lesson included a non-sexual exercise recreating a well-known experiment of gazing into each other’s eyes for several minutes (promoting oxytocin), we saw later in the agenda that there were definitely other lessons and activities to spice up your marriage and sex life.
This includes an audio exercise written by their intimacy coaches for topics such as penis massage, vulva massage, and exploring sex positions. And more! This is the best app for couples that lets you touch each other.
We love this couple app’s design and interface, gamifying it and making it fun – not like attending a class.
Another great thing is this app gives you the option to express what you’re looking for, including personal desire as well as non-cisgender preferences.
7. Cozi
The Best Calendar and Planning App for Couples
Create a free account for the basic version or $29.99 for premium
Cozi is the ultimate family organizer, with an impressive 4.8 out of 5 stars according to 300,000+ ratings on the App Store.
Ryan and I have tried so many times to sync our Google calendars together and forgotten to share events. Finally, Cozi was our solution.
Cozi syncs the calendars you keep on your phone and laptop all into one and will send alerts to remind you of upcoming events.
The calendar is surprisingly clear and simple to view, giving you a nice daily view, and even a monthly view if you upgrade to a premium subscription.
Additionally, you can create shared grocery lists and to-do lists so that you and your spouse always have the most up-to-date information.
No more piecing together individual texts throughout the week like… Pick up bananas! Don’t forget to clean the windows!
When things are organized like this, the family is more efficient and gets things done faster. This is the best accountability app for couples out there.
If you aren’t already sharing your calendars and lists, it’s time to sign up for a free Cozi account and start using the app as a couple.
8. Monarch
The Best Money App for Couples
- Paid: $99.99/year
- Download on the App Store
- Download on Google Play
Getting a grasp on your finances as a couple is an important step in every relationship.
As we discuss in our Couple’s Finance Guide, transparency, and getting debt-skeletons out of the closet allows for opportunities to get on a track together and refocus your life goals.
Even for couples who already manage their finances on similar apps like Mint, Monarch pulls double-duty by allowing you link accounts and giving a better overall view of your finances as a couple.
In fact, if you are coming from Mint, you can import all of your history for a seamless transition.
Additionally, Monarch has couple-centric features like setting and contributing to joint goals, be able to load and see both of your investments, and receiving a monthly financial report to both of your inboxes.
Even if you don’t like discussing money, it’s important to optimize your spending habits and take a look at the big-picture of where your money goes every month.
This app for married couples is a no-brainer if toggling between Mint accounts is getting old and prohibitive.
Monarch is our choice now over a formerly used app, Honeydue, which was great years ago but has since fallen behind in updates. This has led to lots of glitches making it too frustrating to use.
9. BODI (fomerly Beachbody On Demand)
The Best Fitness App for Couples
- Paid: Start a free 14-day trial or buy an annual membership for $179/year
Where can you watch fitness videos, log and track your workout calendar, access nutrition programs with recipes, and interact with a free fitness group for accountability all in one place?
The BODi (Beachbody On Demand) app. Even with a free account, you have access to these options (although the workouts are limited to just sample workouts and one 7-day beginner program).
You can also start a free (you’ll need to enter your credit card information) 14-day trial of BODi where you’ll get unlimited access.
We’ve made it no secret that we love following BODi’s workouts and nutrition tools. Their app works great and you can download workouts for offline use.
This is the most effective way to work out, both for your results and your wallet. Plus, as a couple, you can easily share a membership, even if you’re working out to different programs.
Did we mention there is a new meditation and bedtime stretch series on BODi?
Whichever fitness and nutrition app you choose, make it one with a big library so that you can always find something you both like. While Ryan and I usually love to work out together, it’s not always possible (ie. if I’m pregnant), so we love that BODi offers hundreds of workouts and programs.
More options equals a better chance you’ll find something you love.
10. Walk The Distance
The Best Walking Competition App
- Free with the option to upgrade or extend routes for $0.99-$2.99
- Download on the App Store
- Download on Google Play
How could we not include a fitness-style app into this mix? Walk The Distance is one of the best free apps for married couples who are active, outdoorsy, and adventurous.
I discovered this app a few months back when I was looking for information on hiking the Appalachian Trail. This app is for a walking or running competition between friends.
Invite your spouse and select an actual trail, like the Appalachian Trail (2,200 miles), Boston Marathon (26.2 miles), Paris (18 miles), or the Grand Canyon (9.6 miles) among many others.
The app links to your step data from Apple Health, your phone, or wearable.
The map is then populated with how far you’ve gone, where you both are on the trail, and how far you’ve got left.
Plus, along the way, information about famous sites pop up, giving you smaller goals to reach and an actual, historic tour of your trail!
As we share during our 30-Day Weight Loss Challenge, you should be targeting 12,000 steps a day.
A recent study published in the journal, The Obesity Society, concluded that adult dieters who lost 30 pounds and maintained or continued to lose weight tracked 12,000 steps per day.
Overweight adults only tracked 6,500 steps.
For over-achievers with a weight loss goal, view our ‘Walking to Lose Weight Chart‘ to set your weekly mileage target. Then, get on the trail!
12. 1Password
The Best Password Manager for Couples
- Free 30-day trial with $59.88 yearly Family subscription
- Download on the App Store
- Download on Google Play
While not as sexy as a couple’s intimacy app, we had to share 1Password with you. It’s been a huge help to us since we started using it years ago.
Why is it on our list of apps for married couples? Well, Ryan and I share everything and have full access to each other’s accounts — from our Amazon account to our investment accounts. This makes it easy for us daily.
But, if anything were to happen to one of us in a worst-case scenario situation, 1Password would make life a whole lot easier. No missed bills, bank statements, or searching around for each other’s social security number. It’s all there.
Also with 1Password, you can rest at ease with cybersecurity and identity theft. If you’re like I used to be, you have repeating passwords.
Or if you’re not, then you have some document or piece of paper floating around with all of your passwords in one place.
It’s time to move into the next century and secure your passwords the smart way. And, it will make your life easier, simpler, and just plain better.
Create private and shared “vaults” with all of your passwords in one place as well as your credit cards, passports, insurance cards, and other important information.
It’s highly secure and syncs across all of your devices, so you never need to look for a password again. All you have to do it remember one “master password” and it unlocks the vault to all of your passwords.
Secure your data, generate highly complex passwords, and share this with your spouse on a family plan, where you can include up to five family members.
If you don’t have a secure password manager, you’re not protecting your family.
We log into hundreds, if not thousands, of websites every year. Our information is everywhere. This is the first step in securing it.
Enjoy your new apps for couples
What apps for married couples have transformed and improved your relationship?
Write us a comment below on your favorite apps for married couples that have helped your relationship. Tell us why and we’ll add it to the list!
We Passed On These Apps For Couples
Throughout writing this article, I researched and used many, many apps, including apps with 16k 5-star reviews. Honestly, I didn’t love most of them.
Here are the apps I would pass on (at least, the paid versions):
- Lasting
- Paired
- Relish
- My Love
- Between
- Happy Couple
You might be surprised by this list, mainly with Lasting and Paired, the top two couples apps on the US app store.
Lasting is the self-proclaimed #1 Couples Counseling App… yet they do not offer live counseling. That’s a big no-no for us.
To us, Lasting is like a compilation of relationship TEDTalks, all based on science and psychology. We love that! But at most, with the expensive premium subscription of $29.99/month, you get access to live workshops and nothing more. You might as well watch a TEDTalk on YouTube for free.
Try the free version, but hard pass on the paid subscription.
As for Paired, the “#1 couples app,” it is just a bunch of conversation starters… and it’s expensive. Go for Gottman Card Decks instead, which is for free and covers the same topics.
Next, Relish was formerly a great app… but it peaked several years ago. Hello Relish backed off on their live 1-on-1 sessions and mostly are just a couple’s quiz app today.
Relish is not actively building new modules, and we think that if you’re serious about investing in couples therapy, you should go with Hey Ritual. (I know, why do they all have the same names?!)
Next, many apps for married couples seem too corny or basic. For example, I didn’t like the “My Love” app which tracks how long you’ve been together.
After being married, hopefully, you and your spouse can remember your anniversary dates.
I also didn’t like the app “Between,” which appears on many people’s lists of favorite couple’s apps.
To me, it’s worse than the messaging apps you likely already have on your phone (with our favorite being Whatsapp) and the clear typos in English made me worried about security.
Other apps like “Happy Couple” are cute and center on relationship quiz games, but they’re geared towards new couples and not married couples.
I would presume you already know your spouse’s favorite color by now!
I have questions. What do I do?
Ask away in the comments section and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible and address your question in this article accordingly.
For more great marriage and relationship tools, such as the best online couples massage class or our list of couples quizzes to take together, please visit our Healthy Couples page.
Proven Tools for Healthy Couples
A decade of experience, hundreds of hours of research and testing, and over 50,000 words of wisdom condensed into one PDF.
Download our guide for the best books, movies, apps, date night ideas, quizzes, questions, and games for healthy couples.
Hey we're Ryan and Alex
The creators of Ryan and Alex Duo Life. We are a husband-wife duo and “lifestyle engineers.”
After eight years working in the corporate world as engineers, we left our high-powered jobs to tackle our true passion — helping couples engineer their best lives.
The synergy of our engineering minds and ten years of health coaching experience produced Ryan and Alex Duo Life. Our mission is to help you transform your bodies, minds, and relationship as a couple.
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