Comparison

WINNR vs Relay (2026): Relay App Review and Comparison

WINNR vs Relay, checked October 2026. Relay's 149 dollar year, small groups and Zoom meetings, ratings, what your group sees, and who should pick which.

By the WINNR team · Published 25 October 2026 · Updated 25 October 2026 · 15 min read

Prices, ratings and privacy details checked on 25 October 2026.

The short answer: pick Relay if what you need is other people. It puts you in a private group of 5 to 8 men, with daily check-ins, a group chat and optional live Zoom meetings, for 149 US dollars a year, and you can start tonight. Pick WINNR if you want your data kept in the EU, a counter that keeps your history after a slip, a blocker, and a path to a real psychologist at 49 euro a year. WINNR launches on iOS and Android in December 2026; until then it is a waiting list, not an app on your phone.

WINNR publishes this comparison. We have tried to be fair; every claim about Relay links to its source, and we apply the same privacy, pricing and evidence questions to ourselves as to Relay.

At a glance

Relay review: what it is and how it works

Who makes it

Relay Health Inc., a US company, listed as the seller on the App Store; Google Play gives a Provo, Utah address, and the Y Combinator profile says Salt Lake City, Summer 2022 batch, team of five. The co-founders, on the About page, are Chandler Rogers and Jace Kendrick.

How it works

Relay is a group programme first and an app second. Per the homepage and the Play description:

• A small private group of men working on the same goal. The YC profile says teams of 5 to 8; the homepage says only "small group". Groups are separated by gender. You can use a pseudonym.
• A 16-week programme of video lessons, described as developed with licensed therapists. The website does not mention 16 weeks; it sells a full year.
• Daily check-ins. The app asks how yesterday went, and your group sees whether you showed up (for-therapists page).
• Group chat and live meetings. An in-app group chat, with optional Zoom meetings. Reviewers mention weekly meetings; Relay publishes no schedule.
• A 15-minute plan call in week 1.
• Urge logging and tools. A "log urge" button, breathing exercises, pattern analysis, a journal.
• A supporter view. The for-spouses page describes an invite-only view of your check-ins and milestones for a partner, with no screenshots or monitoring.

What Relay does not do: block anything. For a blocker you need a second tool; our guide to the best porn blocker apps covers the free options, and QUITTR is the obvious blocker-first alternative. Relay runs on iPhone (iOS 15 or later), Android and the web, in English only.

What Relay says about itself

The homepage calls Relay a "proven path" and compares its price with therapy at "6k dollars annually", without a source. The YC profile says 79 percent of users reported improvement in their first month, with no method. The same test applies to WINNR, which has no user count or outcome figure at all.

Relay pricing, free trial and ratings (as of October 2026)

The website pricing section is clear: 149 US dollars a year, billed annually, after a 7-day free trial. The guarantee page adds a 30-day money-back promise: email support@joinrelay.app within 30 days and Relay refunds website purchases; store purchases must be refunded by Apple or Google.

The stores are messier:

Sources: the US and UK App Store listings, 25 October 2026. Google Play shows no price range. Some are probably legacy price points, but the listing does not say which, so check the payment screen. A Canadian App Store reviewer in March complained that signing up requires starting the trial; the developer pointed to the refund policy.

Cancel in the app's settings, through the store, or via the Stripe link in your receipt. The trial converts to a 149 dollar charge; set a reminder on day 5.

Store ratings, checked 25 October 2026:

• App Store (US): 4.9 stars from about 3,300 ratings on the listing page; Apple's lookup data returned 4.87 from 2,939 the same day. First released 23 August 2021.
• Google Play: 4.8 to 4.9 stars from about 5,000 to 5,400 reviews, depending on the storefront view, 50K+ downloads. Last updated 17 October 2026.
• Trustpilot: could not be fetched; no evidence of 20 or more reviews.

WINNR, for the same test: 9 euro a month or 49 euro a year, published on winnr.now. The first 100 waiting-list members pay 29 euro for the first year. No free tier, no trial, no money-back window published. No store ratings until the December 2026 launch.

Privacy and data

Both apps ask you to write down the most private things you will write this year. With Relay, 5 to 8 people read it. Five questions for each.

Relay

What is collected. The privacy policy (last updated 26 October 2025) lists identifiers (name, email, phone, IP address), commercial data, internet activity and inferences. It does not name check-ins, urge logs, journal entries or group messages as categories, even though those are the point of the app. The App Store privacy label declares email, name and user ID as linked to you, and device ID, usage and "other user content" as not linked to you; device ID sits under the developer's advertising or marketing. The Play data-safety summary says the app may collect personal info, messages and four other data types, shares nothing with third parties, encrypts in transit and lets you request deletion.

Who can see it. Your group, first. Every post, check-in and missed day is visible to the 5 to 8 men in your team, under whatever name you chose. Relay's FAQ says shared content is not tied to your public identity; it does not say what stops a member from screenshotting it, and the terms contain no confidentiality rule. Then Relay's vendors: the policy names only Google Analytics, and says Relay has never sold personal information.

Where it is stored. Not stated. Relay is a US company, so assume US storage.

Retention and deletion. Kept "for as long as necessary", no fixed period. The policy describes no deletion process; the Play listing says you can request deletion. No data protection officer. Minimum age is 16 in the policy, 18 in the terms.

Reported incident. None found.

WINNR

What is collected. The privacy notice (updated 4 July 2026, pending legal review) lists your email, a display handle, subscription status and a Stripe customer reference; and, as special-category data, your questionnaire answers, goals, urge events, counter history, journal entries, community posts, partner messages and AI coach messages. No card details. No cookies or IP logging on the website.

Who can see it. Supabase (database, AWS Stockholm), Hetzner (hosting, Germany), Brevo (email, France), Stripe (payments, US and Ireland), Google (only with Google sign-in). If you opt in to the AI coach, your coach messages are processed by OpenRouter with a DeepSeek model in the United States, under zero-retention terms and standard contractual clauses. That is the one exception to "EU only". The community is anonymous and your matched partner sees only what you send.

Where it is stored. EU servers, with the AI coach exception above.

Retention and deletion. Kept while your account is open; unused accounts are deleted after 12 months; payment records are kept seven years under Dutch tax law. You can delete everything from Settings, actioned immediately, and export your coach data. Other requests: winnr.now@gmail.com, one-month response. No DPO yet; Chino.io is to be appointed at launch.

Reported incident. None. WINNR has not launched, so this is a policy, not a track record.

Who is behind it

Relay

Relay Health Inc., Utah, United States, founded in 2022 according to the YC profile, with an app first released in August 2021 under the name Tribe. Co-founders Chandler Rogers (product) and Jace Kendrick (engineering, previously at Apple); Rogers writes that he struggled for years before a group got him out. The About page lists an advisory board of three: Chris Chandler, a CSAT-S therapist-supervisor; Alana Gordon, a marriage and family therapist and president of APSATS; and Daniel Hochman, a psychiatrist. The terms are governed by US law with a class-action waiver.

WINNR

WINNR is made by Stichting Extraordinary Life (KvK 75069385), a Dutch foundation in Rotterdam. The founder is NJ (Nicolaas van Disseldorp), a coach and researcher. The team of six includes a CTO, a founding engineer, a lead writer with a background in work and organisational psychology, and two practical-interventions consultants, one of whom built group-therapy protocols at a treatment centre. Bios: winnr.now/about.html. WINNR won Impacthon (PLNT, Leiden) in September 2026. Contact: winnr.now@gmail.com.

What real users say about Relay

We read the reviews visible on four App Store storefronts and Google Play on 25 October 2026. The stores show a small, mostly positive sample and we could not load a full list of low-star reviews, so the complaints below are what we found, not a survey. Paraphrased, not quoted.

Recurring praise

• The group and the live meetings. A September 2026 Play reviewer two weeks in said the live meetings helped him admit he needed help. A May 2026 Play reviewer with a ten-year history called it the most effective thing he had tried. An October 2024 App Store reviewer said two meetings did more than months of one-to-one therapy.
• The lessons. A January 2025 Play reviewer praised them and called the price high but worth it.

Recurring complaints

• Quiet or locked groups. A March 2022 Play reviewer gave three stars because his group leader had locked the team at three members and it was used mostly as a chat room; the developer offered to move him. A testimonial on Relay's own site mentions a new group that was not very active. Your experience depends on the match.
• Connection through text. An August 2022 App Store reviewer found it hard to connect by chat.
• The mandatory trial and the price, as above.
• A March 2026 Play reviewer wanted breathing exercises available without logging an urge first.

Head-to-head

Be honest about the first row. Relay's live groups and Zoom meetings are the strongest thing in this comparison, and WINNR's anonymous community and one matched partner do not replicate them; what WINNR offers instead is a cheaper, more private route to a psychologist once sessions open, a counter that does not punish a slip, and a blocker in one app.

What the research says

Be careful with every company's claims, ours included. A 2022 content analysis in JMIR Formative Research reviewed 170 apps for problematic pornography use and found that none cited direct evidence of effectiveness or safety. That is still true of Relay, whose "proven" and "79 percent" claims come with no published method, and it is true of WINNR. WINNR's science page says so plainly: the cited evidence concerns the methods WINNR uses, nobody has checked whether WINNR itself works, and a controlled study is planned after launch.

Relay's model is closest to a peer support group: daily contact, a team that notices when you go quiet, and lessons its advisors say draw on attachment theory and CBT. Whether it works is not published.

WINNR builds on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, with CBT elements, and self-monitoring with goal setting and feedback; the screener is the PPCS-6, a validated six-item scale. The team also draws on the Dual Control Model of sexual response (Bancroft and Janssen) to understand how urges rise and fall, as a model to design around, not as proof that WINNR works.

Neither app is a treatment, therapy or crisis service. If porn use is seriously hurting your life, add a licensed therapist to either app.

When WINNR is the better choice

• You want your journal, urge log and posts kept in the EU, with a named processor list and a delete button that works immediately.
• You do not want 5 to 8 strangers reading your daily check-ins, however anonymous the handle.
• A missed check-in broadcast to a group is the pressure that makes you quit the app, not the habit.
• You want a blocker and the habit tools in one app.
• You want a path to a psychologist without therapy prices, and you can wait.
• 49 euro a year fits and 149 dollars does not.
• You are 15 to 17. WINNR is built for men from 15 up; Relay's terms require 18.

When Relay is the better choice

• You need people tonight. You can be in a group today.
• You have tried solo apps, counters and blockers, and what you lacked was being seen every day.
• You want a structured 16-week programme with video lessons, not tools you assemble yourself.
• You want a partner to see your check-ins without screenshots. Neither app does what Covenant Eyes does; Relay's supporter view is a middle ground.
• You want a trial and a money-back window.

How to switch from Relay, or use both

If you are moving to WINNR

1. Join the WINNR waiting list at winnr.now by taking the free 4-minute check. Your place and the founding price are reserved by email.
2. Tell your group. A one-line goodbye in the chat is better than going quiet; the group will otherwise assume you slipped.
3. Save your urge log notes somewhere private.
4. Cancel at the source. Web purchase: the Stripe link in your receipt. Apple or Google: the store's subscription settings, 24 hours before renewal. Inside 30 days, email support@joinrelay.app for a refund (web) or report a problem to the store.
5. Ask Relay to delete your data. The policy publishes no deletion process, so email support@joinrelay.app, ask for deletion of your account, check-ins, logs and messages, and get written confirmation.
6. Keep a blocker in the gap. Until December, use Screen Time's adult-site limit on iPhone or Private DNS with a family filter on Android; give the passcode to someone you trust.

If you want to use both

• Relay for the group, the meetings and the lessons.
• WINNR for the blocker, the counter, and the psychologist sessions once they open.
• Pick one app as your official counter so one slip does not become two broken records.
• Relay's chat is read by people; WINNR's journal is read by you. Type accordingly.

Key takeaways

• Relay is a live, highly rated peer-support programme (4.9 App Store, 4.8 to 4.9 Google Play) built around groups of 5 to 8, daily check-ins, 16 weeks of lessons and optional Zoom meetings; 149 US dollars a year after a 7-day trial, 30-day guarantee.
• Relay has no blocker, publishes no data location, and its privacy policy does not list your check-ins or messages or say how to delete them.
• WINNR costs 9 euro a month or 49 euro a year, keeps data in the EU except for opt-in AI coach messages, keeps your history after a slip, and includes a blocker.
• WINNR is not in the stores until December 2026, its psychologist sessions are in development, and it has no outcome data, like every app in this category.
• Pick Relay if what you need is people, tonight; pick WINNR if privacy, price, a blocker and a non-resetting counter matter more than the wait.

FAQ

Is Relay app free?

No. Relay offers a 7-day free trial, then costs 149 US dollars a year on the website as of October 2026. The App Store also lists monthly plans from 7.99 to 22.99 dollars. Limited scholarships exist, by email.

Is Relay app worth it?

If you will actually show up to a group, the reviews say yes: the live meetings and daily contact are what people praise, and the ratings are 4.9 on the App Store and 4.8 to 4.9 on Google Play. If you will not talk to strangers, or you need a blocker, 149 dollars buys features you will not use. The trial and guarantee make it cheap to find out.

Does Relay block porn?

No. Relay does not block, filter or monitor your device. Pair it with your phone's built-in limits or a blocker.

Is WINNR better than Relay?

Today, Relay is the only one of the two you can download. From December 2026, WINNR offers EU data storage, a blocker, a counter that does not reset after a slip and a path to psychologists at 49 euro a year. Relay offers something WINNR does not: a live group of 5 to 8 and Zoom meetings. Neither app has published evidence that it works.

Can I use WINNR and Relay together?

Yes. Relay for the group, meetings and lessons; WINNR for the blocker, counter and psychologist sessions. Keep one as your main counter.

Is my data safe with Relay?

Relay's policy says it has never sold personal data, the Play listing says nothing is shared with third parties, and we found no reported incident. The policy does not say where data is stored, does not list your check-ins or messages, and describes no deletion process. The bigger question is social: 5 to 8 people read what you post.

Want a plan for your own pattern? Take the private 4-minute check. Fighting an urge right now? Open the urge page.