Softwr

Healthcare · head to head

Included Health vs Talkspace

Included Health logo

Included Health

Healthcare

Care navigation and virtual care in one contract for self funded employers and health plans

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Talkspace logo

Talkspace

Healthcare

Consumer online therapy and psychiatry app billed by subscription or insurance copay

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Included Health owning both the navigation recommendations and the virtual care delivery creates a structural incentive to steer members to the vendor own clinicians, and an employer should require disclosure and measurement of how often that happens.; Talkspace without insurance, self-pay plans can run into the hundreds of dollars a month, materially more than many people expect from an app-based service.
  • They diverge on capability: Included Health covers Care navigation, Talkspace covers Messaging therapy.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Included Health and Talkspace actually diverge.

Attributes where Included Health and Talkspace differ
AttributeIncluded HealthTalkspace
Pricing modelquoteSubscription or insurance copay
PlatformsWeb, iOS, AndroidiOS, Android, Web

Identical on both: starting price (On request), free tier (No), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Healthcare).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Included Health

  • Care navigation
  • Provider quality steerage
  • Expert medical opinion
  • Virtual primary care
  • Virtual behavioural health
  • Virtual urgent care
  • Benefits integration
  • Employer reporting

Only in Talkspace

  • Messaging therapy
  • Live sessions
  • Psychiatry
  • Insurance billing
  • Therapist matching and switching
  • Teen therapy

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Included Health

  • A large self funded employer whose members cannot tell which specialist to see and who currently absorbs the cost of poor referral decisionsnot Talkspace
  • An employer that has bought several point solutions and needs one front door that routes members to the ones already paid fornot Talkspace
  • A self funded plan wanting expert second opinions before high cost elective surgery, where a changed recommendation pays for the programmenot Talkspace
  • An employer replacing separate navigation and telehealth vendors with one contract and one member experiencenot Talkspace

Talkspace

  • Someone wanting to start therapy without waiting weeks for an in-person appointmentnot Included Health
  • A person whose insurance is in-network with Talkspace, getting therapy at a standard copaynot Included Health
  • Someone who prefers asynchronous messaging therapy over scheduled live sessionsnot Included Health
  • A patient needing psychiatric medication management alongside or instead of talk therapynot Included Health

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Included Health

  • Owning both the navigation recommendations and the virtual care delivery creates a structural incentive to steer members to the vendor own clinicians, and an employer should require disclosure and measurement of how often that happens.
  • Pricing is per employee per month across the whole eligible population, so a plan with low navigation engagement pays for everyone to serve the minority who call.
  • Savings claims rest on avoided costs and changed referral decisions, which are counterfactual by nature, so performance guarantees need very careful definition or they measure activity rather than money.
  • The company is a merger of three organisations with different origins, and members and benefits teams still encounter seams between navigation, virtual primary care and behavioural health that the single brand implies are absent.
  • It sells primarily to large self funded employers, so mid market employers and fully insured plans find both the pricing and the implementation effort disproportionate to their size.

Talkspace

  • Without insurance, self-pay plans can run into the hundreds of dollars a month, materially more than many people expect from an app-based service.
  • Psychiatry is billed as a separate service from therapy, so a user wanting both medication management and talk therapy pays two distinct charges.
  • Message-based therapy is not equivalent to weekly live sessions for every clinical need, and some conditions are better served by in-person or live-only care.
  • Therapist continuity is not guaranteed; a matched provider can leave the platform, requiring the user to rematch and rebuild rapport with someone new.
  • Cancelling a subscription plan requires navigating Talkspace's account settings or support, and complaints about difficulty cancelling or unexpected renewal charges have been documented by users.

Pricing, plan by plan

Included Health

On request
  • Included Health$undefined/year
    • Per employee per month across the eligible population, quoted not published
    • Navigation and virtual care modules priced separately or bundled
    • Some components offered with performance guarantees tied to measured savings

Talkspace

On request
  • Messaging Therapy (self-pay)$undefined/week
    • Roughly 69 USD a week billed monthly, messaging only
    • Live session add-ons cost extra
  • Messaging Plus Sessions (self-pay)$undefined/week
    • Roughly 99 to 129 USD a week billed monthly, includes live sessions
  • Insurance plan$undefined/session
    • Cost set by the user's own insurance plan, not Talkspace, when in-network
  • Psychiatry$undefined/visit
    • Initial evaluation priced separately, commonly a few hundred dollars
    • Lower cost follow-up visits

Which should you pick?

Choose Included Health if

  • You need care navigation.
  • You work on Web, iOS, Android.
  • You also want provider quality steerage.
Included Health review

Choose Talkspace if

  • You need messaging therapy.
  • You work on iOS, Android, Web.
  • You also want live sessions.
Talkspace review

Questions people ask

Is Included Health or Talkspace better?
Neither clearly leads. Included Health starts at On request and Talkspace at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Included Health or Talkspace?
Included Health starts at On request and Talkspace at On request.
Does Included Health or Talkspace run on more platforms?
Included Health runs on Web, iOS, Android. Talkspace runs on iOS, Android, Web.
What is Included Health best used for?
Included Health is most often used for a large self funded employer whose members cannot tell which specialist to see and who currently absorbs the cost of poor referral decisions, an employer that has bought several point solutions and needs one front door that routes members to the ones already paid for, a self funded plan wanting expert second opinions before high cost elective surgery, where a changed recommendation pays for the programme, an employer replacing separate navigation and telehealth vendors with one contract and one member experience. Of those, a large self funded employer whose members cannot tell which specialist to see and who currently absorbs the cost of poor referral decisions and an employer that has bought several point solutions and needs one front door that routes members to the ones already paid for are not what Talkspace is typically brought in for.
What can Included Health do that Talkspace cannot?
Included Health covers Care navigation, Provider quality steerage, Expert medical opinion, Virtual primary care. Talkspace covers Messaging therapy, Live sessions, Psychiatry, Insurance billing.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Included Health: What exactly is Included Health?

The combination of Grand Rounds Health navigation, Doctor On Demand virtual care and the original Included Health concierge service, operating under one brand since late 2021.

Talkspace: Does insurance make Talkspace cheaper?

Yes, if in-network with your plan, you generally pay your plan's standard copay rather than Talkspace's self-pay list price.

Included Health: Who pays for it?

The self funded employer or the health plan pays a per employee per month fee. Virtual care visits may also carry member cost sharing depending on plan design.

Talkspace: Is psychiatry included in a therapy plan?

No, psychiatry for medication management is billed separately from therapy subscription plans.

Included Health: Is there a minimum size?

No published minimum, but it sells primarily to large self funded employers and the pricing and implementation effort do not suit small organisations.

Talkspace: Can I choose my own therapist?

You are matched initially based on an intake questionnaire, but you can request a different therapist if the match is not a good fit.

Included Health: How does it recommend providers?

Through data driven quality analysis rather than a plain directory. Ask specifically how those recommendations are produced and how often they resolve to the company own virtual clinicians.

Share

Related pages

More on Included Health

More on Talkspace

Keep looking

Other head to heads