Alongside vs Mithra by MannSetu

Alongside is a wellness platform for K–12 schools, founded in 2022, with self-guided tools and clinician-built coaching chats. Its student service is designed for grades 4–12, while Alongside for Educators offers self-help resources for faculty and staff. Students can chat confidentially about challenges 24/7 and receive clinically informed techniques drawing on CBT, DBT, ACT and mindfulness. They can track moods, set goals, journal, watch mindfulness and social-skills videos, and complete personalized exercises covering more than 50 common issues, including friendships, self-esteem and anxiety. Schools can add universal mental health screeners and social-emotional competency assessments, and school and district dashboards report usage and student concerns. For detected suicidal ideation risk, the described response can involve a standard assessment, connection to 988, notification of school personnel and safety planning. Alongside says AI is not used for universal screening or crisis-severity assessment. It is available in a browser and through iOS and Android apps. The service is self-help, not therapy, medical advice, treatment or a crisis service; screening does not provide a diagnosis.

Mithra by MannSetu is an AI wellness companion for voice or text conversations and mood support. It offers mood tracking, journaling, progress summaries, and voice emotion analysis alongside CBT-based exercises, behavioural activation, breathing, and grounding practices adapted for Indian contexts. It supports Hindi and English, including Hinglish code-switching, and is available on Android, iOS, macOS, web, and Windows. MannSetu says each message passes a risk screen and crisis support can surface Tele-MANAS 14416 and emergency number 112. The maker says Mithra does not diagnose or replace professional therapy, and no licensed clinician reviews conversations. MannSetu states that data is encrypted at rest with AES-256 and in transit with TLS 1.3; application-layer encryption remains in progress. Data is currently hosted in AWS us-east-2 in Ohio, with migration to AWS Mumbai in progress and no firm date. The free plan has daily limits for text and voice, plus mood tracking, journaling, and seven-day session history. Student is ₹199 a month plus 18% GST, and Premium is ₹399 a month plus 18% GST. Premium has a 14-day free trial. Campus Shield is ₹50 a year for institutions.