Tools & tracking
Sunnyside vs Door 24: cut back or stop?
These two apps disagree about the goal, which makes the choice unusually clean. Sunnyside is built for drinking less, describes itself as focused on moderation rather than sobriety, and now pairs that with prescribed medication. Door 24 is built for stopping, and for stopping more than one thing. Pick the one whose goal is actually yours.
Most app comparisons argue over features. This one turns on a single question you should answer before you download either.
Sunnyside vs Door 24: the short answer
Do you want to drink less, or do you want to stop?
If the answer is drink less, Sunnyside is built for that and Door 24 is not. If the answer is stop, and especially if alcohol is not the only thing you are stopping, Sunnyside is the wrong shape and no feature list changes that.
What Sunnyside does well
It takes moderation seriously as a goal. Plenty of people do not want abstinence and are badly served by tools that assume they should. Sunnyside says out loud that you should not feel pressured to stop. That is a legitimate position and it is honestly held.
Real human coaching. Coaching is in the product rather than bolted on as an upsell, and the Cutback Coach tier adds more of it. Door 24 has no coaches.
Low friction logging. You can log drinks by text message, which sounds minor and is not. A tracker you actually use beats a better tracker you do not.
Medication, since 2025. Sunnyside Med pairs the programme with telehealth prescribed compounded naltrexone. Worth knowing that a compounded formulation is not itself an approved product even where the underlying drug is, so ask their providers directly about what you would be taking.
It is a clinical platform, not a habit tracker. They describe themselves as an alcohol moderation and telehealth platform, and they mean it.
Where Door 24 is built differently
The goal is stopping, and becoming someone who does not need it
Door 24 is not a moderation tool and will not pretend to be one. The whole product is built on the idea that if your identity does not change, the behaviour comes back, which is why the unit of progress is a Proof of who you are becoming rather than a count of units consumed.
That is a real philosophical difference, not a feature gap. If you want to keep drinking at a lower level, we are the wrong app and Sunnyside is a reasonable choice.
More than one thing
Sunnyside tracks alcohol. Only alcohol. Door 24 tracks up to ten at once, which matters because drinking rarely travels alone. There are dedicated pages for quitting drinking, quitting vaping, quitting weed, quitting gambling and stopping doom scrolling.
Free to start
Sunnyside is trial then paid, at $99 a year for the base tier when we checked. Door 24 is free to start, which matters most at the moment somebody decides to change something, which is rarely the moment they want to enter card details.
Something for the hour, and a record afterwards
Sunnyside gives you a weekly plan and about three minutes a day. Door 24 gives you a Daily Quest for the moment the urge lands, a Crew that notices whether you showed up, and Proofs that stack into evidence a bad night cannot delete.
Side by side
Checked August 2026 against each company's own public materials.
| Sunnyside | Door 24 | |
|---|---|---|
| Goal | Moderation first, quitting supported | Stopping, identity led |
| Scope | Alcohol only | Up to 10 habits |
| Free tier | None, 15 day trial | Free to start |
| Price | $99/yr basic, $298/yr with coach | Free, optional plan |
| Human coaching | Yes, in product | None |
| Medication | Telehealth naltrexone | None |
| Day counter | Not documented | No counter, rolling average |
| Media capture | Not documented | Photo, video, voice, journal |
| Community | Shared prompt, large group | Small private Crew |
| Web app | Yes | No |
Who should pick which
Pick Sunnyside if you want to cut back rather than stop, you want a human coach included, you want the option of prescribed medication, or you want to log by text message and get on with your day.
Pick Door 24 if you are stopping rather than moderating, if alcohol is not the only thing, or if you want a record of who you are becoming rather than a tally of what you consumed. Start free on iOS and Android.
Where our bias sits
We build Door 24. Every claim about Sunnyside here comes from sunnyside.co, their brand facts page, their App Store listing and their Google Play listing, checked in August 2026. Their own pages quote different reduction figures in different places, so treat any single percentage carefully, including ours.
For the thinking behind the stopping side of this, read why abstinence is not enough and what sober curious means.
Sources
- Sunnyside, sunnyside.co including product and brand facts pages, checked August 2026.
- Sunnyside, App Store and Google Play listings, checked August 2026.
- Sunnyside Med announcement, sunnyside.co blog, September 2025.
Frequently asked
Is Sunnyside for quitting or for cutting back?
Primarily cutting back. Their App Store listing describes the app as focused on moderation rather than sobriety, and their product pages say you should not feel pressured to stop if that does not fit your life. Since launching a medication programme in September 2025 they say they are equally happy with either outcome, but moderation is the frame the product was built in.
How much does Sunnyside cost?
Their own pages listed Basic at $99 per year, Cutback Coach at $298 per year and Sunnyside Med at $99 per month when we checked in August 2026, after a 15 day free trial with a 30 day money back guarantee. App Store in app purchase prices were slightly different at $99.99 and $299.00. Door 24 is free to start.
Does Sunnyside track anything besides alcohol?
No. Alcohol is the only habit it tracks. It derives secondary figures from drinking less, such as money saved and calories avoided, but those are outcomes rather than separate trackers. Door 24 tracks up to ten habits at once.
Does Sunnyside have a day counter?
Not one we could verify. The model is a weekly drinking plan with logging against it rather than a streak, which is consistent with a moderation product that has no streak to break. Their materials do not address slips explicitly, so we are not going to characterise it.
