BetterUp Reviews 17

I was invited to join BetterUp as a coach eight years ago, and for many years it was, without question, the most enriching professional experience of my career.
Until about a year ago, my growth on the platform was exceptional: high-caliber clients, diverse coaching formats, and inspiring projects aligned with a strong and meaningful vision. I consistently carried a high volume of active members and sessions, with excellent engagement.
Over the past year, however, my activity has dropped drastically, despite no change in performance, profile quality, or availability. What has been most difficult is not only the decline itself, but the lack of transparency and authentic communication surrounding it.
Repeatedly, coaches are told that “everything is fine,” while the lived experience tells a very different story. Attempts to seek clarity through support channels feel impersonal and scripted, with no sense that anyone has the agency to address deeper, systemic issues. Outreach to leadership has gone unanswered.
At the same time, operational changes — including a shift to a payment provider that is less reliable and slower to respond — have added to a growing sense of uncertainty and mistrust.
This is particularly painful because BetterUp once embodied a powerful vision that many of us deeply believed in. Coaches are the backbone of this mission, yet many long-standing, committed professionals now feel sidelined and unheard.
I still believe the vision is worth rescuing. With honest communication, real leadership, and respect for the coaching community, there is a path forward. But silence and denial only erode trust.
I share this as constructive, lived feedback from someone who genuinely cared — and still hopes the company can realign with the values that originally made it exceptional.

Aweful - I don’t provide free consultancy

This is a racket. They charged me $450 upfront for six 30-minute coaching sessions. I used three over three months. At that three month mark they told me I needed to pay another $450 or lose the unused sessions I'd already paid for.

The program has extremely poor leadership and is a train-wreck service ! Better Up pays the administration at the expense of client wellbeing ! It’s a con!

Not getting involved in anything that has prince Harry in it. Obviously this company hasn't helped him!

I paid for 3 sessions and after 1 session they said I had 1 left. I was waiting on hearing back from a potential employer before I had my second session. They wound up charging me another $174 before I could even use the second one.

I thought this would help me having and interview coach. The coach was great but the platform is a complete ripoff!

Never going back! I was forced to give up my 2 remaining sessions that I paid for in order to get a refund for the 2nd charge.

HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE

Fraud - automatically was signed up for a subscription that I did not authorize.

It really helped me. As a former employee you are going to get disgruntled employees who leave an opinion that is negative. My time there was good and it was a stepping stone to the great job I have now.

Pricing model appears very predatory. Also, Prince Harry’s involvement is not appealing to me.

Watch out! Will charge you after you have cancelled your subscription. I cancelled mine before the next month charge was due and they took the money anyway.

Edit: they refunded the charge after i disputed it so i increased my review

I was trying to sign up to this company.
When I found out that Prince Harry was in charge.
This definitely changed my mind, if he can't get help for his mental health, how can he give advice to others.

This was not a good experience.....the sales pitch is aggressive it is verging on predatory for sure. I almost commited to a package but got cold feet when it felt like I was speaking to someone selling me internet package and not mental health coaching. I am glad I backed out because I read reviews by former employees and it didn't look good and also hi lighted the poor pay pressure to sell and lay offs and that they pay Prince Harry over a million dollars a year and he seems like a mental mess so I can't imagine what that money is for it would be better used on the staff or bring the price down. I guess you always need to be careful with services so heavily advertised on social media.

Review: My coach was average, but unfortunately the materials/assignments didn't unlock any progress for me, personally. But, the biggest problems were the 30-minute sessions and the subscription model.

* Short Sessions: Too brief to get into the heart of any issue, and there's no prep beforehand. Need to pay more for more time

* Lost Sessions: If you don't use session credits within 30 days, you LOSE them. I paid $160 and got nothing – no coaching, reimbursement, or rescheduling option.

This seems predatory and I don't recommend Betterup.

Betterup seems to be one of those semi-harmless internet rackets that have that "you'll know us after you pay" sort of stance. I suppose there are a lot of people that are so insecure about where they stand with themselves and their professions that they need a live person (overwhelmingly a woman...about 1500 in their talent roster around the world) to give them guidance they could probably find for free in thousands of internet articles. They specialize in professional/career coaching and anything that takes more imagination and flexibility than that they don't seem to be able to handle. I gave it a try on a whim because with all those beautiful woman-coaches I thought I could get the exterior female viewpoint on how I was projecting myself in general as a guy that I was in need of, but I shouldn't have bothered. It's 240.00/hr, billed by 2 half-hours so be ready for that, and the first half hour is taken up, probably typically, with nothing but the coach "getting to know you" and finding out what you want. I had already communicated this in no unclear words to the support person who pairs you with a coach, to make sure that they knew what I was looking for in advance and whether they could handle it before I paid anything. Answer was more or less: just because the coach has certain skills/experience on their resume-post doesn't mean that's all they can do. Fair enough, there was hope. After I had the coach's name and access, I sent her a message with this interchange between myself support, so she knew what I wanted before the first session (and maybe she would do her homework and/or tell me she couldn't provide that?), but this message wasn't even responded to. So I nudged through support again, and I finally did get a response from the coach a couple days in advance of the session, not turning me down, just acknowledging what I said, that I absolutely wasn't looking for career coaching (solid career) or dating coaching (I know how the dating scene works very well, and been married 2x with lots of other girlfriends). Sure enough, the half-hour session was just finding out what I wanted haha...just like I'd told the support person already. At end of session the coach said "I'll have to get with Betterup to see if [I or they can handle this]"...again, a redundant communication of what I'd already stated 2x+. There was some followup exchange between me and support after this, with me saying in so many words that I didn't get the feeling the coach could deliver what I was going for, support wrote back post-session saying that Betterup wasn't for me and she was refunding the 2nd half hour 119.00. So I basically spent 119.00 and some typing time an a half hour of face time, with her camera not working, to have the coach try to absorb and restate what she'd already heard from me via messaging, and support via my earlier messages. What I'd call a low-aptitude service, or a subtle string-out, or both. Why bother? I'd look around for free career coaching first, and if you need emotional/crisis counseling, Betterup don't do that. Nor anything in-between evidently. But they are a glamorous bunch.

In July, 2023 I tried to set up ONE counseling session for a friend with Betterup. A date and time was arranged, but the counselor never called. Neither my friend nor I was contacted about why no session had taken place. I emailed the company and warned them not to dare charge me because no service had been provided, but Betterup charged my credit card anyway. My credit card company looked into the matter, found in my favor and credited my account with the amount of the charge for one session. Unfortunately, Betterup continued to charge me monthly and the credit card company indicated I would have to work things out myself with Betterup. I called the number provided to me by the credit card company (415-454-0140) and was greeted by a recorded message indicating that phone was only checked periodically and to leave a message. I did leave a message, asking someone to get back to me, so that this situation could be resolved. Kristina, representing Betterup, emailed me and indicated "we're not able to provide any support by phone", strange for a company that offers counseling by phone. The only thing I was offered, was a COACH. They were offeing ME counseling to help me solve my problem with Betterup. Of course I would have been charged for that also. Betterup continued to charge my credit card for an additional total of $1116.00. A bank representative finally advised me to cancel my credit card and to request a new one, which I did. This practice MUST be illegal and the public needs to be alerted to this disreputable company.

As a chief executive, it is disheartening to make a time and financial commitment to
a platform like Betterup, and to learn that the service lacks the depth and expertise as one would expect. The coaches do not have the expertise that they claim and, therefore, do not add value.

In addition, I had concerns about the confidentiality of my discussions and privacy during coaching calls with coaches. When I inquired about the confidentiality of business strategies, I was told that there was not a defined policy or practice of NDA with coaches.

Further, I experienced terrible customer support that was on the borderline of unprofessional.

It was a great concern that when I needed to pause my subscription for a month, during a very hectic work period, that I could not restart or unpause without getting charged for a full month. It seemed apparent that "pausing" would mean one would be able to restart and continue to use any remaining coaching sessions, without a penalty. However, when I inquired about "unpausing" I went through an endless customer service email cycle that was frustrating and did not honor my time or concerns. I would not recommend this service for personal or business use.