Meditation Apps to Give You a Sense of Calm
Updated on 15 Feb 2024 • 6 min read • posted by Tania
Do you want to find more clarity, achieve a calm state of mind, and experience less stress in your life? If so, you should try meditation! Meditation, a practice that originated on the Indian subcontinent thousands of years ago, has since spread across the world. It is now known as one of the best ways to practice mindfulness and offers a myriad of health benefits.
If you are just starting your meditation journey, meditation apps could be a perfect support for you. There are plenty of paid and free meditation apps, so you can choose what suits you.
Best Meditation Apps of 2024
- For a comprehensive approach: Headspace
- For a small budget: Insight Timer
- For sleep: Aura
- For beginners: Medito
- For exploring the world of meditation: Meditopia
- For stress relief: Calm
- For fans of minimalism: Oak
- For podcast fans: Healthy Minds
- For families: Smiling Mind
- For overcoming anxiety: Ten Percent Happier
Headspace
The pioneer among meditation apps, with an emphasis on personal meditation guidance and the scientific research behind meditation. Available practices cover lots of topics such as release from stress, sleep meditation, staying focused and productivity. It is well-organized, provides additional features, and is a good meditation app for beginners.
Headspace features:
- Guided meditation
- Send as a gift
- Reminders
- Badges, stats, and progress tracking
- Podcasts
- Breathwork
- Bedtime stories
Prices:
- Free basic plan with limited functionality
- A 14-day free trial of the Premium plan
- Premium plan for:
- $12.99 per month
- $69.99 per year (saves 85.89$)
- $99.99 per year for family (up to 6 accounts)
- $9.99 per year for students
Insight Timer
Insight timer is other comprehensive meditation app. It provides over 150,000 free guided meditations and meditation courses on widespread topics: stress release, anxiety, focus, better sleep, self-love, etc. The practices collection is one of the biggest, featuring a wide variety of authors. For those who are experienced enough and don't need guidance, there is also a meditation timer available. The provided timer functionality is quite impressive, offering background music, intermediate marks configuration, start/finish sounds, warming-up, and the ability to save all this as a preset. Wow!
The other interesting thing here is social functionality. You can connect with your friends and mentors and share your achievements after signing in.
Insight Timer features:
- Guided meditation
- Simple meditation timer
- Friends connections
- Easy to search meditations
- Stats and milestones for tracking your progress
- Integration with Apple Health Mindful Minutes
Prices:
- Free basic plan with limited functionality
- Premium plan for:
- $9.99 per month
- $59.99 per year (saves 59.89$)
Aura
Aura is an all-in-one wellness app that learns how best to help you. It offers a range of mindfulness meditations, life coaching sessions, CBT techniques, sleep sounds and stories and even more self-care practices. It features calming visuals and personalized tracks. The premium plan gives access to the world’s largest library of premium wellness tracks, created by therapists around the world.
Aura features:
- Personalized recommendations
- Daily notifications
- Sleep stories
- Life coaching
- CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy)
Prices:
- A 7-day free trial of the Premium plan
- Premium plan for:
- $11.99 per month
- $59.99 per year (saves $83)
- Lifetime plan for $399.99
Medito
Medito is a completely free app developed by the non-profit organization Medito Foundation. It’s created for people who have never meditated before or who want to deepen their meditation practice. The app offers courses with topics ranging from learning to sit, mindfulness, etc. It also contains a sleep section with sounds, stories, breathing exercises, different meditations, including a 30-day challenge.
Medito features:
- Different meditations
- Sleep section with sounds
- Breathing exercises
- Sessions to help you deal with stress, anxiety, pain and low-mood
- Vibrant community
Prices: free
Meditopia
Whether you need simple music for relaxation, a full guided meditation practice, or even a whole course, this app will provide it to you.
Available practices are divided by topics: mindfulness, release from stress or anxiety, better sleep, loneliness, tension, motivation, focus, etc., including more specific topics like body positivity and romantic relationships. You can choose meditation based on your skill level and current needs or abilities.
Meditopia features:
- Guided meditation
- Relaxation music
- Self-assessment and tests
- Challenges
- Badges
- Reminders
- Podcasts
Prices:
- Free basic plan with limited functionality
- A 7-day free trial of the Premium plan
- Premium plan for:
- $2.49 per month
- $29.99 for 1 year
- SOUL plan for:
- $3.58 per month
- $42.99 for 1 year
Calm
The Calm app curates soothing soundscapes and immersive sleep stories that gently guide you into a deep, restful sleep. What we especially appreciate is how it helps to relax, reduce stress levels, and enhance overall well-being through daily meditations and mindfulness practices. Calm also offers a feature that tracks our progress and the growth in mindfulness and mental wellness over time. It's more than just an app; it's a companion that helps navigate the stresses of daily life.
Calm features:
- Guided meditations
- 7 and 21 day mindfulness programs
- Sleep stories
- Send it as a gift
- Share stats
- Stretching exercises
- Podcasts
Prices:
- Free Basic plan with limited functionality
- A 14-day free trial of the Premium plan
- Premium plan for:
- $14.99 per month
- $69.99 per year (saves $109.99)
- Lifetime plan for $399.99
Oak
Beautiful application with a minimalistic design and impressive functionality. It offers various types of guided practices for meditation, breathing, and sleep. The built-in meditation timer is quite flexible and will help you to practice on your own.
Oak features:
- Minimalistic design
- Guided meditation
- Simple meditation timer
- Simple yogic breathing exercises
- Sleep meditation
- Integrates with Apple Health
- Progress tracking
Prices:
- Basic plan with limited functionality for free
- Full meditation course for $5.99
Healthy Minds Program
Healthy Minds app combines meditation and podcast-style lessons to train your mind and unlock skills for focus, stress reduction, and positive social connections. With guided meditations, progress tracking, and insights from leading neuroscientists, you'll transform your mind to manage stress and thrive in all aspects of life.
Healthy Minds features:
- Active and seated practices
- Podcast-style lessons
- Healthy minds report
- Assessments of mental and emotional well-being
- Integrates with Apple Health
Prices: free
Smiling Mind
The Smiling Mind is a free tool developed by psychologists and educators that has been downloaded by millions of people. It is a free tool aimed at promoting mental health and resilience at any age. Smiling Mind offers individualized programs for children ages three and up, adults, and families. It's a simple platform to start practicing meditation with the whole family.
Smiling Mind features:
- Beginner meditation programs
- Sleep meditations
- Quick meditation sessions to build a habit
- Mental fitness
- Mood tracker
Prices: free
Ten Percent Happier
Ten Percent Happier is more than a meditation app. There is a whole community united by the idea of the book of the same name by Dan Harris, “10% Happier.” This meditation app serves as a platform for holistically improving your well-being. It offers a library of 500+ guided meditations on topics ranging from anxiety to parenting to focus, sleep section, bite-size stories for inspiration and much more.
Ten Percent Happier features:
- Podcast
- New content released weekly
- Quick meditations that fit into your busy life
- Expert coaching
Prices:
- A 7-day free trial of the Premium plan
- Membership costs:
- $8.33 per month
- $99.99 per year
Start Your Meditation
Make the most of life and meditate. We recommend you to try a few of the best meditation apps that we've reviewed, and choose the one that best fits your needs. The benefits are enormous, and it has never been more accessible than it is today! Whilst the meditation practice helps to focus and achieve a state of relaxation and inner peace, increase productivity, meditation apps can help you to learn new practices, stay motivated, and on track.
FAQ
Are meditation apps worth it?
If you are just starting your meditation journey, meditation apps could be a perfect support for you. Usually, they can offer you a number of options for guided meditations or even courses, as well as special background music or simply a timer. Meditation apps can also track your progress and it could be a great motivation for you as well.
How long should you meditate for?
You can start meditating from one minute a day, slowly increasing to 10-20-30 minutes a day. You can also try guided meditations and mix them with the techniques you prefer the most. The most important thing for beginners in meditation is regularity, so we recommend you to meditate for at least one minute a day.
Which is the best app for meditation?
It's kind of a tricky question, so we recommend you to try a few of the best meditation apps that we've reviewed on this blog, and choose the one that best fits your needs.
Is there a completely free meditation app?
Yes, such meditation apps as Healthy Minds Program, Smiling Mind and Medito are completely free. At the same time, we consider Insight Timer the best meditation app for a small budget. It contains over 150,000 free guided meditations, musical sounds, and a timer for those who prefer to meditate in silence. And even its free option is sufficient for beginners and more experienced users.
Is Calm the best meditation app?
Calm is an award-winning app with a lot of calming exercises, breathing techniques as well as some additional facts and research studies provided about meditation. It's rated 4.8 stars (out of five) in the App Store, putting it among the top-rated meditation apps.
What is the best free sleep meditation app?
If you're looking for the best free sleep meditation app you may like Insight Timer's sleep meditations, talks, and music tracks. Also Aura recently became the users top choice for sleep meditation. So try different apps and find yours!