Breathwrk Review 2024: Pros & Cons, Cost, & Who It’s Right For

Key Takeaways

• The Breathwrk app provides a limited free version that introduces beginners to diaphragmatic breathing and breathwork exercises.
• Breathwrk has a program for companies to partner up and provide the app services to employees.
• If you’re not ready to build your own breathwork practice, you can choose one of the curated habit options with a preset schedule that appears on your home screen.
• Breathwrk is great for those looking for a structured breathwork routine, athletes interested in improving performance, or anyone who wants to explore the health benefits of breathing techniques.

How to Sign Up for Breathwrk

To sign up for Breathwrk, you can download the app from Google Play or the Apple App Store.

What Is The Breathwrk App?

The Breathwrk app offers several mindful breathing tools for various purposes. The main categories for breathing are Calming, Nighttime, Energizing, Performance, and Health. The free version of Breathwrk gives users access to a few options for breathing exercises, classes, and habits in each category. The Pro subscription costs $9.00 monthly or $49.00 annually and unlocks unlimited access to all its breathwork services.

You can personalize your experience by selecting a goal and scheduling breathing exercises for different parts of your day. For instance, you can set an awake exercise to try in your morning routine, an energizing exercise for mid-day slumps, and a sleep exercise for relaxing the body before bedtime. Users can customize each exercise with sounds, visuals, or haptics (phone vibrations for inhales and exhales).

Breathwrk also has curated breathing exercise schedules to build habits according to your lifestyle and needs. One example is the Deep Sleep option, which prepares the body for restful sleep with a series of 1-2 minute breathing exercises in the evening. Once you click to follow a habit, those exercises automatically appear in your daily routine on the home page.

Beyond creating daily routines and habits, Breathwrk offers pre-recorded classes and 7-day challenges. The classes are guided breathing exercises with audio and visual aids taught by breathing experts. Classes range from 1-2 minutes to 13-15 minutes each. You can also “accept a challenge” that appeals to your needs, such as the 7-Day Challenge to Lower Stress Levels or the 7-Day Challenge for Better Performance. Other app extras include a Stats page to track progress and Breath Tests to measure your breathing skills.

Breathwrk for Business

Breathwrk for Business is a program for employers interested in purchasing the service for their employees. Ben Weiss, who is Head of Growth at Breathwrk, told me that, “ Solutions like Breathwrk for Business allow partners to cover subscriptions for employees or members at discounted rates, with a suite of tools for onboarding, program management & ongoing engagement. Our mission is to improve global health through breathing and passing along the cost of doing business from consumers to enterprises with discretionary budgets will be a key strategy for doing so.”¹

Who Is the Breathwrk Right For?

The Breathwrk app aims to benefit users in multiple health and fitness areas. It’s great for users looking for a structured breathwork routine, athletes interested in improving performance, or anyone who wants to explore the health benefits of breathing techniques.

You Want a Structured Breathing Routine

Breathwrk’s app makes it very easy to incorporate breathing exercises into your daily life. You’ll get notifications to remind you to complete an exercise when you wake up or need a break in your work day. If you’re not ready to build your own breathwork practice, you can choose one of the curated habit options with a preset schedule that appears on your home screen.

Athletes Interested in Improving Performance

Science shows that breathing exercises can optimize athletic performance.² The techniques that Breathwrk showcases are also used by Olympic athletes and Navy Seals, making it an excellent choice for athletes hoping to improve endurance or decrease stress in competitive sports.

You’d Like to Explore the Health Benefits of Breathwork

The Breathwrk app can be used to care for your overall health. Using mindful breathing techniques to reduce stress can help boost your immune system and improve your mood. Breathwrk not only provides breathing techniques to calm stress and anxiety, but it also offers exercises for pain, such as relief for migraines, nausea, and COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease). This app is an excellent option for those who want to stay healthy or manage chronic pain.

Who May Want an Alternative to Breathwrk?

While Breathwrk is a wonderful tool for anyone interested in building a breathing routine, it’s not for everyone. Those who want a more straightforward breathwork tool or to explore breathing techniques alongside meditation and mindfulness practices may be looking for alternatives.

You Want Something Simpler

Not everyone is interested in a long list of options. Many users want a quick and easy breathwork timer and metronome. If you already have a steady breathing routine and you just want a tool to count breaths and cycles for you, The Breathing App can provide that. It’s easy to set up and start a breathing exercise without the frills of guided audio or various background music selections.

You Want Breathwork Alongside Mindfulness and Meditation

Many users might be looking to combine their mindfulness tools into a one-stop-shop app. Breathwrk primarily concentrates on breathing exercises, not meditation or other mindfulness training. The Calm app might be a better fit if you’re looking to learn more about focused meditation and breathwork. Calm has tons of great tools for building a meditation practice, as well as how to integrate breathwork into your day. To learn more, check out our Calm app review.

What Are Users Saying About the Breathwrk App?

The Breathwrk app has a 4.8-star rating from 16.6K reviews in the Apple App Store and a 3.7-star rating from 692 reviews in the Google Play Store. Users seem to like the variety of exercises, the ease of the interface, and the results. There have been quite a few bugs and glitches throughout its development, but the Breathwrk team is quick to respond.

Variety of Exercises

Many users appreciate the mixture in the breathwork exercises and how easy they are to use. They enjoy targeting specific needs, like pain relief or sleep. Many reviewers also mentioned that they like the variety in the lengths of each exercise. Because so many of them are 1-2 minutes long, they’re easy to incorporate into your day without a big commitment.

Seeing Results

Users who commit to their breathwork practice can experience real results. Many reviews mention an increase in focus and endurance and lower levels of stress and anxiety after using the app. Several people mentioned that the exercises help them fall asleep and wake up more energized, which can lead to a long list of health benefits.

Great Interface

The audio, visuals, and haptics used to guide each session make it easy to stay on track when practicing your breathwork. Everything is color-coded, so it’s easy to find a class or exercise for something specific (e.g., everything in blue falls into the sleep/nighttime category).

A Few Bugs and Glitches

Some negative reviews reported bugs with buttons not functioning, notifications stopping, and glitches with the breath hold timer. It’s clear that this app is still going through some growing pains with its features, but the development team appears to be very responsive and quick to work out issues.

How Much Does Breathwrk Cost?

Breathwrk has a free version and a Pro version that requires a subscription that costs $9.00 monthly or $49.00 annually and comes with a seven-day free trial.

Is Breathwrk Free?

Yes, there is a free version of Breathwrk that offers a substantial amount of tools. You can access all of the 7-day challenges and a limited number of classes and exercises. The free version is excellent for anyone who’s on a budget but interested in trying breathing exercises or enhancing their breathwork practice.

Breathwrk Pro

The premium subscription to Breathwrk, called Breathwrk Pro, costs $9.00 monthly or $49.00 annually and comes with a seven-day free trial. Pro gives you unlimited access to all the breathing exercises, classes, habits, and challenges. You’re also able to customize your experience by gaining access to different intervals, sounds, and voiceovers for the breathing exercises.

Breathwrk Discounts

Breathwrk does offer deals and discounts in the app. If you’re only working with the free version, but you’re interested in more, keep checking for deals to see if there’s an affordable choice for you. There was a 20% off deal for the annual Breathwrk premium subscription when I initially downloaded the app. They also provide discounts to teachers, students, military, and first responders. Contact the company within the app to see if you qualify.

Buy One, Give One

When a user signs up for an annual subscription, the company gives another membership away for free to someone in need. The Breathwrk team encourages users to reach out to the company if they want more information on this scholarship program.

How to Start With Breathwrk

Breathwrk is very easy to download and begin using. If you’re not ready to commit, but you’d like to explore a few exercises or classes before purchasing, you can simply skip over the create an account prompt, answer a few questions about your goals and routine, and start your first exercise!

Here’s a quick guide to help you get started:

1. Download the app from the Apple Store or the Google Play Store.
2. Choose to create an account or skip this step and continue as a guest.
3. Choose to continue with the free version or sign up for a subscription.
4. Answer questions about your breathwork goals (e.g., decrease stress and anxiety or increase energy and focus).
5. Set a daily routine. Let Breathwrk know when you typically wake up and go to bed so it can send you notifications for breathing exercises.
6. Choose from a list of breathing exercises or classes and hit start!

Breathwrk Free Version: Detailed Review

The free version of the Breathwrk app offers a surprisingly wide variety of tools. While the list of exercises, classes, and habits is limited, it seems to be enough to give users a solid idea of what breathwork is all about. There are at least a handful of exercises and classes available under each category: Calming, Nighttime, Energizing, Performance, and Health.

Access to All Tools, But Limited Options

While many free versions of similar apps will only offer the basics, Breathwrk makes intermediate and expert level options available. It’s nice that there’s a free version of a class or exercise in each category, so everyone can test out the app, no matter what their goals are. Having all of the tools unlocked, but with limited options, allows users to have an authentic experience with the app before deciding if they want to go further with a subscription.

Free 7-Day Challenges

At the time I was using the free version, all of the 7-day challenges were unlocked and free to use. Once you click on “accept this challenge”, a 7-day schedule will appear on your home page, showing you the type of breathwork, the duration, and the time of day that you’ll receive a reminder to complete it. You can also “challenge a friend,” and Breathwrk will send a preset message to invite someone via text or email to do the challenge with you.

Structured Daily Routine

Structured routines are easy to build in the free version. The main dashboard updates each day and lists your chosen breathing exercises and the set times you’ll receive reminders. If you follow a habit or a challenge, those exercises will also appear on this list. Underneath your daily schedule, you’ll see recommendations for other exercises, classes, challenges, habits, and how to connect with other users.

Breathwrk Pro: Detailed Review

Breathwrk Pro is an excellent resource for a wider variety of breathing exercises and classes. You can have a thorough experience with the free version, but the Pro version invites you to go further, build a deeper breathing practice, and work towards a specific goal. Breathwrk Pro costs $7.99 monthly or $76.99 annually on Apple, and $11.99 monthly or $59.99 annually on Android.

Wider Variety in Each Category

The Pro version of Breathwrk gives you unlimited access to over 100 breathing exercises and techniques. I was surprised by the range of topics under each category. The health category was especially impressive to me. I’ve previously used breathing apps for reducing stress, improving sleep, and increasing focus, but I’ve never used one to relieve pain. The health breathing exercises include topics like easing nausea, getting rid of hiccups, managing asthma, and even specialized exercises for dealing with long COVID. The Pro health category also unlocks four breathing exercises for pregnancy and preparing for labor.

Access to All Classes

The pre-recorded classes offered in the Breathwrk app range from one to two minutes to 13 – 15 minutes long and are taught by breathwork experts. Some classes are simply guided breathing exercises, while others include a brief background on traditional techniques used in meditation and breathwork. The breath coaches were knowledgeable and helped me stay focused during the exercise. I found the introductory classes, such as Intro to Pranayama and Breathing 101, to be wonderful choices for beginners. I also thought the classes in the performance category were great for before and after workouts and building endurance.

Encourages You to Achieve Goals

Breathwrk Pro is more personalized than the free version when it comes to tracking progress and monitoring stats. They utilize gamification strategies to encourage users to achieve goals. As you complete exercises, you’ll see the total breaths you’ve taken while using the app, as well as how many breaths you need to take to rise in rankings. This element helped me stay on track and urged me to complete my routine each day. The multi-day challenges are also great for staying motivated and reaching goals.

Breathwrk Vs Competitors

Breathwrk is in a competitive category with apps like Calm and Headspace, but there are fundamental differences to be aware of if you’re trying to choose the right one for you. Breathwrk focuses primarily on breathing techniques and exercises, while the use of breathwork is more of a secondary component of these other services.

Breathwrk Vs Calm

Calm is a comprehensive mindfulness and meditation app that has a large selection of options. They have yoga videos, bedtime stories, guided meditations, and mental health classes. There is an area on the Calm app that’s dedicated to breathing techniques, but I wouldn’t classify it as a “breathing app.” Calm would be a better option for those wanting a broad view of mindfulness, which includes learning experiences as well as guided meditations and breathwork activities. You can learn more by reading our Calm app review.

Breathwrk Vs Headspace

Much like Calm, Headspace would be defined as a mindfulness and meditation app rather than a breathing app. It includes breathing exercises in their daily activities, but breathwork is just one of their many mindfulness tools. It has progressive guided meditations and courses to help you level up as you go. Breathwrk offers breathing exercises that help you work towards a goal (sleep better, reduce stress) rather than reaching an “expert level” of breathwork. Headspace would be a better option for those looking to track progress and reach higher levels of mindfulness and meditation. You can learn more by reading our Headspace app review.

Final Verdict

Overall, I really enjoyed using the Breathwrk app, and I plan to continue using it to build my breathing practice. I love how easy it is to create a routine, and work towards a personal goal, and the fact that Breathwrk uses fun strategies to help me stay committed. I would recommend Breathwrk to anyone looking to try mindful breathing for the first time or deepen their practice. While there are some minor glitches and ongoing updates, it’s still one of the best breathing apps available at the moment.

The History of Breathwrk

Breathwrk was founded in 2019 and began as a venture-backed startup located in Venice, California. On the company’s LinkedIn profile, the founders state that their mission is to “change the health of the world through breathing.” The developers boast that the Breathwrk app utilizes the same science-backed breathing techniques used by doctors, yogis, Navy Seals, and Olympic athletes.

Frequently Asked Questions About Breathwrk

How Do I Cancel My Breathwrk Subscription?

For Apple users, you can cancel your subscription by going to Settings and tapping on your Apple ID at the top of your phone. From there, you tap ‘Subscriptions’ and select the Breathwrk tab. Then click ‘Cancel Subscription.’

For Android users, Open the Google Play app and tap on your profile icon at the top right. From there, you tap Payments & Subscriptions, then Subscriptions. Select the Breathwrk app and tap ‘Cancel Subscription.’

Does Breathwrk Offer Refunds?

Yes, Breathwrk offers refunds on a case-by-case basis and you must contact the company to discuss your circumstances. They do not offer refunds for unused or inadvertently renewed subscriptions. For more information about refunds, you can visit their Terms of Use page.

How Does Breathwrk Use My Data?

The company states that they only use your data to personalize your breathwork experience. For more information, you can visit their Privacy Policy page to learn more.