Meditation is a great way to help yourself focus, relax, and unwind after a long day, but it can be difficult to decide which meditation app to use daily. We have compiled a list of our 13 best meditation apps based on grading criteria like the size of the meditation library, cost, personalization, and extra features to ensure you find the best fit for yourself and your family.
What Are Meditation Apps?
Meditation is an ancient tradition with roots in Buddhism and Taoism that teaches the calming of your mind to focus on what you need or want in any moment of your life. If you meditate regularly, it can help you learn to calm your mind, but it can help you reduce symptoms of stress, anxiety, depression, and chronic pain.1 While originally a religious or spiritual tradition, meditation has experienced growth into secular practices and has become very popular in the world of apps.
Meditation apps make learning, growing, and maintaining a meditation practice more accessible and easy. Using an app allows you to practice wherever and whenever, whether it is at home or during your daily commute. The best meditation apps will feature large and diverse meditation libraries, meditation courses for beginners to advanced meditators, lessons on the top mindfulness techniques needed to meditate, and be offered at cost that reflects their quality.
Best Meditations Apps of 2022
- Best Overall Meditation App – Insight Timer
- Best Meditation App for Beginners – Headspace
- Best Meditation App for Intermediate Meditators – Calm
- Best Meditation App for Anxiety – Ten Percent Happier
- Best Meditation App for Young Adults – Balance App
- Best Meditation App for Meditating on the Go – Buddhify
- Best Meditation App for One-One Coaching – Aura Health
- Best Meditation App for Empowering Women in the BIPOC Community – Shine
- Best Meditation App for Sleep Meditations – Slumber
- Best Mindfulness App – Waking Up
- Best Meditation App for Yoga and Meditation – Alo Moves
- Best Meditation App for Christian-Based Meditation – Abide: Bible Prayer Meditations
- Honorable Mention – Yours Meditation App
Here’s a complete list of companies reviewed in this article listed in alphabetical order: Abide: Bible Prayer Meditations, Alo Moves, Aura Health, Balance App, Buddhify, Calm, Headspace, Insight Timer, Shine, Slumber, Ten Percent Happier, Waking Up, and Yours Meditation App.
Detailed Reviews of the Best Meditation Apps
Insight Timer – Best Overall Meditation App
Insight Timer is a meditation app with an extensive free meditation library. The easy-to-navigate app is good for beginners and great for advanced students of meditation. Insight Timer also offers live events like yoga, mood tracking, private mentoring, and workshops. The premium version, Member Plus, is $60 per year with a 30-day free trial if you sign up on their website.
How Much Does Insight Timer Cost?
Insight Timer offers a lot of content in its free app – you could easily spend months listening to free meditation sessions! However, if you want access to Insight Timer’s full meditation courses, you can sign up for their Member Plus subscription, which costs $60 annually. When you sign up on the website, you will receive a 30-day free trial.
Pros & Cons of Insight Timer
Key Features of Insight Timer
Insight Timer offers thousands of free meditation sessions, making it easy to spend months building a meditation practice without running out of new content. With its easy-to-navigate app, Insight Timer makes learning the basics of mindfulness and creating a meditation practice easy. There are a lot of extra features like a community space to connect with other meditators and various white noise and soundscapes to relax to.
With Insight Timer’s premium subscription, Member Plus, you gain access to in-depth meditation courses and the ability to fast forward, rewind, or resume any meditation. You can save your favorite courses or teachers and the app will track your progress for you. A great perk to Insight Timer is that all the content in the app is constantly updated and the meditation teachers all have bios you can read that list their credentials. This is why Insight Timer earned 4.5 out of 5 stars from Choosing Therapy and is our top choice for Best Overall Meditation App.
To read more about this meditation app, read our in-depth review of Insight Timer.
Headspace – Best Meditation App for Beginners
Headspace is a non-intimidating, user-friendly meditation app that offers structured meditation courses to help beginners build confidence as they learn meditation exercises and mindfulness techniques. Headspace costs $12.99 per month or $69.99 annually and includes a one or two-week free trial.
How Much Does Headspace Cost?
Headspace costs $12.99 monthly or $69.99 annually. The monthly subscription comes with a one-week free trial and the annual subscription comes with a two-week free trial.
Pros & Cons of Headspace
Key Features of Headspace
Headspace gives beginners the tools to build and maintain a mindfulness and meditation practice with over 50 structured meditation courses. If you are brand new to meditation, you will be taught the fundamentals of meditation through the “Basics” course. In this course, you can watch introductory videos of all the teachers, and learn various mindfulness techniques like body scanning, focusing attention, and noting. Headspace earned 5 stars on our scoring rubric for both their meditation library and mindfulness techniques!
Headspace is successful in helping those new to meditation because not only is the app super user-friendly, it makes meditation feel fun! The head meditation teacher, Andy Puddicome, was a Buddhist monk and his mission was to bring meditation to everyone. There is no sense of pretentiousness with Headspace – just the feeling that they genuinely want you to succeed in learning meditation skills.
You can learn more about how beginners can start a practice by reading our comprehensive review of Headspace.
Calm – Best Meditation App for Intermediate Meditators
Calm is a fairly user-friendly, visually impressive meditation app that features meditations on a range of topics that are great for intermediate-level meditators. Calm has a limited free version and a premium subscription that cost $69.99 annually and comes with a seven-day free trial.
How Much Does Calm Cost?
Calm offers select meditation courses for free and has a premium subscription for $69.99 annually. Currently, there is a seven-day free trial available.
Pros & Cons of Calm
Key Features of Calm
Calm is a more fluid app and allows for more free choice, which is great for those who wish to push past the basics of meditation, but are not quite ready for advanced meditations. Intermediate meditators can move beyond the fundamentals and begin their journey with meditation courses that match their level of experience. Meditation courses on specific topics like managing stress, balancing work and home life, focus, and managing big emotions, are great topics to branch into for intermediate-level meditators.
A new update to Calm now allows you to look for meditations based on a certain goal. Some goals you can now explore are reducing stress and anxiety, personal growth, coping with the weight of the world, resilient parenting, and several more. However, it can be difficult to tell which meditation courses are the best for intermediate meditators which is one reason why Calm earned 4 out of 5 stars overall in our independent review process.
To learn more about how you can reach your meditation goals, read our in-depth review of Calm.
Ten Percent Happier – Best for Anxiety
Ten Percent Happier is a meditation app that features several meditation courses and sessions for those struggling with anxiety symptoms. Ten Percent Happier also has unique features such as meditation video introductions and in-app podcasts. There is a limited free version and a premium version which costs $99.99 annually.
How Much Does Ten Percent Happier Cost?
Ten Percent Happier has a limited free version and a premium subscription that costs $99.99 annually and comes with a seven-day free trial.
Pros & Cons of Ten Percent Happier
Key Features of Ten Percent Happier
One of the main reasons Dan Harris founded Ten Percent Happier was because he experienced a panic attack during a live news broadcast. . This experience caused him to reevaluate his work-life balance and explore the root of his anxiety. A large portion of the Ten Percent Happier app features meditations for anxiety and anxiety symptoms, like stress, insomnia, or increased heart rate. These clearly labeled meditation courses and sessions are one reason why Ten Percent Happier earned 4 out of 5 overall stars on our scoring rubric for meditation apps.
A great place to start for those who have anxiety is the “Taming Anxiety” meditation course. There are ten meditation sessions in this course, with each session lasting 13 minutes. A unique aspect of the entire app is the introduction videos that play prior to the meditation sessions. In the “Taming Anxiety” course, Dan Harris talks with meditation expert Leslie Booker about how to handle your own particular anxiety. This course is a must-try for those who struggle with not only the why of anxiety but how to manage their daily symptoms.
To learn how meditation can help tame your anxiety, please read our detailed review of Ten Percent Happier.
Balance Meditation App – Best Meditation App for Young Adults
The Balance app is a smart meditation app that personalizes your meditation programs based on your current meditation level, how often you meditate, and which skills you master. There is a moderate range of meditation courses that teach you mindfulness techniques as well as meditation singles, which is great for young people just learning meditation. Balance costs $69.99 annually and comes with an amazing one-year free trial.
How Much Does the Balance App Cost?
The Balance meditation app offers select free content and costs $69.99 annually. Currently there is a one-year free trial available.
Pros & Cons of Balance
Key Features of the Balance App
Balance would be an ideal app for young adults, ages 18 – 25, who are experiencing big changes in their lives. Not only does Balance do an amazing job at teaching the basics of meditation, it has a one-year free trial which is ideal for young people with limited funds. This free trial is one of the longest periods available and earned Balance 5 out of 5 stars for “Cost and Free Trials” on our scoring rubric for meditation apps!
With the Balance app, you can complete a 10-minute meditation based on your mood through the main screen, called ‘Today.’ This is great for in between classes, before going to work, or before meeting friends. You will also have access to great meditation courses on key topics like communication, focus, embracing change, and even loneliness. Young adults going through significant life changes, like going to college for the first time, living alone, or experiencing their first real relationship, need these crucial skills. That’s why Balance would be the perfect meditation app for this age group!
To learn more about this amazing app, read our in-depth review of the Balance app.
Buddhify – Best Meditation App for Meditating On The Go
Buddhify is a meditation app that features a unique meditation library organized on a brightly colored wheel. There are nine colored wedges on the wheel to choose from, and each represents a specific meditation topic. Buddhify has an upfront cost of $4.99 on Apple and $3.99 on Android. There is also a premium membership available that costs $30 annually.
How Much Does Buddhify Cost?
Buddhify has an upfront cost of $3.99 in the Google Play Store and $4.99 in the Apple App Store. There is additional, and optional, premium membership you can purchase in the app that costs $30 annually.
Pros & Cons of Buddhify
Key Features of Buddhify
Almost all of the meditations in the Buddhify app are less than 12 minutes, which is an ideal length for meditating at work, sitting on the bus, or waiting in the pick-up line at your child’s school. With Buddhify, you do not need to carve out 20 – 30 minutes to sit down somewhere quiet for a meditation session, you are able to meditate whenever and wherever you are! Buddhify was able to earn a reasonable 3 out of 5 stars on our scoring rubric for the size of its meditation library, which means there is room to improve and earn more stars!
The Buddhify app features some really unique walking meditations, which are great for those that find sitting still to meditate a challenge. There are six unique walking meditations to choose from in the “Walking 1” wedge of the default meditation wheel. One such meditation is called “Zap” and it begins similarly to other walking meditations. For instance, you’re asked to focus on how your feet feel hitting the pavement, what your arms are doing, and what you can see and hear around you. You are then asked to look at people around you and send them positive affirmations.
To discover your favorite walking meditation, read our detailed review of the Buddhify app.
Aura Health – Best Meditation App for One-on-One Coaching
Aura Health is a meditation and mindful living app that features a wide variety of meditations, prayers, and one-on-one coaching. With Aura, you can choose areas of your life to focus on, the types of content you want to see, and the app will personalize based on your answers. Aura costs $59.99 annually with a seven-day free trial.
How Much Does Aura Health Cost?
Aura Health costs $11.99 monthly, $59.99 annually, and comes with a seven-day free trial. There is also a lifetime membership that costs $399.99. One-on-one coaching starts at $69 and final costs depend on the coach.
Pros & Cons of Aura Health
Key Features of Aura Health
Aura Health offers mental health and wellness coaching to help you grow your meditation practice, set goals, and focus on your daily wellness.. All of the coaches have bios which include where they are located, what they specialize in, the services they offer, and their costs for coaching. Each coach will have prices set for a 30-minute coaching session or a 1-hour coaching session, with more specific costs available after you sign up.
Coaching with Aura works just like regular mental health and wellness coaching, and you have the ability to select the date and time that works best for your schedule. A unique aspect to Aura is that you’re able to send text messages to your coach in between coaching sessions and your coach can suggest meditations for you to complete in the app.
To find out how to sign-up, visit the Aura Health website.
Shine – Best Meditation App for Empowering Women in the BIPOC Community
Shine is a meditation app that was created by two women in the BIPOC community. It strives to offer meditation, mindfulness, and mood support to those in the BIPOC community and is more geared toward those that identify as female. Shine costs $14.99 monthly or $64.99 annually and the annual subscription comes with a seven-day free trial.
How Much Does Shine Cost?
Shine costs $14.99 monthly or $64.99 annually. Only the annual subscription comes with a seven-day free trial.
Pros & Cons of Shine
Key Features of Shine
Shine is the only meditation app on our list that was created by women in the BIPOC community and is geared mainly toward empowering females in this community. There are many meditation courses that highlight the specific challenges the BIPOC community faces, as well as features meditation courses on stress and anxiety, work, resilience, and more.
Unlike other meditation apps, like Headspace and Calm, which build in special meditation courses depending on the month, Shine is a meditation app for BIPOC folx all of the time. This makes Shine a truly special and unique app for anyone in this community.
To learn more about how to sign-up, please visit the Shine website.
Slumber – Best Meditation App for Sleep Meditations
Slumber is a meditation app that exclusively features sleep meditations. All of the sleep stories and meditations are designed to help you fall asleep quickly and stay asleep. A great perk to the Slumber app is a special section titled “Free”, so there is no need to hunt around the app for the free content! Slumber costs $59.99 annually and comes with a seven-day free trial.
How Much Does Slumber Cost?
Slumber costs $59.99 annually and comes with a seven-day free trial.
Pros & Cons of Slumber
Key Features of Slumber
Slumber looks very similar to the sleep section in the Calm app. However, the Slumber app only focuses on sleep stories, meditations, and sounds – there are no other meditations, like for focus or stress, in this app. The sleep stories for children seem more geared towards little ones under the age of ten but might still be nice for pre-teens to listen to. Slumber is a really great choice for those who want a dedicated sleep meditation app.
To learn how meditation can help you sleep, visit the Slumber website.
Waking Up – Best Mindfulness App
Waking Up is a mindfulness app that is based heavily on neuroscience and psychology. Waking Up aims to help you learn the nature of your mind, combining meditations, mindfulness exercises, and TED Talk-like courses. Waking Up costs $129.99 annually on Apple and $99.99 annually on Android. Waking Up has a seven-day free trial.
How Much Does Waking Up Cost?
Waking Up costs $129.99 annually on Apple and $99.99 annually on Android or through the website. To get the best deal, we recommend you sign up on the website. Waking Up features an automatic seven-day free trial, which starts when you sign up for the app.
Pros & Cons of Waking Up
Key Features of Waking Up
All of the teachers in the app are well-known and highly respected in the field of mindfulness, like Sam Harris, Henry Shukman, and Loch Kelly. This makes Waking Up’s content just as outstanding as Calm, Headspace, or Insight Timer. There is a great introductory course to mindfulness and 18 other courses on walking meditations, compassion awareness, and meditation for children. Much like other mindfulness and meditation apps, Waking Up will keep track of how many days, minutes, and sessions you have completed.
Waking Up goes beyond just teaching mindfulness techniques, it also teaches the theory behind why meditation works, discusses general wisdom for daily life, and much more. For those who are interested in learning more about mindfulness and meditation, or those who are advanced practitioners would greatly appreciate and benefit from Waking Up.
To start learning the theory behind why meditation works, visit the Waking Up website.
Alo Moves – Best Meditation App for Yoga and Meditation
Alo Moves is a user-friendly yoga, fitness, and mindfulness app that offers a wide range of classes taught by expert instructors. Members gain access to several different styles of yoga, strength training, pilates, guided meditations, and much more. Alo Moves costs $19.99 monthly or $199.99 annually and comes with a 14-day free trial with the purchase of either plan.
How Much Does Alo Moves Cost?
Alo Moves costs $19.99 monthly or $199.99 annually and comes with a 14-day free trial with the purchase of either plan.
Pros & Cons of Alo Moves
Key Features of Alo Moves
Alo Moves has a great section of mindfulness classes that go beyond guided meditations. There are sound baths, a wide range of breathwork, and classes that focus on personal growth. You can also find yoga classes that help prepare your mind and body for sleep.
Alo Moves features a collection of videos that focus on specific yoga poses for those who have only done meditation apps and are unfamiliar with yoga. These postures, called asanas, can take years to master, so having these videos are extremely helpful to beginners.
To learn more about how to make yoga and meditation a daily practice, read our in-depth review of Alo Moves.
Abide Christian Meditation App – Best Meditation App for Christian-Based Meditations
Abide is a Christian meditation app that features meditations taught through the lens of bible quotes. You are able to select which topics you are interested in, from anxiety and parenting to the bible and kid’s content. Abide costs $39.99 annually and comes with a seven-day free trial.
How Much Does Abide Cost?
Abide costs $39.99 annually and comes with a seven-day free trial.
Pros & Cons of Abide
Key Features of Abide
Abide is one of the highest-ranked meditation apps for Christians and it is easy to see why. All of the meditations in the app are framed and taught through the Christian bible. Each meditation session will feature a bible quote that is related to the meditation you are listening to. Abide is very user-friendly and easy to navigate, with a pleasing color palette and soothing background sound.
Abide would be an ideal app for those who are looking for a more focused way to combine prayer and meditation. This would be a great app to use throughout the week, before bible studies, during bible studies, or after listening to a sermon or attending mass.
To learn how to bring meditation into your prayer routine, visit the Abide website.
Yours App – Honorable Mention
Yours is a fairly new meditation app that offers courses, mindfulness, mood check-ins, and more. There is a free version with a fair amount of content available and a premium subscription that costs $6.99 monthly or $59.99 annually. Currently, the Yours app comes with a 3-month free trial!
How Much Does Yours Cost?
Yours costs $6.99 monthly or $59.99 annually and currently comes with a three month free trial.
Pros & Cons of Yours
Key Features of Yours
Relative newcomer to the meditation and wellness scene is the Yours app. The app was launched in 2021, but is an impressive app for one so new. It features all of the top criteria we look for in meditation apps, from a wide and diverse meditation library, specifically taught mindfulness techniques, and extra features like physical exercise, music, and soundscapes/white noise. Unfortunately, it was difficult to discern what would be available in the premium subscription that is not currently available in the free version.
Yours has a truly great “Home” screen that features a “Daily Guide” which offers you a mood check-in and then two activities to complete. Each time you do a mood check-in, the Yours app will offer you various meditations, psychology talks, or breathing exercises to complete based on your mood. Overall, the Yours app seems to be the best parts of Headspace, Calm, and Waking Up combined into a user-friendly meditation app and is definitely one we will be keeping our eyes on!
To learn more about how to sign-up, please visit the Yours website.
Final Verdict
Finding the best meditation app for you will largely depend on your personal meditation goals. For instance, a meditation app that’s designed for beginners will not be the best fit for someone who has been meditating for years. Hopefully, our list of the top 13 meditation apps will bring you closer to developing a lasting and healthful meditation practice.
| App Name | Cost & Free Trials | Best For Award |
|---|---|---|
| Insight Timer | Free $60 Annually 30-Day Free Trial | Overall Best Meditation App |
| Headspace | $12.99 monthly & one week free trial $69.99 annually & two week free trial | Best Meditation App for Beginners |
| Calm | $69.99 annually Seven-day free trial | Best Meditation App for Intermediate Meditators |
| Ten Percent Happier | $99.99 annually Seven-day free trial | Best Meditation App for Anxiety |
| Balance Meditation App | $69.99 annually One-year free trial | Best Meditation App for Young Adults (18 - 24) |
| Buddhify | $3.99 upfront for Android $4.99 upfront for Apple $30 optional annual membership | Best Meditation App for Meditating On The Go |
| Aura Health | $11.99 monthly $59.99 annually Seven-day free trial One-On-One Coaching starts at $69 per session | Best Meditation App for One-On-One Coaching |
| Shine | $14.99 monthly $64.99 annually & seven-day free trial | Best Meditation App for Empowering Women in the BIPOC Community |
| Slumber | $59.99 annually Seven-day free trial | Best Meditation App for Sleep Meditations |
| Waking Up | $99.99 on Android $129.99 on Apple Seven-day free trial | Best Mindfulness App |
| Alo Moves | $19.99 monthly $199.99 annually 14-day free trial | Best Meditation App for Yoga & Meditation |
| Abide | $39.99 Annually Seven-day free trial | Best Meditation App for Christian-Based Meditations |
| Yours App | $6.99 monthly $59.99 annually Three Month Free Trial | Honorable Mention |
