Best Meditation Apps of 2024

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 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 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.

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 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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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!