The Best Meditation Apps of 2024
Written by: BestApp.com App Testing Team - Updated: Feb 27, 2022
If you’re interested in building a meditation habit, we recommend trying Headspace as it offers a great selection of guided meditations, breathing exercises, sleep meditations, and more amazing content. But if Headspace doesn’t have what you’re looking for, or you’re looking for a more affordable option, we found nine other great apps to check out. Here are the 10 best meditation apps on iOS and Android.
Top 10 Meditation Apps to Try
- Headspace — Top Pick
- Insight Timer — Best Free Version
- Calm — Best for Sleep
- Simple Habit — Best for Quick Sessions
- Ten Percent Happier — Best for Inspiration
- Aura — Best for Life Coaching
- Sattva — Best for Curated Meditations
- Meditation Studio — Best for Families
- Breethe — Best for Specific Meditations
- Stop Breathe Think — Best for Personalized Activities
How We Chose the Best Meditation Apps
To find the 10 best meditation apps, we focused on those that offer all the features users need to customize their experience and maintain a consistent meditation habit. The best meditation apps offer guided sessions, life coaching, soothing sounds for sleep and relaxation, community features, and customization features.
Choose the meditation app that’s right for you
All the meditation apps on our list offer free tiers or free trials that let users get acquainted with their basic features. We recommend trying several of these apps for yourself to find the meditation app that offers the features you need to maintain a consistent practice.
Build a habit
Mindfulness meditation helps people relax, improve their sleep, reduce stress, and minimize anxiety. But these benefits are achieved over time by consistently practicing mindfulness. We recommend using the progress tracking features these apps offer to build and maintain a steady meditation habit.
Our Meditation App Reviews
Headspace — Top Pick
Download: Android ★★★★★★★★★★ | iOS ★★★★★★★★★★
Headspace is one of the most popular meditation apps and our pick for the best overall meditation app. Headspace offers everything users need to establish a meditation habit, including beginner-friendly guided meditation sessions, meditation courses designed to address specific issues, sleep meditations, relaxing sounds, and breathing exercises. Unlike many other meditation apps, Headspace even offers at-home workouts and fitness courses with its Move Mode features. Headspace’s free version is very limited, only giving users access to a small selection of basic guided meditations, but by subscribing for $12.99 per month, you can access one of the largest libraries of high-quality meditation courses available.
Notable features:
- Free version available
- Subscription plans: Headspace Plus: $12.99/month or $69.99/year
- Support available: Help Center, FAQs, Email
| Headspace Pros & Cons | |
|---|---|
| What we like | What we don’t like |
| Guided meditations | Free version is very limited |
| Sleepcasts | No coaching |
| At-home workouts and fitness courses | |
Insight Timer — Best Free Version
Download: Android ★★★★★★★★★★ | iOS ★★★★★★★★★★
Insight Timer is the best meditation app for users that aren’t interested in paying to practice mindfulness. Insight Timer offers the largest selection of completely free guided meditations out of any of the apps on our list, and 80+ free meditations are added every day. Users can track their mood, progress, and join the Insight Timer community to connect with others and discuss their practice. The app also features a meditation timer for users that prefer to meditate without guidance, and, unlike other apps, Insight Timer even offers hundreds of live events every day. Most of the app’s content is available for free, but users can subscribe to access meditation courses. Subscription fees are split 50-50 with course instructors.
Notable features:
- Free version available
- Subscription plans: Monthly: $9.99; Annually: $59.99
- Support available: Help Center
| Insight Timer Pros & Cons | |
|---|---|
| What we like | What we don’t like |
| Thousands of free guided meditations | Offline listening only available with Premium |
| Great community features | |
| Advanced progress tracking features | |
Calm — Best for Sleep
Download: Android ★★★★★★★★★★ | iOS ★★★★★★★★★★
Calm is a popular meditation app that stands out from other meditation apps thanks to its sleep meditations, sleep stories, and relaxing sounds. Users can participate in guided meditation courses to improve their sleep habits, and Calm features countless sleep stories to help you fall asleep — many of which are narrated by celebrity guests like Matthew McConaughey, LeVar Burton, and LeBron James. The Daily Calm feature includes daily meditations that each cover a different self-care topic, and mood check-ins let you record your mood throughout the day. Calm also features plenty of guided meditation courses, sleep sounds, soundscapes, and relaxing music for users to listen to while they meditate, read, or sleep.
Notable features:
- Free version available
- Subscription plans: Monthly: $14.99; Yearly: $69.99; Lifetime: $399.99
- Support available: FAQs
| Calm Pros & Cons | |
|---|---|
| What we like | What we don’t like |
| Sleep stories | Limited free version |
| Guided meditation courses | |
| Relaxing soundscapes and music | |
Simple Habit — Best for Quick Sessions
Download: Android ★★★★★★★★★★ | iOS ★★★★★★★★★★
Simple Habit is a great meditation app designed to help users build a consistent habit through short meditation sessions. Simple Habit is a top choice for newcomers, since unlike meditation apps that thrust users into multi-day courses, it features short, 5-minute meditations from top mindfulness experts. On top of these short meditations, Simple Habit gives users access to sleep and wellness plans, relaxing sounds to help you fall asleep, 5-minute daily mindful movement classes, and, uniquely, daily motivational talks. Simple Habit features 12+ hours of free content, but to unlock all content and offline listening, you’ll need to upgrade to premium for $11.99 per month.
Notable features:
- Free version available
- Subscription plans: Monthly: $11.99; Yearly: $89.99; Lifetime: $299.99
- Support available: Help Center, Email
| Simple Habit Pros & Cons | |
|---|---|
| What we like | What we don’t like |
| Great for beginners | Offline listening only available with Premium |
| Short sessions for busy users | Lacks longer sessions |
| Daily mindful movement classes | |
Ten Percent Happier — Best for Inspiration
Download: Android ★★★★★★★★★★ | iOS ★★★★★★★★★★
Ten Percent Happier offers a great variety of content for users looking for more out of their meditation app. The app offers a library of more than 500 guided meditations on topics ranging from anxiety to parenting, and users can watch video meditations that make it easier to learn how to meditate. Beyond meditations, Ten Percent Happier offers unique content that you won’t find on other meditation apps, including the Ten Percent Happier Podcast, motivational talks, short stories, and more. Users can access short meditations for busy days, and new content is added weekly to keep the app from getting stale.
Notable features:
- Free version available
- Subscription plans: Premium: $14.99/month or $99.99/year
- Support available: Help Center, Email
| Ten Percent Happier Pros & Cons | |
|---|---|
| What we like | What we don’t like |
| 500+ guided meditations | No soothing sounds |
| Video meditations | Not very customizable |
| Podcasts and short stories | |
Aura — Best for Life Coaching
Download: Android ★★★★★★★★★★ | iOS ★★★★★★★★★★
Aura is a meditation and sleep app that aims to help users improve their mental wellness. Like other apps on our list, Auro gives users access to a large library of guided mindfulness meditations, sleep stories, music, and relaxing sounds. Aurora stands out from other apps thanks to its unique content offerings, including personalized life coaching services, cognitive behavioral therapy, and even hypnosis. Aura asks you a series of questions to learn more about your identity and personality, then the app recommends a selection of personalized content to help you practice wellness in a way that is compatible with your wants and needs.
Notable features:
- Free version available
- Subscription plans: Premium: $11.99/month or $59.99/year; Lifetime: $399
- Support available: Email
| Aura Pros & Cons | |
|---|---|
| What we like | What we don’t like |
| Life coaching | No progress tracking features |
| Guided meditations | |
| Sleep stories | |
Sattva — Best for Curated Meditations
Download: Android ★★★★★★★★★★ | iOS ★★★★★★★★★★
Sattva is a highly rated meditation app that offers content based on Vedic principles of meditation. Users can access meditations, sacred sounds, and music all delivered by Sanskrit scholars. To motivate yourself and build a meditation habit, you can set personal challenges, earn trophies for milestones, and view in-depth progress tracking analytics. One of the ways Sattva stands out from other meditation apps is its curated playlists, which include meditations, mantras, chants, and music designed to be played in a specific sequence. Sattva also offers community events, a mood tracker, personalized meditation reminders, and other great features to help users maintain a consistent practice.
Notable features:
- Free version available
- Subscription plans: Monthly: $12.99; Yearly: $49.99
- Support available: Email
| Sattva Pros & Cons | |
|---|---|
| What we like | What we don’t like |
| Curated playlists | No life coaching |
| Community challenges and events | |
| Progress tracking features | |
Meditation Studio — Best for Families
Download: Android ★★★★★★★★★★ | iOS ★★★★★★★★★★
Meditation Studio is owned by Muse, the popular brand of brain-sensing headbands. This meditation app aims to help users reduce stress, ease anxiety, improve sleep, and boost confidence. Users can participate in guided meditations on topics from happiness to performance, and, unlike other apps on our list, Meditation Studio offers personalized meditations for moms, teens, kids, and more, making it a great choice for families that want to practice together. You can also create your own unguided meditations, build a personalized library of your favorite meditations, schedule meditations for future times, and track your progress. Meditation Studio is compatible with Apple Health and saves your sessions so that you can track your progress across apps.
Notable features:
- Free version available
- Subscription plans: Monthly: $7.99; Quarterly: $17.99; Yearly: $49.99
- Support available: Email, FAQs
| Meditation Studio Pros & Cons | |
|---|---|
| What we like | What we don’t like |
| Meditations for moms, kids, and teens | Paid subscription required for most features |
| Guided and unguided meditations | |
| Progress tracking | |
Breethe — Best for Specific Meditations
Download: Android ★★★★★★★★★★ | iOS ★★★★★★★★★★
Breethe is a popular meditation and mental wellness app that claims that up to 70% of its users experience less stress and anxiety than they did before using the app. With Breethe, users can access a wide range of tools, including meditations, music, sleep stories, and more to relax and ease their anxieties. Can’t sleep? Feeling anxious? Through its interactive “Therapy On-The-Go” feature, Breethe is designed to figure out why and gets to know its users through a series of quick and easy questions rooted in behavioral science. Then, based on this interaction, it provides personalized recommendations in real-time, including meditation, hypnotherapy sessions, and helpful therapy talks. Breethe also stands out due to its highly specific meditations like “My Boss Is a Jerk” or “My Family Drives Me Nuts”.
Notable features:
- Free version available
- Subscription plans: Monthly Membership: $12.99; Yearly Membership: $89.99; 2 Year + Free Lifetime Upgrade: $149.99; Lifetime Membership: $399.99
- Support available: Email, FAQs
| Breethe Pros & Cons | |
|---|---|
| What we like | What we don’t like |
| Meditations for specific situations | Technical issues reported by Google Play Store users |
| Personalized recommendations | |
| Sleep stories | |
Stop Breathe Think — Best for Personalized Activities
Stop Breathe Think, formerly known as MyLife Meditation, is a meditation and mindfulness app that offers daily wellness check-ins and personalized content. Stop Breathe Think’s unique content offerings include personalized mindfulness activities, which may include things like breathing exercises, walking meditations, body scans, and other activities you may benefit from. Unlike other meditation apps, Stop Breathe Think also features journaling prompts and activities designed to help you improve your mood. Other features include 20+ meditations in Spanish, sleep sounds, mindful eating exercises, and more.
Notable features:
- Free version available
- Subscription plans: Monthly: $9.99; Yearly: $58.99; Lifetime: $249.99
- Support available: Contact Us Form
| Stop Breathe Think Pros & Cons | |
|---|---|
| What we like | What we don’t like |
| Personalized mindfulness activities | No life coaching |
| Journaling prompts | No soothing sounds |
| Sleep sounds | |
Meditation Apps: Features Summary Table
| Meditation Apps Comparison Table | ||
|---|---|---|
| App | Subscription Fees or In-App Purchases | Features |
| Headspace — Top Pick | Headspace Plus: $12.99/month or $69.99/year | ✓ Guided Sessions ✓ Soothing Sounds X Life Coaching X Customizable ✓ Community |
| Insight Timer — Best Free Version | Monthly: $9.99 Annually: $59.99 |
✓ Guided Sessions ✓ Soothing Sounds ✓ Life Coaching ✓ Customizable ✓ Community |
| Calm — Best for Sleep | Monthly: $14.99 Yearly: $69.99 Lifetime: $399.99 |
✓ Guided Sessions ✓ Soothing Sounds ✓ Life Coaching ✓ Customizable ✓ Community |
| Simple Habit — Best for Quick Sessions | Monthly: $11.99 Yearly: $89.99 Lifetime: $299.99 |
✓ Guided Sessions ✓ Soothing Sounds ✓ Life Coaching ✓ Customizable ✓ Community |
| Ten Percent Happier — Best for Inspiration | Premium: $14.99 per/month or $99.99/year | ✓ Guided Sessions X Soothing Sounds ✓ Life Coaching X Customizable ✓ Community |
| Aura — Best for Life Coaching | Premium: $11.99/month or $59.99/year Lifetime: $399 |
✓ Guided Sessions ✓ Soothing Sounds ✓ Life Coaching ✓ Customizable ✓ Community |
| Sattva — Best for Curated Meditations | Monthly: $12.99 Yearly: $49.99 |
✓ Guided Sessions ✓ Soothing Sounds X Life Coaching ✓ Customizable ✓ Community |
| Meditation Studio — Best for Families | Monthly: $7.99 Quarterly: $17.99 Yearly: $49.99 |
✓ Guided Sessions ✓ Soothing Sounds ✓ Life Coaching ✓ Customizable ✓ Community |
| Breethe — Best for Specific Meditations | Monthly Membership: $12.99 Yearly Membership: $89.99 2 Year + Free Lifetime Upgrade: $149.99 Lifetime Membership: $399.99 |
✓ Guided Sessions ✓ Soothing Sounds ✓ Life Coaching ✓ Customizable ✓ Community |
| Stop Breathe Think — Best for Personalized Activities | Monthly: $9.99 Yearly: $58.99 Lifetime: $249.99 |
✓ Guided Sessions X Soothing Sounds X Life Coaching ✓ Customizable ✓ Community |