In today’s world, meditation and mindfulness might be the only way to escape the hustle and bustle. If you feel like you are going out of your brain with stress, you might consider meditation apps as the chill pills the doctor should have ordered. Mindfulness apps are designed to bring you out of the frenzy of the day-to-day world. They do so by creating a feeling of inner peace that slows you down for a moment or two. With all the demands life has to throw at you taking up your time, you probably know what stress feels like.
So if you feel like life is draining your energy, it might be time to consider a good way to deal with the rigors of life. Mindfulness apps teach you that inner peace isn’t always as “touchy-feely” as it sounds, just a good way to stop, smell the roses and take a few deep breaths in your otherwise hectic day. Luckily, we’ve compiled a list of the 9 top meditation apps out there to grow your inner peace, and here they are.
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1. Headspace
Headspace has one mission: to improve the health and happiness of the world. The California based company views meditation as a practice rooted in history and a topic of modern science. The Headspace app balances the two powers and creates a meditation app backed by clinically-validated research, one of the only meditation apps to do so. If you’re interested in reducing stress, improving sleep, or increasing focus, Headspace has the app and research to help.
Price: 14-Day Free trial, automatically converts to a yearly payment of $69.99 USD.
Downloads: 70M across all platforms
Category: Health & Fitness
Apple Rating: 4.8 Stars
Android Rating: 3.6 Stars
2. Calm
Calm’s mission is simple: make the world happier and healthier. Calm is an app designed with the sole purpose of calming you down. The highly awarded app has over 50million downloads and 700,000 5-star reviews, it’s definitely doing something right. The Calm website has free meditation resources, an informative blog and mindfulness calendar for you right off the bat. If you’re looking for a more personal schedule you can try Calm free for 7 days. Included in the trial are timed meditation options, one day of the multi-day meditation program, the ‘Breathe Bubble’ and the sleep story titled Blue Gold. The app also has a large number of free scenes you can select from to play nature sounds and/or music in the background. Sign yourself up for some quiet relaxation with this one, it’s a simple process to follow and guides you through timed meditation that can greatly reduce your stress levels. If you’re interested in pursuing a premium subscription, Calm Premium unlocks a full library of guided meditations, sleep stories, music, and masterclasses featuring world-renowned meditation experts.
Price: 7-Day Free trial then AUD$79.99 billed annually, cancel anytime.
Developer: Calm.com, Inc.
Category: Health & Fitness
Apple Rating: 4.7 Stars
Android Rating: 4.3 Stars
3. Insight Timer
The Insight Timer app is a little different than most. It’s an app that emphasises the real metrics, showcasing the amount of time it’s users spends on the app, not how many downloads the app has. Insight Timer users typically spend about 3x the amount of time on Insight Timer then they do on other meditation apps. The app’s users are finding the meditation programs useful, and we think you will too. Insight Timer has completely free daily LIVE meditation sessions with instructors, and with over 3000 instructors you’re never going to run out of choice.
Price: 30-Day Free trial then US$59.99 billed annually after trial.
Developer: Insight Network Inc
Category: Health & Fitness
Apple Rating: 4.8 Stars
Android Rating: 4.8 Stars
4. Smiling Mind
Smiling Mind has a simple mission: To provide accessible, life-long tools to support healthy minds. The app has a focus on improving youth mental health, a major problem that continues to rise. The app, created by a team of psychologists, this will teach you the art of meditation. It’s geared towards the younger generation where mental health has become a serious issue, so much so, 1 in 4 secondary students and 1 in 7 primary school students experience a mental illness. Smiling Mind is a unique program that’s been proven to lead to better attention, memory, regulation of emotions and self-awareness. The program brings attention to these areas which in turn reduces stress, anxiety and depression, creates better academic skills, social skills and self-esteem. The app has reached over 5.5 million young people and 1/3 of Aussie educators are using the program.
Price: Completely Free
Developer: Smiling Mind
Category: Health & Fitness
Apple Rating: 4.2 Stars
Android Rating: 3.7 Stars
5. The Mindfulness App
There are mindfulness apps and then there is The Mindfulness App. The app is global in its reach with over 130 countries and 130 million users on board, in it together to create a healthier state of mind. To get you started the app offers five days of guided practice to introduce you to the art of mindfulness. From there the app takes you through timed sessions in the art of silent meditation, with 3 to 30 min blocks there’s a time frame for even the busiest meditator. The premium option adds unlimited access to meditations and courses on calm, relationships, focus and an offline experience that’s there when you need it most.
Price: 1-month Free trial then US$59.99 billed annually after trial.
Developer: MindApps
Category: Health & Fitness
Apple Rating: 4.7 Stars
Android Rating: 4.5 Stars
6. Simple Habit: Meditation App
Funnily enough, Simple Habit has a simple mission: empower humans to stress less, achieve more, and live better. Simple Habit aims to achieve this by offering a comprehensive guide to meditation that is sure to improve your sleep, marriage, parenthood, work, and health. The app offers sleep and wellness therapy sessions that guide you through meditation and daily motivation. Simple Habit will personalize the way you live your life. The collective of leading coaches and renowned meditation experts will take you on a journey that lasts 5 minutes in the morning, or 20mins during your commute, the choice is yours.
Price: $11.99/ month, $89.99/ year, $299.99/ life.
Developer: Simple Habit, Inc.
Category: Health & Fitness
Apple Rating: 4.8 Stars
Android Rating: 4.7 Stars
Simple Habit (iOS) Simple Habit (Android)
7. Colorfy: Art Coloring Game
Few things in life are more rewarding than completing a couple of Mandalas. Colorfy is here to satisfy that need with an app that offers a different kind of meditation. It’s colouring books for adults! What could be cooler than relaxing with some digital crayons to draw away your troubles? This concept is becoming much more popular nowadays with actual colouring books geared towards adults. The pictures are quite intricate and beautiful so in no time at all, you will have some lovely artwork that you have created yourself to admire.
Price: Free version or Colorfy Plus $2.99/ week, $7.99/ month, $39.99/ year.
Developer: Fun Games For Free
Category: Entertainment
Apple Rating: 4.8 Stars
Android Rating: 4.0 Stars
Colorfy (iOS) Colorfy (Android)
8. Sattva – Meditations & Mantras
Sattva has a simple ideology, what gets measured, gets managed. Simply put, you can’t improve what you don’t already measure. Sattva will help you discover the best version of yourself by inspiring you to meditate regularly, doing so by measuring meditation time and deep statistics, such as, when, what, where and how long your meditation journeys are. The meditation app has a personalised dashboard allowing you to tailor your meditation experience through widgets. To simplify the experience further, Sattva provides thorough music collections and playlists to take away the stress and hassle of knowing what to listen to along your meditative journey.
Price: $12.99/ month, $49.99/ year, $199/ lifetime.
Developer: Shankara Multimedia Services / Sattva.Life
Category: Health & Fitness
Apple Rating: 4.8 Stars
Android Rating: 3.9 Stars
9. Buddhify: Meditation On The Go
Focusing on meditation on the go, you’ll want to channel the great Buddha when you use this app. Buddhify brings mindfulness into the “modern life”. While other meditation apps require 10 or 20mins of spare time, Buddhify only asks for a few minutes. There are over 80 guided meditations to suit your needs on this app but don’t stress, Buddhify still offers traditional formal meditations for when you have a bit more time on your hands. Buddhify believes a good meditation app is only the building block to a life lived without the need for a meditation app. That goal of helping you become a creative, independent meditator is why Buddhify has an upfront cost rather than the more common monthly subscription model.
Price: Apple $7.99, Android $2.99, or yearly/ $40 AUD.
Developer: Mindfulness Everywhere
Category: Health & Fitness
Apple Rating: 4.7 Stars
Android Rating: 4.0 Stars
Buddhify (iOS) Buddhify (Android)
Smiling Mind is geared towards the younger generation where mental health has become a serious issue. 1 in 4 secondary students and 1 in 7 primary school students experience a mental illness. Smiling Mind is a unique program that brings attention to areas which in turn reduce stress, anxiety and depression, and create better academic skills, social skills and self-esteem amongst youth.
Insight Timer has completely free daily LIVE meditation sessions with instructors, and with over 3000 instructors you’re never going to run out of choice.
Headspace has one mission: to improve the health and happiness of the world. The Headspace app balances the two powers of history and science to create a meditation app backed by clinically-validated research, one of the only meditation apps to do so.
You’ll also like:
A Beginner’s Guide to Meditation
Top 6 Health Benefits of Kale
10 Common Men’s Health Myths Debunked
