The Best Meditation Apps to Find Some Calm Whenever You Need It
We asked our editors which meditation apps they use to ease stress and help them relax.
Many of us right now are feeling more anxious than normal, given the uncertainty of the times that we're living in. If you’re struggling with sleep or want to alleviate your stress, trying a meditation app could help you find the peace that you need.
Meditation has been shown to help lower blood pressure, dial down anxiety, lessen depression, and increase relaxation, according to the National Institutes of Health. But with hundreds of meditation apps available on the Apple and Google Play app stores, just navigating all of the choices can be stressful enough.
We asked several of our colleagues about which meditation apps they use in their day-to-day lives. Read on to learn about their favorites — you'll be setting up your own at-home meditation space in no time.
Headspace
Best Meditation App
$13 monthly with a 7-day free trial, or $70 annually with a 2-week trial
Headspace is one of the most popular meditation apps available, and for good reason. The app, which has more than 65 million users across 190 countries, has a whole lot to offer for both beginners and longtime users. The service is well designed and packed with a wide variety of meditations that are easily accessible and uncluttered.
The app even gives users the option to first try it for free with a Basics Pack course that’ll guide you through the essentials of meditation and mindfulness. Evan Romano, the associate editor of Men’s Health, said the trial helped him clear his head “in a big way.”
“The app just lets things get into perspective,” he said. “The biggest part for me was how it helped me find a way to get a clear head and fall asleep at the end of a long day.”
BestProducts.com’s beauty editor, Jennifer Hussein, has tried a handful of meditation apps and Headspace is her favorite, too. It’s also the best meditation app, according to Wirecutter.
“The narrator’s voice is so soothing,” Hussein said. “I have insomnia so this app really helps me fall asleep faster.”
InsightTimer
Best Free App
Free, or $60 annually with a 30-day free trial
The InsightTimer app has the largest free library of guided meditations. In fact, it offers 45,000 titles ranging from music, uplifting talks, concentration exercises, guided imagery, and much more.
Our senior home decor editor Melanie Yates swears by this app. She says it’s a great tool for meditators of all levels and preferences.
“I’ve barely skimmed the surface of what this app offers, but even just to meditate with background music on a timer, you can get very specific with the app’s options for chime tone, music type, and whether you want interval bells to ding when you’re halfway done,” she said.
The app is also a favorite of Samantha Feher, the editorial assistant and assistant to the editor-in-chief at Cosmopolitan.
“I found I do best with ambient and nature sounds, as opposed to guided meditation, but luckily, InsightTimer has endless options, and it took about 30 seconds for me to search and find one that worked for me.”
Simple Habit
Best If You're Strapped for Time
$12 monthly, $90 annually, or $300 for lifetime subscription
We salute the Zen masters of the world who can quiet their mind for hours. If you’re extremely busy and struggle at finding the time to get a meditation in, the Simple Habit app proves that all it takes is 5 minutes to re-center yourself, breathe easier, and stress less.
Kristin Salaky, the news editor at Delish, said she uses Simple Habit because she likes how quick and easy its meditation exercises are. “I can never commit to anything longer than 5 minutes,” she joked. “Their meditations are short and sorted by topic, so I can do one quickly while I’m still in bed and then be on my way.”
The app is primarily focused on stress relief, but it also offers its users daily motivation, guided mindfulness and guided sleep sessions. Some meditation topics even focus on alleviating stress related to the current public health situation.
Many sessions are free, but you’ll have to upgrade if you want to download sessions and access the app’s expansive content collection.
Waking Up
Best for Its Satisfaction Guarantee
Free access to first five meditations and five short talks, otherwise $100 annually
As cliché as it sounds, Waking Up is more than just a meditation app. It’s a guide to understanding the mind to help you live a more balanced and fulfilling life. The app is packed with daily meditations, lessons on science and philosophy, and conversations with teachers and scholars.
Most of the app's guided meditations are led by Sam Harris, a neuroscientist with a degree in philosophy from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in neuroscience from UCLA. He’s practiced meditation for 30 years and has studied with many Tibetan, Indian, Burmese, and Western meditation teachers throughout the world.
If you’re the type of person who wants to deepen your understanding of the theory behind meditation, you should definitely consider purchasing this app, especially since it has a money-back guarantee.
But if you would like to use the Waking Up app and cannot afford the membership subscription, you can email support@wakingup.com to set up a free account.
Calm
Best for Specific Soothing
$15 monthly or $70 annually with a 7-day free trial
Calm is a meditation app that’s been downloaded 80 million times and was previously named App of the Year in Apple's App Store. Its mission is to make the world happier and healthier.
The Calm app is free to download, but a paid subscription gives users access to more than 100 hours of premium content, including advanced meditations, soothing sleep stories, calming nature scenes, and a breathing tool.
There’s also an integrated music streaming platform with calming music and sounds that’ll help you focus, relax, or fall asleep.
Once you select your rhythm, Calm will guide you through the breathing exercises with soft dings that’ll prompt you to breathe in, hold your breath, and breathe out. You can select from multiple breathing patterns to choose the one that feels the most natural to your own, and the app will time you, so you can keep track of your progress over time.
We like that there are specific courses offered that allow you to find relief for whatever you have going on. Whether you’re anxious, have low self-esteem, are under stress, or want to break a habit, Calm can help you target what you want to work on most.
Inscape
Best for its Unique Playlists
$60 annually with a 7-day free trial
This app was launched by a meditation studio in New York City, designed to transport its members to peaceful tranquility by combining unique sounds and scents.
The Inscape app brings the interactive experience to you wherever you may be. Although the digital equivalent is incapable of replicating the studio’s perfect acoustics and relaxing smells, the app is still quite soothing and offers a wonderful experience overall.
The app features plenty of guided meditations, sleep sessions, and stress-relieving exercises. What separates it from the myriad of other options is its collections of playlists. These soundscapes are geared toward specific life events, such as a breakup, the stresses of holidays, or even a case of the Sunday Scaries.
Editor Zarah Kavarana personally prefers tuning into the guided breathing exercises when she needs a quick moment of calm.
"There are multiple lengths you can choose from, so whether you have 5 minutes or 20, you can meditate for however long you need," she said.
Brandon Carte has been covering technology at BestProducts.com since 2017, where he's been writing about the latest gadgets, appliances, and scouring the internet for the products that make life easier. His reporting has been featured on TopTenReviews.com, Good Housekeeping and USA Today. When he's not researching washing machines or testing robot vacuums, you can find him at concerts, swimming laps, or at the movies. He thinks smartphones are too big, prefers MP3s to Spotify, and misses his iPhone’s headphone jack.
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