10 Best Meditation Apps For Better Mental Health
Meditation is a proven method to keep yourself relaxed, reduce stress, and stay healthy. It is also frequently recommended by doctors for several health conditions. Starting your day by meditating can help you increase your focus, relieve unnecessary stress, and stay on top of your health. In conjunction with exercise, meditation is undoubtedly the way to go for better mental health.
Like everything else, meditation apps can be used to meditate in a more convenient manner. There are a plethora of options to choose from though, and you might have a hard time knowing which one is better. To make things easier, we have compiled a list of 10 best meditation apps.
1. Headspace
Headspace is among the most famous and highly-rated meditation apps. Experts all around the world recommend this for meditation. There are various options for you to choose from, you can take a basics pack for free and upgrade later if you like it. The app is nicely designed and easy to use, the user interface is commendable, and you are bound to be impressed by it.
This app costs $13 monthly with a seven-day free trial.
Features
- Progress can be tracked, the time you spend meditating will be shown
- Choose a focus area like health, work, or happiness and get customized courses,
- Free trial with cancellation available
- Accessible library
Demerits
- Relatively expensive
- Only one voice option available
- Less flexibility in courses.
2. The Breathing Meditation App
The breathing app is not technically a meditation app but can be a nice supplement to other apps on this list. This app specifically focuses on breathing practices and recommends you exercise that will help you breathe. By teaching you to breathe in a proper manner, this app will help you stay calm and collected throughout the day. There are also carefully designed visuals that make the exercises easier to do.
Features
- Very simple to use with careful visual cues
- Absolutely free
- Based on eastern yogi and Buddhist ways of meditating
Demerits
- Only focuses on breathing, no guided meditations
- Lacks any community, coaches, or features whatsoever.
- Good to use only as a supplement.
3. Insight Timer
Insight timer is another famous mediation app with over 11,000 meditations from teachers all around the world. You can choose between guided or unguided meditation and the app in general offers a lot of flexibility. Ambient noises like rain or music are also readily available if you want to just meditate by yourself without any annoying voice behind you.
Features
- Absolutely free
- User-friendly design
- Lots of flexibility
- The community of users you can socialize with within the app
Demerits
- Since it’s a free app, the quality of guided meditation isn’t guaranteed
- A large number of options might overwhelm you
4. Buddhify
Buddhify is another meditation app that focuses particularity on people who lead a busy lifestyle and can’t invest much time in meditation. You can choose from various categories that match what you might be doing over the day. This is really handy because you can literally meditate at any time anywhere.
This app costs $4.99/ month
Features
- Readily meditate whenever wherever
- Children meditations available
- Relatively inexpensive
Cons
- A relatively low number of guided meditations
- Not recommended for people very serious about meditation.
5. Calm
Calm currently holds the status of the best meditation app in the apple app store. It provides you an overall package of guided meditation, ambient noises, soothing music and so much more. The cost is also acceptable for the sheer number of features that it offers and there is a free trial to test it out too.
This app costs $70 annually after a seven-day free trial.
Features
- Relatively cheap
- The flexibility of choices (guided, unguided, ambient sounds)
- Bedtime story option to fall asleep
- Masterclasses are also available from meditation experts.
Demerits
- Relatively complex design
- Vague signup and subscription options
6. Aura
Aura is a mix of meditation tracks, bedtime stories, music, ambient sounds, and others, all of which come together to form a comprehensive meditation experience. This meditation app is highly rated in the app store and you can also choose packages according to certain emotions. This meditation app is free as long as you only do one 3-minute meditation per day.
The premium costs $12.99 per month.
Features
- Customized meditation according to emotions
- Wide variety of tracks available
- The thoughtful design which invites you to use the app
Demerits
- Small amount of “emotions” available
- Relatively expensive if you are getting the premium
7. 10% happier
10% happier is for the ones who really want to get into meditation. This meditation app is based on a meditation book and provides around 350 guided meditation. All these meditations are highly scientific and based around actual research so you could regard this app as a therapy too. There are mediation coaches you can ask any queries you have, it’s almost like taking a class!
The app costs $14.99 per month.
Features
- Highly scientific guided mediation.
- Option to ask meditation experts any queries you have.
- Learn more about meditation itself with the library of courses available.
Demerits
- Quite expensive (most expensive on this list)
- Not recommended for simple meditations
- Relatively inflexible.
Download: iOS/ Android
8. Unplug
This app is from a real-life meditation house based in Los Angeles. You can expect to be trained by an expert in the mindfulness field and browse from over 700 meditation courses. This app has a lot of flexibility and lets you choose with a lot of parameters like mood, time, and so on.
After a 1-week free trial, this app costs $8 per month or $60 per year.
Features
- Extension of a real meditation house
- Option to ask meditation experts any queries you have
- Browse over 700 videos of all time range
- Very flexible options
Demerits
- Not recommended for simple meditations
- No ambient sounds or songs
9. Pzizz
This meditation app is the king of helping people sleep. However, you can also use it to do everyday meditation because the content it offers is quite rich and diverse. Plus, this meditation app is great to increase your concentration and focus.
This app costs $60/year for full access.
Features
- Great for falling asleep
- Especially designed meditation guidance to focus
- Very simple and easy to use
- Free for the most part
Demerits
- Not many choices in meditation
- Frequent ads for the free version.
- Not great for all-round meditation.
10. Sadhguru – Yoga, Meditation & Spirituality
We have all heard of Sadhguru, the famous Indian yogi who has rapidly grown in popularity over the last few years. His advice is famous worldwide and he is known for his humility, wisdom, and knowledge. This app is an extension of everything Sadhguru has to offer. It’s great if you are into eastern culture and yoga
Features
- Get the guidance of an expert eastern yogi
- One of the very few eastern meditation apps
- Available in 8 languages
- Free
- Eastern chanting and other forms of religious yoga available
Demerits
- Not much flexible
- The design could be better
- Voice isn’t very good.
Ending Thoughts
All of these apps are great options to meditate in a convenient way. Hiring a meditation teacher or going to a class can be tough, especially right now. Just download these apps can reap the same benefits from the comfort of your home!
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