The 7 Best Meditation Apps of 2024

1

Headspace

We tried Headspace for a month and were overwhelmingly impressed with its offerings. We could choose exercises from four different categories—Meditation, Sleep, Stress, and Mindfulness—and with the hundreds available, we never ran out of options. We liked that as soon as we signed up, we could fill out symptom trackers for our stress and anxiety, and the app followed up a few weeks later asking us to rate our stress and anxiety levels again (and they had improved!). We also appreciated that, although Headspace showed us a “featured meditation” each day, the app never forced us to do a certain exercise or follow a certain routine—we were able to choose each and every meditation we did, which made us feel more in control of our meditation practice.

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Based on ABC news anchor Dan Harris's book, "10% Happier," the Happier app teaches meditation basics in a fun, easy, and accessible way. It's well suited for anyone, but especially those who think they're "not the meditation type" and can't find the time to start a meditation practice.

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3

Calm

What's keeping you up at night? Anxious thoughts? Lack of focus? A stressed-out psyche? Calm’s guided meditations will have you sleeping soundly and feeling more relaxed almost instantly. When we tried Calm, we were immediately impressed with the breadth of content available—everything from soothing soundscapes to narrated meditations to sleep stories. Since we have always been the type of person who needs background noise to sleep, we found the wide variety of soundscapes to be especially useful. Calm had everything from office noises (the clinking of mugs and tapping of keyboards) to thunderstorms (as well as 14 other rain-related themes) to a spaceship engine room (which we could only imagine was accurate).

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4

Insight Timer

Insight Timer offers more than 150,000 free meditations—that’s a big deal, since one of the biggest complaints about other meditation apps is their lack of free content. When we tried Insight Timer, the sheer number of free options blew us away. The library allowed us to filter by need (e.g., stress, sleep, self-esteem); time, from five to 30 or more minutes; and specific benefit, such as pain relief, relationship woes, or teaching kids to meditate. It even offered us a mood tracker, where we could indicate via smiley face how we were feeling that day and see our progress right on the app as we checked in each day (for a month)—all for free.

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5

Buddhify

We tested Buddhify for a month and were impressed with how simple and intuitive the app was. There are over 200 guided meditations available, and as a beginner to meditation, we found it especially helpful that the exercises were guided. We never felt lost or like we didn’t know what we were supposed to do because the narrators of the exercises led us through things like body scans to identify how we were feeling and use that insight to improve our mood, focus, and productivity.

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6

Breathwrk

The Breathwrk app has numerous breathing exercise programs that promote calm, relaxation, and pain management, and offer an energy boost to help carry you through your workday. When we tested Breathwrk for a month, we were pleasantly surprised by the range and depth of content available. For example, not only did Breathwrk offer us breathing exercises, but it also provides classes, which consist of multiple exercises and education in areas like Calm, Sleep, Awake, Energize, Anxiety, Ease Pain Relief, Unwind, Reboot, Recharge, and Stamina. We were also impressed with the fact that Breathwrk lets you do any classes or exercises you want, in any order, at any time. This way, we were able to really personalize our experience with the app.

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Smiling Mind was developed by psychologists and educators in Australia to help bring mindful balance to children and adults. Smiling Mind is perfect for children 3 and older thanks to programs like The Bubble Journey, a guided meditation exercise that involves children filling in bubbles representing moments in their day when they really noticed what was going on around them. There are also guided meditations for older children that focus on being a better student, being more present, and using mindfulness to excel while playing your favorite sports. And while we did not test Smiling Mind’s children-focused exercises ourselves, we did have a great experience with the app’s more grown-up content.

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