“There are too many app! I no can chooooose!”
Yeah, there are. Well over 1000 on the app store. But to be honest, most of them are just rehashes of the same core features. So don’t stress it, let me take the thinking out of it for you.
For this post we are going to discuss three apps. Two of them are the most popular apps on the market:
Headspace
Calm
The third is a lesser known app that I currently use:
Insight Timer
ALL three are on iOS/Android!
The main points of focus will be:
Features
Pricing
My honest opinion on the app
Admittedly, I am biased. I do not like fluff or excess bells & whistles. (shocking, right?)
Headspace
Headspace features a minimalistic, “fun” interface for users. The logo is a sun & the interface utilizes a lot of cartoony animations in it.
Pricing
A free trial on the app requires card information to start. That being said, monthly it is 12.99. Buying the family plan nets you six separate accounts for 99.99 annually.
The real deal comes if you are a college student. Students get Headspace for 9.99 annually!
Features & Accessibility
Headspace offers a wide array of guided meditations. They also offer focus music playlists, sleep meditations, workout videos based in mindfulness (kind of lame Headspace I can not lie to you).
On top of all this they also offer unguided timers.
You may be wondering, is there any educational content to learn meditation techniques? Yes there is!
There are short (usually 1 min in length) animated videos teaching common meditative techniques such as:
Visualization
Body Scan
Mental Noting
There are more techniques included as well. All are done in an adult & kid friendly animation style with simple and clear instructions.
On the accessibility front, Headspace is offered in English, French, German, Spanish and Portuguese!
The app tracks your progress & sessions over time, including what your current meditation streak is.
Here are what the stats look like (an old account of mine):
Fighters Honest Opinion
All that being said, I personally believe 85% of the features are fluff. You could never use most of them and come out with the same “progress” as if you did.
Workouts? Shouldn’t be getting that from Headspace. (insert link to Ox)
Seasonal meditations? “How to have a happier holiday”… cmon!
Star Wars themed meditations? SILLY!
Overall, Headspace gets a 7.5/10 from me. This ranking is heavily carried by how beginner friendly the app is. If you are new to meditating, Headspace is not a bad place to start.
Calm
Full disclosure: I have only briefly used Calm. Personally, I did not like it and it did not serve my needs.
Pricing
Like Headspace, Calm requires card information for a trial.
Calm offers an annual subscription for 69.99 with the option of buying a lifetime subscription for 399.99
They also have a family plan for 99.99 annually, netting you six separate accounts. With the price of a solo annual subscription being 69.99 this is a great deal for a family, but may leave the individual feeling screwed.
Features & Accessibility
Calm offers a 30 day in app “how to meditate” beginner course. They also offer a unique daily ten minute meditation. A wide array of guided meditations are offered, as well as unguided meditations. That being said, there is no option to my knowledge to do a silent meditation timer.
All of these features are nice, but the main draw to the app for a lot of people lie in the bells and whistles.
They offer “Scenes” which are images & soothing sounds to play in background of day to day activities. Another unique feature is “Masterclasses”. These are courses in topics pertaining to meditation/mindfulness/mental health taught by world renown experts in the field.
They even have a Halo soundscape. This had me CRACKING up writing this when I found it.
The feature that Calm is most popularly known for though are “Sleep Stories”. These are, very literally, bedtime stories. Over 100 bedtime stories, all narrated by *checks notes* celebrities… Some names that narrate: Matthew McConaughey, Leona Lewis (???), and Harry Styles to name just a few.
Lebron James even has something he narrates in app, although it is not a bedtime story.
A final feature to note is a wide variety of music for focus, sleep & relaxation. Calming landscapes, exclusive remixes of songs from popular artists, etc.
On the accessibility front, Calm is offered in the following languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Korean and Portuguese. So they have Headspace beat out in that area.
There are a lot of meditations for varying ages of children & sleep stories focused towards children.
Of course, your progress & streaks are also tracked in the app.
Fighters Honest Opinion
Calm as a meditation app, is decent. Though comparatively to Headspace, there are FAR too many features! It is very easy to get overwhelmed with the sheer number of things in the app, this leads people to not meditate.
I am not a fan of fluff or bels & whistles. I meditate to meditate. If I want nature I’ll go to nature, as it is intended (real life u know?).
The app really loses me with sleep stories. I think grown adults needing a bedtime story by their favorite celebrity to go to sleep is kind of crazy. (Grow up, respectfully!)
I give this app an honest 5/10. The interface is hectic, the features are excessive and the app just really doesn’t do it for me.
Insight Timer
This is the app that I currently use. Personally, I use the free version because I am only interested in the free features. For my practice, I do not need anything that the premium offers.
Pricing
You get a free week long trial, then after that it is 5.00 a month. Annually the price is 59.99. I could not find anywhere in the app that indicated that there was a family plan like the other two options discussed earlier.
Features & Accessibility
The app is fairly simple to use. Though I will be honest, it is kind of clunky. The other two apps have a far better interface & are easier to get around to the various features.
This app offers many courses ranging a lot of topics including: breathing, sleep, yoga, gratitude and more!
You have a built in journal, “meditation challenges” and mood check ins.
The app also features playlists of music for focus, work, sleep, “sound healing”, mantras & chanting, nature sounds, etc.
In the premium version you get an advanced journal (can add in quotes from app, check ins and various content), offline listening for audios (forward/rewind too) & unlimited access to thousands of courses.
But when you’re new to the app, good luck finding how to get to the premium version in app. It took me 15 minutes to figure out while typing this!
ALL THAT SAID I don’t use none of that!
The only features I use in this app is the namesake of the app. The “Insight Timer”. In the free version you have access to a custom meditation timer. You can set the duration, the warm up length, you can add ambient sound in, interval bells if you want (like a bell every 5 mins) & a beginning/ending bell!
You can save all your presets too. I very much enjoy using the app for silent meditation. It is simple to use & gives me exactly what I want.
Fighters Honest Opinion
This app isn’t perfect. For what I use it for, it is a 10/10 EASILY. As an overall meditation app? It ranks as a 4.5/10. The interface is clunky to get around, the features are fluff and it’s hard to figure out how to upgrade to premium if you wish to.
Some of the features are cool, like journal. But I would tell you just to write in a real pen & paper journal like a human being.
To use for silent? GREAT. Otherwise? MEH! Worth the price of premium? Absolutely not.
TL,DR: Don’t overcomplicate it. Pick one & start, but be real, you don’t need to pay for premium to meditate. That’s silly!
Stay BLESSED
P.S. You can book a 1 on 1 consult call to learn breathing & mindfulness here: bowtiedfighter.gumroad.com