The Best Meditation Apps to Help Beat Anxiety and Stress

The practice of meditation has a long history. Mindfulness, or the ability to be fully present in the moment, is an old discipline that has just lately been linked to tangible health benefits.

Health spoke with Talia Wiesel, PhD, an assistant professor of psychology in clinical psychiatry at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, about the benefits of mindfulness meditation for anxiety, stress, and overall mood.

Anxious people often find it difficult to relax if they aren’t aware of how far their anxiety has progressed. According to Wiesel, "mindfulness gives you that awareness; both the physical awareness and the awareness of your thoughts."

Feeling good is a direct result of practicing meditation and being more conscious. Thanks to certain nifty and user-friendly applications, you don’t even have to leave the comfort of your couch to enjoy them. There are thousands of free meditation applications that include guided sessions, soothing tunes, and regular reminders to focus on the present moment.

But with so many options, how can you pick the best meditation app? This article should be used as a quick reference. Seven widely used applications were evaluated and ranked on a scale from 1 to 5 "ohms." Find the best meditation app for you by reading on.

Headspace

If you’re new to meditation and looking for a straightforward app, look no further. Because meditation is challenging, most of the free sessions focus on teaching the user how to meditate and helping them ease into the practice. I will be completely honest and say that I was already using Headspace and finding its introduction to meditation helpful. But you need to be a paid member to access the premium features.

Pay $12.99 a month or $95 a year to access the remainder of the library. From there, Headspace provides meditation programs for a wide range of purposes, including relief from stress and anxiety, better sleep, enhanced well-being, and more.

Insight Timer

This software is unique due to the inclusion of various noises. When practicing meditation on your own, Insight Timer provides a wide variety of bells and soothing music to choose from. When I didn’t feel like focusing on a guided session, I really appreciated being able to just sit back and listen. When compared to competing applications, Insight Timer’s free users get access to a far larger library of content (over 25,000 guided meditations! ), taught by a wider range of qualified instructors. In comparison to other meditation apps, this is my top pick.

Wiesel suggests narrowing your Insight Timer search by selecting a small group of instructors whose classes you enjoy and consistently attending. She explains, "There are a lot of [meditations] on there, and that can be a little overwhelming, so I have a few people that I listen to," like Jack Cornfield, a very seasoned and well-known meditation instructor, and Kristin Mass, who is big on self-compassion and is really amazing.

The free edition has a lot of features, but if you want even more, the premium version costs $5 per month or $60 per year. Premium includes access to downloaded meditations, a night mode, and daily insights in addition to ten and thirty day courses.

10% Happier

Dan Harris, ex-news anchor and co-author of 10% Happier, developed the app after a panic attack on air inspired him to try meditation. The 10% Happier app requires a $99 annual membership to access the vast bulk of its features, however it does offer some free basic meditations and daily reminders.

In addition to praising Harris’s book, Wiesel said that his app "has really well-known meditation experts." You may test out the app’s premium features for free for a week to see if it’s worth paying for.

Meditation Studio

Meditation Studio makes it simple to utilize the app without spending any money by centralizing all of its free meditations in one place. These meditations range in length from five to thirty minutes and may be downloaded immediately, a perk that is usually reserved for paid subscribers in similar programs. However, the free material was sparse and mostly comprised on essentials. The app’s design was also somewhat simple, however this may have been a plus for certain users who like less flashy interfaces.

You may use it without paying anything, or you can pay $49.99 yearly (or $7.99 monthly) to have access to more than 500 meditations and 50 experts.

Simple Habit

My inner Virgo was thrilled with Simple Habit since it seemed so easy to implement in everyday life. Whether you need a moment of calm on your commute, after a disagreement, or before a major presentation, the app has you covered. Even your sex life may benefit from a little meditation. Not all of them are accessible to free users, but you get a good enough taste to decide whether or not to upgrade to the paid version. The free material satisfied my needs, but I would consider paying for the full version if I decided to keep using it.

You may try it out for free or pay $11.99/month, $95.99/year, or $299.99/life to have unlimited access.

Breethe: Meditation and Sleep

Breethe’s soothing background music is a great touch that plays whether the app is active—with or without a meditation session being active. As soon as I launched the app, I felt my anxiety melt away. The premium version of Breathe includes hypnotherapy sessions in addition to the visualizations and bedtime stories included in the free version. The vast majority of their material (over a thousand meditations) is only accessible behind a paywall, while they do provide a few free 7-day courses.

You may either use the free version or pay $12.99 a month (or $89.99 a year) for a premium subscription and have access to everything.