The 3 Best Meditation Apps Compared: Headspace vs Calm vs InsightTimer
Feeling stressed out, anxious, and generally frazzled by all the things you have to balance — kiddos, work, bills, deadly viruses, the mess that is your home? Did you think you'd have your shit together by now? Welcome to da club.
Fortunately, a growing cadre of meditation apps are positioning themselves as antidotes to our rising overwhelm and malaise, tailoring their offerings to tackle specific issues like financial fears and managing uncertainty. And, thankfully, these apps are also proving to be astonishingly effective.
I've tried upwards of a dozen meditation apps since my sleep really tanked about four years ago. In the post, I pit two of the most popular apps against each other — Headspace vs Calm — and take a look at a close third, InsightTimer.
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The History and Benefits of Meditation
With its origins in Southeast Asia, meditation has been around for millennia. It first reached the Western world in the 18th century, when a subset of its guiding principles began influencing Western philosophical circles. Since then, there have been surges in its popularity, most notably in the 1960s (just ask yer mom). However, it’s only been within the past decade or so that meditation has entered the Western mainstream.
The way we practice meditation (and why we practice meditation) — our appropriated version — certainly looks different from how its original manifestation, a fact compounded by the variety of meditation techniques that exist.
But meditation, we’ve come to realize, is a deeply powerful practice. It's one that helps us connect with our true selves and the world around us, it eases our anxiety and stress, and it promotes a sense of peace and wellbeing — even gratitude.
The anecdotal evidence underscoring meditation's benefits is compelling. You probably know at least one person who has a semi-regular meditation practice and who sings its praises.
The scientific evidence is impressive, too. One large-scale review out of Johns Hopkins (of 47 different trials with 3515 participants) published in the JAMA in March 2014 found that “mindfulness meditation programs had moderate evidence of improved anxiety [...], depression [...], and pain.”
People can practice exercises in mindfulness meditation, the scientific literature concludes, to effectively alleviate the severity of some of today's greatest psychological stresses.
What Is Meditation?
Meditation is a practice that trains your attention and awareness in ways that help you achieve clarity of mind and emotional stability (and beyond).
Different types of meditation use different modes of training to achieve that end. You may have heard of transcendental meditation, focused meditation, movement meditation, mantra meditation, and mindfulness meditation, among others. Despite their differences, each is focused on shifting your consciousness so that you can find presence, awareness, peace, and calm.
What is Mindfulness Meditation?
Mindfulness meditation has its origins in ancient Buddhist teachings and is perhaps the most popular type of meditation in the West. At its heart lies an emphasis on developing an awareness of the present moment.
As you practice this form of meditation, you tune into — or become mindful of — any emotions that are moving through your body and any thoughts that are passing through your mind. Instead of engaging these thoughts and feelings by interpreting, judging, or otherwise letting them affect you, you simply observe them at a distance.
Why Practice Mindfulness Meditation?
By paying attention to your thoughts and feelings without letting them rile you, you cultivate a deeper awareness and resiliency that allows you to stay calm and centered as you move through your day, encountering new and sometimes stressful stimuli.
Through mindfulness meditation, you expand your consciousness out — beyond the rough edges of the world and your own fears and worries — in order to achieve a greater state of stability. Practicing breathwork and noticing your breath as you inhale and exhale can aid in this journey.
There is a type of meditation that relies heavily on mantra: words or short phrases that you repeat over and over in order to help you turn inward. All forms of meditation can utilize mantras or longer statements that help you center yourself as you embrace awareness of the present moment. The here and now. The one thing we always have.
The Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh (who at the time of this writing is 94 years old!) has garnered a loyal following and widespread recognition for his extraordinary wisdom and observations about life and death.
One of his most powerful and widely shared mantras—or “poems,” as he often calls them—to recite while meditating is:
Breathing in, I calm my body. Breathing out, I smile. Dwelling in the present moment, I know this is a wonderful moment.
Thich Nhat Hanh, Being Peace, 2005 (1st ed. 1987)
Meditation, including mindfulness meditation, can be self-guided or led by a trained practitioner. Fortunately, especially in the era of Covid, if you choose guided meditation, you need not travel to a classroom, yoga studio, or community center to meet with your instructor.
Enter, meditation apps. Since around 2010, the world has also been introduced to a slew of meditation apps, including Headspace, Calm, Insight Timer, Aura, Breethe, Buddhify, Inscape, Sattva, Enso, and a host of others.
Headspace vs Calm vs InsightTimer
Headspace and Calm are two of the biggest, most well-known meditation apps on the market. In this post, I’m going to look at Headspace vs Calm, while also adding a third to the mix: InsightTimer. InsightTimer is largely free, and I'm all about accessibility when it comes to mental health.
The techniques represented by each are diverse, but all three apps generally adhere to the precepts of mindfulness, which form the core of mindfulness meditation. By comparing these apps, my aim is to help you pick the one that is best for your needs.
1. Headspace App
About Headspace: Headspace is one of the oldest and most popular meditation apps, with over 66 million members. It was founded in 2010 by Andy Puddicombe, a meditation expert and former monk. The app itself came online in January 2012.
What Headspace Says: “Headspace has one mission: to improve the health and happiness of the world. And with millions of users in more than 190 countries, we’re well on our way.”
Headspace Offerings: Headspace presents users with an extensive and diverse set of offerings. There are hundreds of guided meditations on topics such as sleep, focus, and exercise, including single and multi-day course; sleep stories and sounds to help you drift off at night; music to help focus your attention or tune out; a daily meditation on a new topic every single day; exercise meditations to help you move and get your heart rate up; “SOS” meditations for when you’re experiencing anxiety, panic, or stress; 2-3-minute “mini-meditations” for a mental recent; sessions for kids; and much, much more
Cost: $12.99 for a monthly subscription or $69.99 for an annual subscription ($5.83/month)
Free trial? Yes. You get the first 7 days of a monthly subscription for free and the first 14 days of an annual subscription for free. If you don’t cancel your subscription before the end of the trial, you will be charged. Note: The app is free to download and some content is unlocked, meaning you can access it without a subscription (or a free trial).
Ratings: 4.9 stars; 684,900 ratings (App Store stats)
Where to Find It: Apple App Store or Google Play
PROS:
- Robust resources, including a basics course and structured meditations that are well-suited to beginners (meditation is a SKILL you have to practice—you don’t go into it knowing how to do it)
- The offerings are extensive and touch upon topics that others might not, such as the experience of isolation and loneliness, addiction, chronic pain.
- Intuitive, well laid-out interface that is relatively uncluttered and easy to navigate
- You can control meditation length, and there are short, 2-3 minute sessions available
CONS:
- Some reviewers note that they find Puddicombe’s voice difficult to listen to. Puddicombe is the “voice” of Headspace and leads most but not all of the meditations. There is also a female instructor named Eve, who, like Puddicombe, also has a British accent. (Voice is going to be a criticism of ANY app that includes narration. Some people are going to be turned off by or unable to engage with a speaker’s voice, regardless of how melodious it might strike others. Still, this is an important thing to consider when making your choice.)
- Headspace tends to “gamify” meditation by keeping track of your usage streaks and other milestones in what some users describe as competitive in nature. This gamification seems to be antithetical to cultivating harmony and balance, and reducing stress, and may rub some people the wrong way.
2. Calm App
About Calm: The Calm App launched a few months after Headspace, in April 2012, by internet entrepreneurs Michael Acton Smith and Alex Tew.
What Calm says: “We're the #1 app for Sleep, Meditation and Relaxation, with over 50 million downloads and over 700,000 5-star reviews. We’re honored to be an Apple BEST OF 2018 award winner, Apple's App of the Year 2017, Google Play Editor's Choice 2018, and to be named by the Center for Humane Technology as "the world's happiest app.”
Offerings: Calm has a vast range of offerings, including meditations that focus on sleep, anxiety, stress, work, self-care, new practitioners, and beyond; music, stories, and “soundscapes” targeting sleep; music for relaxation, communing with nature, focus, and work; videos for mindful movement; nature scenes to encourage sleep and relaxation; breathing exercises; sessions for kids; “Masterclasses” with people like Tara Brach (on radical self-compassion), Dr. Shefali Tsabary (on conscious parenting), Elizabeth Gilbert (on creative living beyond fear), Dr. Michelle May (on Mindful Eating), and Jason Kidd (on peak performance) offer targeted lessons and different perspectives on mindfulness.
Cost: $69.99 for an annual subscription
Free trial: Yes. You get the first 7 days of your annual subscription for free. If you don’t cancel your subscription before the end of the trial, you will be charged.
Note: The app is free to download and some content is unlocked (the Masterclasses are not), meaning you can access it without a subscription (or a free trial).
Ratings: 4.8 stars; 1.1 million ratings (App Store stats)
Where to get it: Apple App Store or Google Play
PROS:
- There are more voices represented on this app, so in the "battle" that is Headspace vs Calm, Calm feels less monolithic or one-dimensional
- It features a fantastic library of resources for kids of all ages, including a session that features Thomas the Tank Engine and his friends, among others
- You can download sessions for offline use
CONS:
- Reviewers complain that there isn’t enough unlocked (i.e., free) content
- Some users noted that Tamara Levitt, the lead instructor, "talks too much” during the guided meditations. (Calm has added another regular instructor, John Armstrong; you can often choose between John and Tamara after you've selected a particular meditation.)
- There is no monthly subscription option (only annual).
- Due to the more open-ended and less structured nature of its meditations (vs Headspace), some may find Calm less beginner-friendly
- There are few if any short (under 10 minutes) sessions.
3. InsightTimer
About: Developed by Brad Fullmer in 2009 as a simple timer, InsightTimer was acquired by brothers Christopher and Nicholas Plowman in April 2015.
What InsightTimer Says: "Magic Happens when you give meditation away for free […] This chart shows how much time is spent on Insight Timer compared with many other meditation apps who you often read about in the media." [GRAPHIC below: Time spent on meditation apps in the USA: InsightTimer: 63%; Calm: 17%; Headspace: 13%: Others: 7%]
Usually the journalists write about how many downloads these apps have, or how much funding they’ve raised, or how much money they’re making. Rarely do they write about how many of the downloads convert to meditators, or how much time people spend on them, or how often people return each week — ‘metrics’ that actually matter when nurturing a meditation practice…."
Offerings: InsightTimer offers over 70,000 free guided meditations and music tracks. This is a truly insane library that encompasses an array of topics and issues, from anxiety and stress to sleep. (Calm and Headspace do not quantify the amount of content they offer beyond “hundreds” of sessions). You can also find meditations, talks, and “events” led by celebrities and renowned practitioners, from Gisele Bundchen to Elizabeth Gilbert, Lalah Delia, Kenneth Soares, and Lama Rod Owens. Like Calm, Insight Timer offers 300+ multi-day courses with leading mindfulness practitioners; these are tagged “Members Plus” and sit behind a paywall. The app also has a category dedicated to yoga.
Cost: Mostly free! The vast majority of content on InsightTime is free; the “Members Plus” courses can be accessed via an annual $60 subscription
Free trial: Most of the content is free, so no trial necessary. InsightTimer does offer a free 30-day trial for its annual “Members Plus” subscription. Cancel before the end of your subscription or you will be charged.
Where to get it: Apple App Store or Google Play
Ratings:
4.9 stars; 266,819 ratings (App Store stats)
PROS:
- The majority of content on InsightTimer is free
- The size of its library and the variety of its offerings is truly insane
- You can filter by meditation length
- A variety of voices are represented
- There are resources for learning, even for becoming a teacher
CONS:
- You cannot filter by Member Plus and free offerings, meaning sometimes it’s hard to claw your way back out to find the free content
- The interface is well laid-out—on the home screen. Once you start drilling down into different sections, it’s easy to get lost if you’re not finding exactly what you’re looking for.
The Verdict: Headspace vs Calm vs InsightTimer
You can't go wrong with any of these apps. I’d suggest downloading all three and checking out the free, unlocked content. Pay attention to the offerings, navigation, voices, and general vibe, but also how you feel after you come out of a session and how the session affects (or doesn’t) your mood/energy and the rest of your day. If you finding yourself gravitating toward one in particular, considering checking out a free trial.
My Favorite Meditation App
I personally have all three apps. I know. That’s nuts. But I get different things from each. While I do think that Headspace has the strongest offerings overall, I resonate most with Calm’s instructor John Armstrong. Hence I find myself turning to Calm more often than Headspace, for which I don't have a paid subscription.
I then tune into InsightTimer from time to time, especially for the free music and the Live Events. Sometimes, when you’re feeling isolated and alone, it’s wonderful to join something communal and know that other people are partaking in the exact same experience (experienced differently, of course) at the exact same time as you. That's what their Live Events offer.
(Harry Styles fan? Fancy him murmuring the following in your ear as you fall asleep? “The power of the universe meanders through your mind... so come with me, and let’s see, what the two of us can find.”)
Feeling Overwhelmed by Choice WITHIN the Apps?
For some, the libraries of all three of the apps may prove overwhelming. For those with analysis paralysis or who are overwhelmed by choice, it may be tricky to prioritize what to tune into or practice in any given moment. Start with a targeted approach. Head straight to the following:
In Headspace, select “Meditate” on the bottom navigation, select the “Courses and singles” category, then select the first “Basics” session (there are 3 total).
In Calm, select “Meditate” on the bottom navigation, select “Beginners” on the top navigation, then select the free "7 Days of Calm" or the free “7 Days of Calming Anxiety” course.
In InsightTimer, select “Guided” (for meditations) on the home screen, then select “Learning to Meditate.” Start at the top.
Headspace vs Calm vs InsightTimer: Which is Best for What?
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