7 Excellent Meditation Apps for Your iPhone and iPad

From reducing stress and improving sleep to increasing your brain’s neuroplasticity, starting a meditation practice is one of the simplest but most effective ways to boost your overall health and wellbeing.

But you don’t have to retreat to a mountaintop to start meditating. In fact, one of the best tools to start a consistent meditation practice is probably already in your pocket or your hands: your iPhone. There are a ton of meditation and mindfulness apps available on the App Store, here are some of our picks for the best ones. Continue reading to learn about 7 Excellent Meditation Apps for Your iPhone and iPad.

Aura: Lifetime Subscription

Using your iPhone for meditation probably means you want to take Apple’s recommendations into account. And Aura happens to be one of Apple’s Best of 2017 apps. It’s a complete mindfulness and meditation platform with hundreds of guided and unguided meditations, picked just for you.

Aura also has mood-tracking, mindful reminders, gratitude practices, a community feature and other clever additions. While the app does have a free tier, it typically costs $11.99 a month to get access to all of its features. But you can actually sign up for a lifetime subscription to Aura and all that it has to offer for just $79.99 here — down from the usual price of $499.

Welzen: Lifetime Subscription

Despite all of its mental and emotional benefits, sometimes, just starting a mindfulness or meditation practice can seem overwhelming at first. That’s where Welzen comes in. This easy-to-use app makes meditation extremely simple, with no complex features or unnecessary baggage.

Welzen features 5, 10, 15 or 20 minute guided meditations across various subject-specific areas. You’ll also be greeted by a new mindfulness meditation each day and the app features 5-day meditation programs aimed at reducing stress and anxiety and improving your relationships. You can buy a lifetime subscription to Welzen here for just $29.99 — 80 percent off the usual price of $149.99.

MindFi: Lifetime Subscription

While meditation has ancient roots, many of its benefits are being backed up by modern neuroscience. Because of that, it makes perfect sense to use a meditation app that’s been crafted from the ground up by both neuroscientists and meditation teachers.

Enter MindFi. It features four types of mindfulness modes for various times of day, including short breathing sessions and guided meditations of varying lengths. For productivity and focus, it also features a built-in Pomodoro timer. While a lifetime subscription to MindFi usually costs $365, you can nab one for just $39 at this link.

Glo

Mindfulness meditation is great for you mental health, but your physical health is also incredibly important and contributes to your overall wellbeing. There’s a reason why many meditators gravitate to yoga and vice versa. And if you’re interested in both, Glo may be the app for you.

Glo features a slew of guided meditations from some of the best teachers in the world — but it also includes plenty of yoga and pilates classes, too. It’s also fairly feature-rich, with personalized recommendations and an easy-to-use interface. If Glo has a downside, it’s the price: the app costs $22.99 a month to use. It does, however, have a 7-day free trial. Get it on the App Store here.

Insight Timer

If you don’t want to spend any money, Insight Timer may be one of your best bets for a meditation app. The app itself has various guided meditations across various categories — all for free. It also sports a built-in, non-guided timer feature for more experienced meditators.

The app will automatically track your meditations over time, so you can view relevant statistics at a glance. It also has a social component in case you feel like connecting with like-minded meditators across the globe. There’s also an optional premium subscription, which costs $5 a month and includes features like additional courses and an easy-on-the-eyes Night Mode.Get it on the App Store here.

Headspace

Headspace is likely one of the better-known meditation apps — and that’s probably because it’s so accessible. If you’re put off by New Age or mystical undertones in many mindfulness practices, Headspace may be one of the best fits for you.

The app is easy to use and features a series of free 10-minute meditations. Of course, those meditations won’t last you very long. A full subscription to Headspace, which includes hundreds of guided meditations and courses across various categories, costs around $95 a year. Get it on the App Store here.

Calm

Calm is one of the best-designed meditation apps on iPhone — just open it and you’ll be greeted by a peaceful nature or ambient scene. But there’s a lot more to the app than its aesthetic value, as Calm has tons of meditation and mindfulness courses and features. It even features a huge library of bedtime stories to reduce anxiety and help you fall asleep quickly.

While the app does has some free meditations, most of the app’s features require a subscription to use. For subscribers, there’s a new Daily Calm posted every day and more than a hundred guided meditations for specific ailments, Sleep Stories and music tracks. A subscription costs $69.99 a year, but there’s a free 7-day trial available.Get it on the App Store here.