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Meditation can be a simple path to feelings of calm, balance, and peace, among other benefits.
While meditation practices vary, there’s really no right or wrong way to meditate. The general idea is to practice mindfulness by finding awareness — something from which we can all benefit.
If you’re ready to get started, a meditation app can be a handy guide. But with so many options, how do you know which app is best for you?
To help you decide, we compared two popular meditation apps, Headspace and Calm, to see how they stack up.
With its fun, cheerful animations, Headspace is visually appealing and easy to navigate.
If you’re new to meditation, the 10-day Basics course is a great starting place. It’s designed to teach the essentials of meditation in just minutes a day.
As you build your practice, you can move to other meditations. When you log in as a Headspace Pro user, you’ll see a few suggested meditations on the home screen, based on the time of day. You can also save meditations to your favorites list.
Here’s what else you’ll find:
Headspace is free to download, with free trials and limited free features. If you want to upgrade to get full access, you can get Headspace Plus for $12.99 per month with a free 7-day trial, or get 14 days free with a $69.99 annual subscription. There are also student and family plans.
The app has a beautiful interface with calming, inspiring landscape imagery, and you can customize your dashboard with a scene that speaks to you.
Calm makes it easy to create a daily practice and make it relevant to what you need on a given day. As you launch the app, you can choose from a few different options.
Calm is free to download.
If you choose to sign up for a 7-day trial, you’ll automatically be enrolled in Calm Premium, which costs $69.99 a year or $14.99 a month. You can cancel up to 1 day before your trial ends to avoid being charged.
Calm also offers a lifetime membership for $399.99.
Feeling calmer is a good thing — but the benefits of meditation go beyond state of mind.
In addition to developing greater awareness and focus, a regular meditation practice can improve mood, outlook, self-discipline, and sleep patterns. A 2011 study found that it could even boost pain tolerance.
A 2014 review of clinical trials also linked meditation to a reduction in stress and symptoms relating to stress-triggered medical conditions like irritable bowel syndrome.
A greater attention span is another benefit of meditation, and it’s one that develops quickly. In one study, participants showed increased attention span after just 4 days of practicing meditation.
Additionally, many people turn to meditation to improve the quality of their sleep. By helping you physically relax, meditation can release tension so it’s easier to both fall asleep and stay asleep longer.
Finally, mindfulness meditation may also help you build resilience. A 2021 study of people during the COVID-19 pandemic concluded that mindfulness and physical activity may help build resilience, allowing people to better cope with adversity.
Both apps have a lot of happy users. The Calm app on iOS has 1 million reviews with an overall rating of 4.8, while Headspace has close to 700,000 reviews and a rating of 4.9.
And beyond this anecdotal evidence is scientific research to support the efficacy of both apps.
Several published studies done by Headspace have found that the app is beneficial for mental, emotional, and social health.
A 2018 study found a 14 to 28 percent reduction in stress after 10 days of using Headspace, while an earlier study showed the app improved focus by 27 percent.
The Calm app has been the focus of a few studies as well. A 2019 study of college students found that regular use of the app reduced stress and boosted mindfulness.
A 2020 study on university students also found that using the Calm app increased well-being, even when used sporadically.
Additionally, a 2021 study of adults with sleep disturbance found that using the app for at least 10 minutes a day for 8 weeks decreased daytime fatigue and sleepiness, compared to a control group.
Calm and Headspace are both designed to help you live better by stressing less, sleeping more, and improving your general outlook on life.
Both apps help you learn the ins and outs of meditation, offer guided practices based on different themes, and feature tools designed to improve your sleep quality.
If you’re struggling to choose between the two, think about what your goals are, as well as where you are in your meditation practice.
You may want to choose Headspace if you:
Choose Calm if you:
Learning simple techniques to calm your body and mind has many benefits, and the right app makes it easy to build a daily meditation practice.
Calm and Headspace are two great apps with different paths to the same goal.
Last medically reviewed on September 1, 2021
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Headspace vs. Calm: How to Choose – Healthline
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