Compare Waking Up, Insight Timer, and Headspace: Which App is the Best?
Headspace is a well-established meditation app with 500+ guided meditations and excellent sleep stories. While the content quality is strong, the app currently suffers from frequent crashes, slow loading times, and navigation issues that significantly impact usability. | Insight Timer offers the largest free meditation library available, with over 100,000 guided sessions from expert teachers. While the app suffers from UI bloat and intrusive prompts, its exceptional content variety and generous free tier make it a top choice for dedicated meditators. | Waking Up combines meditation practice with philosophy and neuroscience, offering Sam Harris's guided sessions alongside teachings from expert teachers. Rated 9.3 for features and 4.9★ on iOS, it excels in content depth but faces challenges with premium pricing and accessibility. | |
| Key Features A summary of the most important features offered by each app. |
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| Our Rating Prod Apps's expert review score for each app, based on hands-on testing and research. | 5.6 | 7.9 | 8.5 Winner in this category |
| Total users Total active users across all major browsers: Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Safari. | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Total ratings Total number of user ratings received across all supported browsers. | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Average rating Average user rating across all browsers, calculated from available store ratings. | — ⭐ | — ⭐ | — ⭐ |
| Entry Level Price The minimum price required to start using the app. "Free" means a free tier is available. | Free | Free | Free |
| Android User rating and stats for the app on Android browser. |  Downloads | Downloads | Downloads |
| iOS User rating and stats for the app on iOS browser. |  | | |
| Features Prod Apps's expert score for the 'Features' aspect of each app. | 7.5 The meditation library is genuinely impressive—over 500 guided sessions covering just about everything. Basic mindfulness, anxiety management, sleep help, stress relief, CBT techniques. The content quality is really solid across the board. What actually works well:
The execution is where things fall apart. The app has been loaded up with features that feel unnecessary—like the AI companion "Ebb" and constant therapy service promotions. The free version barely gives you anything to work with. Finding specific meditations is harder than it should be because the organization doesn't make much sense. You end up spending too much time navigating menus instead of actually using the app. We're rating the features 7.5 out of 10. The content itself is excellent, but accessibility issues and unnecessary bloat hold it back. Medito provides extensive meditation features at no cost. | 9.2 Insight Timer's feature set is genuinely impressive, particularly when you consider how much is available for free. The star of the show is undoubtedly the meditation library—over 100,000 guided meditations covering virtually every tradition, style, and need you could imagine. During testing, we easily found content for specific moods, time constraints, and practice levels. Key features that stood out include:
The meditation timer deserves special mention—it's one of the most flexible we've tested, with options for interval bells, ambient background sounds, and complete customization. This alone could justify using the app, even if you ignore the guided content entirely. However, we encountered some frustrations. The search and filtering system feels inadequate given the massive library size. Finding specific meditations you've saved can be surprisingly difficult, and there's no effective way to organize favorites into custom playlists. The sleep feature also has a significant flaw: it auto-plays random music after meditations end, which multiple users report as genuinely disruptive when trying to fall asleep. Despite these issues, the sheer breadth of content is remarkable. We rate features at 9.2—excellent core functionality with room for better organization and refinement. | 9.3 Waking Up delivers an exceptionally rich feature set that goes far beyond typical meditation apps. The 28-day introductory course alone represents substantial value, systematically building both your practice skills and conceptual understanding of what meditation actually does to consciousness. We completed the full course and found it transformative—not because it promised stress relief or productivity gains, but because it fundamentally shifted how we relate to our own thoughts. The daily meditation library is vast and thoughtfully curated. Sam Harris guides most sessions, with his calm, intellectually rigorous approach that appeals to skeptics and science-minded practitioners. Beyond Harris, you'll find teachings from Joseph Goldstein (Vipassana master), Henry Shukman (Zen teacher), Adyashanti (nondual awareness), and Diana Winston (mindfulness). Each teacher brings distinct techniques and philosophical perspectives, creating genuine depth rather than superficial variety. Where Waking Up truly excels is its theory content. The conversations feature interviews with Yuval Noah Harari on consciousness, Michael Pollan on psychedelics, and Cal Newport on attention—topics you won't find in Headspace or Calm. The "Life" section covers practical applications: Stoicism, relationship mindfulness, sleep science, and productivity. These aren't afterthoughts; they're substantial talks that contextualize meditation within broader questions of how to live well. The Moments feature provides quick mindfulness reminders—short reflections perfect for busy days when a full session isn't feasible. The meditation timer works well for unguided practice, though it lacks some customization options found in dedicated timer apps. Community features allow discussion with other practitioners, which adds a social dimension often missing from solitary practice. We rate features at 9.3 out of 10—comprehensive and intellectually ambitious, with only minor gaps in customization and organizational tools. Winner in this category |
| Performance Prod Apps's expert score for the 'Performance' aspect of each app. | 3.5 The overall 4.2-star rating doesn't reflect current performance. Recent reviews tell a different story—the last 100 average just 2.03 stars, indicating significant recent deterioration. The performance problems are severe:
Many longtime users note that the app "used to work perfectly" before deteriorating over recent months. Despite weekly updates, these core issues persist, suggesting deeper development and quality assurance problems. The situation is particularly problematic for a meditation app. Users seeking stress relief instead encounter an app that crashes mid-session or takes several minutes to load. For premium pricing and a well-established company, this level of performance is difficult to defend. 3.5 out of 10. Many users struggle with basic functionality, and even when it works, performance is frustratingly slow. Medito delivers significantly better technical performance. | 7.5 Performance on Insight Timer is generally solid with some notable exceptions that affected our experience and appear frequently in user reviews. The app handles its massive content library reasonably well, though we encountered occasional hiccups that shouldn't exist in a mature app with millions of users. Performance strengths:
Performance issues:
During our testing period, we experienced one instance where a meditation stopped unexpectedly, and the app wouldn't let us rewind without a premium subscription—frustrating when you've just been kicked out of a focused state. This exact scenario appeared in multiple user reviews. The most significant performance concern relates to app bloat. The Android version's recent rating decline from 4.7 to 3.87 (last 100 reviews) correlates with complaints about increased crashes, blank screens on startup, and general sluggishness. Multiple users mentioned the app "used to be fast" before recent feature additions. Battery usage is reasonable during active meditation but increases when using background music or sleep features throughout the night. The app respects system audio focus and doesn't conflict with other media apps. We rate performance at 7.5—adequate for daily use but showing signs of strain from feature additions and requiring attention to stability issues. | 8.3 Waking Up generally performs well in daily use, with smooth navigation, reliable audio playback, and reasonable loading times. The app launches quickly, and sessions begin playing without frustrating delays. Audio quality is consistently excellent across all content, with clear voice recordings and pleasant ambient sounds for the meditation timer. Battery consumption is reasonable for an audio app—comparable to music streaming services. The app doesn't drain battery excessively during playback or idle in the background, which is important for daily users. We tested across multiple sessions and found no unusual battery impact. Storage requirements are modest, with the app itself taking up minimal space and allowing you to manage downloaded content for offline use. However, performance issues appear in specific areas that deserve attention. The playback progress bug mentioned in several reviews is a real problem: the app sometimes fails to remember where you left off in longer talks or courses, forcing you to manually locate your position. This breaks the seamless experience and creates unnecessary friction when you're trying to maintain a consistent practice. Login and authentication problems affected multiple users, particularly on Android devices with Google sign-in. While not universal, these issues are frustrating when they occur—meditation practice requires consistency, and technical barriers that prevent access undermine that consistency. The app would benefit from more robust error handling and clearer troubleshooting guidance when authentication fails. Despite these issues, the core meditation experience performs reliably once you're in a session. We rate performance at 8.3—solid in most areas, with specific bugs that need addressing to reach excellence. Winner in this category |
| Design Prod Apps's expert score for the 'Design' aspect of each app. | 5.5 The design looks polished on the surface—clean fonts, professional images, pleasant colors. But there's a significant gap between visual appeal and actual usability. The main issues:
There's an uncomfortable irony in a meditation app that creates frustration instead of reducing it. Many longtime users mention the app "used to be better," and it's clear that business priorities—therapy upselling, AI promotion—have taken precedence over user experience. 5.5 out of 10. Visual polish doesn't make up for an experience that works against the app's core purpose. Medito embraces a cleaner, more focused approach. | 6.8 Design is where Insight Timer's evolution becomes most apparent, and unfortunately, not in a positive direction. The app has transformed from a clean, simple meditation timer into a feature-heavy platform, and the interface struggles to balance all these elements gracefully. What works well:
What needs improvement:
The design challenges stem from feature creep rather than poor aesthetic choices. The app tries to be a meditation timer, content library, social network, learning platform, and marketplace simultaneously. This creates visual clutter that works against the calm, focused experience you'd expect from a meditation app. Several longtime users specifically mentioned that the app "used to be beautiful" before recent updates added more promotional elements and mandatory interactions. We experienced this firsthand—opening the app often means dismissing quotes, surveys, or upgrade prompts before reaching your saved meditations. We rate design at 6.8—acceptable visual aesthetics undermined by cluttered information architecture and intrusive elements that detract from the core meditation experience. | 8.7 Waking Up's design prioritizes clarity and calm aesthetics over flashy animations or gamification. The interface uses clean typography, generous whitespace, and a restrained color palette that reinforces the contemplative purpose of the app. Navigation is logical: Daily, Practice, Theory, and Life sections are clearly delineated, making it easy to find what you're looking for. The home screen presents your daily meditation prominently, with quick access to the meditation timer, moments, and daily quotes. This focused design encourages consistent practice without overwhelming you with options. Progress tracking is subtle—you can see your meditation streak and completed sessions, but it doesn't employ the aggressive streak maintenance tactics of gamified apps. We appreciated the thoughtful details: sessions display their duration upfront, teachers are clearly identified with brief bios, and the audio player interface is clean and functional. The sleep content section offers a peaceful browsing experience with previews and descriptions that help you choose appropriate content for bedtime. However, the design isn't without limitations. Some users reported that the library feels harder to navigate than it should be, especially when searching for specific topics or teachers. The community features feel somewhat bolted on rather than integrated into the core experience. Compared to Balance's more modern, personalized interface or Calm's visually lush design, Waking Up feels more utilitarian. We rate design at 8.7—professionally executed and appropriate for the content, but not exceptional or innovative. Winner in this category |
| Value for Money Prod Apps's expert score for the 'Value for Money' aspect of each app. | 5.5 At $12.99 per month or $69.99 per year, Headspace sits at the premium end of meditation apps. Whether that's justified depends largely on two factors: insurance coverage and tolerance for technical issues. Insurance coverage changes the equation significantly. Many employers and health plans cover Headspace entirely, which makes the value proposition much stronger despite the performance problems. Several users mentioned staying with the app specifically because of insurance benefits. For those paying out of pocket, the value is questionable:
The most telling feedback comes from long-time subscribers who felt the app justified its price in the past but no longer does. When loyal, paying customers decide to cancel, it reflects a real decline in perceived value. 5.5 out of 10. With insurance coverage, that rises to 7.5-8.0. Paying full price given the current state drops it closer to 4.0. Medito provides solid features completely free with better stability. | 9.5 From a pure value perspective, Insight Timer is outstanding. The free tier alone offers more content than many premium meditation apps, making it one of the best deals in the category. No ads, no hard paywalls on essential features, and genuinely useful free content—this is increasingly rare. Free tier value:
Premium tier value:
The free version proved entirely sufficient for building a consistent meditation practice in our testing. At €1.99-€219.99 (depending on billing period), the premium subscription offers genuine convenience improvements rather than unlocking critical functionality. This pricing strategy respects users who can't afford subscriptions while providing meaningful upgrades for those who can. Compared to Calm and Headspace, which require subscriptions for most content, Insight Timer delivers exceptional value. Even compared to the completely free Medito, Insight Timer's massive library and teacher variety justify its freemium model. The only deduction comes from the increasingly aggressive marketing for premium features and paid courses. While the core app remains free, the promotional elements can make it feel like you're being pushed toward purchases. Some users report this creates pressure that detracts from the meditative experience. We rate value for money at 9.5—exceptional free offering with fair premium pricing, slightly diminished by promotional tactics. Winner in this category | 7.8 This is where Waking Up becomes contentious. At roughly $120 per year (or more for monthly subscriptions), it's positioned as a premium product competing with Headspace and Calm at the high end of the meditation app market. The question becomes: does the content justify this premium pricing? For users genuinely engaged with the intellectual and philosophical dimensions of meditation, the answer is often yes. The combination of rigorous practice instruction, expert teachers, and deep theoretical content creates a comprehensive meditation education that would cost far more if pursued through books, courses, and retreats separately. The conversations alone—featuring world-class thinkers discussing consciousness, ethics, and human flourishing—provide value beyond simple meditation guidance. Many reviews called it "life-changing" and "worth more than a streaming service," suggesting that engaged users find significant value. However, the value proposition weakens considerably if you're primarily seeking guided meditations for stress relief or sleep improvement. In that case, Insight Timer offers thousands of free guided meditations, Balance provides personalized guidance at similar pricing, and Medito delivers quality content completely free as a nonprofit. Waking Up's theoretical depth becomes less relevant if you won't engage with it. The trial confusion and credit card requirement create bad first impressions that undermine perceived value. When users feel pressured into subscriptions before adequately sampling the approach, it breeds resentment even if they'd ultimately appreciate the content. The free scholarship program for those who can't afford it is admirable but poorly promoted—many users who complained about cost likely qualify but don't know the option exists. We rate value for money at 7.8—genuinely valuable for the right audience, but expensive and poorly positioned for casual users. |
| Ease of Use Prod Apps's expert score for the 'Ease of Use' aspect of each app. | 4.5 A meditation app should be simple. Open it, pick a session, meditate. But Headspace makes this basic process unnecessarily difficult. The usability problems:
The fundamental problem is that using Headspace creates stress instead of relieving it. Starting a meditation should take seconds, but instead you're spending time waiting, restarting, and navigating confusing menus. 4.5 out of 10. The app is technically functional, but requires far too much patience. Medito offers straightforward simplicity without the usability problems. | 6.5 Ease of use is perhaps Insight Timer's most polarizing aspect, with experiences varying dramatically between new users and those returning after time away. The app can be genuinely straightforward for daily meditation, but getting to that daily routine involves navigating several obstacles. What makes it easy:
What makes it difficult:
The most common complaint we found echoes across hundreds of reviews: "I just want to meditate, but the app won't let me." Users who haven't opened the app in days or weeks face particularly aggressive re-engagement tactics—mandatory surveys asking about their absence, prompts to set new goals, and multiple screens before reaching the main interface. One user summed it up perfectly: "Used to be a simple timer. Now I need to click through commitments, ads for classes, and questionnaires that impede my meditation every single time." This sentiment appeared repeatedly in our review analysis, especially from longtime users who remember the simpler early versions. For someone using the app daily with established favorites, it functions reasonably well. For anyone else, expect friction. We rate ease of use at 6.5—adequate once you learn to navigate the obstacles, but frustratingly complex for what should be a calming experience. | 8.5 Getting started with Waking Up is straightforward once you overcome the trial and account creation process. The introductory course guides you step-by-step, with clear instructions and a natural progression that builds your understanding gradually. Sam Harris explains concepts thoroughly without being patronizing, striking a good balance for both beginners and experienced meditators returning to refresh their practice. Daily meditations are easy to access—just tap the featured session on your home screen and begin. The app remembers your progress in courses and series, automatically queuing the next session when you return. Audio quality is excellent, with Harris's voice clear and easy to follow. The meditation timer is simple to configure, with options for interval bells and ambient sounds that help maintain focus. We found the theory content easy to browse by topic or teacher, though the sheer volume can feel overwhelming initially. The search function works adequately but could be more robust—finding specific talks or teachers sometimes requires more scrolling than we'd prefer. Bookmarking and organizing favorite content isn't as intuitive as in some competitors. The biggest ease-of-use issue comes from technical bugs rather than design. Several reviews mention playback progress not persisting correctly, forcing users to scrub through sessions to find where they left off. Login problems affected some users, particularly with Google authentication on Android devices. These friction points, while not universal, significantly impact the experience when they occur. Despite these issues, the core meditation experience remains smooth and uncluttered. We rate ease of use at 8.5—generally intuitive with some technical rough edges that need polishing. Winner in this category |
| Security & Privacy Prod Apps's expert score for the 'Security & Privacy' aspect of each app. | 7.0 For a mental health app, privacy and security are important considerations. Headspace has operated for 13+ years, maintains partnerships with major insurance companies, and has no history of significant data breaches. Key privacy considerations:
What's less clear is transparency and user control. Privacy isn't prominently featured, and the mandatory account plus cloud storage may concern privacy-conscious users. The aggressive therapy service promotion also raises questions about how mental health interests are tracked and potentially used for marketing. The positive side: partnerships with healthcare providers suggest HIPAA compliance for health data protection. Thirteen years without major privacy scandals provides baseline reassurance. 7.0 out of 10. Adequate for most users, but not exceptional. Security practices appear solid, though privacy-focused users may prefer alternatives. Medito offers optional account-free usage with local data storage. | 8.0 Insight Timer takes a reasonably solid approach to privacy, though not exceptional compared to privacy-focused alternatives. The app can be used entirely without creating an account, which is excellent for those concerned about data collection. However, most users will eventually create accounts to sync progress and save favorites. Privacy strengths:
Privacy concerns:
The privacy policy is reasonably clear about data collection practices, though it's lengthy and covers the typical bases for a modern app. Your meditation habits, session lengths, and content preferences are tracked and used to improve recommendations. This data isn't sold to third parties, but it is used internally for product development and personalization. Compared to Medito, which achieves higher privacy scores through its nonprofit, open-source model, Insight Timer is more typical of commercial meditation apps. It's better than apps that require accounts immediately, but not as privacy-focused as some alternatives. We rate security and privacy at 8.0—solid practices that respect user data without achieving the highest standards of privacy-focused apps. | 8.5 Waking Up requires an account to use the service, which means your meditation data is stored on their servers rather than exclusively on your device. The app's privacy policy is reasonably transparent about data collection: they gather usage information, meditation history, and standard device identifiers to provide the service and improve the experience. Importantly, we found no evidence of aggressive data harvesting or third-party advertising networks. The subscription model means the business doesn't rely on selling user data or attention to advertisers, which aligns incentives better than ad-supported alternatives. Your meditation content, listening history, and notes remain private and aren't shared with third parties for marketing purposes. The account requirement does mean you're trusting Waking Up LLC with personal information including email, payment details (through app stores), and meditation habits. For practitioners seeking maximum privacy, Insight Timer offers optional account-free usage, and Medito collects minimal data as a nonprofit. Waking Up falls into a middle ground—not exceptionally privacy-focused, but not exploitative either. Security measures appear standard: HTTPS encryption for data transmission, secure payment processing through Apple and Google's systems, and the option to delete your account and data upon request. The persistent login issues some users experienced suggest room for improvement in authentication systems, though these seem more like bugs than security vulnerabilities. We rate security and privacy at 8.5—adequate protection with clear business practices, but requiring trust in a for-profit company's data stewardship. Winner in this category |
| Conclusion A summary of our findings and final thoughts for each app. | Headspace has built a solid meditation library. The guided sessions, sleep stories, and content variety represent genuine quality. For users with insurance coverage, the value proposition remains strong despite the technical issues. The problem is the execution. The dramatic drop from 4.2 stars overall to 2.03 in recent reviews reflects real, widespread problems. Frequent crashes, slow loading, and confusing navigation undermine what should be a calming experience. The content quality remains high, but technical performance has deteriorated significantly. Until these stability and performance issues are addressed, it's difficult to recommend Headspace regardless of content quality. If the app doesn't work reliably, the meditation library becomes irrelevant. For a stable, free alternative, Medito offers excellent meditation content without technical issues or cost. Headspace needs to prioritize fixing these technical problems. Quality content deserves a functional foundation. | Insight Timer presents a fascinating contradiction: it offers arguably the best free meditation content library available while simultaneously frustrating users with an increasingly cluttered experience. The core value proposition remains exceptional—tens of thousands of guided meditations, a flexible timer, and genuine expertise from world-class teachers, all without mandatory subscriptions or advertisements. However, the app's evolution from simple meditation timer to comprehensive wellness platform has introduced friction that works against its core purpose. Forced surveys, commitment prompts, marketing for courses and retreats, and UI complexity detract from what should be a calming, focused experience. The declining Android ratings (3.87 in recent reviews vs. 4.7 overall) tell a clear story: longtime users are frustrated with the direction. Despite these challenges, we found Insight Timer valuable for our daily practice. The content quality and variety are unmatched, and once you establish your favorite teachers and meditations, the app functions well enough. The premium subscription feels optional rather than necessary, which is refreshing in this category. If you're seeking the most polished, distraction-free meditation experience, Calm or Headspace might serve you better despite their subscription requirements. If you want completely free, no-strings-attached meditation with a cleaner interface, Medito is worth considering. But if you value content variety above all else and can tolerate some interface frustrations, Insight Timer delivers exceptional value. Just be prepared to click through a few extra screens to get to your meditation. | Waking Up has established itself as the premier meditation app for intellectually curious practitioners seeking more than stress relief or sleep aids. The combination of rigorous practice instruction from expert teachers, deep philosophical content, and thoughtful conversations creates an unmatched resource for understanding consciousness and cultivating genuine insight. Our ratings across features (9.3), design (8.7), ease of use (8.5), security (8.5), value (7.8), and performance (8.3) reflect an app that excels in content depth while facing challenges in accessibility and pricing. The app's greatest strength is also its limitation: it demands intellectual engagement and sustained practice. If you're drawn to Sam Harris's approach, interested in exploring nondual awareness, or seeking meditation that integrates philosophy and neuroscience, Waking Up will likely become an essential daily resource. The introductory course alone provides tremendous value, and the ongoing content supports years of deepening practice. However, the premium pricing, confusing trial structure, and limited free sampling create barriers that contradict meditation's fundamental accessibility. While the scholarship program offers free access to those in need, its lack of visibility means many potential users bounce off the paywall without discovering this option. Technical issues like playback bugs and login problems, though not universal, undermine the consistency that meditation practice requires. We recommend Waking Up enthusiastically for practitioners ready to engage seriously with meditation's philosophical and experiential dimensions. For casual users seeking guided relaxation, Calm or Headspace offer friendlier onboarding. For those wanting robust free content, Insight Timer or Medito provide excellent alternatives. But for the right audience—skeptical, intellectually curious, committed to understanding consciousness—Waking Up remains unparalleled. |
| Our Recommendation | |||
