Short on spending money, but want to find the perfect meditation app?
No problem!
We’ve gathered the best free mindfulness meditation apps in 2019 based on features and user reviews. While some of these apps are completely free, we’ve also included a few that have optional upgrades.
However, you can still get a lot of value out of their free versions.
Choosing a free app to start is a good idea, especially if you’re new to meditation. Since there’s so much variation in meditation apps, try several and see which one feels right. Then you can get a better idea of what works for you. You might decide the free options are just what you need. Or, you can invest in an upgrade or subscription with confidence.
Let’s take a look at the best free mindfulness meditation apps, so you can get started!
Smiling Mind
Smiling Mind is an Australian nonprofit web and app-based meditation program developed by psychologists and educators to help bring mindfulness into your life.
Audience
They offer programs for all ages, divided into these categories: 3-6, 7-9, 10-12, 13-15, 16-18, and adults. The app also includes structured programs for educators looking to bring mindfulness into their classrooms and guidance for parents helping their children incorporate mindfulness into their day.
Topics
After you create an account, SmilingMind asks a few questions to recommend programs that would match your needs. Their programs are designed to assist people in dealing with the pressure, stress, and challenges of daily life, specifically at work, playing sports, and in the classroom. Examples include Mindfulness 101, Digital Detox, Sleep, Mindfully Back to School, and On the Field.
Features
You can set reminders, save your favorites, track your progress, download for offline use, and create sub-accounts for your family members.
Cost
100% Free, except for the structured workplace program
Where to Find
Insight Timer
Insight Timer offers the largest free library of guided meditations and music tracks with over 25,000 titles from thousands of teachers, plus the world’s most loved meditation timer.
Audience
With so many titles, Insight Timer really works for everyone – kids, teens, or adults. They also offer meditations in several languages, including Spanish, French, Brazilian Portuguese, Dutch, Japanese, and Russian.
Topics
Since Insight Timer has such a variety of resources, they have a robust search engine. They’ve also broken them into helpful categories. You can search by:
- Topic (i.e. sleep or confidence)
- Benefit (i.e. performance or healing)
- Audience (i.e. kids, women)
- Practices (i.e. visualization, concentration)
- Origins (i.e. scientific, Buddhism)
Features
In addition to the meditation library, Insight Timer has a meditation timer that you can use to gently remind you that your practice is concluding. There are also detailed charts to track your meditation progress as well as hundreds of user groups to answer your questions and keep you motivated. You can even favorite specific titles and follow specific teachers, so you don’t miss their new releases.
Cost
The vast majority of their meditations are free. However, they also offer a premium subscription for $5.99 per month. This includes hundreds of 10 and 30-day courses, offline listening, night mode, and an advanced audio player. You can also do a seven-day free trial to test it out.
Where to Find
Stop, Breathe & Think
Stop, Breathe & Think is a free mindfulness meditation app that helps you check in with how you’re feeling and offers short activities tuned to your emotions.
Audience
Stop, Breathe & Think defines themselves as “the emotional wellness platform for the “under 25” generation.” Their mission is to help kids, teens and young adults build the emotional strength to tackle life’s ups and downs.
Topics
The free version of Stop, Breathe & Think provides over 40 recordings and videos on the foundations of meditation practice. They’re short but designed to quickly help you get centered in common life situations. You could choose to learn about core breathing or counting breaths. Or focus on topics like forgiving yourself, falling asleep, dealing with anxiety, or welcoming the day.
Features
When you open the app, it asks you to “check in with yourself” by taking a deep breath, then answering a few simple questions with helpful prompts. The app will then recommend particular sessions. It also offers a timer, progress statistics, and it can integrate with your Google Fit app tracker.
Cost
The 40+ topics, timer, progress tracker, and Google Fit app integration are all free. If you’d like to access 100+ activities (more added monthly), customize the tracker, and enjoy longer versions, you can purchase a subscription for $9.99 per month (or $5.00 if you choose the annual plan).
Where to Find
Breathe2Relax
Designed by the National Center for Telehealth & Technology, Breathe2Relax provides detailed information on the effects of stress on the body and practice exercises for diaphragmatic breathing.
Audience
Breathe2Relax was designed for adults. Teenagers could also use the app, but some might require initial guidance.
Topics
While this app doesn’t have the breadth of topics like other meditation apps, it’s high user rating and valuable stress management techniques make it worthy of a spot on the list. This app specifically focuses on diaphragmatic breathing, which has been shown to help with mood stabilization, anger control, and anxiety management.
Features
You can set up preferences such as the length of the session, breath rate, background scenes, and music. Breathe2Relax also asks you to rate your stress before and after each practice session, graphing these responses to track progress.
Cost
100% free
Where to Find
Let’s Meditate
Let’s Meditate is a curated list of guided meditation tracks – simply click and play with an uncluttered interface. You can take a quick break with meditations as short as five minutes or recharge yourself with tracks lasting over 40 minutes.
Audience
Let’s Meditate doesn’t have specific tracks for children or teens. However, older teens could easily benefit from some of the topics.
Topics
Let’s Meditate has over 50 tracks that cover the full range of modern concerns. Choose from meditations like No More Overthinking, Zen Breath Before Sleep, Attract Abundance, and Gratitude.
Features
While Let’s Meditate is light on features, that’s kind of the point. They want to keep you focused. However, it does offer the option of reminding you to meditate each day. And you can download them to use when you’re offline.
Cost
100% free, but donations appreciated
Where to Find
Try Out the Best Free Mindfulness Meditation Apps
While there are many more excellent mindfulness meditation apps in the marketplace today, sometimes it’s tough to add another app subscription to a limited budget.
These five apps offer a broad range of meditation options at no cost. They’re a great way to build mindfulness in your daily life or enhance your current practice.
Did we miss any great free mindfulness meditation apps on our list? Let us know in the comments!
