Personally I dont use any Apps for Meditation. I find it a bit counter intuitiv if one has to observe his mind and also have to use a App/something external while doing so. That is just my view, but feel free to use it if you want to. I like to keep it simplistic.

Insight timer

Have you heard about Balance? It's a great app which has lots of meditation practices to choose from and learn all about it as you meditate, you also get a free year, I have been using this app and found it to let me meditate and learning things in all areas of life and everything, highly recommend it, I got one of my mates a free year and he said he liked it so would anyone else who wants to start a meditation practice without feeling pressured into doing it.

Waking Up, 10% Happier.

Highly recommend Headspace. I use it. There is another app called Calm that is really popular.

Waking up is amazing. Also would recommend Tara Brach.

insighttimer has a lot of free stuff

Edit: I should maybe say that I'm biased since I've posted meditations on it. If I may do a shameless plug, I'd like to share this meditation https://insig.ht/tcodfEM4aAb

Try this acupressure hack- lie on your back and find the anahata chakra located in the middle of your chest 2" up from the little protruding breastbone. Put steady light pressure here with three fingers while feeling the breath move in and out of this chakra. You should find yourself yawning in about 15 or 20 minutes. Then stop the acupressure and lie on your right side with your chin tucked into your chest like a sleeping bird.

Waking up by Sam Harris is what I use and I find it really helpful in many ways

Medito, hands down

6+ year meditator, have tried quite a few apps mentioned here and still use a few when I’m not meditating solo. I recommend 10 Percent Happier. It features meditations from a range of the best known (and very skilled) teachers who have helped popularize meditation in the West. It also features several podcasts with useful content to help frame and get more from practice and gain understanding to help bring mindfulness into your regular experience.

Thoughts on others that have been mentioned here:

I also like Waking Up. It has excellent supplemental content, perhaps even better than 10PH, to directly teach you some of the concepts and skills to meditate successfully and even obtain some awareness and perspective that might be obtained through a long time meditation practice. I subscribe to it and to 10PH for this reason. It does feature some solid teachers, but mostly Sam Harris, a public intellectual/author/podcaster is teaching. He’s brilliant, insightful, and an amazing communicator, but teaching meditation isn’t his profession. Some of his teaching I think throws people into the deep end to try and get them some pretty advanced insights while not necessarily being great at imparting the basic mechanics and skills. There is a lot of talking and conceptual material in his intro course, which by the way is the longest intro course I’ve seen in a meditation app. This approach is in line with the main school he learned through, Tibetan Dzogchen Buddhism, which emphasizes “pointing”, where a teacher verbally imparts insights to shift the student’s perspective. Useful, just less focused at least in Sam’s case, IMO, on teaching the actual skill of meditation.

Headspace is great, too. Excellent design, great range of content, useful organization of practice types. I haven’t used it in a few years, but when I did, the founder Andi was the only teacher. Not sure if that’s still the case. He’s more focused on meditation exclusively, vs. Sam Harris, but I would say is a less accomplished/experienced teacher than many on 10PH. I’ve heard others say his English accent or general tone of voice doesn’t help get them into a meditative state as much as some teachers’ voices. Not an issue for me, but there’s value in a variety of perspectives and voices to learn from.

I used Calm just a bit, years ago. Good app. I can’t speak with certainty about it, but I remember thinking it was a bit narrow. As the name suggests, it seemed focused on cultivating peace. That’s nice, but it also seems rooted in a western misconception. Many people in the west think the point of meditation is calm or balance or becoming unaffected by life’s turbulence. Peacefulness is more a byproduct of the clear perspective on one’s mind and the habit of curious observation of stimuli that you cultivate in mindfulness meditation.

Lastly, I’ll say that I’ve noticed most apps focus too little I think on non-mindfulness meditation. I have found metta or “loving kindness” meditation absolutely revolutionary. Same for gratitude, which I would put in the same bucket as a pro-social and positively oriented type of meditation. These can not only impart similar benefits as mindfulness (e.g. clearer awareness, focus, peacefulness) but also bring greater happiness and motivation and richer relationships. Some studies (and my own experience in the meditation world) have shown mindfulness alone can make some people more self centered and less compassionate. Which makes sense, because the practice is largely in rising above reactions to inwardly and outwardly generated feelings. Taken to an extreme, it can reduce emotional intelligence and responsiveness. Not a knock on it. It’s very powerful. I just think people should also practice other forms of meditation as well, including metta and gratitude. 10PH covers the gamut quite well.

EDIT: thanks for the award, kind stranger!

I’m a devout Syrian Orthodox Christian, I’ve heard several individuals (in the Greek Orthodox) community advise caution in using this app.

When it comes to guided meditation, I’m careful about what content I expose my mind to.

Are there any Christians, Muslims or Jews in here who have used this app? Was it compatible with the teachings? What did you think of it?

Trying to identify whether the warnings are simply from hardliners or if there is merit in them.

Absolutely. The beginners course is really good, as well as the daily meditations. They have longer ones, they have metta ones, they have teachings and reminders. Its great

Insight timer has been good for me. There is a wide variety to choose from.

Definitely. Best by far I've tried

How much is the subscription?

Personally I think Headspace is awesome and the best app. They also have “Sleepcasts” that help if you have insomnia or need to calm down before going to sleep. And since covid started they have added a ton more options. Its also really good for beginners because they explain everything. Also you can start with a 3 minute meditation and work up to 20+ mins. But thats just from my personal experience.

Hey u/soggyramennoodle

Right now in Guide, my nature-inspired guided meditation app, there are many guided meditation sessions I've recorded that can all be done for 10, 15, or 20 minutes. It also has some great unguided and journaling features to help expand your mindfulness practice. Check it out and please let me know what you think!

Ken from Guide

Insight Timer for sure.

I know others have said it, but insight timer 100%

Insight Timer is free (with options to pay for certain things, I think). I mainly use it for unguided meditstion but I know there are guided ones and even chanting to listen to on there as well!

Insight timer is great - I get really picky about guided meditations and need variety depending on my moods. They have good talks too. The free 10 days of ‘headspace’ is also a very good place to start. My husband like Sam Harris’ ‘waking up’ app.

I use the Calm app.

I use the Insight Timer app. It has an impressive library of free meditations. Good luck and happy meditating. :-)

See sadhuguru’s Isha kriya on YouTube !

Second vote for insight timer

I never really liked Calm because I found the voice annoying lol.

Headspace is a good way to get into meditation if you’re an absolute novice, but if you have any amount of experience it just talks way too much. Plus their whole concept of having different meditations for different topics is really just the same meditation with a few wise words at the beginning, nothing actually special. (Not to mention, it’s pricey.) I’d already learned mindfulness meditation (body scan, focus on breath, on sounds, on thoughts, choiceless awareness) from Jon Kabat-Zinn’s books and guided meditations so Headspace was just not for me. I found that they gave so many explanations that I ended up losing focus on the meditation.

Insight Timer is the best because it’s literally all I need—a timer lol. I don’t need instructions because I know what to do. And I use that instead of just the timer on my phone because you can set the Insight Timer to ring with a much nicer sound (I set mine to a gong-type sound) than the obnoxious ringing of the iPhone timer. It’s much nicer and less grating for coming out of meditation. Plus, Insight keeps track of how many days in a row you’ve practiced, which is motivating. And it’s free!

Waking up is by far the best all out there I’ve tried them all and I can’t stress how good this app is. Sam Harris is so wonderful

Waking Up

Balance

Waking up

I use San Harris' Waking Up app.

If u email them and say u can't afford it u can get reduced price or say u still can't afford it and get 6 months free, so u can see if u like it or not.

It's not specific for anxiety but mindfulness in general which helps anxiety 

We got a free subscription for Ten Percent Happier with work and I love it. I have been using it for 7 years and it’s helped me fall asleep and manage difficult emotions

I love CHANI. There’s a free 28 breakthrough course that I’m loving and also a 30 day premium access trial atm with the code CHANI30

But I absolutely really love Martin duffy’s shamanic drumming journey on YouTube

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Insight Timer has an absolute ton of free stuff. It can be a bit too much choice. They have a premium version, but you can just stick with the free stuff.

There are lots of paid apps, but they can get somewhat pricey. They tend to be more specialised for certain specific types of meditation.

Is there a particular goal you're trying to accomplish with meditation?

Yep, this is mine! I've tried some of the others and always come back to insight timer. I don't pay for it and there are plenty of free meditations

Thanks. I saw this too. I thought this was a simple timer sort of thing which can be used for Yoga, meditation, etc. I'll check it out too.

Insight timer. The best one out there. Amazing user interface, everything's free (the courses are paid but you get a premium membership free for a year if you refer 3 friends and then get to access all courses), + you can chat, make groups, view each other's sessions, recommend, review, and make friends, almost like a meditative social media! 💛

I’ve been using Insight Timer for five-ish years, and there’s a ridiculous number of free meditations.

I’m doing a free month from his recent HubermanLab podcast appearance, like it so far

Only other app I’ve used is Headspace which was a decent introductory app, but this one seems like it’s a good fit for me now trying to take the next step

For a second I thought you were telling me to just wake up and meditate lol. The app looks cool I'll check it out. Thanks

Lifetime sub as well. I need guidance and tried Headspace before (which I would say is very good quality) but it didn’t suit me.

Wow thanks, it looks like this is actually free based on the reviews. I'll definitely try this one. If you're using it, is it really Free or a Freemium only?

Seconding this - it's freemium as well but they have more than enough free content to justify using it including a customizable meditation timer if you don't want to rely on guided meditations. I've been using it for 3 years and haven''t spent a dime

Probably the Resonant Breathing app

Waking Up

Insight timer works for everything

Your post was removed because there are many other posts where this or a similar question was asked, and members have shared countless answers already. There is also a list in the sidebar.

Not sure if it's available on IOS, but Plum Village is the very best I have found, I'm a daily user.