Best Budget Option: Insight Timer
Insight Timer
Key Specs
- Platforms: iOS, Android
- Features: Over 150,000 free meditations
Why We Chose It
Insight Timer has a giant library of free meditations, so if your budget is tight, this is the meditation app for you.
Pros & Cons
Pros
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Over 150,000 free meditations
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Easy to search and filter content
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Free 7-day intro course
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Free community of meditators
Our Experience
Insight Timer offers more than 150,000 free meditations—that’s a big deal, since one of the biggest complaints about other meditation apps is their lack of free content.
What we liked:
- Lots of free options: When we tried Insight Timer, the sheer number of free options blew us away.
- Filters: The library allowed us to filter by need (e.g., stress, sleep, self-esteem); time, from five to 30 or more minutes; and specific benefit, such as pain relief, relationship woes, or teaching kids to meditate.
- Mood tracker: It even offered us a mood tracker, where we could indicate via smiley face how we were feeling that day and see our progress right on the app as we checked in each day (for a month)—all for free.
We found the “Explore” section of the app to be incredibly useful, helping us look for meditation exercises under eight categories:
- Beginner
- Meditation
- Breathwork
- Sleep
- Music
- Yoga
- Live events
- Courses
We could also choose topics to focus on, such as stress and anxiety, which is where we most often found ourselves when looking for meditation exercises. While Insight Timer offered everything from guided meditations to yoga classes to soothing music, as well as exercises ranging from a few minutes to over an hour, we made the most use of the shorter meditations, usually around 15 minutes or less.
Another cool feature is the community of fellow mindful folks we were able to interact with on the app. We could connect in group chat rooms like “Be Here Now” and “Loving Kindness and Compassion,” or choose a group by topic, like LGBTQIA+, relationships, nutrition and wellness, or weight loss.
The sheer extent of resources on Insight Timer already sets it apart from other apps; the fact that most of them are free is a huge bonus.
Plans & Pricing
Insight Timer is free to use, with over 150,000 meditations and exercises available at no charge. If you’d like access to every resource on Insight Timer, a premium subscription costs $59.99 per year.
