Choosing a mindfulness app

Most of them have a free-trial period. Some then require a subscription, while others provide enough free content to support your ongoing mindfulness practice. 

Meditation app users at MIT have recommended these apps:

• Calm.com: Includes a seven-day free trial and multiple features, including a special bedtime-story option.
• Exhale: Focused on Black, Indigenous, Women of Color (BIWOC) well-being, meditation, and rest.
• Headspace: Beginner-friendly, well-liked, and has a free trial and a discounted student plan.
• Healthy Minds Program App: Free and developed by a leading neuroscience research center. It combines podcast-style lessons on the science of meditation with both seated and active meditation skills.
• Insight Meditation Timer: Free and has a huge variety of guided meditation options from around the world. It may take a bit of exploring to discover which meditations work for best you.
• Liberate: Designed to not only be a meditation app, but a safe space for the Black community to develop a meditation habit.
• Ten Percent Happier: Includes a free trial with meditation basics, happiness teachings, and help for stress and sleep. The Ten Percent Happier Podcast features world-renowned teachers.

MIT alumnus Robert Plotkin ’93 provides updates and information about apps and the intersection of science, technology, and mindfulness at Technology for Mindfulness.