I’ve been meditating on and off for years, and I’ve tried just about every popular meditation app out there. Some stuck for a while, others didn’t. Some were genuinely helpful, others felt like they were trying to sell me something. Here’s what I learned from my journey through the meditation app landscape.

The apps I’ve tried (and what they’re actually like)

Headspace

The OG meditation app. Headspace was one of the first to make meditation accessible to mainstream audiences. Andy Puddicombe’s voice is instantly recognizable—calm, British, and somehow both soothing and slightly corporate. The app focuses on guided meditations with cute animations and a structured approach to building a practice.

What I liked: The 10-day foundation course is genuinely good for beginners. The app feels polished and professional.

What didn’t stick: After a while, the guided approach felt too repetitive. I wanted to develop my own practice, not just follow along with someone else’s script.

Calm

The one with the celebrities. Calm went all-in on the celebrity angle—Matthew McConaughey narrating sleep stories, LeBron James doing breathing exercises. The app is beautiful, with nature sounds and ambient music that’s pretty nice.

What I liked: The nature sounds are high quality. The app design is cool.

What didn’t stick: It felt more like entertainment than meditation. The celebrity angle was distracting, and the app seemed more focused on helping you fall asleep than developing mindfulness.

Waking Up

The intellectual approach. Sam Harris’s app is different. It’s more philosophical, more focused on the actual experience of consciousness rather than just relaxation. The app includes theory lessons alongside practice sessions.

What I liked: Harris doesn’t dumb things down. The theory sections are genuinely interesting and help you understand what you’re actually doing.

What didn’t stick: Sometimes it felt too cerebral. I found myself thinking about meditation rather than actually meditating. The app can be overwhelming for beginners.

Balance

The personalized approach. Balance claims to use AI to adapt your meditation sessions based on your mood, goals, and progress. It’s designed to be highly personalized, adjusting session length and content based on your feedback.

What I liked: The app remembers what you respond to and adjusts accordingly. The interface is clean and intuitive.

What didn’t stick: The AI personalization sometimes felt gimmicky. I started to wonder if the app was actually helping or just giving me what I thought I wanted.

Expand

The scientific approach. Expand focuses on evidence-based meditation techniques, with a strong emphasis on research and measurable outcomes. The app includes biofeedback features and progress tracking.

What I liked: The scientific backing. The app doesn’t make mystical claims—it focuses on what research actually shows about meditation benefits.

What didn’t stick: The biofeedback features felt like unnecessary complexity. Sometimes the most effective meditation is the simplest.

The Gateway Experience: when meditation gets weird

This one deserves its own section because it’s… different.

The Gateway Experience is a series of audio recordings developed by the Monroe Institute. The CIA later investigated the program as part of their research into consciousness and remote viewing (Project Stargate), and some documents about it were declassified. Yes, that CIA. The program uses binaural beats and specific audio frequencies to help promote relaxed, meditative states.

What it actually is: A structured program of guided meditations that use specific audio frequencies to allegedly help you achieve deeper meditative states. The recordings are designed to help you access different levels of awareness and relaxation.

What it’s not: Despite the CIA connection and some wild claims online, it’s not going to make you a psychic super-soldier or let you visit other dimensions. It’s essentially an advanced form of guided meditation with some interesting audio engineering.

My experience: I was surprised by how effective it was. The 30+ minute sessions that would normally feel like a chore became something I looked forward to. The audio design is sophisticated, and whether it was the binaural beats, the guided structure, or just the novelty of the approach, it created a unique meditative experience for me.

The program helped me through a particularly rough patch in my life. There was something about the structured approach and the depth of the sessions that made it easier to process difficult emotions and thoughts.

The catch: It’s expensive (but you can find it on youtube and archive sites), and the CIA connection has created a whole subculture of conspiracy theories and wild claims. Some people treat it like a spiritual technology that will unlock superhuman abilities. It won’t.

I’ll write a more detailed article about the Gateway Experience later—there’s a lot to unpack there, from the actual science behind binaural beats to the fascinating history of the Monroe Institute.

Finding what actually works: Healthy Minds Program

After trying all these apps, I settled on something completely different.

The Healthy Minds Program is free, created by a nonprofit, and developed by neuroscientist Richard Davidson at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. It’s based on decades of research into how meditation actually affects the brain.

Why it works for me:

• It’s free. No subscription, no premium features, no pressure to upgrade.
• It’s research-based. Every technique is backed by actual neuroscience research.
• It’s comprehensive. The program covers attention, awareness, connection, and purpose.
• It’s practical. The sessions are designed to fit into real life, not replace it.

The app doesn’t try to be entertaining or sell you anything. It’s just solid, evidence-based meditation instruction. The sessions are shorter than some other apps, but they’re more focused and effective.

The real goal: catching thoughts before they catch you

Here’s what I’ve learned about why I meditate.

My goal isn’t to achieve enlightenment or visit other dimensions. It’s much simpler: I want to catch my thoughts before I automatically react to them.

Most of the time, we’re on autopilot. Something happens, we have a thought, and we immediately react. Meditation helps you create a gap between the stimulus and the response. It’s like hitting the pause button on your automatic reactions.

The benefits are real and measurable:

• Better emotional regulation
• Reduced stress and anxiety
• Improved focus and attention
• Better sleep
• More resilience to life’s challenges

But here’s the thing: the best meditation system is the one you’ll actually use. It doesn’t matter if an app has the most advanced features or the most famous teachers. If you don’t use it, it’s worthless.

What I learned from trying all these apps

Different approaches work for different people at different times.

Some people need the structure and guidance of apps like Headspace or Calm. Others prefer the intellectual approach of Waking Up. Some respond well to the personalization of Balance or the scientific rigor of Expand.

The key is finding what works for you right now. Your needs might change over time, and that’s okay. What matters is that you’re actually practicing regularly.

Don’t get caught up in the marketing. Meditation apps are businesses, and they’re trying to sell you something. The most expensive app isn’t necessarily the best one for you.

Start simple. You don’t need advanced features or celebrity narrators to get the benefits of meditation. Sometimes the simplest approach is the most effective.

The bottom line

Meditation is a skill, not a product. Apps can help you learn the skill, but they’re not the skill itself. The real work happens in your own mind, regardless of what app you’re using.

If you’re new to meditation, start with something simple and free. If you’ve been practicing for a while, don’t be afraid to try different approaches. The goal isn’t to find the perfect app—it’s to develop a practice that works for you.

The best meditation app is the one you’ll actually use every day. Everything else is just marketing.