Headspace is the better app overall, scoring 8.7 to 8.6. Headspace wins on 5 of the 5 scores, Calm on 0.
Beginners who want short, structured lessons and a friendly daily habit
Light sleepers and anxious minds who want help winding down each night
Score by score
The details
| Feature | Headspace | Calm |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Mind & Focus | Mind & Focus |
| Category rank | #3 of 9 | #5 of 9 |
| Developer | Headspace Inc. | Calm.com, Inc. |
| Pricing | Subscription | Subscription |
| Usable for free | No | No |
| iPhone & iPad | ✓ | ✓ |
| Android | ✓ | ✓ |
| Web | ✓ | ✓ |
Strengths and weaknesses
Headspace
- Excellent courses for complete beginners
- Polished, cheerful design that is easy to follow
- Covers stress, sleep and focus in one app
- Very little free content
- Frequent prompts toward extra services
Headspace is the friendliest way to start meditating. Short, well-structured courses teach the basics, and warm animations and clear voice guidance make a daily practice easy to keep. Beyond meditation you get sleep content, focus music and mindful movement. Almost everything sits behind the subscription and the app promotes extra services, but for beginners it is the most approachable option.
Full Headspace review
Calm
- Best-in-class Sleep Stories and sleep music
- Soothing, beautifully produced design
- Wide range of content for stress and anxiety
- Most content is paywalled
- Less structured for learning to meditate
Calm is the app to get if better sleep is your main goal. Its Sleep Stories are excellent at helping you drift off, and soundscapes, music and breathing exercises round it out. Guided meditations cover anxiety and focus too. Most content needs a subscription, and the meditation teaching is less structured than Headspace's. Still, few apps make winding down this easy.
Full Calm review
