It's close: Calm edges it 8.6 to 8.5, so the right pick depends on what you need. Calm wins on 3 of the 5 scores, one sec on 2.
Light sleepers and anxious minds who want help winding down each night
Habitual scrollers who want a nudge, not a hard block, before opening apps
Score by score
The details
| Feature | Calm | one sec |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Mind & Focus | Mind & Focus |
| Category rank | #5 of 9 | #6 of 9 |
| Developer | Calm.com, Inc. | riedel.wtf GmbH |
| Pricing | Subscription | Free + paid plans |
| Usable for free | No | Yes |
| iPhone & iPad | ✓ | ✓ |
| Android | ✓ | ✓ |
| Web | ✓ | — |
Strengths and weaknesses
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
one sec
- Simple intervention that genuinely curbs mindless opens
- Focused, ad-free app with a light data footprint
- Shows how often you reach for each app
- Free version covers only one app
- Easy to tap through if you are determined
one sec takes a simple idea and makes it work. When you open a distracting app, it asks you to take a breath first and then whether you really want to continue. That small pause is often enough to break the habit. It is light, ad-free and focused on one job. The free version covers a single app, so most people will want Pro, and determined users can always tap through.
Full one sec review
