Compare meditation apps
Headspace vs Calm: free content, price, languages and privacy
Both are large guided-meditation apps paid for by subscription, with similar yearly prices. The real differences are elsewhere: Calm keeps hundreds of sessions free without paying and Headspace doesn’t; Calm’s app comes in ten languages and Headspace’s mainly in English; and only Calm’s privacy label lists data used to track you.
| At a glance | Headspace | Calm |
|---|---|---|
| Free without a subscription | Nothing listed inside the app; free YouTube videos, Radio Headspace and articles | 230+ meditations, a few Sleep Stories, day 1 of every program, soundscapes |
| Free trial on iPhone | 7 days, then monthly; or 14 days, then yearly | 7 days, then yearly |
| US App Store prices | $12.99 monthly, $69.99 annual; Headspace Plus up to $94.99 | Calm Premium purchases from $14.99 to $79.99 |
| App languages | English on the App Store; translated content in French, German, Spanish, Portuguese and Mandarin | Ten languages with text and audio, including Japanese and Korean |
| Offline | Most sessions; not Today’s Headspace, Wake Up or Sleepcasts | Meditations, programs, music and Sleep Stories |
| App Store privacy label | Data Linked to You (nine kinds); nothing listed as used to track you | Data Used to Track You (purchases, identifiers, usage data), plus Data Linked to You |
What you get without paying
This is the biggest practical difference. Calm’s help center lists hundreds of always-free sessions: more than 230 guided and timed meditations, a few Sleep Stories, the first day of every multi-day program and nature soundscapes. Premium content has a padlock, and everything else plays as often as you like. Headspace’s help center answers the same question with its free trial. After the trial, the free options it lists are outside the app: YouTube, Radio Headspace, its website and, with Netflix, its two Netflix series.
Trials and prices
The yearly prices are close: Headspace lists $69.99 for a Solo plan, and the US App Store showed Calm Premium purchases between $14.99 and $79.99. Calm says its prices vary by country and that it is raising the yearly price. The trials differ more. On an iPhone, Calm’s 7-day trial becomes a yearly subscription. Headspace offers a 7-day trial that becomes monthly or a 14-day trial that becomes yearly, so it’s the one to pick if you want to try for longer or pay month by month. Both renew automatically: cancel in Settings › your name › Subscriptions at least 24 hours before the trial ends. The details are in Is Headspace free? and Is Calm free?
Languages
Calm says its app has full text and audio in ten languages: English, Spanish, German, French, Korean, Portuguese, Japanese, Italian, Mandarin Chinese and Polish. The App Store lists English as Headspace’s only language; its help center says you can switch the app to French, German, Spanish, Portuguese or Mandarin and see whatever content has been translated. If you want to meditate in Japanese or Korean, only Calm offers it.
Listening offline
Both apps let you download sessions before a flight or a walk without signal. Calm covers meditations, programs, music and Sleep Stories. Headspace downloads most sessions, but says Today’s Headspace, Wake Up and Sleepcasts need a connection.
Privacy
On the App Store, both apps list data linked to your identity, such as purchases, identifiers, usage data and health and fitness. Calm’s label also lists purchases, identifiers and usage data under “Data Used to Track You”: data that may be used to track you across other companies’ apps and websites. Headspace’s label has no such section.
Which one?
Choose Calm if you want a free tier you can keep using, or the app in Japanese, Korean or another of its ten languages. Choose Headspace if you’d rather learn step by step with a course, or want a longer trial or a monthly plan. And if you already know you just want to sit quietly for ten minutes without a voice, you may not need either library. Stille is free with every feature included, with no account, no ads and no subscription, and its App Store label says “Data Not Collected”. It has no teachers, courses or Sleep Stories. See Stille vs Headspace and Stille vs Calm.