Headspace and Calm are the rulers of the meditation mindfulness app market. After the review of Headspace, it is time to give Calm app a shot.

In this Calm app review, we take a detailed look at Calm’s design, features and cost to help you decide if this meditations app is right for you.

What Is the Calm App?

Calm is a San Francisco based company founded by Alex Tew and Michael Acton Smith in 2012. It is a meditation, sleep and relaxation app, available in both the App Store and Google Play store.

To date, it has more than 50 million downloads and 2 million subscribers. Calm was Apple’s “App of the Year” in 2017, and was ranked by Inc. as one of the fastest-growing private companies in America in 2018.

In 2019, as per Sensor Tower’s report, Calm was the most downloaded meditation app and generated the most revenue.

Calm App Reviews: First Impression

Upon logging in for the first time I was immediately encouraged to relax as the words “Take a deep breath” appeared over a serene blue screen.

Then, I was asked to select the goals I want to achieve, like developing gratitude, reducing stress, increasing happiness, better sleep and more. I choose “Increase happiness”.

Next, it is a sign up screen. You can sign up with Email, Facebook or with Apple (For iPhone users only).

Now, I was asked to subscribe the app with $69.99/year. To be honest, I don’t like this process. I believe Calm should give time to new users to explore the App first rather than asking them to subscribe in first meet.

Finally, I was taken to the home screen which featured a video background of blue sky, mountains, trees and water. The app suggests starting with a meditation series called “7 Days of Calm.”

Generally, I liked the simple, clean layout of the app and found the navigation very easy to use.

How Calm App Works

What do you need to work on? Lack of focus? Anxious thoughts? Insomnia? Calm’s guided meditations have you covered.

Calm combines rich features and a large library of guided meditations with a simple, clean interface.

Calm’s primary feature is its collection of guided meditations that are designed for beginners and advanced meditators alike.

Guided meditations range in length from 3 to 25 minutes, so you can always find a meditation to fit your schedule. These meditations cover topics like managing stress, improving focus and concentration, fostering better relationships, breaking bad habits, finding happiness, increasing self-esteem, boosting mindfulness, and more.

The narrations that Calm offers are mainly provided by Tamara Levitt, who is the Head of Mindfulness and plays a large role in content development. Furthermore, Calm pools together resources from a wide range of experts in the field to provide users with a well-rounded mindfulness experience.

Calm also offers breathing exercises, bedtime stories and soothing background tracks to help you get a good night’s sleep.

In 2020, Calm added classic Disney songs to its playlist. You can find the Disney songs in the “music” selection of the app. The tracks include:

• “Once Upon a Dream” (Sleeping Beauty)
• “Reflection” (Mulan)
• “Beauty and the Beast” (Beauty and the Beast)
• “A Whole New World” (Aladdin)
• “A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes” (Cinderella)

Calm App Cost & Discount

The Calm app is free to download and it does have a trial version which includes timed meditation options, Day 1 of all multi-day meditation programs, Breathe Bubble and sleep story titled Blue Gold. The app also has a large number of free scenes you can select from to play nature sounds and/or music in the background, on both the guided and unguided meditation.

Plus, Calm offers free resources on their website in the form of blogs, videos, tips, webinars, and other resources from their qualified and certified counseling staff.

Full access to Calm content is available as a 7-day free trial.

If you want to unlock the full library of meditations, stories, music, and other features longer, you can purchase an annual subscription of 69.99 USD. It’s also possible to purchase “Calm for Life” for $399.99.

Once subscribed, users have access to the following features:

• Multi-Day Meditation programs
• The “Daily Calm” meditation
• Calm Masterclasses
• Soothing background scenes
• Sleep music and sounds
• “Calm Body” exercises
• The “Breathe Bubble”

Is there any Discount for Calm app subscrbtion?

You can get 25% off if you subscribe from the homepage of Calm which means you will be charged $52.49 for a 1-year subscription.

Calm App Reviews: The Pros and Cons of Calm

The Pros of Calm

• The app is easy to use.
• The design of the app itself is calming.
• The meditations are named so you know what you’re listening to.
• Sessions are downloadable so they can be available offline.
• The Calm team has experts with a range of experience and specialty areas.

The Cons of Calm

• Like Headspace, the free version is fairly limited.
• No variation on session lengths, some sessions may feel long to a beginner

Tips: Do be cautious about the trial- a few comments I’ve received from readers indicates some people have found customer service to be less than helpful when there are payment issues.

What Did Other Calm Reviewers Say?

“I’m generally wary of meditation apps because they sometimes weave in too much mystic talk for my taste. But Calm instead contains guidance like ‘Concentrate on your body” – New York Times

“Calm is a great tool for our students, faculty, and staff to improve their relaxation, stress management, and restorative sleep.” – Sarah Cunningham, Johns Hopkins University

“In the frenetic, crazy, digital world we live in, sometimes it’s necessary to take a step back and smell the roses.” –Mashable

“Eliminating distraction… ended up helping me relax and realize that all the stuff I was stressing about wasn’t that big a deal.” -Tech Republic

“COULD BE PERFEC. I think this app could be perfect. The content is amazing; however, there are a couple of technical fails that keeps this app away from being perfect. First, there is no cast option. At this time, you can’t justify not having the cast feature on an app that plays music. Second, you should allow users to have at least two profiles per account. I know you need the subscription to keep the service running, but this is not a cheap subscription (It’s not expensive either) so you could allow users to create at least two different profiles. Why do I think two profiles are needed? Just imagine using the app to play some calming music to your kids before sleep. Then, that time will be counted as your own mindful minutes or one of your sessions.” – Most Liked user’s review in Google Play

Calm App Review: Is the Calm App Worth it

So now the big question, is the Calm app worth it?  – It depends.

If you are planning to use Calm for occasional meditation, then I don’t think the app is worth the money. It is pricey. Also, if you use meditate occasionally, it is difficult of for you to let it become a habit.

However, if you are going to use Calm for daily meditation, it is worth. Calm offers breathing exercises, daily reminders and “mood check-ins,” sleep stories, and meditation techniques. All you need is in the app.

Then, is Calm better than headspace, check our post about Headspace Vs. Calm.