Calm

Health & Fitness

7.5~~/10~~

Our score

★ 4.5 Google Play·50M+ installs

Reviewed by Editorial Team, ScoredApps editorial · updated 2026-09-05

Screenshots

Title screen with awards and a mountain landscape behind

Promotional slide listing press mentions and an editor's award

Sleep tab with featured sleep stories and voice-led titles

Daily practice cards for four presenter-led daily sessions

Soundscape shelf offering rain on leaves and a thunderstorm

Curated audio track described as a nervous system reset

About Calm

Calm is a library rather than a course: sleep stories read by well-known voices, daily meditations from named hosts, soundscapes of rain and thunder, and music built for focus. Almost all of it requires the subscription, which is listed at $14.99 a month or $69.99 a year. There is no advertising, and the install is unusually small at 173.9 MB.

App information

DeveloperCalm.com, Inc.

Version7.1.2 (Android) · 7.0.7 (iOS)

Size164.20 MB (Android) · 174 MB (iOS)

Price / In-appFree

Contains adsNo

In-app purchasesYes

Content rating9+

Requires (Android)Android 8.0+

Requires (iOS)iOS 18.0+

Offline modeDownloaded sessions and stories play offline for subscribers

Interface languagesEN, FR, DE, IT, JA, KO + 4 more

Store rating (Google Play)4.5 from 615,851 ratings

Installs50M+

Updated by developer2026-09-04

Data checked2026-09-07

Specs come from the official store listings and were last checked on 2026-09-07. Developers change pricing and requirements — check the store page before installing.

Calm Review: $69.99 a Year for the Sleep Stories

Sleep Stories Are the Actual Product

The sleep tab is what separates this from every breathing app: bedtime stories recorded by recognisable voices, presented like a streaming catalogue with featured titles and categories for meditations, tools and music. A story by a well-known singer sits at the top of the shelf in the store screens, beside pieces with titles closer to audiobooks than to guided practice. The premise is simple and it works — a familiar voice reading something deliberately uneventful occupies the part of the mind that keeps you awake. Nothing else in the app has that clarity of purpose.

Daily Sessions From Named Hosts

The daily practice section runs four separate strands with their own presenters: a daily meditation, a daily piece of reflection, a movement session and a psychedelics-adjacent perspective series, each refreshed every day and each attached to a face and a name. Around them sit soundscapes — rain on leaves, thunderstorms — and playlists of soothing music. One curated track is described as sonically engineered to alternate between the right and left ears for a nervous-system reset; that is the app's own description of what it does, not a clinical claim you should read as one.

Almost Everything Is Behind $69.99 a Year

The subscription is listed at $14.99 monthly and $69.99 annually, with other tiers to $79.99. What is free amounts to a sample: a few meditations and the daily session, with the sleep library and most courses locked. There is no advertising badge on either store, so the subscription is the whole business model. Apple rates the app 9+ for health and wellness topics, the install is 173.9 MB — the smallest of any subscription app in this catalogue — and the ratings are 4.8 from 1.98 million App Store ratings against 4.5 from 615,000 on Play.

Pros

Sleep stories read by voices people recognise
Four daily strands with named, consistent presenters
Soundscapes and music for focus as well as sleep
No advertising anywhere in the app
A 173.9 MB install, small for a media library

Cons

The free tier is a sample rather than a product
The subscription reaches $79.99 a year
Wellness claims are the app's own, not clinical findings
Rated 4.5 on Play, below its App Store average

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Verdict

Buy it for the sleep library, because that is what it is genuinely best at — the production values and the casting are the reason people renew. As a meditation teacher it is looser than Headspace, offering a shelf rather than a course. The free tier is a sample, so the real question is whether $69.99 a year is worth better bedtimes. For many people it demonstrably is.

Core function8.0A deep, well-produced audio library with sleep content as its clear strength.

Ease of use8.5Browsing works like a streaming service — shelves, categories, one tap to play.

Monetisation5.5Nearly everything sits behind a subscription reaching $79.99 a year.

Performance8.0Small install, quick playback, and downloads that work without a connection.

Privacy & permissions7.5Account and listening data; no advertising badge and no tracking pitch.

7.5out of 10 · weighted average of the five scores above

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Frequently asked questions

What can you use without paying?

A limited free selection: a daily meditation, a handful of sessions and some breathing tools. The sleep story library, most courses and the soundscape collection require the subscription, so the free tier works as a trial rather than as a usable free product.

What are the sleep stories?

Long, deliberately uneventful readings narrated by recognisable voices, arranged like a streaming catalogue with featured titles and collections. The point is a familiar voice describing something undramatic until attention lets go — closer to an audiobook designed to be missed than to a guided meditation.

What does the subscription cost?

$14.99 a month or $69.99 a year according to the App Store listing, with additional tiers up to $79.99. The annual plan works out at roughly a third of the monthly rate over twelve months. Prices are US figures and vary by region and by promotion.

Do the wellness claims hold up?

Treat the app's own descriptions as marketing. Guided meditation and consistent sleep routines have reasonable evidence behind them; specific claims about audio engineered to reset a nervous system are the company's framing of its own content. The app is a well-produced audio library, and that is the honest basis for judging it.

What are the alternatives?

Headspace teaches meditation as structured courses with named durations, which suits beginners better. Insight Timer offers a large free library with a smaller polish budget. This one is chosen almost entirely for the sleep stories, which neither competitor matches in production or in casting.