Headspace: Sleep & Meditation

Health & Fitness

7.7~~/10~~

Our score

★ 4.3 Google Play·10M+ installs

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

Screenshots

Search view with meditate, sleep, move and music categories

Sleep tab listing sleepcasts, wind downs and sleep music

Basics course card offering a choice between two teachers

Daily plan with a short wake-up video and breathing activity

Recommended anxiety course with a stated ten to twenty minutes

About Headspace: Sleep & Meditation

Headspace teaches meditation as courses rather than as a playlist: named teachers, stated session lengths, and programmes that run for weeks at ten minutes a day. Sleepcasts and wind-downs cover the night, and a kids section covers the household. The subscription is $12.99 a month or $69.99 a year, with no advertising anywhere in it.

App information

DeveloperHeadspace Inc.

Version8.30.0 (Android) · 8.30.1 (iOS)

Size179.1 MB (Android) · 421 MB (iOS)

Price / In-appFree

Contains adsNo

In-app purchasesYes

Content rating13+

Requires (Android)Android 8.0+

Requires (iOS)iOS 15.6+

Offline modeDownloaded sessions and sleepcasts play offline for subscribers

Interface languagesEN

Store rating (Google Play)4.3 from 339,984 ratings

Installs10M+

Updated by developer2026-09-03

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.

Headspace Review: Courses With Teachers and Timings

Every Session States Its Length and Its Teacher

The structural difference from its rivals is printed on the cards: a beginners' course runs three to ten minutes a session, a stress programme is described as beginner level, four weeks, ten minutes a day, led by a named instructor. Before starting the basics you choose which teacher's voice guides you. That framing matters for anyone who has failed at meditation before, because the commitment is explicit and finite rather than a shelf of tracks you are left to browse. The daily tab then lays out a plan — a short video, a one-minute breathing activity, a monthly reflection.

Sleepcasts, Wind Downs and a Kids Section

The sleep tab splits into sleepcasts — described as ever-changing storytelling in a range of voices — wind-downs that combine meditation with breathing before bed, sleep music, and a toolkit for children and parents. The variation in sleepcasts is the deliberate design choice: the narration differs each night so the story never becomes familiar enough to follow. It is a quieter, less star-driven proposition than a celebrity-read bedtime story, and whether that is better depends on whether a recognisable voice helps you or keeps you listening. The kids and parents toolkit is the part households buy it for, since it covers bedtime for two generations on one subscription.

$69.99 a Year, No Advertising, 420.6 MB

The App Store lists $12.99 monthly and $69.99 annually, with a $94.99 tier alongside. Neither store shows an advertising badge, so the subscription funds everything. Apple rates the app 13+ for health and wellness topics on a 420.6 MB install — two and a half times the size of its closest competitor. The ratings gap between platforms is worth noting: 4.8 from 973,000 App Store ratings against 4.3 from 340,000 Play reviews, on ten million Play installs, which is a tenth of the reach the calorie and fitness apps in this catalogue have.

Pros

Courses state their length, level and teacher upfront
Programmes run for weeks at ten minutes a day
Sleepcasts vary the narration every night
A separate toolkit for children and parents
No advertising anywhere in the app

Cons

The subscription costs $69.99 a year
A 420.6 MB install for guided audio
Free content is limited to a short sample
Rated 4.3 on Play, half a point below Apple

Download From Google PlayDownload From App Store

We don't host any files. These buttons open the official Google Play and App Store listings.

Verdict

The meditation app that behaves like a teacher rather than a library: stated lengths, named instructors and courses that finish. That structure is exactly what beginners need and what a shelf of tracks fails to give them. The costs are a $69.99 annual subscription, a free tier thin enough to be a trial, and an install size that is hard to justify for audio.

Core function8.5Structured teaching with named instructors and finite, stated commitments.

Ease of use8.5A daily plan on opening and a course list that explains what each one is.

Monetisation6.0No adverts, but the useful content sits behind $69.99 a year.

Performance7.5420.6 MB is heavy for audio, though downloads play reliably offline.

Privacy & permissions7.5Account and progress data only, with no advertising identifiers in play.

7.7out of 10 · weighted average of the five scores above

Readers’ rating

Not enough reader ratings yet. Be one of the first.

Used Headspace: Sleep & Meditation? Rate it

One rating per visitor, no sign-up. The average updates once a day. Store ratings are shown separately and are not mixed in.

Frequently asked questions

Is there a usable free tier?

Only a sample: a few basic sessions and limited daily content. The courses, sleepcasts and programmes require a subscription, so the free version works as an introduction rather than as something to keep using indefinitely.

What does a guided programme involve?

A defined commitment — one is described as beginner level, four weeks long, ten minutes a day, with a named teacher — rather than an open library. Each session builds on the last, and the app tracks progress through the course so a missed day is visible rather than invisible.

What does it cost?

$12.99 a month or $69.99 a year on the App Store listing, with a $94.99 tier alongside. Annual billing is roughly 55% cheaper than paying monthly across a year. Prices are US figures; student and family arrangements are offered separately in some regions.

Is it better for beginners than Calm?

For learning the practice, yes. Sessions state their length and level, courses have a defined end, and a teacher is chosen at the start rather than encountered at random. Calm is stronger for sleep content and celebrity narration; this one is stronger at actually teaching the technique.

What are the alternatives?

Calm has the better sleep library and bigger names reading it. Insight Timer offers far more free content with less structure and lower production values. If the goal is to learn meditation properly rather than to fall asleep faster, this is the more instructive of the three.