Comparison

Meditate vs Monk Mode

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Meditate

This app helps you cultivate a consistent meditation practice with a beautiful visual tracker, a flexible timer, and insightful statistics. It offers interval alerts, background music, and seamless integration with Apple Health and Apple Watch for a comprehensive mindfulness experience.

Highlights
  • Visual Mandala progress tracker
  • Customizable meditation timer
  • Interval alerts (haptic/sound)
  • Apple Health integration
  • Detailed meditation statistics
  • Apple Watch independent app
  • Background music options
Features
Read full description

Build a meditation practice that feels truly yours. Shape each session with a flexible meditation timer, watch your personal Mandala bloom as you practice, and capture how every meditation feels with free reflections and journaling. An Apple Design Award finalist for Visuals and Graphics, Meditate brings your practice to iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Apple Vision Pro. MEDITATE YOUR WAY Keep your timer simple or shape every stage of your meditation. Choose a fixed duration or an open goal, set alerts at chosen moments or repeating intervals, select sounds or haptics, and meditate with ambient music or Apple Music. Save complete sessions as Timer Presets so they are always ready. On supported devices, simply describe the meditation you want and let Meditate configure it for you. If you continue beyond the completion alert, Meditate keeps tracking your extra time. WATCH YOUR MANDALA GROW Your personal Mandala blooms as you meditate. Return each day, maintain your streak, and watch your practice take shape over time. REFLECT ON EVERY SESSION Record how you felt before and after meditating, capture your thoughts, and add or edit a reflection for each day. All reflection and journaling features are free, helping you notice how your practice feels—not only how long it lasts. You can also log meditations completed outside the app so your history, goals, and streaks remain accurate. UNDERSTAND YOUR PRACTICE Explore today’s progress, your past seven days, monthly calendars, individual sessions, and long-term statistics. Meditation Insights helps you discover meaningful patterns across your practice. Ask Meditate lets you ask questions about your meditation history and receive answers grounded in your recorded sessions. You choose whether optional information from reflections and Apple Health can contribute to your insights. With Meditate Premium, connect Apple Health to bring mindful minutes and supported sessions from other apps into your history. Track heart rate during supported sessions and relate sleep and State of Mind to your practice. MADE FOR APPLE WATCH Meditate works independently on Apple Watch. Run advanced sessions, use Timer Presets, monitor heart rate, record reflections and State of Mind, review your progress, and keep your practice within reach with complications and Smart Stack widgets. ALWAYS WITHIN REACH Start a meditation or check your progress from widgets, the Lock Screen, Control Center, Shortcuts, Siri, and Live Activities. Use Siri or Spotlight to find past sessions on supported devices, and keep your meditation history, reflections, and progress up to date across your devices with iCloud. Share sessions, achievements, and statistics as beautiful artwork, with personalized visuals available on supported devices. MADE FOR APPLE VISION PRO Meditate is also available on Apple Vision Pro, bringing your meditation practice into a beautifully immersive spatial experience. SUBSCRIPTION DETAILS Meditate includes essential features such as the meditation timer, session history, daily goals, streaks, seven-day summaries, CSV export, and all reflection and journaling tools. An optional subscription unlocks Premium features including Timer Presets, advanced interval alerts, Alert Behavior, ambient music, Apple Music, additional Mandalas, advanced statistics, Meditation Insights, Ask Meditate, Apple Health integration, and Family Sharing. Ask Meditate requires English and a compatible Apple Intelligence device. Natural-language timer setup and other features may vary by device and operating-system version. Apple Music requires an Apple Music subscription. Apple Health features require your permission. All subscription plans unlock the same Premium features. Subscriptions renew automatically unless canceled. You can manage or cancel your subscription at any time through your App Store account settings. Terms of Service: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

Monk Mode

This app functions as a meditation timer, logging your sessions as mindful minutes directly into Apple Health. It also features a heart rate tracker to monitor your heart rate during meditation and provide an average at its conclusion.

Highlights
  • Meditation timer
  • Log mindful minutes
  • Apple Health integration
  • Heart rate tracker
  • View average heart rate
Features
Read full description

A minimalist meditation timer that saves your mindful minutes to Apple Health, automatically. Sit down. Breathe. Let everything else fade. Whether you love silent, unguided sessions or gentle guided narration, Monk Mode meets you where you are. Pick a focus, set your timer, and begin. When you finish, your mindful minutes are saved to Apple Health on their own, so your mindfulness practice always counts. Wear an Apple Watch? Your heart rate is tracked live, so you can watch your body settle into stillness. Start a session from your iPhone, your watch, or straight from a home screen widget. Every session brings you closer to the version of yourself that shows up calmer, clearer, and more present. Free to use, with one optional purchase. Sessions up to 5 minutes are always free, and longer sessions include 4 free sessions each month. Deep Practice is a one-time in-app purchase that removes the monthly limit. Existing customers keep full access at no extra cost. What you get: • Mindful minutes saved to Apple Health after every session, with workouts logged too • A guided and unguided meditation timer (1-60 min + unlimited) • 5 focus types: Breath, Body Scan, Loving-Kindness, Open Awareness, and Sleep • On-device narration in 6 languages that adapts to your session • Live heart rate tracking with Apple Watch • Daily goals, a weekly streak, and progress at a glance • Configurable widgets that can start a session with a tap • Haptic breathing cues, custom bell tones, and adjustable guidance • A dedicated sleep meditation mode • Seamless sync between iPhone and Apple Watch Your meditation practice. No subscriptions. No accounts. One optional one-time purchase. Privacy Policy https://www.squeakbyte.com/monk-mode-privacy-policy Terms & Conditions https://www.squeakbyte.com/monk-mode-terms-conditions

Screenshots

Meditate4 screens
Monk Mode4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Meditate at weekly against Monk Mode's every 2 months. Meditate also leads on ratings volume (119 vs 7) and monetization model (free with in-app purchases vs paid). Monk Mode's advantage is review sentiment (100% vs 71%) and rating (4.9 vs 4.5). On price, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Meditate sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per year and Monk Mode sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Monk Mode holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 4.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Meditate has 119 ratings behind it against 7, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 71% of Meditate's written reviews are positive against 100% of Monk Mode's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Meditate ships an update weekly, Monk Mode every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on October 29, 2026 and October 30, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
Meditate versus Monk Mode: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMeditateMonk Mode
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.5 (119 ratings)4.9 (7 ratings) — better
Positive reviews70.7% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings119 — better7
Update frequencyWeekly — betterEvery 2 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases — betterPaid
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Vision Pro — betteriPhone, Apple Watch
Requires iOS17.4 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size207 MB40 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperRhythmicWorksKevin David Tanner

Customer experience

Meditate

All ratings118 ratings
Positive85.6%
Neutral5.1%
Negative9.3%
Written reviews92 reviews
Positive70.7%
Neutral10.9%
Negative18.5%

Monk Mode

All ratings8 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews9 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Bugs and requests

Meditate

Reported bugs

23 issues
  • App no longer works properly after cloud sync
  • Cloud sync causes massive battery drain
  • Streaks keep miscalculating
  • Support link broken
  • Watch control not working since last update
Show 18 more
  • Timer breaks without error
  • Lock Screen widget cannot display 3 digits for streak
  • Streak reset after 100+ days
  • Mandala resets if one day is missed
  • App terminates meditation to show 'save mandala' message
  • Notification about app sent to background
  • Unable to use app on watch after update
  • App crashes on watch
  • Cannot set intervals
  • Countdown timer removed
  • Watch app crashes
  • Haptic intervals not ideal
  • Interval bells not available on watch app
  • App constantly backs to settings
  • Reminders not working
  • Watch app does not save sessions
  • App disappears from older watch versions
  • App not found on App Store easily

Requested features

10 requests
  • Lifetime purchase option
  • Widget showing meditation streak
  • Randomized mindfulness reminders
  • iCloud sync for watch and iPhone
  • Mandala reset logic improvement
Show 5 more
  • Option to disable alert sound on watch
  • Automatic Do Not Disturb mode
  • Breathing prompts
  • Widget to display Mandalas and total time on watch
  • Optional white noise

Monk Mode

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

3 purchases

Meditate

Subscriptions3
  • Bronze Contributor7 Days trial$9.991 Year
  • Silver Patron7 Days trial$19.991 Year
  • Gold Supporter7 Days trial$29.991 Year
1 purchases

Monk Mode

One-time1
  • Deep Practice$4.99

Questions

Is Meditate free?
Meditate is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Monk Mode free?
Monk Mode is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Meditate or Monk Mode?
Monk Mode is rated higher. Meditate averages 4.5 out of 5 from 119 ratings, while Monk Mode averages 4.9 from 7 ratings.
Do Meditate or Monk Mode have ads?
Neither Meditate nor Monk Mode shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Meditate or Monk Mode?
Meditate ships an update weekly, and Monk Mode every 2 months. Most recently, Meditate was updated on October 29, 2026 and Monk Mode on October 30, 2026.

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