Mindful USC vs UCLA Mindful
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Mindful USC
Access guided meditations to reduce stress and anxiety, boost energy, and improve focus. Track your progress, find meditations based on your current mood, and connect with a community. USC members can also find on-campus resources.
- Guided meditations
- Stress and anxiety reduction
- Improved focus and energy
- Mindfulness journey tracking
- Mood-based meditation selection
- Community features
- USC community resources
Read full descriptionHide full description
Always free and available to everyone. Guided meditations to give you more energy so you can get more done, increase your ability to focus, improve your relationships and more - all by lowering your stress, anxiety and other difficult emotions and thinking that gets in your way of living the life you want. Track your mindfulness journey, check-in to get meditations for your current state of mind and heart, identify and live your values, participate in the community word cloud, and members of the USC community can access classes, practice groups on campus, retreats, events and more.
UCLA Mindful
Practice mindfulness meditation with guided sessions and educational content from UCLA Health. Learn to manage stress, reduce anxiety, and cultivate positive emotions through regular practice. Explore various meditation types, informative videos, and weekly recordings to enhance your well-being.
- Guided basic meditations
- Wellness meditations for health conditions
- Informative videos on mindfulness
- Weekly live/virtual meditation recordings
- Talks on mindfulness topics
- Customizable meditation timer
Read full descriptionHide full description
With this easy-to-use app, you can practice mindfulness meditation anywhere, anytime with the guidance of UCLA Mindful, the mindfulness education center of UCLA Health. Scientific research shows mindfulness can help manage stress-related physical conditions, reduce anxiety and depression, and cultivate positive emotions. Mindfulness is paying attention to our present moment experiences with openness and curiosity and a willingness to be with our experience. Through regular practice, taught through this app, you can develop a meditation practice and learn to bring more mindfulness into your daily life. This app offers: • Basic Meditations for getting started in multiple languages. Languages include Arabic, Armenian, Cantonese, Farsi, Filipino, French, German, Greek, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Mixteco, Russian, Spanish, Vietnamese, American Sign Language • Wellness Meditations for people suffering from challenging health conditions • Informative videos exploring how to get started, supportive meditation postures, and the science of mindfulness • Weekly recordings from our live and virtual drop-in meditations -- a 30-minute meditation on different themes you can search for and bookmark • Talks on mindfulness-related topics • A timer to meditate on your own • A list of our current events and classes that you can add to your calendar UCLA Mindful, the mindfulness education center of UCLA Health, is dedicated to advancing mindfulness education to promote individual and cultural well-being and resilience world-wide. Our mission is to provide innovative, evidence-based mindfulness programs that empower individuals and institutions to manage stress, enhance health, and cultivate inner and outer peace. Through educational programs, we strive to inspire transformative growth and contribute to a culture of compassion and wellness for all. Due to UCLA Mindful’s mission of radical accessibility, this app is entirely free to use. Disclaimer: These meditations are for educational purposes and are not clinical treatments.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Mindful USC at 4.8 against UCLA Mindful's 4.5. Mindful USC also leads on iOS requirement (10.0 vs 15.0). On price, review sentiment, ratings volume and update cadence 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Mindful USC holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.5. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 324 and 176 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 83% of Mindful USC's written reviews are positive against 77% of UCLA Mindful's.
Mindful USC ships an update every 2 months, UCLA Mindful every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on October 14, 2026 and October 20, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Mindful USC | UCLA Mindful |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.8 (324 ratings) — better | 4.5 (176 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 83.3% of reviews — better | 76.7% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 324 — better | 176 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months — better | Every 3 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 10.0 — better | 15.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 85 MB | 23 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Allen Weiss | UCLA Health |
Customer experience
Mindful USC
UCLA Mindful
User reviews
Mindful USC
From 324 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Great for beginners
- 🧘♀️ Helps with anxiety and sleep
- 🆓 Free and accessible
- 💖 Improves quality of life
- ✨ Calming and soothing meditations
Room to improve
- 🐛 Timer stops working
- 🐛 Meditations cut off early
- 🐛 Audio issues after updates
- 🐛 Technical flaws in meditations
- 🔊 Sound only from phone speakers
UCLA Mindful
From 176 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🙏 Free and accessible resource
- 🧘♀️ High-quality guided meditations
- 🗣️ Calming and comforting narrator voices (Diana Winston)
- 👍 Simple, easy to use, and navigate
- 🌍 Multiple languages offered
Room to improve
- 🗣️ Presenter talks too much during meditations
- 🔌 Requires a good internet connection (streaming)
- 🔄 No offline access
- 📱 App doesn't rotate on iPad in landscape mode
- 🔊 Loud ding at the end of some tracks
Bugs and requests
Mindful USC
Reported bugs
5 issues- Timer turns off unexpectedly
- Meditations stop 5 seconds before timer ends when screen locks
- Audio not playing after automatic updates
- Timer stops counting when phone screen turns off
- Volume issues and meditations without clear endings or with long pauses
Requested features
2 requests- Allow AirPlay speaker output
- Make meditations available offline
UCLA Mindful
Reported bugs
6 issues- 🐛 Loop repeat did not replay when screen is locked
- 🐛 Audio stops when iPhone screen locks/turns off
- 🐛 Back button disappears on search podcast tab
- 🐛 Search in previous podcast is slow to respond
- 🐛 Custom timer doesn't work as intended
Show 1 moreShow fewer
- 🐛 Meditations won't load (show 0 time)
Requested features
6 requests- Offline access/downloadable sessions
- More voice diversity (ethnicity and gender)
- Add to Apple Health for tracking mindful minutes
- Improve pausing points for Vietnamese meditations
- Remove the ding at the end of tracks
Show 1 moreShow fewer
- Wider selection of UCLA courses/Diana Winston meditations
In-app purchases
Mindful USC
No in-app purchases
UCLA Mindful
No in-app purchases








