Comparison

Mindful USC vs UCLA Mindful

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

Head to head
About

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.

Highlights
  • Guided meditations
  • Stress and anxiety reduction
  • Improved focus and energy
  • Mindfulness journey tracking
  • Mood-based meditation selection
  • Community features
  • USC community resources
Features
Read 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.

About

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.

Highlights
  • Guided basic meditations
  • Wellness meditations for health conditions
  • Informative videos on mindfulness
  • Weekly live/virtual meditation recordings
  • Talks on mindfulness topics
  • Customizable meditation timer
Features
Read 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

Mindful USC4 screens
UCLA Mindful4 screens

Verdict

The call

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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

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.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

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.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
Mindful USC versus UCLA Mindful: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMindful USCUCLA Mindful
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (324 ratings) — better4.5 (176 ratings)
Positive reviews83.3% of reviews — better76.7% of reviews
Number of ratings324 — better176
Update frequencyEvery 2 months — betterEvery 3 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS10.0 — better15.0
Further details — not scored
Size85 MB23 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperAllen WeissUCLA Health

Customer experience

Mindful USC

All ratings324 ratings
Positive94.8%
Neutral2.8%
Negative2.5%
Written reviews24 reviews
Positive83.3%
Neutral8.3%
Negative8.3%

UCLA Mindful

All ratings172 ratings
Positive90.1%
Neutral0.6%
Negative9.3%
Written reviews60 reviews
Positive76.7%
Neutral5.0%
Negative18.3%

User reviews

Mindful USC

From 324 App Store ratings

What 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 ratings

What 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 more
  • 🐛 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 more
  • Wider selection of UCLA courses/Diana Winston meditations

In-app purchases

None

Mindful USC

No in-app purchases

None

UCLA Mindful

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Mindful USC free?
Mindful USC is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is UCLA Mindful free?
UCLA Mindful is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Mindful USC or UCLA Mindful?
Mindful USC is rated higher. Mindful USC averages 4.8 out of 5 from 324 ratings, while UCLA Mindful averages 4.5 from 176 ratings.
Do Mindful USC or UCLA Mindful have ads?
Neither Mindful USC nor UCLA Mindful shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Mindful USC or UCLA Mindful?
Mindful USC ships an update every 2 months, and UCLA Mindful every 3 months. Most recently, Mindful USC was updated on October 14, 2026 and UCLA Mindful on October 20, 2026.

Other comparisons