UCLA Mindful vs Free Form Minds
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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
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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.
Free Form Minds
This app provides tools and resources for personal mindfulness and meditation practices. It delivers customized programs and portable resources to support users on their journey to being more mindful and present.
- Personalized mindfulness practice support
- Customized live programs
- Portable resource kit
- Learn to be in the moment
- Meditation guidance
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Free Form Minds is on a mission to make the world more mindful, and to give people the tools to make the most out of their minds. Our app is a platform for supporting your personal mindfulness practice, which we work with our clients to develop in customized live programs. The tools and resources from those programs all get delivered to you on our app in a form that you can carry in your pocket. Practice any time, learn to be in the moment where ever you go, and let us join you on your journey into mindfulness meditation. Right now, our app is set up to serve our existing clients in the programs we design for them. We customize approaches based on the objectives, needs, and logistical demands of the organizations we work with, and our app is a dynamic and portable resource kit to support our participants as they develop a personal mindfulness practice. We are diligently working to provide some of our services to individuals who aren’t part of an organization that invests in mindfulness, and we are building out new sections of our digital home to welcome in everyone who wants to learn about what mindfulness and meditation has to offer them. Until then, we encourage individuals and organizations alike to reach out to us about our programs if you would like to use this resource. Mindfulness is a simple yet dynamic practice, and with more apps and information available than ever before, it can be challenging to find an approach that works for you. With our experience in customizing approaches for a wide variety of people and organizations, and the tools like this app that we tailor to your needs, we can help you find a path into mindfulness and meditation that you can sustain and build upon for the rest of your life.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Free Form Minds at 5.0 against UCLA Mindful's 4.5. Free Form Minds also leads on iOS requirement (11.0 vs 15.0). UCLA Mindful's advantage is ratings volume (176 vs 4). On price, update cadence, 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Free Form Minds holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: UCLA Mindful has 176 ratings behind it against 4, so its average is the more settled of the two.
UCLA Mindful ships an update every 3 months, Free Form Minds every 4 months. The most recent releases landed on October 25, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | UCLA Mindful | Free Form Minds |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.5 (176 ratings) | 5.0 (4 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 76.7% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 176 — better | 4 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 months — better | Every 4 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 | 11.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 23 MB | 35 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | UCLA Health | Free Form Minds LLC |
Customer experience
UCLA Mindful
Free Form Minds
Bugs and requests
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
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- 🐛 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
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- Wider selection of UCLA courses/Diana Winston meditations
Free Form Minds
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
UCLA Mindful
No in-app purchases
Free Form Minds
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is UCLA Mindful free?
Is Free Form Minds free?
Which has better reviews, UCLA Mindful or Free Form Minds?
Do UCLA Mindful or Free Form Minds have ads?
Which is updated more often, UCLA Mindful or Free Form Minds?
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