Comparison

Meditation | Down Dog vs Return... Meditation Timer

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

Head to head
About

Meditation | Down Dog

Discover a new guided, sleep, or walking meditation daily, tailored to your needs. Customize duration, instructor voice, music, and focus topics for a personalized practice. Integrates with Apple Health.

Highlights
  • Daily new meditations
  • Customizable duration
  • Choice of instructors
  • Themed meditations
  • Sleep meditations
  • Walking meditations
  • Multi-language support
Features
Read full description

Whether you’re looking to calm your mind during your day, or sleep better during your night, with Meditation you get a brand new guided, sleep, or walking meditation every time. As with all of Down Dog’s apps, Meditation is fully customizable and gives you the power to build a meditation practice you love! BEGINNER FRIENDLY Start in the comfort of your own home with guided and sleep meditations under 5 minutes. Or lace up your shoes and go for a mindful walk with our walking meditations. CUSTOMIZABLE Set your meditation time. Whether you only have a few minutes between meetings or need 90 minutes to yourself every day, create the practice that works for you. Guided, Sleep, or Walking Meditations. Find some inner peace with our guided meditations, drift off to dreamland with our sleep meditations, or get the body moving and find calm with our walking meditations. Choose a specific topic for your guided, sleep, or walking meditation to focus on, such as Self Love or Release Stress. Or turn off the theme entirely. Select how much (or how little) our instructors guide you through your meditation. Set the duration of silence you’d like and we won’t disturb your zen. CHOOSE VOICES Choose from 6 different meditation instructors and be guided by a voice you love. DYNAMIC CHANGING MUSIC Choose between our calming music, nature sounds, brainwaves and spiritual playlists. Or bliss out in silence. SYNC BETWEEN DEVICES Automatically syncs across all your devices. MULTIPLE LANGUAGES In addition to over 12 English-speaking voices, all practices are available in 9 other languages! "A beautiful way to start my day. Thank you!" - Fiona "Yesterday I tried a sleep meditation and it was so good I fell asleep immediately." - Laura "It was amazing. Thank you for this content, you really help me through my day more than you can imagine." - K.R. "First time trying a walking meditation! Loved it." - Erika Integrates with the Apple Health app! Down Dog's terms and conditions can be found at https://www.downdogapp.com/terms Down Dog's privacy policy can be found at https://www.downdogapp.com/privacy

About

Return... Meditation Timer

A minimalist, zen-inspired timer for establishing a consistent meditation practice. Offers immersive themes, flexible timer settings, and seamless integration across Apple devices. Prioritizes user privacy with no data collection or ads.

Highlights
  • Minimalist zen design
  • Four immersive themes
  • Customizable timer durations and bell sounds
  • Apple ecosystem support (iPhone, iPad, Mac, Watch, TV)
  • HealthKit integration for Mindful Minutes
  • iCloud sync across devices
  • Privacy-focused, no ads or data collection
Features
Read full description

Return... is a meditation timer with nothing in the way: one tap, a room to sit in, and a bell when it is time. No guided voices, no account, no feed. FIVE ROOMS - Water: a drop and its rings - Fire: flames on stone - Forest: leaves in sunlight - Silence: a black screen and the bell - Music: Still Rooms, an original album made for sitting STILL ROOMS Ten pieces written and recorded for this app play in order while you sit, in Spatial Audio on AirPods. On Apple Watch they play through your paired headphones. Previous and next sit beside pause, and nothing else is on the screen. THE TIMER - 5 to 60 minutes - Three bells: Singing Bowl, Temple Bell or Soft Chime, rung once, twice or three times - Repeat once, a set number of times, until a time of day, or until you stop - A background sound for each room, or none YOUR ICON Choose the cube from the album cover, the water drop, fire or forest. EVERY APPLE SCREEN - iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, Apple TV and iPhone Duo - Mindful Minutes logged to Apple Health - Settings and session history on every device through iCloud - A widget, and a Live Activity for the sit in progress PRIVACY - No account, no sign-in - No ads, no tracking, nothing sold - Anonymous crash reports and usage counts keep the app working, and you can switch them off in Settings

Screenshots

Meditation | Down Dog4 screens
Return... Meditation Timer4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Meditation | Down Dog at Free against Return... Meditation Timer's $9.99. Meditation | Down Dog also leads on ratings volume (16K vs 1) and iOS requirement (15.0 vs 26.1). Return... Meditation Timer's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 6) and update cadence (every 3 days vs every 10 days). On rating and ads 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

Meditation | Down Dog is free to download; Return... Meditation Timer costs $9.99 up front. Meditation | Down Dog sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $12.99 per month. Return... Meditation Timer asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.9 for Meditation | Down Dog against 5.0 for Return... Meditation Timer. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Meditation | Down Dog has 16K ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Meditation | Down Dog ships an update every 10 days, Return... Meditation Timer every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on October 25, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
Meditation | Down Dog versus Return... Meditation Timer: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMeditation | Down DogReturn... Meditation Timer
PriceFree — better$9.99
Rating4.9 (16K ratings)5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Positive reviews89.2% of reviews—
Number of ratings16K — better1
Update frequencyEvery 10 daysEvery 3 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationSubscriptionPaid — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, Apple Watch — better
Requires iOS15.0 — better26.1
Further details — not scored
Size100 MB243 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperYoga Buddhi Co.Christopher Crosley

Customer experience

Meditation | Down Dog

All ratings16,380 ratings
Positive98.3%
Neutral1.2%
Negative0.5%
Written reviews897 reviews
Positive89.2%
Neutral4.6%
Negative6.2%

Return... Meditation Timer

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Bugs and requests

Meditation | Down Dog

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • Compatibility issues with Apple TV screen mirroring
  • Inconsistent categorization in health tracking apps

Requested features

3 requests
  • Sleep timer option for sleep meditations
  • More diverse representation in imagery
  • Guided meditations on grief and loss

Return... Meditation Timer

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

4 purchases

Meditation | Down Dog

Subscriptions4
  • All Access Subscription2 variants$12.991 Month
  • All Access Subscription$79.991 Year
  • All Access Subscription2 variants$99.991 Year
Show 1 more
  • All Access Subscription$119.991 Year
None

Return... Meditation Timer

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Meditation | Down Dog free?
Meditation | Down Dog is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Return... Meditation Timer free?
Return... Meditation Timer costs $9.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Meditation | Down Dog or Return... Meditation Timer?
Return... Meditation Timer is rated higher. Meditation | Down Dog averages 4.9 out of 5 from 16K ratings, while Return... Meditation Timer averages 5.0 from 1 ratings.
Do Meditation | Down Dog or Return... Meditation Timer have ads?
Neither Meditation | Down Dog nor Return... Meditation Timer shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Meditation | Down Dog or Return... Meditation Timer?
Meditation | Down Dog ships an update every 10 days, and Return... Meditation Timer every 3 days. Most recently, Meditation | Down Dog was updated on October 25, 2026 and Return... Meditation Timer on October 24, 2026.

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