BellyBio Interactive Breathing vs Paced Breathing
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
BellyBio Interactive Breathing
This app uses your iPhone's sensors to create a biofeedback experience synchronized with deep abdominal breathing. It generates music and light patterns that respond to your breath, making relaxation more engaging and measurable. Designed for those already proficient in belly breathing.
- Interactive musical themes synchronized with breathing
- Audio stress-level feedback
- Breathing color synchronization
- Real-time breathing and stress graphs
- Breathing and stress logs
- 3D Earth animation of users
Read full descriptionHide full description
Put the iPhone on your stomach. Breathe deeply. Enjoy... FOR ADVANCED BELLY-BREATHERS ONLY BellyBio (Belly Biofeedback) is a triple innovation in deep abdominal breathing, biofeedback and music: 1 – DEEP BREATHING GETS ADDICTIVE BellyBio generates beautiful music & light perfectly synchronized to your deep abdominal breathing movements, making deep breathing more pleasant and rewarding than ever. You're going to love playing with your inner balloon. 2 – BIOFEEDBACK GETS SIMPLE BellyBio turns your iPhone/iPod Touch into a highly-sensitive deep breathing sensor providing a real-time, objective stress-level index based on your breathing pattern. Biofeedback thus becomes more simple and powerful --not to mention affordable-- than ever, so you can now know for sure who's the coolest dude in the neighborhood. 3 – MUSIC GETS BREATHABLE The first "Abdominal Music Player", BellyBio makes music play in sync with your breathing, which in return makes your breathing calm down. Is it you who follow the music or the music that follows you? You don't listen to music anymore, you merge with it. IMPORTANT NOTICE -- Practicing BellyBio will require you to: a) BE ABLE TO NATURALLY BREATHE DEEPLY AND SLOWLY FROM YOUR BELLY, meaning your belly --and not your chest-- must significantly and effortlessly inflate when you inhale and deflate when you exhale. If you can't, you'd probably better not download this app since nothing is more annoying and ineffective than struggling to achieve deep abdominal breathing (and by the way this will perhaps avoid somewhat angry customer ratings... ;-)) b) PROPERLY POSITION THE iPHONE ON YOUR PELVIS, FACE UP, SO AS TO MAKE IT TILT BACK & FORTH when you breathe deeply in & out from your belly (BellyBio measures the increase/decrease of the angle between the iPhone and your body). The bottom of the iPhone should rest still on your pelvis while the top moves up and down with your lower belly as you breathe in & out. WATCH THE IN-APP DEMO to see how it works (www.youtube.com/bellybio). The app is quite heavy (170 Mo) due to the multiformat music base. Wifi is required to download it. ========== FEATURES - Several interactive musical themes you can breathe deeply in and out (i.e. have BellyBio play in sync with your deep abdominal breathing) - One of those themes (“Calmitude pitch”) provides you with a direct audio stress-level feedback through the pitch of the inhaling tone (the lower the stress, the lower the pitch) - Choice of breathing colors displayed in sync with each in- and out-breath - Graph showing real-time breathing and stress curves - Log (date, duration of use, minimum stress, minimum breathrate, Qi production) - 3D-earth animation showing all BellyBio users on the planet - Whether you have an iPhone or an iPod Touch, the main home button must always be close to your lap, not to your chest. - Child-proof (successfully tested on 5-year-old with adult assistance) QUOTES (sort of) - "All thumbs and navels up!!!" (Buddha, India) - "BellyBio rests on the belly just like the leaf floats on the sea." (Lao Tzu, China) - "Bellissimo BellyBio!" (L. Da Vinci, Italy) - "To breathe or not to breathe? To breathe, period. With BellyBio!" (W. Shakespeare, UK) - "I play BellyBio, therefore I stop thinking, therefore I am." (R. Descartes, France) - "So cool!" (I. Newton, UK) - "Makes me wanna compose a dozen sonatas and concertos for BellyBio! Please give me 10 minutes." (W. A. Mozart, Austria) - "Even with only one ear, this thing just blew my mind!" (V. Van Gogh, Netherlands) - "Undoubtedly absolute." (A. Einstein, Germany) - "Why didn't they call it iBelly?" (S. Jobs, USA) WARNING This application is not meant to substitute for medical diagnosis and/or treatment. Should you feel any pain or discomfort, please stop immediately and consult your physician or health professional.
Paced Breathing
This app guides users through breathing exercises using visual, audio, and haptic cues. It helps with stress relief, meditation, lung strengthening, and falling asleep. Join thousands of users who find daily calm and improved well-being.
- Adjustable inhale, hold, exhale timing
- Visual, audio, and haptic cues
- Heart monitoring (heart rate, HRV, coherence)
- Ramp mode for gradual timing changes
- Session tracking and streaks
- Background playback
Read full descriptionHide full description
Featured in James Nestor’s best-selling book, Breath, Paced Breathing uses visual, audio and haptic cues to guide you through your practice. Whether meditating, strengthening your lungs or simply relaxing - join the thousands who love using Paced Breathing everyday! USES * Relieve Stress * Meditate — (especially good for Kundalini, Hatha, Pranayama) * Strengthen Lungs — (improve lung capacity & aid recovery) * Falling Asleep FEATURES * Adjustable timing for inhale, hold, exhale, & hold * Heart monitoring: heart rate, HRV, & coherence (PB+) * Ramp mode: gradually change breath times * Visual, audio, & vibrate cues * Reminders / notifications (PB+) * Background playback * Playlists for multiple breath presets * Streaks, goals, & session tracking (PB+) HEALTH BENEFITS Regular breathing practices have been shown to help improve your: * Cardiovascular health [1][2][3] * Relaxation [2] * Stress responses [1][4][5] * Mood [1] * Attention [4] * Alzheimer's risk [6] FROM THE DEVELOPER I’m Mihai, an engineer born in Romania & raised in Michigan. My ideal day is working on apps to help others, like Paced Breathing. Someday I hope I can work on apps like these full time! Hearing from users makes my day, so shoot me an email with requests, bugs, things you like, or just your story: mihai@pacedbreathing.com! USER FEEDBACK * "The best breathing app out there (I've tried 12 apps, this is the only one that works for me). I have recommended it to over 100 people over the 7 years I've been using it. I use it at least 5 x a week. Gives me instant calm" — R. Hall * "LOVE this app. Very simple and easy to use. You can set time for inhale, exhale, and pause after each if you wish. You can watch it or listen…Thank you! Ads Not intrusive. Ads turn off when the app is active” — Denise * "This is a wonderfully simple app. The default sound tone is just right for me and I like that I get to set the volume and it stays there whether or not the volume of the phone ring or other apps are different" — Eleanor * "I've never written something like this in a review but... I love whoever wrote this app :-) Gets to the point in 0.2 s. No long annoying splash screens. No attempts to extort money... Super reliable, simple and 100% effective. I was looking for something that would let me take some breaks during normal meditation to do some controlled breathing, for example our most natural pattern - continuous 5.5 s inhale, 5.5 exhale. works perfect! BRAVO. A lesson to all developers how to make useful apps!" — Adam CITATIONS * [1] Study published in Front Public Health (2017) shows slow rhythmic breathing decreased blood pressure response to stress & improved mood: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5575449 * [2] Study in PLOS ONE (2019) shows slow paced breathing can improve relaxation & cardiovascular function: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0218550 * [3] Study in American Journal of Cardiology (2002) shows slow, paced breathing can significantly reduce blood pressure in hypertensive patients: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16129818/ * [4] Study in Frontiers in Psychology (2017) shows diaphragmatic breathing improves attention, reduces negative affect, & lowers stress in healthy adults: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00874/full * [5] Study in Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine (2005) shows benefits of Sudarshan Kriya, a specific yogic breathing practice, in treating stress, anxiety, & depression: https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/acm.2005.11.189 * [6] Study in Nature Scientific Reports (2023) shows slow paced breathing counters pathways that lead to Alzheimer’s disease: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-30167-0 DISCLAIMER App not intended to diagnose, treat, prevent medical conditions. Consult a healthcare professional before starting a breathing practice, especially if you have pre-existing health conditions.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Paced Breathing at 4.9 against BellyBio Interactive Breathing's 4.0. Paced Breathing also leads on update cadence (fortnightly vs every 3 months) and review sentiment (84% vs 68%). BellyBio Interactive Breathing's advantage is ads (none vs shown) and iOS requirement (7.0 vs 15.1). On price, in-app purchases, monetization model and device support 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. BellyBio Interactive Breathing sells 4 one-off in-app purchases and Paced Breathing sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Paced Breathing holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 4.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Paced Breathing has 231 ratings behind it against 40, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 68% of BellyBio Interactive Breathing's written reviews are positive against 84% of Paced Breathing's.
BellyBio Interactive Breathing ships an update every 3 months, Paced Breathing fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on October 16, 2026 and October 20, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | BellyBio Interactive Breathing | Paced Breathing |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.0 (40 ratings) | 4.9 (231 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 68.0% of reviews | 83.8% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 40 | 231 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 3 months | Fortnightly — better |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 7.0 — better | 15.1 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 201 MB | 82 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | RelaxLine | Paced Breathing LLC |
Customer experience
BellyBio Interactive Breathing
Paced Breathing
Bugs and requests
BellyBio Interactive Breathing
Reported bugs
25 issues- Keeps saying irregular breathing
- Shuts off repeatedly
- Won't stay open
- Fails almost every effort
- Audio doesn't work
Show 20 moreShow fewer
- No sound or color changes with iOS
- App doesn't work with iOS 8
- Stuck on intro screen
- App won't open on new phone
- Doesn't work with iPhone 6
- App stopped working 4 months ago
- Downloaded but non-operable
- Non-working app
- App no longer works on new iOS versions
- App opens to title screen and freezes
- Demo button doesn't demonstrate
- Irregular pattern message persists
- Crashing issues
- Glitch-infested
- UI isn't welcoming
- Audio hasn't been playing after iOS update
- Can't go back to old breathing sessions
- Current session graph turns red
- Keeps kicking me off
- Crashes iPad
Requested features
12 requests- Update for newer iOS versions
- More song tracks
- Ability to view past log entries
- More sleek design
- More music/ambiance selections
Show 7 moreShow fewer
- Longer sessions
- Option for just wave sounds
- New icon
- Timer on the app
- Mode to teach beginners
- Guided breathing from start rate to therapeutic zone
- Chat feature
Paced Breathing
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
BellyBio Interactive Breathing
- Angels Club$0.99
- Brownian Dream$0.99
- Metronomia$0.99
Show 1 moreShow fewer
- Highlands$0.99
Paced Breathing
- PacedBreathing+ (1 month)$1.991 Month
- PacedBreathing+ (1 month)$3.991 Month
- PacedBreathing+ (1 year)7 Days trial$9.991 Year
Show 1 moreShow fewer
- PacedBreathing+ (1 year)7 Days trial$19.991 Year
Questions
Is BellyBio Interactive Breathing free?
Is Paced Breathing free?
Which has better reviews, BellyBio Interactive Breathing or Paced Breathing?
Do BellyBio Interactive Breathing or Paced Breathing have ads?
Which is updated more often, BellyBio Interactive Breathing or Paced Breathing?
Other comparisons















