Comparison

Breathing Zone vs Calm

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

Head to head
About

Breathing Zone

Reduce stress, improve mood, and feel more relaxed and energized with guided breathing exercises. This app uses scientifically based therapeutic techniques to help lower heart rate and potentially blood pressure. Discover mindfulness one breath at a time.

Highlights
  • Guided breathing exercises
  • Stress reduction
  • Mood improvement
  • Relaxation and energy boost
  • Therapeutic breathing techniques
  • Breathing analyzer
Features
Read full description

Slow down, reset, and breathe with purpose. Breathing Zone offers simple guided breathing exercises for calm, focus, relaxation, and sleep. Choose a breathing pattern, then follow clear visual, voice, sound, or Apple Watch haptic guidance. Adjust the pace and session duration for anything from a quick reset to a longer breathing practice. FEATURES ● Coherent Breathing, Box Breathing, 4-7-8, Extended Exhale, and more ● Custom breathing rates and session durations ● Beautiful visual breathing guides ● Voice prompts, ambient sounds, and haptic guidance ● Daily goals, reminders, activity tracking, and streaks ● A dedicated Apple Watch experience ● Apple Health integration for recording completed sessions as Mindful Minutes FEATURED AND RECOMMENDED ● TIME: "Calm yourself with Breathing Zone." ● Harvard Health: "When you find yourself under stress, Breathing Zone can help." ● Bloomberg: "The breathing trick that can make you more productive." ● New York Magazine: "I like Breathing Zone for its simplicity." ● HuffPost: "An effective guide to mindful breathing." ● University of Sydney: "Breathing Zone provides guidance on slow breathing."

About

Calm

This app offers guided meditations, sleep stories, music, and breathing exercises to help users reduce stress, anxiety, and improve sleep. It caters to all experience levels, integrating mindfulness into daily routines for enhanced mental well-being.

Highlights
  • Guided meditations
  • Sleep Stories
  • Breathwork exercises
  • Relaxing music
  • Stretching exercises
  • Mindfulness programs
Features
Read full description

Calm is the #1 app for sleep, meditation, and relaxation. Find anxiety relief, stress relief, and better sleep through breathing exercises, sleep sounds, deep sleep music, and mindfulness programs for insomnia, beginner meditation, and beyond. Downloaded by 180 million people worldwide. Fall asleep faster with Sleep Stories, bedtime stories for adults narrated by Matthew McConaughey, Stephen Fry, P\!nk, Bob Ross, and more. Only on Calm. Manage stress, relieve anxiety, improve your sleep cycle, and refocus your attention. Apple App of the Year. Apple Editors' Choice. Happiest App in the World (Center for Humane Technology). 3M+ five-star reviews. Recommended by top psychologists, therapists, and mental health experts. SLEEP STORIES — ONLY ON CALM * Drift off to Matthew McConaughey's Wonder — a dreamy journey through the mysteries of the universe * Travel through the village of Provence with master storyteller Stephen Fry in Blue Gold * Fall asleep to the soothing brush strokes of beloved painter Bob Ross in Happy Little Zzzs * Tackle insomnia with 100+ exclusive Sleep Stories, new content added every month MEDITATION & MINDFULNESS * Beginner meditation to advanced practice — guided sessions for every experience level * Daily Calm with Tamara Levitt, Daily Jay with Jay Shetty, Daily Trip with Jeff Warren * Mindfulness topics: deep sleep, anxiety relief, stress relief, focus, breaking habits, self-care, personal growth, and more * 7- and 21-day mindfulness programs to build a lasting practice ANXIETY RELIEF & RELAXATION * Breathing exercises and breathwork to ease anxiety, stress, and insomnia * Bilateral stimulation music and neuroacoustic sounds for nervous system regulation and somatic relaxation * Guided breathwork for stress relief, anxiety relief, and deep calm * Stress management and self-healing through Dailies: programs for social anxiety, personal growth, and mood balance * Mindful movement and stretching with Daily Move SLEEP SOUNDS, MUSIC & SOUNDSCAPES * Calming music, nature sounds, and sleep sounds: ocean waves, heavy rain, campfire, and more * Exclusive focus and sleep music from top artists * Full soundscapes and sleep sounds to help you relax, meditate, and sleep soundly ALSO FEATURING * Daily Streaks & Mindful Minutes — emotion and mental health tracker * Calm saves your meditation and sleep sessions to your Apple Health app. Mental health is health. Calm is for anyone looking to improve their sleep, manage stress, and address everyday anxiety. Meditation novice or seasoned expert. Take a deep breath and find your Calm. Calm is free to download and use. There are never any ads and some of the programs and features are free forever. Some content is only available through an optional paid subscription. Be sure to check out our Apple Watch app to quick-start breathing exercises and track your meditations. Calm offers an auto-renewing subscription to provide you with unlimited access to the Calm Collection while you maintain an active subscription. Payment will be charged to the credit card connected to your iTunes Account when you confirm the initial subscription purchase. Subscriptions automatically renew unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24-hours before the end of the current subscription period. Your account will be charged for renewal within 24-hours prior to the end of the current period, and the cost of the renewal will be identified. You may manage your subscription and auto-renewal may be turned off by going to your Account Settings after the purchase. Any unused portion of a free trial period, if offered, will be forfeited when you purchase a subscription, where applicable. Read more about our terms and conditions here: Terms of service: https://www.calm.com/terms Privacy policy: https://www.calm.com/privacy

Screenshots

Breathing Zone4 screens
Calm4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Breathing Zone at none against Calm's 13. Breathing Zone also leads on ads (none vs shown) and review sentiment (81% vs 64%). Calm's advantage is ratings volume (2M vs 3.8K) and update cadence (every 5 days vs every 2 weeks). On price, rating 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Calm sells 8 in-app purchases, starting at $14.99 per month. Breathing Zone asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.8 for Breathing Zone against 4.8 for Calm. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Calm has 2M ratings behind it against 3.8K, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 81% of Breathing Zone's written reviews are positive against 64% of Calm's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Breathing Zone ships an update every 2 weeks, Calm every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on October 29, 2026 and October 30, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard8 real differences · 3 level
Breathing Zone versus Calm: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBreathing ZoneCalm
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (3.8K ratings) — better4.8 (2M ratings)
Positive reviews81.1% of reviews — better63.9% of reviews
Number of ratings3.8K2M — better
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeksEvery 5 days — better
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
Best chart rank—#5 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple TV, Apple Watch — betteriPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Apple Watch
Requires iOS15.0 — better18.0
Further details — not scored
Size67 MB173 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperTane LangtonCalm.com

Customer experience

Breathing Zone

All ratings3,652 ratings
Positive95.7%
Neutral2.4%
Negative1.9%
Written reviews445 reviews
Positive81.1%
Neutral6.3%
Negative12.6%

Calm

All ratings1,990,470 ratings
Positive94.9%
Neutral2.6%
Negative2.5%
Written reviews4,169 reviews
Positive63.9%
Neutral7.5%
Negative28.6%

User reviews

Breathing Zone

From 3.8K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🌟 Amazing app
  • 👍 Simple and effective
  • 🎨 Beautiful visuals
  • 🔊 Customizable sounds
  • 🕰️ Flexible session settings

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Occasional crashes or bugs
  • ⚠️ Timing issues with breathing rate
  • 🔒 Lack of syncing across devices
  • 🔇 Notification sounds can be disruptive
  • 📊 Lack of progress tracking or statistics

Calm

From 2M App Store ratings

What we love

  • 💤 Helpful for sleep
  • 🧘‍♀️ Effective for meditation and relaxation
  • 🎨 Variety of content (sleep stories, meditations, music)
  • 🙏 Positive impact on mental health
  • 🤗 Soothing narrators

Room to improve

  • 💰 Expensive subscription
  • 🔒 Limited free content
  • 🕰️ Difficulty finding specific content
  • 🔁 Repetitive sleep stories
  • 🙃 Accessibility issues for disabled users

Bugs and requests

Breathing Zone

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Breathing rate not matching set value
  • Visual elements not centered on older devices
  • Sudden audio cutoff at end of session
  • Syncing issues between mobile and Apple Watch

Requested features

6 requests
  • Longer session duration options
  • More breathing pattern variations
  • Ability to adjust inhale/exhale ratio
  • Breath hold functionality
  • Integration with health/fitness apps
Show 1 more
  • Customizable reminders or notifications

Calm

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • App crashes or freezes
  • Playback issues with audio and video
  • Difficulty cancelling subscription

Requested features

6 requests
  • Add repeat button for sleep stories
  • Separate kids and adult content
  • Allow creating custom playlists
  • Improve search and navigation
  • Add more diverse narrator voices
Show 1 more
  • Provide text-based instructions for techniques

In-app purchases

None

Breathing Zone

No in-app purchases

8 purchases

Calm

Subscriptions8
  • Calm Subscription$14.991 Month
  • Calm Premium$14.991 Month
  • Calm Premium2 variants$16.991 Month
Show 5 more
  • Calm Premium$29.991 Month
  • Calm Premium$69.991 Year
  • Calm Premium7 Days trial2 variants$69.991 Year
  • Calm Premium7 Days trial3 variants$79.991 Year
  • Calm Premium$79.991 Year

Questions

Is Breathing Zone free?
Breathing Zone is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Calm free?
Calm is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Breathing Zone or Calm?
Breathing Zone is rated higher. Breathing Zone averages 4.8 out of 5 from 3.8K ratings, while Calm averages 4.8 from 2M ratings.
Do Breathing Zone or Calm have ads?
Calm shows ads; Breathing Zone does not.
Which is updated more often, Breathing Zone or Calm?
Breathing Zone ships an update every 2 weeks, and Calm every 5 days. Most recently, Breathing Zone was updated on October 29, 2026 and Calm on October 30, 2026.

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