Preset Meditation Timer vs Pulse
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Preset Meditation Timer
This app offers a free, ad-free meditation timer with customizable presets. It features gentle bell sounds or vibration to mark session start and end, with options for delays and volume control. It's suitable for meditation, zazen, yoga, and other mindful activities.
- Customizable timer presets
- Gentle bell sounds or vibration
- Adjustable bell volume
- Start delay option
- Light/Dark mode support
- Silent mode compatible bell
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Preset Meditation Timer is a completely free meditation timer with no ads. It plays gentle bell sounds recorded in a Buddhist temple in Japan, or vibration, to mark the beginning and end of your session. You can save multiple timer presets with custom names, and choose a short delay before the timer starts to give yourself time to settle your posture. Even when your device is in silent mode, the bell will still ring—allowing you to meditate without worrying about incoming call or message alerts. For the best experience, enabling “Do Not Disturb” during meditation is recommended. Although the app is designed for meditation practice, it is also suitable for zazen, yoga, and other mindful activities. May all beings be happy and live in peace. Features - Create / edit / delete timer presets - Choose a bell sound (Bell 1 / Bell 2 / Silent) - Enable / disable vibration (iPhone only) - Adjust bell volume - Enable / disable the starting bell - Set a delay before the timer begins - Light / Dark Mode support - Choose the timer screen appearance (Default / Light / Dark)
Pulse
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Pulse turns the heart rate data already in Apple Health into something you can actually use. Instead of opening the Health app and scrolling through raw readings, Pulse shows your minimum, maximum, and average BPM across four time windows — right where you already look: your iPhone Home Screen widget and your Apple Watch face. KEY FEATURES • Four time windows in-app — last 1 hour, last 12 hours, today, and the current month. The full set is available inside the iPhone and Apple Watch apps; widgets and complications cover the three rolling windows (last hour, last 12 hours, today). • iOS Home Screen widgets — fifteen widgets in total: nine small "single stat" widgets (one per combination of window and metric), three medium chart widgets with min/avg/max and a workout-shaded chart, and three small arc-gauge widgets. Add as many as you like and pin the views that matter most. • Apple Watch complications — circular arc-gauge complications for watch faces with circular slots (Modular, Infograph, Modular Compact, and others), and rectangular chart complications for the watchOS Smart Stack and rectangular watch face slots. Three time windows per family — pick the one you want by adding the matching complication. • Standalone watchOS app — view all four time-window statistics on your wrist, even when your iPhone isn't nearby. Includes a chart and min/avg/max for each window. • Workout correlation — when heart rate readings overlap a recorded workout, Pulse highlights those samples in the chart with a distinct color and a workout icon, so you immediately know whether a spike was exercise-driven. • Automatic refresh — widgets and complications refresh on a 15-minute WidgetKit timeline schedule that's gentle on battery. The in-app view re-queries HealthKit when you open or pull-to-refresh. • Light, Dark, and System appearance — pick your preferred theme in Settings. PRIVACY FIRST Pulse is built on a single rule: your health data never leaves your device. There is no account, no sign-in, no cloud sync, no analytics SDK, and no server. Pulse reads heart rate and workout data directly from Apple HealthKit, computes statistics locally, and stores them in a private App Group container shared only between Pulse and its own widget and watch extensions. Our App Store Privacy nutrition label is "Data Not Collected" — and we mean it. You stay in control. You can grant or revoke HealthKit access at any time from Settings, and Pulse will gracefully show "--" placeholders instead of stale numbers when access is revoked. DESIGNED FOR APPLE PLATFORMS Pulse is a native iOS and watchOS app written in Swift, built specifically for the latest Apple platforms. It uses WidgetKit for Home Screen widgets and watchOS complications, supports Dynamic Type for readable text at any size, and meets Apple's accessibility tap-target guidelines. REQUIREMENTS • iPhone running iOS 17 or later • Apple Watch running watchOS 10 or later (optional — the iPhone app and widgets work without a paired watch) • Apple Health permission for Heart Rate and Workouts (read only) NOT A MEDICAL DEVICE Pulse is intended for general fitness and informational purposes only. It is not a medical device and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease or condition. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional for medical advice. Have feedback or run into a problem? Visit our support page linked below — we read every message.
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Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Preset Meditation Timer at none against Pulse's 1. Pulse's advantage is iOS requirement (17.0 vs 26.0). On price, ads 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. Pulse sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Preset Meditation Timer asks for nothing beyond the download.
| Parameter | Preset Meditation Timer | Pulse |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.8 (6 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 90.9% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 6 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | — |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch — better |
| Requires iOS | 26.0 | 17.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 2 MB | 3 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Next SeeD | Adam Malik Yusof |
In-app purchases
Preset Meditation Timer
No in-app purchases
Pulse
- Pulse Pro$4.99
Questions
Is Preset Meditation Timer free?
Is Pulse free?
Do Preset Meditation Timer or Pulse have ads?
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