Comparison

Pocket Meditation Timer vs Meditation Timer | Samsara

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

Head to head
About

Pocket Meditation Timer

This app helps users focus on their meditation practice without worrying about time. It offers customizable timers with unique sounds, background options, and reminders to support mindfulness and stress reduction.

Highlights
  • Customizable meditation schedules
  • Prepare, interval, and cool down timers
  • Unique sound options for each section
  • Shake to change background images
  • Unlimited practice reminders
  • Password protection
Features
Read full description

No matter if you are going to join meditators, a beginner or practice meditation for a long time, Meditation Timer can help you do it better. You can just focus on meditation without thinking about the time. Meditation is a classic, simple and inexpensive way to lead you into wonderful state of inner peace and inner calm, and it helps to keep you relax from anxious, tense, worried etc and also stress reduction, meditation enhance your physical, mental and emotional wellbeing. With Meditation Timer, you can practice meditation anywhere and anytime. Key Features: ⁃ One Default meditation schedule and you can edit it. ⁃ With prepare time, interval time and cool down time. ⁃ Set unique sound for beginning, interval switching, ending and cool down end. ⁃ Sounds play one, two or three times. ⁃ Ten amazing background pictures, shake to change. ⁃ Start, stop, restart or resume meditation. ⁃ Hide the time. ⁃ Create unlimited reminders to remind you practicing meditation. ⁃ Passwords protection. ⁃ Vibrate or not when switching sections. ⁃ With or without sound. ⁃ Support iPod media background. ⁃ Supports Today Widget. ⁃ Supports transferring data to Health app. ⁃ Supports universal version. If you have any question or suggestion, please contact us by userfeed@vip.tom.com.

About

Meditation Timer | Samsara

This minimalist app provides a customizable timer for various meditation and mindfulness practices. It features calming chimes, detailed statistics, and iCloud support for seamless data syncing across devices. Designed for simplicity, it helps users focus on their practice without distractions.

Highlights
  • Customizable meditation timer
  • Support for various practices (mantra, mindfulness, zazen, yoga, reiki)
  • Collection of calming chimes (Tibetan bells, singing bowls)
  • Detailed practice statistics and progress tracking
  • iCloud support for data syncing across devices
  • Profile management for easy switching between practices
Read full description

For the past twelve years, Samsara has been the meditation timer of tens of thousands of people around the world. This meditation timer is designed for iPad and iPhone, and caters to a wide range of practices, including mantra meditation, transcendental meditation, tm for short, mindfulness, zazen, yoga, reiki, shiatsu, and more. This elegant mindfulness app brings a unique approach to incorporating mindfulness into your everyday life. It's a perfect choice for practitioners of various flavors of meditation and mindfulness. Samsara's clean and minimalist design keeps your focus steady. The app's interface is thoughtfully crafted with simplicity at its core, ensuring your yoga, meditation, or mindfulness session isn't interrupted by complex features or visually overwhelming elements. Profiles make it easy to switch between practices. Switching between profiles takes a second. Whether you are moving between a yoga session and a mindfulness timer, or shifting between personal and group sessions, your settings can be adjusted with just a few simple taps. This meditation timer includes a collection of calming chimes, such as Tibetan bells, singing bowls, and meditation bells. They allow you to personalize your sessions and create the ideal atmosphere for your practice. The bells and chimes are gentle reminders, guiding your yoga or meditation journey and helping you build a deeper connection with your practice. The app provides detailed, insightful statistics for those who want it. Stay motivated by tracking your progress and patterns over time. Monitor the duration, frequency, and type of your practices to get a deeper understanding of your journey and gain insights into your personal growth. Samsara optionally integrates with Apple's HealthKit. This meditation timer comes with iCloud support, one of the most requested features. Your profiles and sessions are stored in iCloud on Apple's servers. Communication with iCloud is encrypted end-to-end, which means it is safe and secure. What does that mean for you? You don't run the risk of losing your data when you lose your device. Switching to a new device is also a breeze. Another benefit is that you can use Samsara on multiple devices, sharing profiles and sessions. It works like magic. Download Samsara for free and let it be your meditation timer during your practice. Privacy Policy: https://www.adropofzen.com/privacy-policy/ Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

Pocket Meditation Timer4 screens
Meditation Timer | Samsara4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Pocket Meditation Timer at none against Meditation Timer | Samsara's 6. Pocket Meditation Timer also leads on ratings volume (1.5K vs 435). Meditation Timer | Samsara's advantage is ads (none vs shown) and update cadence (every 10 days vs every 7 months). On price, device support and iOS requirement 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. Meditation Timer | Samsara sells 6 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Pocket Meditation Timer asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Meditation Timer | Samsara holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.4. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1.5K and 435 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 79% of Pocket Meditation Timer's written reviews are positive against 91% of Meditation Timer | Samsara's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Pocket Meditation Timer ships an update every 7 months, Meditation Timer | Samsara every 10 days. The most recent releases landed on October 26, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
Pocket Meditation Timer versus Meditation Timer | Samsara: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPocket Meditation TimerMeditation Timer | Samsara
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.4 (1.5K ratings)4.7 (435 ratings) — better
Positive reviews79.3% of reviews90.6% of reviews — better
Number of ratings1.5K — better435
Update frequencyEvery 7 monthsEvery 10 days — better
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationAd-supported — betterFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS16.0 — better17.6
Further details — not scored
Size31 MB22 MB
Age rating4+4+
Developer倩 赵Bart Jacobs

Customer experience

Pocket Meditation Timer

All ratings1,440 ratings
Positive85.1%
Neutral5.0%
Negative9.9%
Written reviews531 reviews
Positive79.3%
Neutral6.4%
Negative14.3%

Meditation Timer | Samsara

All ratings431 ratings
Positive92.6%
Neutral2.6%
Negative4.9%
Written reviews479 reviews
Positive90.6%
Neutral4.2%
Negative5.2%

User reviews

Pocket Meditation Timer

From 1.5K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Easy to use
  • 🕰️ Customizable timer options
  • 🔔 Pleasant chime sounds
  • 🧘‍♀️ Helpful for meditation practice
  • 📊 Syncs with Health app

Room to improve

  • 📢 Disruptive ads with sound
  • 🔇 Ads ruin meditation experience
  • 🔁 Can't save multiple timer settings
  • 🔋 Battery drain issues

Meditation Timer | Samsara

From 435 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Simple and effective
  • 👍 Elegant and uncluttered design
  • 👍 High-quality bell sounds
  • 👍 Customizable settings
  • 👍 Integrates with Apple Health

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Timer randomly resets
  • 🔋 High battery consumption
  • 💰 Subscription model locks out previous features
  • 🔔 Intrusive reminder to leave a review

Bugs and requests

Pocket Meditation Timer

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • Timer issues (minutes counting as seconds, not working properly)
  • App freezing or crashing

Requested features

4 requests
  • Option to pay for ad-free version
  • Ability to save multiple timer presets
  • Background ambient sounds during meditation
  • Interval chimes at custom time points

Meditation Timer | Samsara

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • Crashing on launch for some users
  • Chimes cutting off prematurely

Requested features

6 requests
  • Apple Watch support
  • More color options for highlights
  • Additional sound effects like other bells and instruments
  • Ability to delete saved profiles
  • Option to continue timer after initial duration
Show 1 more
  • Ability to set multiple timers within a single session

In-app purchases

None

Pocket Meditation Timer

No in-app purchases

6 purchases

Meditation Timer | Samsara

Subscriptions5
  • Samsara Premium Monthly7 Days trial$2.991 Month
  • Samsara Premium Weekly3 Days trial$3.997 Days
  • Samsara Premium Yearly14 Days trial$9.991 Year
Show 2 more
  • Samsara Premium Yearly14 Days trial$19.991 Year
  • Samsara Premium Yearly$29.991 Year
One-time1
  • Samsara Premium Lifetime$59.99

Questions

Is Pocket Meditation Timer free?
Pocket Meditation Timer is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Meditation Timer | Samsara free?
Meditation Timer | Samsara is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Pocket Meditation Timer or Meditation Timer | Samsara?
Meditation Timer | Samsara is rated higher. Pocket Meditation Timer averages 4.4 out of 5 from 1.5K ratings, while Meditation Timer | Samsara averages 4.7 from 435 ratings.
Do Pocket Meditation Timer or Meditation Timer | Samsara have ads?
Pocket Meditation Timer shows ads; Meditation Timer | Samsara does not.
Which is updated more often, Pocket Meditation Timer or Meditation Timer | Samsara?
Pocket Meditation Timer ships an update every 7 months, and Meditation Timer | Samsara every 10 days. Most recently, Pocket Meditation Timer was updated on October 26, 2026 and Meditation Timer | Samsara on October 24, 2026.

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