Comparison

Pocket Meditation Timer vs Boxed Breathing

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

Boxed Breathing

Features
Read full description

Boxed Breathing is here to help you boost your mornings, de-stress your afternoon, focus for big events and improve your day. Your breath is the fastest tool you have. No equipment, no experience needed — just a few minutes and the right technique. NINE PROVEN TECHNIQUES Every course is built around a breathing pattern with a specific purpose. Calm an anxious mind. Sharpen your focus before something important. Wind down for sleep. Reset at 3am. Recover from a hard afternoon. There is a session for every moment in the day. THREE GUIDED VOICES Emily, Corinne, and Nathaniel guide you through your sessions with calm, unhurried narration. Voices rotate automatically so your practice feels fresh, or lock in your favourite from settings. Each voice has multiple script variations, so no two sessions sound identical. MADE FOR REAL LIFE Sessions run from 60 seconds to 18 minutes. Set a daily reminder and tapping the notification takes you straight into your practice - no menus, no decisions. The app gets out of the way and lets you breathe. BUILD YOUR OWN The course wizard lets you create a breathing pattern from scratch. Set your own counts, add ambient music, choose your guidance level, and save it alongside the built-in courses. APPLE HEALTH Every completed session can be saved as a Mindfulness minute, so your breathwork sits alongside the rest of your wellness data. —— TECHNIQUES INCLUDED Box Breathing - four equal sides for calm, sharp focus. Used by Navy SEALs. Coherent Breathing - five breaths per minute, the rate that optimises heart rate variability. 4-7-8 Breathing - the long exhale that activates your nervous system's off switch. Sleep Wind-Down - exhale twice as long as you inhale. Return to Sleep - a gentle reset for middle-of-the-night awakenings. 5-5-7 Reset - a breath hold at the top to interrupt racing thoughts. Alert Focus - short, punchy cycles that sharpen attention before demanding tasks. Double Breath - two quick inhales through the nose, one long sigh out. Clears CO₂ faster than almost any other technique. So Hum - an ancient breath mantra. So on the inhale, Hum on the exhale. —— Breathe better. Start anywhere.

Screenshots

Pocket Meditation Timer4 screens
Boxed Breathing4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Pocket Meditation Timer at none against Boxed Breathing's 1. Boxed Breathing's advantage is update cadence (every 2 weeks vs every 7 months). On price, ads, 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. Boxed Breathing sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Pocket Meditation Timer asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Pocket Meditation Timer ships an update every 7 months, Boxed Breathing every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and October 30, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
Pocket Meditation Timer versus Boxed Breathing: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPocket Meditation TimerBoxed Breathing
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.4 (1.5K ratings) — better—
Positive reviews79.1% of reviews—
Number of ratings1.5K — better—
Update frequencyEvery 7 monthsEvery 2 weeks — better
AdsYesYes
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationAd-supported—
DevicesiPhone, iPad — betteriPhone
Requires iOS16.0 — better17.6
Further details — not scored
Size31 MB106 MB
Age rating4+4+
Developer倩 赵David Beamish

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

Boxed Breathing

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Pocket Meditation Timer

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

Boxed Breathing

One-time1
  • Remove Adverts$1.99

Questions

Is Pocket Meditation Timer free?
Pocket Meditation Timer is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Boxed Breathing free?
Boxed Breathing is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Pocket Meditation Timer or Boxed Breathing have ads?
Both Pocket Meditation Timer and Boxed Breathing show ads.
Which is updated more often, Pocket Meditation Timer or Boxed Breathing?
Pocket Meditation Timer ships an update every 7 months, and Boxed Breathing every 2 weeks. Most recently, Pocket Meditation Timer was updated on November 1, 2026 and Boxed Breathing on October 30, 2026.

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