Comparison

Meditation Timer | Samsara vs Yoga Timer

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

Head to head
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/

About

Yoga Timer

This app provides a customizable timer with gong and vibration options for yoga sessions. Create and manage yoga sets with a pose library, and personalize the appearance for a seamless teaching or practice experience.

Highlights
  • Full-screen countdown timer
  • Adjustable pose durations
  • Gong and vibration alerts
  • Create custom yoga sets
  • Built-in Yin Yoga pose library
  • Customizable appearance settings
Features
Read full description

Yoga Timer — Your Professional Classroom Companion Designed for yoga teachers, studios, and dedicated practitioners, Yoga Timer brings clarity, structure, and flow into every yoga session. Whether guiding a Yin class, sequencing poses, or simply timing meditations, this app offers a clean, full-screen experience that remains visible even while the teacher moves around the room. FULL-SCREEN TIMER A large, easy-to-read countdown timer—perfect for teaching environments. Adjustable from 1 to 99 minutes Tap to start, pause, or resume “+ / –” buttons for quick time changes Reset to instantly return to your preferred starting value Always visible from across the room Ideal for instructors who move while teaching. GONG & VIBRATION OPTIONS Choose between multiple digital gongs, including: Two authentic Tibetan gongs (Gong 1 and Gong 6) – recorded from handcrafted instruments originating from the birth village of the Dalai Lama Optional vibration feedback Audio can be set to Off, Gong only, Vibration only, or both Note: iPhone Mute switch/volume affects sound. YOGA SETS — AUTOMATE YOUR CLASS Create complete class sequences with ease. Build sets using a built-in Yin Yoga pose library Add custom poses anytime Assign a duration to each pose Choose which gong plays at the end of each pose Automatic calculation of total class time Reorder poses with simple up/down controls Duplicate, rename, edit, or delete sets Switch “Run Set ON/OFF” to use it in your next session Preview a full summary of any set Perfect for Yin classes, workshops, teacher training, or personal practice. POSE LIBRARY A list of all original Yin Yoga poses. Easily add new poses Simple, clean interface Always accessible for building sets APPEARANCE SETTINGS Make the timer fit your style. 4 font colors: Black, White, Gold, Purple 4 opacity levels: None, Small, Medium, Large 5 backgrounds: – Three lotus photos – Black – White – Custom color via RGB sliders TIMER SETUP MENU Quick access to: Timer Gong Yoga Sets Yoga Poses Font Opacity Backgrounds Help Includes reminder: “No sound? Check phone MUTE/volume buttons!” HELP SECTION A clear, simple explanation of all features for new users and teachers. Yoga Timer — Bring peace, structure, and flow into every class.

Screenshots

Meditation Timer | Samsara4 screens
Yoga Timer3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Meditation Timer | Samsara at 91% against Yoga Timer's 0%. Meditation Timer | Samsara also leads on update cadence (every 10 days vs every 2 months). Yoga Timer's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 6) and iOS requirement (12 vs 17.6). 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

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. Yoga Timer asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Meditation Timer | Samsara ships an update every 10 days, Yoga Timer every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 6, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Meditation Timer | Samsara versus Yoga Timer: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMeditation Timer | SamsaraYoga Timer
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (435 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews90.6% of reviews — better0.0% of reviews
Number of ratings435 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 10 days — betterEvery 2 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS17.612 — better
Further details — not scored
Size22 MB91 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperBart JacobsNic Kolbe

Customer experience

Meditation Timer | Samsara

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

Yoga Timer

Written reviews4 reviews
Positive0.0%
Neutral25.0%
Negative75.0%

Bugs and requests

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

Yoga Timer

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

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
None

Yoga Timer

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Meditation Timer | Samsara free?
Meditation Timer | Samsara is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Yoga Timer free?
Yoga Timer is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Meditation Timer | Samsara or Yoga Timer have ads?
Neither Meditation Timer | Samsara nor Yoga Timer shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Meditation Timer | Samsara or Yoga Timer?
Meditation Timer | Samsara ships an update every 10 days, and Yoga Timer every 2 months. Most recently, Meditation Timer | Samsara was updated on October 24, 2026 and Yoga Timer on October 6, 2026.

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