Comparison

Meditation Timer | Samsara vs Timer for Meditation

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

Timer for Meditation

This app offers customizable timers with flexible settings for various time periods and durations. Users can personalize alert and background sounds, with black and white illustrations to aid focus during meditation or other tasks.

Highlights
  • Flexible timer settings
  • Customizable alert sounds
  • Customizable background sounds
  • Black and white illustrations
  • Focus enhancement
Features
Read full description

Features of Timer for Meditation: * Flexible settings designed for multiple time periods with different lengths for each timer; * Ability to set different alert and background sounds * Black and white illustrations help users to easily focus on meditation or other tasks.

Screenshots

Meditation Timer | Samsara4 screens
Timer for Meditation4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Timer for Meditation at none against Meditation Timer | Samsara's 6. Timer for Meditation also leads on iOS requirement (9.0 vs 17.6). Meditation Timer | Samsara's advantage is ratings volume (437 vs 24). On price, rating, review sentiment and update cadence 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. Timer for Meditation asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.7 for Meditation Timer | Samsara against 4.8 for Timer for Meditation. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Meditation Timer | Samsara has 437 ratings behind it against 24, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 91% of Meditation Timer | Samsara's written reviews are positive against 83% of Timer for Meditation's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Meditation Timer | Samsara ships an update every 10 days, Timer for Meditation every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 6, 2026 and November 3, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Meditation Timer | Samsara versus Timer for Meditation: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMeditation Timer | SamsaraTimer for Meditation
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (437 ratings)4.8 (24 ratings) — better
Positive reviews90.7% of reviews — better83.3% of reviews
Number of ratings437 — better24
Update frequencyEvery 10 days — betterEvery 2 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPod
Requires iOS17.69.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size22 MB56 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperBart JacobsNeptune Media International CO., LIMITED

Customer experience

Meditation Timer | Samsara

All ratings431 ratings
Positive92.6%
Neutral2.6%
Negative4.9%
Written reviews482 reviews
Positive90.7%
Neutral4.1%
Negative5.2%

Timer for Meditation

All ratings20 ratings
Positive95.0%
Neutral5.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews6 reviews
Positive83.3%
Neutral16.7%
Negative0.0%

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

Timer for Meditation

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

Timer for Meditation

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Meditation Timer | Samsara free?
Meditation Timer | Samsara is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Timer for Meditation free?
Timer for Meditation is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Meditation Timer | Samsara or Timer for Meditation?
Timer for Meditation is rated higher. Meditation Timer | Samsara averages 4.7 out of 5 from 437 ratings, while Timer for Meditation averages 4.8 from 24 ratings.
Do Meditation Timer | Samsara or Timer for Meditation have ads?
Neither Meditation Timer | Samsara nor Timer for Meditation shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Meditation Timer | Samsara or Timer for Meditation?
Meditation Timer | Samsara ships an update every 10 days, and Timer for Meditation every 2 weeks. Most recently, Meditation Timer | Samsara was updated on November 6, 2026 and Timer for Meditation on November 3, 2026.

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