Comparison

Bowl Timer vs SelfMeditate

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

Head to head
About

Bowl Timer

This app helps you meditate without distractions using calming bowl gongs. You can customize session lengths and intervals, with all settings saved locally. It's completely free, offline, and ad-free.

Highlights
  • Guided meditation with bowl gongs
  • Customizable session lengths up to 60 minutes
  • Split sessions into 1-5 intervals
  • Local settings saving
  • Total meditation time tracking
  • 100% free and offline
Features
Read full description

• Meditate for up to 60 minutes, guided by calming bowl gongs. • Split sessions into 1 to 5 intervals for transitions or gentle reminders. • Locally saves your settings and displays total meditation time after 2 hours. • 100% free and offline—no ads, accounts, or tracking. Stay focused, mindful, and fully present during your meditation.

About

SelfMeditate

This app provides an unguided meditation timer with ambient sounds and customizable intervals. It also includes a multi-modal journal for reflection, pattern analysis tools, and privacy-focused local data storage.

Highlights
  • Unguided meditation timer
  • 19 ambient spiritual sounds
  • Customizable interval bells
  • Multi-modal reflection journal
  • Insightful practice pattern analysis
  • Local data storage for privacy
  • iOS widgets and Live Activities
Read full description

SelfMeditate is a meditation timer for self-guided practice, with interval gongs, ambient sounds, private journaling, presence tracking, and practice insights. Meditation begins in silence. Set your duration, sit without voices or courses, reflect afterward, and discover patterns in your practice over time. No guides. No voices. Just your awareness. A TIMER THAT GETS OUT OF THE WAY Set your duration with an intuitive gesture-based timer. Choose interval gongs to gently anchor your awareness, or sit in complete silence. Add ambient sound when you want atmosphere without instruction. Choose from 19 sounds: water, fire, air, earth, flute, and more. SelfMeditate supports lock screen controls, Live Activities, Dynamic Island, and iOS widgets, so you can stay with your practice without reopening the app. OBSERVE YOUR PRESENCE After each session, you can rate your sense of presence from 1 to 10. Not as a score. Not as judgment. Just as a quiet signal. Over time, these reflections help you see when you feel most present, how your practice changes, and which patterns are emerging. REFLECT IN YOUR OWN WAY Meditation does not end at the bell. Use the private journal to capture what arose after a session, or to record moments of awareness from ordinary life. Write your thoughts, speak them aloud, sketch what you see, attach images, or save files that matter to you. SelfMeditate supports: - Rich text journaling - Voice notes with waveform playback - Smooth drawing tools - Photos and image attachments - File attachments - Session-linked reflections DISCOVER YOUR PATTERNS Your practice becomes clearer when you can see it over time. SelfMeditate includes insight cards for: - Practice rhythm - Presence over time - Session duration - Practice gaps - Meditation and reflection patterns - Presence and duration connection - Journaling consistency - Long-term growth These insights are not competitive. There are no leaderboards, pressure loops, or achievement badges. The point is not to perform. The point is to understand yourself more clearly. YOUR PRACTICE, YOUR SANCTUARY SelfMeditate also includes: - Daily quotes - Gentle meditation reminders - Journal reminders - Calendar view for sessions and entries - Streak tracking without pressure - Widgets for quick access to timer, quotes, and streaks PRIVATE BY DEFAULT Your reflections are yours alone. No account required. No ads. Your journal, drawings, voice notes, photos, attachments, and meditation history stay on your device by default. Export your reflections as PDF or Markdown, save media separately, or create a full archive of your journal and attachments. A DIFFERENT KIND OF MEDITATION APP SelfMeditate is not a guided meditation library. There are no courses to complete, no voices to follow, no celebrity narrators, and no feed of content to consume. It is a quiet container for your own practice: a timer, a bell, a journal, and a way to see what is changing. The guidance you seek is already within you. Begin today. Terms: https://www.unathistudios.com/apps/selfmeditate/terms Privacy Policy: https://www.unathistudios.com/apps/selfmeditate/privacy Contact: hello@unathistudios.com

Screenshots

Bowl Timer4 screens
SelfMeditate4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Bowl Timer at 5.0 against SelfMeditate's 4.3. Bowl Timer also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 2) and device support (3 vs 1). SelfMeditate's advantage is update cadence (every 9 days vs every 2 months). On price, review sentiment, ratings volume and ads 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. SelfMeditate sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per month. Bowl Timer asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Bowl Timer holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.3. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 4 and 6 respectively. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 100% and 100% positive.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Bowl Timer ships an update every 2 months, SelfMeditate every 9 days. The most recent releases landed on October 28, 2026 and October 16, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Bowl Timer versus SelfMeditate: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBowl TimerSelfMeditate
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (4 ratings) — better4.3 (6 ratings)
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings46 — better
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 9 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone
Requires iOS15.0 — better18.0
Further details — not scored
Size51 MB121 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperJohannes RothUNATHI STUDIOS LTD

Customer experience

Bowl Timer

All ratings3 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews10 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

SelfMeditate

All ratings5 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews4 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

Bowl Timer

No in-app purchases

2 purchases

SelfMeditate

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly14 Days trial$9.991 Month
  • Yearly14 Days trial$59.991 Year

Questions

Is Bowl Timer free?
Bowl Timer is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is SelfMeditate free?
SelfMeditate is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Bowl Timer or SelfMeditate?
Bowl Timer is rated higher. Bowl Timer averages 5.0 out of 5 from 4 ratings, while SelfMeditate averages 4.3 from 6 ratings.
Do Bowl Timer or SelfMeditate have ads?
Neither Bowl Timer nor SelfMeditate shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Bowl Timer or SelfMeditate?
Bowl Timer ships an update every 2 months, and SelfMeditate every 9 days. Most recently, Bowl Timer was updated on October 28, 2026 and SelfMeditate on October 16, 2026.

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