Bowl Timer vs Zazen Meditation Timer
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- 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
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• 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.
Zazen Meditation Timer
A straightforward meditation timer designed for simplicity. It includes essential features like interval bells and progress tracking, with no advertisements or unnecessary additions.
- Interval bells
- Statistics tracking
- Streak tracking
- Ad-free experience
- No upsells or bloat
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A simple meditation timer. Has the essentials: - interval bells - stats - streaks No ads, upsells, or bloat.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ratings volume: Zazen Meditation Timer at 18 against Bowl Timer's 4. Bowl Timer's advantage is device support (3 vs 1) and iOS requirement (15.0 vs 17.0). 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Bowl Timer against 4.9 for Zazen Meditation Timer. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 4 and 18 respectively. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 100% and 100% positive.
Bowl Timer ships an update every 2 months, Zazen Meditation Timer every 6 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 12, 2026 and November 5, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Bowl Timer | Zazen Meditation Timer |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (4 ratings) — better | 4.9 (18 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 4 | 18 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Every 6 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 51 MB | 13 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Johannes Roth | Jake Sager |
Customer experience
Bowl Timer
Zazen Meditation Timer
In-app purchases
Bowl Timer
No in-app purchases
Zazen Meditation Timer
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Bowl Timer free?
Is Zazen Meditation Timer free?
Which has better reviews, Bowl Timer or Zazen Meditation Timer?
Do Bowl Timer or Zazen Meditation Timer have ads?
Which is updated more often, Bowl Timer or Zazen Meditation Timer?
Other comparisons
