Comparison

Bowl Timer vs MindTime

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

MindTime

This app offers a customizable meditation timer with various bell sounds and session types. Track your progress, build daily streaks, and reflect with an optional journal. Enjoy a distraction-free experience designed to support your mindfulness practice.

Highlights
  • Customizable timer durations
  • Choice of 8 meditation bells
  • Interval bells with adjustable volume
  • Four session types (Meditation, Sleep, Focus, Relaxation)
  • Daily streaks and practice tracking
  • Optional journaling feature
  • Cloud sync across devices
Features
Read full description

A silent meditation timer that gets out of the way. No guided voices, no feed, no ads — just a bell, your breath, and the time you choose. Most meditation apps want your attention. MindTime gives it back. Set a duration, pick a bell, and sit. When you finish, your streak, your stats and your journal are waiting — and nothing else is. Built for a real practice MindTime is the timer, not a content library. It is made for people who already sit: vipassana and insight meditation, zen and zazen, mindfulness and MBSR, samatha and anapanasati, metta, breathwork, yoga nidra — or simply sitting quietly for ten minutes a day. Silent by design • No voices, ever: nothing talks over your session. No guided tracks, no teacher, no feed to scroll. • Vibration-only mode: feel your interval bells instead of hearing them — made for retreats, shared rooms, offices, dorms and late nights beside a sleeping partner. • Fully silent mode: or switch every sound off and let the session simply end. • No ads, no interruptions: nothing appears while you are sitting. Your timer, your way • Any duration: from seconds to hours — or endless mode with no time limit at all. • Warm-up phase: settle in before the session really begins. • Presets: save your usual sit and start it with a single tap. • Four session types: Meditation, Sleep, Focus and Relaxation, each with its own statistics. Six interval bells that bring you back • Six recorded bells: three Tibetan singing bowls (Manipuri, Jambati, Thadobati), a crystal bowl, a Hanchi gong and Koshi chimes. • Start, interval and end bells: set each one separately — ring every 5 minutes, every 10, or at any interval you like. • Independent volumes: every bell has its own level, so nothing ever jolts you out of a sit. • Or no bell at all: vibration only, or complete silence. 31 soundscapes — entirely optional • Noise: brown noise, light brown and intense brown noise, white noise, pink noise, green noise and blue noise. • Rain and nature: gentle rain, heavy rainfall, thunderstorms, rain on a van, ocean waves, a mountain river, forest birds and crackling fire. • Ambient and frequency: zen garden stream, choir pad, cosmic space, 174 Hz, 285 Hz and 528 Hz. • Silence is the default: mix a soundscape under your session only when you want one. Build the habit • Daily streaks: see your consistency at a glance. • Real statistics: total sessions, total minutes and average session length, broken down by type. • Weekly view: the days you actually practiced. • Gentle reminders: stay on track without being nagged. Reflect with a journal • Session notes: capture what came up while it is still fresh. • History: browse back through weeks and months to notice patterns. • Optional: turn journaling off in Settings and never see it again. Distraction-free by design • Hide the clock: show or hide the countdown and the progress circle — some people focus better without a number. • Screen stays on: your phone never interrupts a sit. • Gentle fade-out: eases you out of the session instead of cutting it off. • Cloud sync: presets, history and streaks stay in step across your devices. • No sign-up needed: open the app and start. The timer and all six bells work offline. Available in 38 languages. Website: https://mindtime.app Terms: https://mindtime.app/terms Privacy: https://mindtime.app/privacy

Screenshots

Bowl Timer4 screens
MindTime4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Bowl Timer at none against MindTime's 2. Bowl Timer also leads on review sentiment (100% vs 83%). MindTime's advantage is update cadence (every 8 days vs every 2 months). On price, rating, 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. MindTime sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per year. Bowl Timer asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Bowl Timer against 4.9 for MindTime. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 4 and 9 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 100% of Bowl Timer's written reviews are positive against 83% of MindTime's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Bowl Timer ships an update every 2 months, MindTime every 8 days. The most recent releases landed on October 30, 2026 and November 5, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Bowl Timer versus MindTime: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBowl TimerMindTime
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (4 ratings) — better4.9 (9 ratings)
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews — better83.3% of reviews
Number of ratings49 — better
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 8 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch — better
Requires iOS15.0 — better15.3
Further details — not scored
Size51 MB167 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperJohannes RothChristian Krueger

Customer experience

Bowl Timer

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

MindTime

All ratings9 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews6 reviews
Positive83.3%
Neutral0.0%
Negative16.7%

In-app purchases

None

Bowl Timer

No in-app purchases

2 purchases

MindTime

Subscriptions1
  • MindTime Premium Subscription$9.991 Year
One-time1
  • MindTime Premium$19.99

Questions

Is Bowl Timer free?
Bowl Timer is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is MindTime free?
MindTime is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Bowl Timer or MindTime?
Bowl Timer is rated higher. Bowl Timer averages 5.0 out of 5 from 4 ratings, while MindTime averages 4.9 from 9 ratings.
Do Bowl Timer or MindTime have ads?
Neither Bowl Timer nor MindTime shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Bowl Timer or MindTime?
Bowl Timer ships an update every 2 months, and MindTime every 8 days. Most recently, Bowl Timer was updated on October 30, 2026 and MindTime on November 5, 2026.

Other comparisons