Sorta Zen vs Koan Meditation Timer
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Sorta Zen
This app provides a minimalist meditation timer with optional background sounds and interval bells. It focuses on a simple, distraction-free experience without gamification or tracking features. Designed for quiet contemplation, it offers a straightforward way to practice mindfulness.
- Meditation timer
- Background sounds
- Interval bells
- Ad-free experience
- No user accounts
- Distraction-free interface
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It’s a meditation app. Eventually, you meditate. If you need a little help getting there, you can start with Touchscreen Meditation or a short daily talk. Then the app shuts up. The timer, Touchscreen Meditation, background sounds, and interval bells are free. The first 10 daily talks are free too. After that, the talks are an optional $20/year subscription that renews until canceled. There are no courses to complete. No libraries to browse. No streaks, badges, leaderboards, notifications, user accounts, mood tracking, sleep stories, ads, or little graphs implying you’re becoming a better person. Just a simple place to sit quietly for a while. Enlightenment not guaranteed. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://www.sortazen.com/privacy
Koan Meditation Timer
This app offers a distraction-free meditation experience with customizable bell sounds and flexible session scheduling. It allows users to create simple or complex meditation routines without requiring an account or saving data.
- Distraction-free meditation
- Customizable bell and bowl sounds
- Flexible session scheduler
- Simple and complex session creation
- No account required
- No data saving
- No push notifications
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The Koan Simple Meditation Timer is built so you can sit down and meditate without distraction. It features three real sounds of bells and bowls and a flexible scheduler. You can create a simple session with a bell to start and a bell to finish after 10 minutes. You can just as easily make a complicated bell setup like 30 minutes of sitting meditation followed by 10 minutes of walking mediation. The simplicity is purposeful here. There is no account to create, no data saved, no push notifications of premium subscriptions to shill. We both know you don't need that. Just meditate more and the world will be a better place for it.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Koan Meditation Timer at none against Sorta Zen's 1. Koan Meditation Timer also leads on update cadence (every 3 days vs weekly) and iOS requirement (15.1 vs 18.0). Sorta Zen's advantage is ratings volume (7 vs 1). On price, rating, 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
Both are free to download. Sorta Zen sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $20.00 per year. Koan Meditation Timer asks for nothing beyond the download.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Sorta Zen against 5.0 for Koan Meditation Timer. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Sorta Zen has 7 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.
Sorta Zen ships an update weekly, Koan Meditation Timer every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on October 30, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Sorta Zen | Koan Meditation Timer |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (7 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 7 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Weekly | Every 3 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 18.0 | 15.1 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 37 MB | 46 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Patrick Griffith | Lucas Moore |
Customer experience
Sorta Zen
Koan Meditation Timer
In-app purchases
Sorta Zen
- Food For Non-Thought1 Month trial$20.001 Year
Koan Meditation Timer
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Sorta Zen free?
Is Koan Meditation Timer free?
Which has better reviews, Sorta Zen or Koan Meditation Timer?
Do Sorta Zen or Koan Meditation Timer have ads?
Which is updated more often, Sorta Zen or Koan Meditation Timer?
Other comparisons
