Sesshin vs Zen
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Sesshin
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Sesshin is a minimal, distraction-free meditation timer for iPhone and Apple Watch, built for practitioners of Zen. Set your sitting duration, start your session, and let Sesshin guide the way. Traditional bells mark the beginning and end of each period. Wooden clappers signal kinhin (walking meditation) transitions. Quiet interval bells help you mark the middle of your sit without checking the clock. Features - Zazen & kinhin — Time a single seated period or a full sequence: zazen, kinhin walking, zazen - Traditional sounds — Bells and wooden clappers at each phase transition, with fully configurable counts - Enso arc — A circular arc traces session progress; a figure shifts between sitting and walking postures - Live Activity — Remaining time stays visible on the Dynamic Island and Lock Screen - Apple Watch — Full timer and complications on your wrist - HealthKit — Completed sessions saved as mindful minutes in Apple Health - Daily goal — Set a daily sitting goal and track your streak in History - Configurable — Adjust duration, bell counts, start delay, auto-progression, and interval bells to match your tradition No accounts. No ads. No subscriptions. Just your practice.
Zen
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Just Sit. Your Way. Nothing Else. A silent meditation timer with traditional bells. The sit is free. Optional short guided sits when just sitting is hard. Then silence. No ads, no streaks, no account. JUST SIT Sit on a cushion or chair. Eyes barely open, soft gaze. Feel your body, breath, and posture. No mantra, no goal. When thoughts come and go, just return to sitting. The benefits are real — a calm mind, more focus, more clarity, better sleep, less stress, more presence. They show up when you stop chasing them. YOUR WAY Just sit. Easier said than done. Just sitting can be brutal. Most people need a little guidance, and that detour is fine. Optional short guided sits — the Just Sit course, one idea at a time — then sit in silence. Or leave every optional feature off. Not a library of courses. Discover your way to just sit. NOTHING ELSE Everything you need to just sit is included, and stays free. A timer, bells, Watch, widgets. No ads, no streaks, no account to sit. The sit stays free. Always. Native on iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch. Focus on what matters: just sit. HOW IT WORKS Open the app · pick a duration · sit. Beautiful bells, soundscapes, intervals, warmup and cooldown. If you want to look around: Welcome on first launch, then short guided sits for ordinary life. Nothing required. Explore at your own pace. WHY THIS EXISTS Hi, I'm Francis, a longtime Apple developer. I discovered regular meditation about 15 years ago. I suffer from PTSD, and meditation has helped me survive — more than once — when things fall apart. Meditation only clicked for me with a Zen just-sit practice. To get there I had to put in the time: other practices, sampling, trial and error, year after year of showing up to sit. I needed those 10,000 minutes on apps before I could stop searching and, in the end, just sit. Zen : Your Way is my way of giving back. A quiet timer. Optional guidance to nudge you toward just sitting. Nothing in the way of the sit itself. ON IPHONE AND IPAD • Apple Watch companion — start sits and complications on your wrist • Home Screen widgets and Live Activities
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is device support: Zen at 6 against Sesshin's 3. Zen also leads on iOS requirement (17.0 vs 26.2). On price, ads and in-app purchases 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.
| Parameter | Sesshin | Zen |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better | — |
| Number of ratings | 1 — better | — |
| Update frequency | — | Every 2 days |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch | iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, Apple Watch, Vision Pro — better |
| Requires iOS | 26.2 | 17.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 10 MB | 25 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | DERRICK ORION CALLOWAY | Francis Dierick |
In-app purchases
Sesshin
No in-app purchases
Zen
No in-app purchases









