Meditation Interval Timer vs Quell
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Meditation Interval Timer
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Carefully designed for practitioners who bring structure to their meditation. Meditimer rings a singing bowl at your chosen intervals — freeing your mind from tracking time and letting you move naturally through each phase of your practice. Set your preparation countdown, interval, and total duration. Start. Let go. Features · Singing bowl bells at custom intervals · Preparation countdown before each session · Three presets: Short · Medium · Long · Plays over music without interruption · Logs Mindful Minutes to Apple Health · Auto light/dark theme by sunrise and sunset
Quell
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Quell is a deep-focus app with one job: help you sit down and do one undivided thing. No streaks. No badges. No feed. You tap Begin, a calm arctic ring starts counting up, and a 40 Hz binaural beat plays underneath. When you are done, you end. That is the whole ritual. WHY 40 Hz 40 Hz is the gamma band — the brain rhythm tied to attention and memory, and the most-studied frequency in sound-based focus research. Quell generates it live: two pure tones, one slightly different in each ear, that your brain fuses into a single 40 Hz pulse. WHAT IT DOES - A 40 Hz binaural beat, generated live on your device. Two pure tones on a deep, warm carrier (130 Hz left, 170 Hz right). It needs stereo headphones to create the beat. - An optional coach voice. Short, grounded lines, spaced minutes apart, that nudge you back when your attention drifts. It is sports-psychology self-talk, not generic meditation, and it is a natural recorded voice, not a robotic one. - Optional music under the beat. Four moods of original, AI-generated tracks (lofi days, lofi night, global beats, ambient) that sit quietly beneath everything. Off by default. - A count-up timer. No fixed length, no pressure. The session lasts as long as you stay. THE SCIENCE, HONESTLY We lead with 40 Hz because the research is real — it is the gamma approach popularized on the Huberman Lab podcast. A 2022 meta-analysis found binaural beats gave a small but significant lift to attention and memory, and a 2025 study confirmed that a 40 Hz beat measurably entrains the brain while improving attention. But we will not oversell it: not every study agrees, and the effect varies from person to person. Treat the 40 Hz tone as a low-risk way to settle into deep work, not a guarantee. DESIGNED TO DISAPPEAR Quell is dark, still, and quiet on purpose. The only bright thing is the ring. It keeps playing while your screen is off, with controls on the lock screen, so you can put the phone down and work. PRIVATE BY DESIGN Everything runs on your device. No account, no sign-in, no tracking, no analytics, no servers. Your settings stay on your phone. FREE AND PAID The 40 Hz beat and the timer are free, forever. A single one-time purchase unlocks the music moods and the coach voice. Pay once, it is yours. No subscription. Quell. Quiet the noise.
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Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Meditation Interval Timer at none against Quell's 1. Quell's advantage is update cadence (daily vs every 3 months) and iOS requirement (17.0 vs 26.0). On price, 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. Quell sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Meditation Interval Timer asks for nothing beyond the download.
Meditation Interval Timer ships an update every 3 months, Quell daily. The most recent releases landed on September 22, 2026 and September 13, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Meditation Interval Timer | Quell |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Update frequency | Every 3 months | Daily — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone, Mac — better |
| Requires iOS | 26.0 | 17.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 2 MB | 58 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Vitaly Oleinikovs | Oleksandr Pavlov |
In-app purchases
Meditation Interval Timer
No in-app purchases
Quell
- Quell Unlock$9.99
Questions
Is Meditation Interval Timer free?
Is Quell free?
Do Meditation Interval Timer or Quell have ads?
Which is updated more often, Meditation Interval Timer or Quell?
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