Comparison

Meditation Interval Timer vs Quell

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Meditation Interval Timer

Features
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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

About

Quell

Features
Read full description

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.

Screenshots

Meditation Interval Timer4 screens
Quell4 screens

Verdict

The call

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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Quell sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Meditation Interval Timer asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

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.

Scorecard3 real differences · 3 level
Meditation Interval Timer versus Quell: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMeditation Interval TimerQuell
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 3 monthsDaily — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, Mac — better
Requires iOS26.017.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size2 MB58 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperVitaly OleinikovsOleksandr Pavlov

In-app purchases

None

Meditation Interval Timer

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

Quell

One-time1
  • Quell Unlock$9.99

Questions

Is Meditation Interval Timer free?
Meditation Interval Timer is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Quell free?
Quell is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Meditation Interval Timer or Quell have ads?
Neither Meditation Interval Timer nor Quell shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Meditation Interval Timer or Quell?
Meditation Interval Timer ships an update every 3 months, and Quell daily. Most recently, Meditation Interval Timer was updated on September 22, 2026 and Quell on September 13, 2026.

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