Comparison

Lotus Bud Meditation Timer vs Zen Timer.

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

Head to head
About

Lotus Bud Meditation Timer

This app helps you establish a regular meditation practice with a beautiful, intuitive interface. It offers customizable timers, gentle sound cues, and interactive reminders to support your well-being. Enhance your experience with optional features for tracking history and setting intentions.

Highlights
  • Customizable meditation duration
  • Gentle singing bowl sound alerts
  • Interactive reminders
  • Today widget for quick access
  • Apple Watch integration
  • Meditation history and notes (in-app purchase)
  • Intention setting for gradual duration increase (in-app purchase)
Features
Read full description

Built to support your practice Lotus Bud is a meditation timer built for practitioners who want a focused tool that respects the work they do. No content library, social network, music player or other distractions standing between you and the cushion. Just you and the cushion. FREE FEATURES • Simple timed or untimed meditation • Save meditations to Mindfulness Minutes in Apple Health • Widgets and Live Activities: Start a session directly from your Home Screen or Lock Screen. Track elapsed time throughout your sit with Live Activities on the Lock Screen and Dynamic Island. °Siri Shortcuts: Start, pause, or end sessions with your voice. Create automations using your meditation data to make regular practice easier to maintain. • Apple Watch app • Assistive Access: For those using Assistive Access Lotus Bud offers a dramatically simplified user experience. PAID FEATURES (one time purchase) • Custom Meditation Plans: Create structured sessions with multiple steps, custom durations, and lead-in countdowns. Build a sequence that matches your practice, whether you need a simple timer or a detailed progression. On devices that support Apple Intelligence, you can just describe the plan you want to create a new one. • Insights: Understand how your practice develops over time with streaks, rolling averages, tag breakdowns, and calendar heat maps. Review your consistency and identify patterns in your sessions. • Intentions: Set daily, weekly, or monthly goals for meditation time or session frequency. Progress updates help you stay connected to the intentions you set. • Private logs: Write private notes about your sits, observations, and experiences. Keep your reflections alongside your practice without sharing them publicly. With Apple Intelligence you get tag suggestions that help you categorize your notes. ----- I started building Lotus Bud more than fifteen years ago to support my own daily practice. My hope was to create a tool that could support others as they develop a deeper meditation practice. Meditation has profoundly changed my life for the better, but that change required ongoing effort and focus. I had to do the work myself, and Lotus Bud has helped me stay on track. Many meditation apps focus on relaxation and stress reduction. Meditation can certainly support both, but it can also become a deeper, long-term practice that fundamentally changes how you relate to the world, your loved ones and yourself. Lotus Bud is designed for people who want to build and understand that practice without unnecessary distractions or dependence on extra content. I am the sole designer and developer of Lotus Bud. I built it, along with the related Lotus Bud Mindfulness Bell app, because I use these tools in my own practice and hope they can benefit others. I aim to make Lotus Bud useful, simple, accessible and beautiful while giving you the space to practice on your own terms. ----- Try Lotus Bud Mindfulness Bell to support mindfulness throughout the day. It plays randomized bells that invite you to pause and return your attention to the present moment.

About

Zen Timer.

This app helps you focus on meditation and mindfulness with customizable timers. Set preparation, meditation, interval, and cool-down times with various alert sounds and background music. Track your progress and maintain logs for a more peaceful practice.

Highlights
  • Create unlimited custom timers
  • Adjust preparation, meditation, and interval times
  • Select from 18 free interval sounds
  • Choose background music
  • Supports background and lock screen operation
  • Meditation log and report tracking
  • Multiple profiles and reminders
Features
Read full description

Zen Timer is a handy app to help you focusing on zen/meditation/insight, you can totally relax without worrying about time. It has four default timers and you can create and custom your own timers. You can custom the preparation time, meditation time, interval number & interval time (each interval time can be different), cool down time. 18 free sounds are available to be chosen as switch interval alert sound. Start the timer and enjoy the peace... Key Features: ⁃ Custom and create unlimited timers. ⁃ Custom preparation time, meditation time, interval number, interval time, cool down time and background picture. ⁃ Each interval time can be set as different duration. ⁃ Choose background music to be played from device. ⁃ Supports running in background and lock screen. ⁃ 18 free interval switch sounds. ⁃ Set switch sounds to be played one, two or three times. ⁃ Keep and share meditation logs. ⁃ Meditation time reports. ⁃ Multiple profiles. ⁃ Create unlimited reminders. ⁃ Passcode protection. ⁃ Dropbox backup and restore. ⁃ Supports transferring to Health app. ⁃ Supports Today Widget. ⁃ Supports Apple Watch version. ⁃ Supports universal version (available on both iPhone and iPad). If you have any question or suggestion, please email to linklinksapp@tom.com.

Screenshots

Lotus Bud Meditation Timer4 screens
Zen Timer.4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Lotus Bud Meditation Timer at 4.6 against Zen Timer.'s 3.4. Lotus Bud Meditation Timer also leads on ads (none vs shown) and update cadence (monthly vs every 11 months). Zen Timer.'s advantage is review sentiment (65% vs 41%) and iOS requirement (15.6 vs 27.0). On price, ratings volume, in-app purchases and monetization model 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. Lotus Bud Meditation Timer sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Zen Timer. sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per 6 months. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Lotus Bud Meditation Timer holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 3.4. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 5 and 13 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 41% of Lotus Bud Meditation Timer's written reviews are positive against 65% of Zen Timer.'s, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Lotus Bud Meditation Timer ships an update monthly, Zen Timer. every 11 months. The most recent releases landed on October 7, 2026 and October 15, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Lotus Bud Meditation Timer versus Zen Timer.: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterLotus Bud Meditation TimerZen Timer.
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.6 (5 ratings) — better3.4 (13 ratings)
Positive reviews41.2% of reviews65.2% of reviews — better
Number of ratings513 — better
Update frequencyMonthly — betterEvery 11 months
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Apple WatchiPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch — better
Requires iOS27.015.6 — better
Further details — not scored
Size56 MB76 MB
Age rating4++4
DeveloperChad SagerLINKLINKS LTD

Customer experience

Lotus Bud Meditation Timer

All ratings5 ratings
Positive80.0%
Neutral20.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews17 reviews
Positive41.2%
Neutral23.5%
Negative35.3%

Zen Timer.

All ratings13 ratings
Positive46.2%
Neutral23.1%
Negative30.8%
Written reviews23 reviews
Positive65.2%
Neutral4.3%
Negative30.4%

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Lotus Bud Meditation Timer

One-time1
  • Intention and Reflection (Goals and Journaling)$2.99
2 purchases

Zen Timer.

Subscriptions1
  • Premium - 6 months14 Days trial$4.996 Months
One-time1
  • Pro Version$49.99

Questions

Is Lotus Bud Meditation Timer free?
Lotus Bud Meditation Timer is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Zen Timer. free?
Zen Timer. is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Lotus Bud Meditation Timer or Zen Timer.?
Lotus Bud Meditation Timer is rated higher. Lotus Bud Meditation Timer averages 4.6 out of 5 from 5 ratings, while Zen Timer. averages 3.4 from 13 ratings.
Do Lotus Bud Meditation Timer or Zen Timer. have ads?
Zen Timer. shows ads; Lotus Bud Meditation Timer does not.
Which is updated more often, Lotus Bud Meditation Timer or Zen Timer.?
Lotus Bud Meditation Timer ships an update monthly, and Zen Timer. every 11 months. Most recently, Lotus Bud Meditation Timer was updated on October 7, 2026 and Zen Timer. on October 15, 2026.

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