Comparison

Placebo vs Cohera

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

Head to head
About

Placebo

This app guides users through daily meditations to reprogram their mindset and create a new future. It offers morning and evening sessions designed to induce alpha or theta brainwaves, making users more receptive to suggestions and focused on their goals. The app also includes tools for goal setting, result tracking, and understanding belief change.

Highlights
  • Morning meditation for alpha/theta brainwaves
  • Evening meditation for present moment awareness
  • Meditation for changing beliefs
  • Goal setting and writing
  • Daily result mapping
  • Evaluation and statistics
Features
Read full description

Reprogramming your Self is an App for daily use in order to step out of the circle of constantly repeating your past and consciously creating a new state of being – thus creating a new future, of course! We keep creating the future constantly and in every single second with our thoughts and feelings as well as with our beliefs and perceptions. With the morning meditation you will get yourself into a coherent state of alpha or theta brainwaves. In those states you will be far more susceptible for suggestions. Your brain will be recalibrated automatically when you do this meditation of open space and you can gear your new Self-consciously towards the new day. During your evening meditation you will get into the present moment and linger in the emptiness of quantum space. As the observer you allow the day to pass by as you become an awareness of possibilties. In that state you will create the next day, your future. Use the meditation for changing your perceptions and beliefs to move into a new state of being. You will do this by marrying a clear intention with a higher emotion. This App will provide you with a range of options in order to get focussed on a specific goal. We are able to influence any condition as well as our outside reality using our mind alone simply by changing our old beliefs and patterns and our perceptions of ourselves and our environment. This App contains: - Morning meditation - Evening meditation - Meditation for changing your convictions and beliefs about yourself - Capacity to write down your goals - Mapping your results daily - Evaluation and statistics - Background information for changing your beliefs and perceptions Note: The Meditations are the same as on the CD or MP3-Download "You are the Placebo #2".We have split the Meditations in the App for a easier daily use into Morning, Evening and Changing Beliefs-Meditation.

About

Cohera

This app uses real-time haptic feedback from your Apple Watch to guide your heart rate toward a state of coherence. It helps you synchronize your body and mind for improved focus, calm, or recovery without visual or audio distractions.

Highlights
  • Real-time heart rate feedback
  • Dynamic haptic pacing
  • Performance and recovery modes
  • Session insights and tracking
  • Customizable session durations
  • Simple, gesture-driven interface
Features
Read full description

Use your mind to align your heart. Cohera is a mind-driven heart-coherence trainer for Apple Watch. Bring your attention into the moment, pick a target rhythm, close your eyes, and guide your heart into sync while a living visualization drifts on screen. The whole point is that you can stop staring at numbers — the guidance is something you feel, not something you watch. When you're done, you get one honest score and a real sense of having slowed down. HOW IT WORKS Soft lub-dub haptic pulses pace your breath through your wrist — the gentle mechanism that helps your mind settle your heart into rhythm, tightly synced to the on-screen visual. Run a whole session with your eyes shut — no screen to stare at. ONE HONEST SCORE The Coherence Index (0 to 100) shows how closely your heart settled into your chosen rhythm, in plain language — Dispersed, Balanced, Aligned, Harmonic — instead of a wall of stats. FOUR RHYTHMS, ONE APP Choose your pace: Deep Rest, Calm Flow, Active Focus, or Walk & Talk. The same app helps you wind down and stay composed while you move. FOUR AMBIENT VISUALS Breathing Orb, drifting Particles, Fire, and Horizon Breath. Color and motion shift with your coherence — a living visual, not a chart. NUMBERS STAY OUT OF YOUR WAY The clock is hidden during a session and your data graph waits for the post-session summary. Coherence first, by design. PRIVATE BY DESIGN Cohera runs on the Apple Watch you already own and works with your own heart-rate data. No account required to start. HONEST ABOUT WHAT IT IS The Coherence Index is Cohera's own measure of how well your heart followed your target rhythm — it's a training signal, not a medical or diagnostic tool. Cohera is for everyday calm and focus; it doesn't treat, diagnose, or prevent any condition. Built by an independent developer who wanted a calm session you can do with your eyes closed — and proof it actually worked.

Screenshots

Placebo4 screens
Cohera4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Cohera at 100% against Placebo's 19%. Cohera also leads on rating (5.0 vs 3.0) and price ($0.99 vs $6.99). Placebo's advantage is ratings volume (8 vs 1) and iOS requirement (8.0 vs 13.0). On update cadence, ads, 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

Placebo costs $6.99 and Cohera $0.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Cohera holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 3.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Placebo has 8 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 19% of Placebo's written reviews are positive against 100% of Cohera's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Placebo ships an update every 3 months, Cohera every 4 months. The most recent releases landed on October 13, 2026 and October 12, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Placebo versus Cohera: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPlaceboCohera
Price$6.99$0.99 — better
Rating3.0 (8 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Positive reviews18.5% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings8 — better1
Update frequencyEvery 3 months — betterEvery 4 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaidPaid
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPod, Apple Watch
Requires iOS8.0 — better13.0
Further details — not scored
Size41 MB2 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperMomandaQuack Quack Labs

Customer experience

Placebo

All ratings8 ratings
Positive50.0%
Neutral12.5%
Negative37.5%
Written reviews27 reviews
Positive18.5%
Neutral11.1%
Negative70.4%

Cohera

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

Placebo

No in-app purchases

None

Cohera

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Placebo free?
Placebo costs $6.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Cohera free?
Cohera costs $0.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Placebo or Cohera?
Cohera is rated higher. Placebo averages 3.0 out of 5 from 8 ratings, while Cohera averages 5.0 from 1 ratings.
Do Placebo or Cohera have ads?
Neither Placebo nor Cohera shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Placebo or Cohera?
Placebo ships an update every 3 months, and Cohera every 4 months. Most recently, Placebo was updated on October 13, 2026 and Cohera on October 12, 2026.

Other comparisons