Meditation has been around for thousands of years, but recently technology has made meditation easier and more accessible to more people than ever before. Smartphone apps for meditation are one way meditation has incorporated modern technology, and, as a result, many people who may have never tried meditating on their own now have convenient resources to help them learn more about it and get started with a regular meditation practice. Two of the most popular meditation apps are Omvana and Headspace.

In general there are a lot of similarities, as both apps offer various types of guided meditations, either as one-offs or as part of a series. However the apps vary in a few significant ways. Omvana is a free download, and comes with a limited amount of free content. Omvana is essentially a marketplace, where, for a few dollars per download, you can access many different types of guided meditations focusing on various aspects of life, created by different people. This type of ‘pay as you go’ meditation marketplace is beneficial for those who like a lot of variety in the types of meditation they do, or for those who find a few good guided meditations and stick with them. However, the costs can add up if you’re constantly downloading new and different meditations to try.

Headspace, on the other hand, operates with a subscription model, where you can access a small subset of the content for free but then must pay a monthly fee of $12.95 (or deeply discounted one-year, two-year, and lifetime subscriptions) to have unlimited access to the full library. Like Omvana, Headspace has a variety of one-off and series guided meditations with different purposes. Headspace also has a gamification aspect, where you can unlock certain content by completing other meditation tracks. If you’re someone who likes to experiment with a multitude of different guided meditations, Headspace could be the best way to go as you have unlimited access to the entire catalog for one subscription fee. However, if you like the variety of different meditations created by different people, then Headspace could seem limited.

As is the case with most things related to meditation, each person will have their own preferences for which meditation app is most beneficial, and luckily both of these great apps have some free content available so you can give them a test drive before committing financially.

Learn more about Omvana here: http://www.omvana.com/

Learn more about Headspace here: https://www.headspace.com/

Have another suggestion for a great meditation app? Let us know in the comments below!