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Headspace: Meditation app with structured courses and animated teaching videos, strongest for complete beginners learning meditation fundamentals
Calm
Sleep, meditation and relaxation
As of 30 August 2026, Calm has a free plan and paid plans start at $12.99/month. Calm is the leading app for sleep, meditation, and relaxation. Softwr lists it under Healthcare. Calm is made by Calm Inc., launched in 2012, available on iOS, Android, Web.
Overview
What Calm does
Calm is the leading app for sleep, meditation, and relaxation. It features Sleep Stories narrated by celebrities, guided meditations, breathing programs, stretching exercises, and relaxing music. The app helps users reduce stress, improve sleep quality, and build mindfulness habits.
What people use it for
- Workout tracking
- Nutrition management
- Health monitoring
- Fitness coaching
- Wellness improvement
Related searches
The honest half
Where it falls short
Concrete and checkable, so you can decide whether any of them matter to you. This is the half of a review a vendor will not write about Calm.
- Free tier is severely limited, with almost all content requiring payment
- Only one meditation per day included in free tier (Daily Calm)
- Annual pricing is among the highest in the meditation app category
- Less extensive free content library compared to Insight Timer (which has 100,000+ free meditations)
- Limited customization of meditation sessions; mostly follows Calm's curated content
Cross-shopped
What people choose instead of Calm
Each pairing was judged by two reviewers asking whether a buyer would genuinely weigh the two against each other. The ones that failed were deleted rather than published.
- CalmvsBrain.fm
Brain.fm: Focuses on productivity and focus through science-backed audio sessions, emphasizing functional music and binaural beats
Pricing
What Calm costs
Taken from the vendor's own pricing page. Prices move, so check before you buy.
Free
Free
- Daily Calm
- Select Sleep Stories
- 1 breathing exercise
- Limited program access
Premium Monthly
$12.99 /mo
- All content unlocked
- Sleep Stories
- Masterclasses
- Daily Move videos
- Unlimited usage
Premium Annual
$69.99 /yr
- All content unlocked
- Sleep Stories
- Masterclasses
- Daily Move videos
- Unlimited usage
Family Plan
$99.99 /yr
- Up to 6 accounts
- All Premium content
- Separate customization per member
Capabilities
Features
Sleep Stories
Guided meditations
Daily Calm
Breathing exercises
Calm Body stretching
Apple Health
Integration with Apple Health
Apple Watch
Integration with Apple Watch
Samsung Health
Integration with Samsung Health
Ios support
Available on ios
Android support
Available on android
Web support
Available on web
Answered, with sources
Questions people ask
Each answer names the page it came from, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.
What does Calm's free tier include?
The free plan includes 1 breathing exercise, Day 1 of programs, select Sleep Stories, and Scenes, plus the famous Daily Calm feature and bedtime stories. Most content is locked behind the paid tier.
SourceWhat is included in Calm Premium?
Calm Premium (all paid tiers are identical) includes The Daily Calm, Sleep Stories narrated by celebrities, exclusive music playlists, masterclasses taught by experts, Daily Move video lessons for stretching and mindful movement, and the entire content library.
SourceHow much does Calm Premium cost?
Monthly subscription is $12.99/month, annual is $69.99-$79.99/year, Family Plan is $99.99/year (includes 1 Admin + 5 Members), and lifetime membership is available as a one-time payment.
SourceDoes Calm offer pricing for organizations or teams?
Yes. Calm offers organizational plans for groups of 5-300 people with per-seat pricing based on total 'covered lives.' Larger groups receive deeper discounts. Pricing is significantly reduced compared to individual subscriptions.
SourceDoes Calm work offline?
Calm's app functions offline for already-downloaded content. Downloaded Sleep Stories, meditations, and Music programs can be accessed without an internet connection.
SourceBehind it
Who makes Calm
- Company
- Calm Inc.
- Based in
- San Francisco, CA
- Founders
- Michael Acton Smith, Alex Tew
Timeline
Calm over time
- Acquisition2022-02-01
Calm acquires Ripple Health Group to build mental health care offerings
Source - Milestone2020-12-01
Calm reaches $2 billion valuation
Source - Funding2020-01-01$75m
Series C funding of $75M from Lightspeed Venture Partners
Source - Funding2019-01-01
Series B funding reaches $1 billion valuation
Source - Founded2012-05-04
Calm founded by Michael Acton Smith and Alex Tew
Source
Keep looking
Where to go from Calm
- Calm alternativesEvery product people weigh against it
- Calm pricingPlans, floors and what the tiers exclude
- Calm badgesWhich rules it meets, and the figure behind each
- All Healthcare softwareThe full category
- Best Healthcare softwareThe shortlist, and how it was cut
Best Healthcare software for
Compare Calm with
- Headspace
- Lyra Health
- SilverCloud by Amwell
- SimplePractice
- BetterHelp
- Ginger
- Koa Health
- TherapyNotes
- MDLive
- Meru Health
- Talkspace
- TheraNest
- Epocrates
- Figure 1
- Fullscript
- GNU Health
- GoodRx
- Halaxy
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Softwr does not host reviews and shows no star rating for Calm, because a rating we did not collect is not ours to publish. What is here is the pricing and platform detail from the vendor’s own pages, limitations we could state concretely, and alternatives a reviewer confirmed people weigh against it. Tell us if any of it is wrong.
More on Calm
Calm alternatives
What people switch to, and what they give up
Calm pricing
Every tier, and where the cost actually lands
Compare Calm
Put it head to head with anything we hold
Calm badge
Its rating, and an embed for your own site
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