6 best self-care apps for meditation, mindfulness and more

There’s a number of apps available on the market that look to track and improve personal habits or create a better sense of overall wellbeing thanks to clever features and goal-setting abilities.

While AI mental health apps are also becoming a popular way to keep yourself in check, self-care apps often use gamification or utilize social sharing features to make the process even more motivational or to help you share your progress with others.

Users can access these apps from anywhere, any time, with in-app courses often available in various lengths, making it easy to fit self-care practices into a busy schedule. Additionally, many self-care apps offer personalized recommendations and feedback, based on user data and preferences, helping you to stay motivated and on track.

From top productivity apps to health and fitness products, there's a self-care app out there to suit every need.

Pros: Lots of features, Trusted brand, Easy to use

Cons: Requires sign up to join, Fully paid (7 day free trial available)

Key features: Guided meditations, Sleep Stories, Music library, Breathing exercises, Masterclasses, Personalized recommendations

Cost: Approx $50 per year

Whether you fancy trying out meditation for the first time or are seeking a peaceful night’s rest, Calm uses soothing sounds and music, guided meditations and Sleep Stories to help its users find their peaceful place. From the outset, Calm seeks to give its customers personalized recommendations based on their own personal goals and the interface is welcoming and assuring.

Masterclasses are taught by world-renowned experts in the field of mindfulness, soundscapes and nature sounds and there’s even breathing exercises to help you relax. Its music library features well-known brands such as Disney, while Sleep Stories are narrated by some familiar voices from the entertainment industry such as Matthew McConaughey.

Not sure if you can find time for yourself? Guided meditations are available in lengths of anywhere from 3 to 25 minutes, so you can choose the perfect length to fit your schedule, while the app also offers a 10-minute Daily Calm feature so you’ll always find time to prioritize yourself.

Read Calm reviews from our community

Pros: Easy to use and set up goals, Easy to track progress

Cons: Can under or overestimate required calorie intake, Needs consistent tracking to work

Key features: Calorie tracking, Can connect step trackers, Barcode scanner (Premium), Meal scan (Premium), Track daily fasting periods (Premium)

Cost: Free to download, approx $20 per month/ $82 per year for Premium

A great way to track your diet and exercise progress is to use a journal. MyFitnessPal allows its users to easily count calories thanks to its manual add functionality, or scanning abilities (available on a Premium plan) that uses either a barcode on the food’s packaging or your phone’s camera to identify and match food with its nutritional information.

To get started, you provide the app with your goals, indicating how much weight you would ideally like to lose per week, and it calculates the amount of calories required to reach your target. Meal plans are available, and the app will even remind you when to add your nutritional information to the diary. Be sure to connect your favorite step tracker to automatically track your steps and the calories burned.

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Pros: Fun approach to a common problem, cute design, easy to use

Cons: Stores sleep data

Key features: User leaderboard, Daily rewards, Streak days

Cost: Free to use, Offers in-app purchases

Highly rated in the category ‘Web3 Product of the Year’ at our Golden Kitty Awards, Sleepagotchi is a seriously clever approach to keeping a consistent sleep schedule. The app works by rewarding users with free NFTs and crypto tokens - delightfully called SHEEP - whenever they stick to their sleep schedule.

Every morning Sleepagotchi provides you with free digital collectibles and points that you can then use to decorate and upgrade your own virtual room. You get 1 collectible every morning as standard, but 2 if you went to bed on time, essentially gamifying what's typically thought of as an unpleasant experience and helping you to build healthy sleeping habits in a fun way.

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Pros: Great for exercise motivation, Essentially earning money for exercising, Works with Apple Watch

Cons: Requires sign up to join

Key features: Ability to connect popular fitness apps, Activity tracker, Detailed progress stats

Cost: Free

Does being rewarded for exercising sound like a dream? Not if you use nFIT Club, a digital fitness app that lets its users earn an in-app digital currency called FIT coins that can then be exchanged for goods and services, such as gift cards, in the rewards marketplace.

This handy fitness companion lets you connect your favorite fitness apps then track your progress using its activity tracker and provides detailed progress stats that chart everything from heart rate to pace. It even works with Apple Watch to provide real-time heart rate data.

For added motivation, there’s also weekly challenges that let you earn extra bonus FIT Coins but one drawback is you do need to join so be prepared to sign up from the outset.

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Pros: Clear goal, Easy to use, Has the feel-good factor

Cons: Tree can ‘die’ when a notification is received or if your screen locks

Key features: Multiple timer modes, detailed stats, ability to visualize your forest

Cost: $3.99

If you frequently find yourself spending too much time on your phone when you’d prefer to focus on other things, Forest could be the perfect app for you. The fantastic feel-good concept works by rewarding users who spend time away from their devices, allowing them to grow virtual trees and earn coins which can then be saved up and used to help plant real trees in five countries in Africa.

It works by the user planting a virtual tree, then setting the time to the duration they choose - anywhere between 10 minutes and two hours. Once the tree has begun to grow, the user is then required to stay away from their phone for a set amount of time or their tree will wither and die helping them to stick to their goal.

It’s available as both an app and a Chrome extension to help you stay focused no matter where you are. Simple, affordable and caring for the planet? It’s a win-win!

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Pros: Ideal for meditation beginners or pros, Multiple paid plans available (e.g for students and families)

Cons: Requires sign up to join

Key features: Meditations, Sleep sounds, Yoga and fitness, Focus music, Courses

Cost: Approx $12 monthly / $63 annually (other plans are available)

Headspace focuses on a number of life improvement areas including stress management and ways to get a better night’s sleep, but its meditation features are of particular note.

The app can teach you meditation in just a few minutes a day thanks to its easy-to-follow courses. There’s both guided and unguided options meaning you can choose to have your meditation led by a teacher, co-founder and former Buddhist monk Andy Puddicombe, or customize the ways in which you’d like to meditate on your own.

Using the Pro series, users can train themselves to sit in longer periods of silence or choose a non-guided option in the Classic singles section.

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