I’ve talked about the Calm app before in this article, because this app helps me deal with anxiety a lot. That’s why I decided to buy a subscription a while ago, so I can use every Calm app feature. After using the paid version of the app for about four months, the time has come for me to review the app. Mainly because it’s one of the most popular meditation apps in the world. And I also really, really like it even though I’ve found some points Calm could improve. So let’s get into it, right diddy!
Product: The Calm app
Brand: Calm
Rating: 8
Promise: ‘Calm is the #1 app for meditation and mindfulness. Enjoy 100+ guided meditations to help you manage anxiety, lower stress and sleep better. Calm is the perfect mindfulness app for beginners, but also includes hundreds of programs for intermediate and advanced users,’ according to the Calm website.
Price: $59,99 per year, which is about €53,40. Or you can pay $399,99 once and use the app for life, without having to pay ever again. There’s also a seven day free trial.
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Pros
Calm calls itself the number one app for meditation and sleep. I’m not a fan of meditating at all! Mainly because it seems to make the anxiety I sometimes experience even worse. I personally bought the subscription for the sleep stories. That’s what I use the app for on a daily basis. Something I’m quite surprised about, because I’m not that good at creating sleeping rituals. But let’s talk features first. The Calm app is very easy to use, and it has a lot of options.
You can use it to meditate, listen to music or soothing sounds. You can also do breathing exercises, listen to masterclasses and calm your body with stretch routines. There are also a lot of bedtime stories to choose from. They even have a pretty cool kids’ section. I think that all of these options are definitely worth the money. Especially because there really is a lot to choose from and I like having options. I’ve also noticed they add new items regularly.
The app is also very easy to use, the menu speaks for itself. You can find your favorite music or author with the search option. Everything is categorized and the clear pictures attached to the soundtracks makes it easy to recognize your favorites. Besides an easy to use menu and beautiful visuals, the sound is actually quite good on my Ipad. I also tried it on my Iphone, but I prefer my Ipad at night. Especially because my Ipad cover makes sure I can’t see any flashing lights, which helps me calm down even faster.
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Cons
As I’ve mentioned before, I really don’t like meditating. The Calm app has gotten me to try it a few times, but there’s one thing that’s really bothering me. It’s the female voice they use for the meditations I really want to try. The lady voicing the tracks is probably a lovely person, however her voice makes me want to throw my Ipad through the window. I personally think that for the money I’m spending, I should be able to choose from different voices per track. A female voice often isn’t very calming and soothing for me. A deep manly voice does do the trick, so I would love more options with male voices.
I do listen to the bedtime stories a lot, those are my favorite! Therefor this isn’t really a bad point, but I wish there were more stories to choose from. And again, I would like to be able to switch between male and female voices. A lot of the bedtime stories I want to listen to are recorded by women. And most of their voices sound way too ‘vocal fry or LA girl’ to me. I would love some more Matthew Mcconaughey or Stephen Fry. Their voices are amazing and so nice to fall asleep to.
I did file a ticket to the Calm app about the subject and they said they are trying to improve these things, but they can’t tell me when. They also responded pretty fast, I think I got a reply within 1,5 days. The last thing I would like to see improved is putting stories on a loop. There is a great function to do this with music, you can even set a timer if you like. It’s not an option for bedtime stories yet, something I would love. Because sometimes it takes me longer to fall asleep and having to put the story on again wakes me up too much. Which obviously defeats the purpose of the bedtime story.
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The verdict
I will definitely renew my subscription when the year ends. I really love how the Calm app helps me to actually calm down by the end of the day. To me, it’s definitely worth the money as it does really help me sleep better. The paid version also gives you a lot of extra options, which I think are great. Even though I paid in full for the whole year, per month it would cost me less than €5. A price I think is more than fair for such a beautiful and truly helpful app.
Would you buy the paid version of the Calm app?
Kaya-Quintana
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