The Best Free Yoga Apps and Top Free Meditation Apps

It is now Autumn, and although I love Spooky Season as much as the next person (if not more), the weight of the seasonal change can affect us all. The days grow shorter, and the air is chilly, leaving many symptoms of the infamous seasonal depression. That’s why October 10th, World Mental Health Day, is a great reminder and excuse to check in on your friends, family and most importantly yourself.

One of the most powerful ways to combat the seasonal blues I have found is mindfulness practices like meditation and yoga. Luckily, even if you have a busy day-to-day schedule or your budget is thin, you don’t have to shell out loads of money or time for yoga classes or guided meditation with a guru on the slopes of a Himalayan mountain. There are plenty of free yoga apps and free meditation apps that can bring more peace, calm, and emotional balance to your daily life. 

Our List of Free Yoga Apps

Even if you’ve never taken a yoga lesson before or are a seasoned yoga user, these free yoga apps can guide you through your mindfulness journey in the comfort of your home. 

Simply Yoga

Simply Yoga offers easy-to-understand, no-frills routines perfect for yoga beginners. The app features guided sessions ranging from 20 to 60 minutes long, making it easy to fit into a busy schedule. The instructions are easy to follow, giving you the confidence to start your mindfulness journey. 

 What we love: Great for beginners 

Track Yoga

Unlike 5-Minute Yoga, Track Yoga focuses on structured, in-depth programs designed to build strength, flexibility, and mental focus, depending on your goals. It has a useful progress-tracking feature that may motivate you if you love a structured journey, and the mental health benefit of seeing how far you have come cannot be understated. Track Yoga is free to use, and you can earn Kriya Points by completing sessions, which can be used to unlock more classes. There are also in-app purchases available to unlock all content if you would prefer. 

What we love: Progress tracking

Yoga for Beginners Mind+Body 

Much like Simply Yoga, Yoga for Beginners caters to, you guessed it, beginners. With clear instructions and visuals, it guides you through the basics of yoga and acts as a stepping stone before diving into more complex daily routines. 

What we love: Great for beginners

Down Dog 

Down Dog is usually a subscription-based Yoga app. However, thanks to its dedication to student mental health, it's free for four years for university students and teachers. Down Dog's best feature is its customisation options. You can adjust your sessions' pacing, style, and focus, making it a great yoga experience for all skill levels. No two sessions are the same, and you can feel the quality of the teaching.

What we love: Mental Health for students

FitOn

While FitOn isn’t precisely a yoga app, it offers free yoga classes and other fitness options such as pilates and HIIT workouts. There are even celebrity trainer videos. You can get a premium upgrade if you enjoy the app and want access to 100% of the features, such as licensed music, personalised meal plans and recipes.

What we love: Celebrity Trainer Videos

Do Yoga With Me

With a diverse range of trainers and over 500 classes available for free, the sheer variety and number of classes make DoYogaWithMe an excellent choice for a free yoga app. From quick stretches to deep relaxation sessions, plenty of options are available.

What we love: Huge range of free classes.

Our List of Free Meditation Apps

Meditation is a simple yet effective way to calm and centre yourself and take control of your racing thoughts. According to the NHS, studies show that mindfulness can help with stress, anxiety and depression. Their first recorded uses go back to the Indian Vedas in 1500 BCE, over 3500 years ago, which speaks to their effectiveness. These free meditation apps offer a range of guided sessions, from breathing exercises to deep meditation. 

Mindfulness.com

Mindfulness.com offers a selection of free guided meditations designed to help manage stress, improve sleep, and increase overall mindfulness. Their short, daily sessions can easily fit into your daily routine. The app is easy to use and curated by experts worldwide, which helps make mindfulness.com a high-quality meditative experience.

What we love: Expert-led meditation

Insight Tracker

Insight Timer is a free meditation app with over 100,000 free meditations. Due to its vast collection, it is a treasure trove for anyone looking to improve their mental health. You can choose from multiple topics, such as anxiety, sleep, gratitude, and more. Insight Timer also has community features that allow you to see how many people meditate with you, and it helps to know you’re not alone sometimes.

What we love: Huge collection of meditations.

Apple Watch Mindfulness App 

Okay, so technically, this isn’t free, as it is pre-installed on relatively expensive Apple Watches. But if you already have one, you may not know about this app, so it's worth mentioning. It comes with handy little features such as breathing and reflection exercises. I try to get in a quick, calming breathing exercise a few times a day, and I feel the benefits of just taking a short minute to slow down.

What we love: Pre-installed on Apple Watches.

Smiling Mind

Designed by professional psychologists from Australia, the Smiling Mind free meditation app offers programs for kids, teens, and adults, making it a fantastic choice for anyone who suffers from mental health issues or wants to become a little more mindful. Half of all adult mental health issues emerge before the age of 14, so Smiling Mind hopes to help combat this with its fun approaches to improving mindfulness. As they say, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

What we love: Great for all ages

Aura

Aura is a free meditation app that allows a 3-minute mindfulness session every two hours. However, it also has a premium feature that provides unlimited access to Aura’s features. Aura uses AI to personalise your mental health, mood and needs with short, bite-sized sessions that are perfect for quick little boosts throughout the day.

What we love: Tailored daily recommendations

Healthy Minds Program

The Healthy Minds Program meditation app is free, thanks to donations. By blending actual neuroscience with traditional forms of meditation, the Program aims to find the perfect balance to improve focus, awareness, mental health, and sense of purpose. Its scientific approach is helpful for the more sceptical people (like me) who need to know the how and why behind meditation and mindfulness.

What we love: Science-backed approach

Best Paid Yoga Apps

The above free yoga apps and free meditation apps are excellent resources for those who want to improve their mental and physical health on a budget and beginners who aren’t sure yet. However, several notable high-quality subscription-based apps exist for those more experienced or looking for a premium Yoga experience. 

Underbelly

Underbelly is a yoga app founded by Jessamyn Stanley that is focused on making yoga accessible and inclusive to everyone, regardless of body type. Teaching body positivity and self-acceptance through a yoga medium is a brilliant way to feel better about oneself. It's a breath of fresh air that helps everyone feel the benefits of yoga with zero judgment. It requires a subscription, but the good vibes Underbelly creates is worth it t many.

What we love: Body positivity

5-Minute Yoga

Do you have a hectic schedule? 5-Minute Yoga is an app perfect for squeezing in a quick session whenever you need a little boost or a reset. It has simple poses and easy instructions designed for busy people who may typically skip out on their wellness breaks due to time constraints. 5-Minute Yoga offers mindfulness in bite-size portions that are valuable in the modern world. It comes at a subscription cost, but it is one of the best bite-sized yoga resources for busy bees.

What we love: Bite-sized yoga sessions

Yoga-Go

Much like 5-minute Yoga, the Yoga Go app is designed for busy people. It offers short, customised routines and workouts tailored to your needs, fitness levels, and goals. Whether you're looking for flexibility, weight loss, or stress reduction, there is something for you. 

What we love: Personalised and quick.

Grokker

Grokker focuses more on overall fitness and wellness than a focused mindfulness journey app but includes various high-quality yoga classes. Being more fitness-focused isn’t a bad thing, though, as the NHS recommends regular exercise as it is proven to assist with symptoms of anxiety, depression and stress. The app covers everything from Vinyasa flows to Yin Yoga. The quality is excellent and feels premium, but sadly comes at a cost after a 14-day free trial. There is, however, a limited number of videos you can watch on the free version.

What we love: Exercise and fitness focussed

Best Paid Meditation Apps

Waking Up by Sam Harris

The Sam Harris meditation app, ‘Waking Up’, is similar to the Healthy Minds Program because it blends neuroscience with philosophy and traditional mindfulness practices. Sam Harris is known for his calm and collected approach to meditation, and the app feels like a mini-retreat from the world's stresses in your pocket. 

What We Love: Guided by Sam Harris

Calm

Calm is known for its bedtime sounds and celebrity-guided sleep and meditation stories. It features huge names such as Cillian Murphy, Jerome Flynn, Matthew McConaughey, and many more. Unfortunately, because of the many features Calm offers, it does have a paywall, but Calm often has 40% deals for new customers. If you have problems meditating and sleeping, it is a worthwhile subscription.

What We Love: Celebrity Guided Sessions

Headspace

Headspace is a great starting point for beginners. It offers some of the most simple and approachable meditations on the market wrapped in an easy-to-use app perfect for anyone just starting their meditative journey. Sadly, Headspace is not free, and a subscription is needed for its content library, but it is known to offer free premium subscriptions. For example, Headspace gave NHS workers free access to help them deal with the stress of their vital work.

What we love: Perfect for beginners.

Hopefully, the above Yoga and Meditation apps can help you in your mental health journey this Autumn; however, sometimes, instead of yoga, all we need is a little me time, so check out our guide to levelling up your home pampering routine on a budget for some great tips.

Remember, being proactive with yoga, meditation, and exercise is great. But your mental health is just as important as your physical health, and speaking about it is never a waste of anyone's time. If you feel you need help, tell someone or visit the NHS page for advice. Every mind matters.