Aura vs. Calm: Which App is Better for Getting A Restful Night’s Sleep

You are likely here because you have difficulty sleeping and are prioritising finding a solution for a restful night’s sleep. Thankfully, apps by Aura and Calm offer a holistic way to improve the quality of your sleep. Listening to relaxing meditation tracks before bedtime and playing a sleep meditation during the night can help you get the deep rest you need. Let’s explore and compare two top meditation apps, Aura and Calm, to learn what makes them unique, how they can help you get a better night’s sleep and which one is the best solution for you.

Aura vs. Calm at a Glance

Aura Meditation App

Aura, “Spotify for mental wellness,” is the all-in-one app for mental wellness and sleep that provides the world’s most extensive mental wellness content library and community. Over 8 million people choose Aura to find peace, and Aura has won the “Best of Apple” award.

By partnering with hundreds of top coaches & therapists worldwide as creators, Aura offers the world’s largest premium collection of meditations, stories, sleep tracks, life coaching, cognitive behavioural therapy, breath work, hypnosis, prayer and much more.

Unlike traditional meditation apps that provide one-size-fits-all content libraries created by a few coaches, Aura leverages AI to provide anyone with personalised access to its all-in-one mental wellness library that continuously learns what works for you. Moreover, you can connect with the community on Aura Live hosted by our coaches and receive 1-1 coaching directly on Aura. Aura is the one app you need to transform your well being and life.

Calm Meditation App

Calm, on the other hand, offers tranquillity and simplicity. Simple and user-friendly, Calm offers a diverse range of meditation tracks and sleep stories, each crafted to guide you gently into the realm of relaxation. From calming sounds of nature to celebrity-narrated tales, Calm provides a versatile toolkit for your bedtime routine. With features like the Daily Calm and Sleep Timer, it caters to both meditation novices and seasoned practitioners, aiming to make the journey to a peaceful night's sleep accessible for everyone.

Aura Meditation App overview

Aura’s Features

• Sleep content variety: Aura offers a vast amount of high-quality, innovative sleep content, including meditations to prepare for sleep, bedtime stories, sleep hypnosis, energy healing, sleep meditations and soundscapes, creating an all-in-one library for well being.
• Mindfulness coaching: Aura provides content to cultivate mindfulness beyond sleep, branching deeper into different areas of your life. Additional content categories include Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Breath work, Prayer, Health Coaching and more for a diverse approach to mindfulness.
• Live sessions and Community: Life coaches offer 1-1 and interactive live group sessions with coaching and meditation, giving you the interactive opportunity to participate in a mindfulness community.

Aura’s benefits

• 30,000+ tracks: The largest curated and professionally edited track selection for wellness.
• Get more sleep: Hundreds of Aura’s professional coaches create a massive library of remarkable, relaxing sleep meditations designed to make your nights truly restful and enjoyable. 
• Customisation: Explore a thoughtfully curated selection of meditations tailored to your different moods as they change daily. Aura uses AI technology for impeccable personaliation.
• Life coaching: Enjoy coaching tracks, optional 1-1 coaching sessions and free live sessions with coaches, all aimed to help you overcome mindfulness challenges and improve lifestyle habits impacting your sleep.

Aura - What Could Be Better

• Content for adults: Limited information on kid-specific content.
• Limited free features: While pricing is competitive, there is no free access to longer sleep meditations. However, 3-minute meditations and Aura Live sessions are free to all users.

Aura pricing

Aura’s limited version: Free

A Premium subscription gets you unlimited access to all meditations, life coaching, stories, music, hypnosis, offline capabilities, and much more.

‍Annual Plan: US$ 69.99 with 7-day free trial

Monthly Plan: US$ 11.99

Lifetime Plan: US$ 399.99

Family Plan: (upgrade to add more members in one subscription) US$ 119.99

Calm Meditation App Overview

Calm’s Core Features

• Meditation and sleep focused: Calm offers guided sessions and flexible meditation timers, with more open-style meditation offerings for experienced meditators.
• Variety: Its curated selection, ranging from nature sounds to narratives voiced by well-known celebrity personalities, presents a diverse toolkit for bedtime tranquility. 
• Relaxing music: A dedicated music section that can set the mood for sleep. 

Calm’s Benefits

• Suitable for all levels. Calm's wide variety of meditations caters to both meditation novices and seasoned practitioners
• Enjoy more sleep. Calm’s meditations, tranquil music and sleep timers can help you get a great night’s sleep.
• Family-specific content: Calm includes mindfulness content for kids and a family plan at a lower price point.

Calm - What Could Be Better

• Difficult to navigate: Calm’s user interface makes it challenging to search, sort and find content.
• Limited content: Calm’s offers fewer tracks with less content variety. Tracks are more meditation focused, offering less support on making the important lifestyle changes required to improve sleep habits and mindfulness.
• Higher monthly cost: Calm’s monthly pricing is higher than Aura’s.

Calm’s pricing:

Calm’s limited version: Free

For access to all features: 

‍Annual Plan: US$ 69.99 with 7-day free trial

Monthly Plan: US$ 14.99

Family Plan: $99/year

Calm or Aura: Which should you choose?

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Conclusion: Choose Aura for a Restful Night’s Sleep

While both Aura and Calm offer sleep meditations and sleep stories to help you get a better night’s rest, Aura’s vast variety of content, including over 30,000 tracks creates the most comprehensive solution. Overall, Aura offers more tools, all-in-one place, for those serious about enhancing well being and self-care, improving sleep quality and cultivating a mindfulness lifestyle.  Aura’s ability to suggest content for your mood and personality makes the app easier to navigate, so you will find the helpful content you need to improve relaxation and enhance your sleep.  Join Aura for remarkable sleep meditations designed to make your nights truly restful and enjoyable.