Aura vs. Headspace: Which Meditation App Should You Choose?

Meditation is a great way to improve mental well-being and developing a meditation practice is more accessible now than ever before with many meditation apps readily available at the push of a button. But with so many apps available, how do you know which one you should choose? 

Two of the leading meditation apps are Aura and Headspace. Let’s compare them and see which one is the best fit for you. 

Aura vs. Headspace at a Glance

Aura Meditation App

Aura stands out from other meditation apps by offering 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 of over 30,000 pieces of content 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.

Headspace Meditation App

When you log in to Headspace, the first thing you notice is the fun and cheerful appearance making it very welcoming to beginners. 

Headspace provides tools to enhance mindfulness every day with meditation, sleep casts, and focus exercises led by their team of expert facilitators. 

For beginners, Headspace offers a 10-Day Basics course to teach you the basics of meditation and to begin creating a daily habit of meditation. 

Aura Meditation App Overview

Core Features of Aura:

1. Extensive Library: 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.
2. Personalised Recommendations: Daily recommendations based on your needs and mood to help you develop a consistent meditation practice.
3. Live Meditations: Experience the joy of coming together for a group meditation from your home. These offer the benefits of being able to interact with your favourite meditation coaches to enhance your practice, and they are free to attend at all levels of membership.
4. Track your progress: Aura connects with Apple Health to track your progress. Over time, you can watch as your sleep, mindfulness and mood improve with 
5. Challenges: Aura offers challenges to help you develop your daily meditation practice. Each day, you’ll be guided through a life coaching or meditation track focused on a specific theme.

Positives of Aura:

A personalised approach to meditation. You are a unique individual and your meditation practice should be unique too. With over 30,000 recordings on Aura, you are sure to find the right fit for you. Aura simplifies this process by making personalised recommendations for you based on your mood and individual needs.

‍Great for all levels. Aura offers meditations for all levels of experience, making it easy for beginners to develop their meditation practice, and for more experienced mediators to enhance their practice. 

Downsides of Aura:

Limited access with the free membership. With the basic membership, your access to the recorded tracks is limited but you have full access to attend the live meditations. 

‍Overwhelming options. With so much content available on Aura, it can be overwhelming at first for new users. Aura’s personalised approach does help to offset this.

Pricing for Aura:

Free 7-day trial of all premium features

Limited Version: Access to 3-minute meditations and all Aura Live Sessions.

Premium Monthly Subscription: $11.99/Month 

Premium Annual Subscription: $69.99/year

Family Subscription: $119.99

Headspace Meditation App Overview

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Core Features of Headspace:

1. Timed meditations: Headspace offers meditations from 5-20 minutes so that you can always find something to fit into your schedule. 
2. Sleepcasts: Soothing stories to help you unwind and fall asleep with ease. 
3. Daily recommendations: Find daily recommendations on the home page based on different times of day; Start your day, Afternoon lift, and At night. 
4. Themed meditations: On the explore page you’ll find themed categories for you to choose your meditations from
5. Progress tracking: Track your progress by completing a survey of questions every 12 days. 

Positives of Headspace:

10-Day Basics Course. This is a great introduction to meditation for beginners to begin to develop a daily habit of meditation. 

‍Fun animations. The cheerful animations on Headspace are welcoming for newcomers and help to make meditation less daunting when starting.

What Could Be Better:

Limited options. Headspace has a small team of facilitators to guide your meditations which can be quite limiting. 

‍Beginner focused. With so much focus on content for beginners, this might not be the right app for more experienced mediators. 

Pricing for Headspace:

Limited Version: Free access to limited meditations

Monthly subscription: $12.99/month

Annual subscription: $69.99/yeah

Family subscription: $99.99/year for up to 6 members

Headspace vs. Aura: Variety of content

Headspace offers 100’s of meditations but if you’re looking for an all-in-one app for mental wellness, Aura has much more variety to offer with over 30,000 pieces of content to choose from including stories, sleep tracks, life coaching, cognitive behavioural therapy, breath work, hypnosis, prayer, and much more.

Headspace has a small team of expert content creators; Aura partners with 100’s of the world’s top coaches and therapists to bring you the most variety of content to choose from. 

Headspace vs. Aura: Live Meditations

Headspace offers group meditations which are difficult to find on the app and offer no interaction with the instructor or with other participants. 

Aura has Live sessions for Meditation and Life Coaching which are prominently featured on the homepage. These sessions are interactive through the group chat creating a community experience. If you miss a live session, the replays are made available.

Aura or Headspace; which should you choose?

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Conclusion : Choose Aura for Your Meditation App. 

Aura takes the lead here by offering the world's largest library of premium content with over 30,000 tracks to choose from created by hundreds of the world's top coaches and therapists. Whether you are a beginner or an advanced mediator, Aura has value to offer you. For beginners, you’ll find plenty of guided meditations as short as 3 minutes to ease you into meditations. For more advanced mediators, you’ll find longer meditations with lower guidance allowing you to grow and develop your practice further.Aura offers more than just meditation with its premium library of stories, sleep tracks, life coaching, cognitive behavioural therapy, breath work, hypnosis, prayer, and much more. Aura is the one app you need to transform your well-being and life.