The short answer
The highest-scoring breathing app is Othership, for music-led, cinematic sessions and live classes. If you want a cheaper guided library with a free tier, choose Breathwrk (about $49 a year). If you want the app to measure your body while you breathe, choose Inhale, which uses Apple Watch HRV. If you do not want to pay, iBreathe and Breathe2Relax are free and do the basics well.
What do breathing exercises actually do?
Slow, controlled breathing is one of the few relaxation tools with a clear physiological mechanism. A systematic review of slow-breathing studies found that breathing at around six breaths per minute raised parasympathetic ("rest and digest") activity and heart rate variability, and was linked to better emotional control and well-being (Zaccaro et al., 2018, Frontiers in Human Neuroscience). The studies were mostly small, so treat the effect as real but modest.
A randomised Stanford study compared five minutes a day of three breathing practices with mindfulness meditation for a month. Cyclic sighing (a double inhale, then a long exhale) gave the largest improvement in mood and the biggest drop in breathing rate (Balban et al., 2023, Cell Reports Medicine). The practical lesson: a few minutes of slow breathing with long exhales, done daily, is the part that matters. An app helps you do it consistently; it does not add a special effect of its own.
Read more: the physiological sigh, box breathing, 4-7-8 breathing and how to find your resonance breathing rate.
How to choose a breathing app
Guided patterns. Most apps play a timer or voice that tells you when to inhale and exhale. This is enough for most people. Pay for a bigger library, better audio or structured programmes, not for the breathing itself.
Biofeedback. A biofeedback app measures your body (usually heart rate variability from a watch or sensor) and shows how it responds while you breathe. It helps you find what calms you and track progress over weeks. In this list, Inhale is the biofeedback pick, and it needs an Apple Watch.
Free. A free timer is fine for box breathing, 4-7-8 or cyclic sighing. iBreathe is a clean timer; Breathe2Relax was built by the US National Center for Telehealth & Technology for stress; research on the app itself is limited to small pilot studies. Prana Breath has a large free tier and a one-time $10 unlock.
Breathing apps compared
| App | Price | Platform note | Best for | |---|---|---|---| | Breathwrk | $49/yr, free tier | iOS, Android, web | guided daily practice on a budget | | Othership | $129.99/yr, 5 free sessions | phone app | music-led sessions, live classes | | SOMA Breath | $99/yr, free trial | phone app | rhythmic, music-paced breathing | | Wim Hof Method | $42.99/yr, free tier | phone app | Wim Hof rounds and cold protocols | | Open | $120/yr, free trial | phone app | breath + meditation + movement | | Pause | $90/yr, free trial | phone app | longer somatic sessions | | Inhale | $60/yr | Apple Watch needed for biofeedback | HRV biofeedback | | Prana Breath | free, $10 one-time unlock | Android-first | custom breathing patterns | | iBreathe | free ($5 to remove ads) | iPhone + Apple Watch | simple free timer | | Breathe2Relax | free | phone app | evidence-backed free stress tool |
Prices are list prices from our individual reviews and can change; check the app store before you subscribe.
How we ranked them
Every app was scored against ONDA's published review methodology: six weighted criteria, with session library and technique coverage carrying the most weight because they drive daily-use depth and long-term retention.
All ten were assessed from app documentation, App Store listings, founder public communications and independent 2026 user reviews rather than hands-on testing.
Best Breathwork Apps: which should you buy?
Three buying questions resolve the category cleanly:
What do you want from breathwork? Cinematic music + community → Othership. Guided daily practice on a budget → Breathwrk. Single-method depth (Wim Hof) → Wim Hof Method app. Somatic / emotional release → Pause. HRV biofeedback → Inhale. Hybrid breath + meditation + movement → Open.
What budget? Free: iBreathe, Breathe2Relax, Prana Breath (mostly). $40–$60/yr: Wim Hof Method ($42.99, courses extra), Breathwrk ($49), Inhale ($60). $90–$130/yr: Pause, SOMA Breath, Open, Othership ($129.99).
Platform? All major apps cover iOS + Android. Prana Breath is the best Android-first option. Inhale requires Apple Watch for its biofeedback differentiator.
Othership leads overall and owns the cinematic-experience premium tier. Breathwrk is the budget guided-library default. The free tier (iBreathe, Breathe2Relax) is credible. Skip apps that overstate physiological claims or hide behind ceremony framing without instructor credentials.