Best breathing apps without a subscription (2026)
Seven breathing apps you can own outright — free, or one payment, forever. No monthly fees, no "free trial" that quietly renews. Prices below were checked on the US App Store in July 2026, and yes: our own app is in the table, limits included.
How we picked
One rule: no subscription required for the core breathing experience. Apps that are excellent but subscription-based — Breathwrk, The Breathing App — sit in a separate note at the end, because pretending they don't exist wouldn't be honest. A disclosure: we make Reground, one of the apps below. Judge for yourself.
The comparison
| App | Price (US) | Rating | Genuinely best at |
|---|---|---|---|
| iBreathe | free · $2.99–3.99 unlock | 4.9★ (18K) | Custom patterns on every Apple device — iPhone to Watch to Vision Pro |
| Reground | free tier · $5.99 once | new (2026) | Breathing is one of 22 techniques — a full anxiety toolkit with a haptic pacer, organized by how you feel |
| Awesome Breathing | free (donations) | 4.9★ (1.3K) | A genuinely free pacer with custom programs — no strings |
| BreathSesh | free · $7.99 once | too new | Box breathing and 4-7-8 fully offline, with iCloud sync |
| Undulate | free · $3.99 once | too new | Haptic-guided wave visual for box breathing and 4-7-8 |
| Breathe+ | $3.99 per module · $69.99 all | 4.7★ (3.4K) | Beautiful full-screen breath visualization, intervals from 1 to 32 seconds |
| Apple Mindfulness | free, built-in | — | Already on your Apple Watch — haptic breathing with zero setup |
Prices and ratings checked on the US App Store, July 2026. Regional prices vary.
Which one should you get?
If you want a dedicated breathing app with a track record: iBreathe
4.9★ across 18,000 ratings, works on every Apple device you own.
The customization is the draw — any inhale/hold/exhale pattern you can dream up, on iPhone, iPad, Watch, Mac, even Apple TV. A few dollars to remove ads and you own it. If breathing exercises are the whole job, this is the safe pick.
If breathing is one tool in a bigger anxiety kit: Reground (ours)
$5.99 once for 22 techniques — breathing patterns plus grounding, writing tools, and body practices, organized by how you feel right now.
The pacer orb swells and settles with gentle haptics — the phone breathes with you. Nothing you do in it leaves your phone: no account, no analytics, and the App Store privacy label reads "Data Not Collected." Honest limits: it's new (launched 2026), iPhone-only for now, and there's no audio-meditation library — it's a toolkit, not a content service. Box breathing and five other techniques are free forever.
If you want to pay nothing at all: Awesome Breathing + Apple's built-in
Both genuinely free — one by choice, one already in your pocket.
Awesome Breathing runs on donations and doesn't nag. And if you own an Apple Watch, the built-in Mindfulness app already does haptic-paced breathing — no download, no signup. Try free first; pay only if you want more.
What about Breathwrk and The Breathing App?
Both are good products with real followings — Breathwrk has 100+ exercises and a 4.8★ rating from 18,000 reviews; The Breathing App pairs a minimalist design with music by Moby. Both run on subscriptions ($69.99/yr and $44.99/yr respectively at July 2026 US prices), which puts them outside this list's one rule. If a subscription doesn't bother you, they're worth a look.
The honest bottom line
Breathing techniques themselves are free — they're in our guides, in the NHS website, everywhere. What you're paying any app for is pacing, reminders, and how it feels in the hand. A one-time price means the app earns that money once, honestly — instead of betting you'll forget to cancel.
Reground: 22 techniques, honest evidence labels, nothing leaves your phone. Free to try — six techniques, forever.
$5.99 once unlocks everything. No subscription. Ever.
Prices & facts checked · July 2026