9 Best Apps For Letting Go

App Name	Best For	Key Features	AC Rating	Pricing
Life7	Complete Mental Wellness	Binaural beats, CBT tools, hypnotherapy, 8D audio	4.8/5	Free trial, weekly/monthly/yearly plans
Calm	Sleep Stories and Relaxation	Sleep stories, guided meditations, masterclasses	4.5/5	Free version, premium subscription
Headspace	Beginners Learning Meditation	Structured courses, sleep content, mindful movement	4.6/5	Free trial, monthly/yearly plans
Insight Timer	Free Meditation Content	200,000+ free meditations, customizable timer, community	4.7/5	Free, optional premium
Balance	Personalized Meditation Plans	Daily personalized sessions, sleep content, progress tracking	4.4/5	1 year free trial, then subscription
Happify	Gamified Positive Psychology	CBT games, mood tracks, AI coach	4.2/5	Free version, premium subscription
Sanvello	Anxiety and Depression Support	CBT tools, mood tracking, peer support	4.3/5	Free version, premium subscription
Daylio	Mood Tracking Without Writing	Icon based journaling, statistics, habit tracking	4.5/5	Free version, premium subscription
The Release App	Mindfulness and Tapping	EFT tapping, mindfulness exercises, stress reduction	4.1/5	Subscription based

#1. Life7 – Best for Complete Mental Wellness

Life7 is a simple and effective way to improve your mental wellness. It helps you sleep better, relieve stress, reduce anxiety, and refocus your attention. This app offers an extensive library of guided meditations, sleep stories, breathwork sessions, exclusive music, CBT tools, and mental exercises.

What makes Life7 stand out is its incredible range of content. You get everything from transcendental meditation to hypnotherapy. There are binaural beats, solfeggio frequencies, and even 8D sleep audio. The app covers stress management, anger management, PTSD self help, and much more.

Life7 adds new daily sessions every single day. This includes daily check ins, daily meditation, daily music therapy, and daily wisdom. You can track your meditation progress through a custom dashboard and build streaks to share with friends.

Key Features:

• Delta, Theta, Alpha, Beta, and Gamma wave music with pure binaural beats and isochronic tones
• SOS sessions to calm anxiety and panic attacks plus cognitive behavioral therapy tools
• Gamified approach where you earn XP and unlock premium soundscapes through meditation

What I like: I really appreciate how Life7 combines so many different approaches to mental wellness in one place. Whether you are a beginner, intermediate, or advanced user, you will find your home in Life7. The backdrop mode lets you mix soundscapes with other audios like meditations and sleep stories. The nervous system reset feature and vagus nerve stimulation options are things you rarely find in other apps. The lucid dreaming sessions and dream wave hypnosis add something truly unique to the experience.

What I don’t like: The free content available is a bit limited compared to what you unlock with a subscription. You will need to upgrade to access the full library of features and premium soundscapes.

Pricing: 7 day free trial available with weekly, monthly, and yearly plan options. Frequent special offers are available.

Platforms: iOS and Android

#2. Calm – Best for Sleep Stories and Relaxation

Calm is a fairly user friendly and visually impressive mindfulness and meditation app that features meditations on a range of topics, has excellent content for kids, and offers some beginner level meditations. The app has been downloaded over 50 million times and continues to grow.

Once you open the app, you are invited to complete the Daily Calm or locate a meditation more specific to soothing what you have going on like anxiety, stress, or a desire to break bad habits. The app also offers walking meditations, body scans, and masterclasses.

The Sleep Stories feature is probably what Calm is most famous for. Users who want access to Sleep Stories like bedtime stories read by famous people should go with Calm. Celebrities like Matthew McConaughey have recorded content for the app.

Key Features:

• Sleep Stories narrated by celebrities to help you drift off to sleep naturally
• Daily Calm feature with new content each day for consistent practice
• Calm for Kids section with age appropriate meditations and stories

What I like: If you like a trendier feel and a heavier influence of nature, you are going to like the Calm app. The visual design is gorgeous with beautiful nature backgrounds. The variety of content means there is something for every mood and situation. The music section is also more dynamic and engaging than what you find in other apps.

What I don’t like: Some Calm app negative reviews mention that most features require a paid subscription and note that there are many alternatives available at a lower price than Calm. The app can feel overwhelming with so many options available.

Pricing: Calm costs monthly or annually and comes with a seven day free trial. A lifetime membership option is also available.

Platforms: iOS and Android

#3. Headspace – Best for Beginners Learning Meditation

Headspace is a non intimidating, user friendly mindfulness and meditation app. Headspace’s courses help new users build confidence as they learn meditation exercises and mindfulness techniques.

The app was founded in 2010 with the mission to revolutionize mental health for humanity. It helps you create life changing habits to support your mental health and find a healthier, happier you.

The app did an amazing job at helping users be more mindful throughout the day. In the Headspace library, there are tabs for certain scenarios like navigating injustice, reframe stress and relax, mindful money, anger and sadness and growth, mindful eating, and guide to sleep.

Key Features:

• Over 1,000 guided meditations for feeling more relaxed with mood boosting meditations and stress relieving tools
• Structured courses on topics like anxiety, stress, focus, and sleep for progressive learning
• Mindful movement exercises to strengthen your mind body connection

What I like: Mindfulness and meditation is taught in a non intimidating way and courses gradually build upon previous sections. As you deepen your meditation practice, you can complete more advanced courses. The cartoon style visuals make it approachable. The app really excels at teaching you the basics in a structured way that builds your skills over time.

What I don’t like: Those looking for free content cannot find it in the Headspace app as all of their meditations and mindfulness exercises are locked behind a paywall. The same few teachers lead most sessions, which can feel monotonous.

Pricing: Subscription options include monthly or yearly plans. These prices are for United States and pricing in other countries may vary.

Platforms: iOS and Android

#4. Insight Timer – Best for Free Meditation Content

Insight Timer is a meditation app that features an extensive free meditation library. The easy to navigate app is good for beginners and great for advanced students of meditation.

What sets Insight Timer apart is the sheer volume of free content. The app offers over 200,000 free guided meditations to reduce stress, improve sleep, and support overall well being. You also get access to over 18,000 teachers from around the world.

As its name suggests, Insight Timer started as a simple timer app for meditating. But it has evolved into a comprehensive and award winning way to help people reduce anxiety, improve their sleep, and maybe even gain a little insight along the way.

Key Features:

• Customizable timer with options for ambient sounds, interval chimes, and ending bells
• Courses and workshops on various topics including stress management, self love, manifestation, and spiritual growth
• Community features to connect with like minded individuals, join live events, and track meditation progress

What I like: The vast majority of Insight Timer’s content is free, making it accessible to everyone. The content is tailored to meditators and yogis of all levels from beginners to advanced practitioners. I love that you can access a global community with over 25,000 community groups based on interests. The variety of meditation styles from Buddhist mindfulness to walking meditation is incredible.

What I don’t like: With so much content available, some users may find it difficult to choose where to start. Some advanced courses and features require a subscription.

Pricing: Insight Timer is free with much of the content accessible to everyone. The premium plan costs monthly or annually and comes with a seven day free trial.

Platforms: iOS and Android

#5. Balance – Best for Personalized Meditation Plans

Named Google Play’s App of the Year and Apple’s App of the Day, Balance offers a variety of guided meditations that can be customized to fit your specific needs. The app currently holds a category leading 4.9 star rating on the Apple App Store.

The Balance app earned 4 out of 5 stars overall during our independent review due to the user experience, the amazing one year free trial, and how knowledgeable its meditation teachers are.

The personalization is what makes Balance special. The app features two meditation experts, Ofosu Jones Quartey and Leah Santa Cruz, to help you gain a more guided and personalized meditation experience.

Key Features:

• Personalized guided meditations tailored to your mood, goals, experience, and more
• 10 day Plans to help you develop and deepen your meditation skills for better mental health
• Research backed activities and calming sounds to help you relax, reduce stress and anxiety, and get restful sleep

What I like: Arguably the biggest perk to the Balance app is the fact it offers a one year free trial, which makes it the longest free trial period in any app we have reviewed. The sessions feel like they were made just for you because they adapt based on your feedback. The sleep meditations and wind downs really help settle you before bed.

What I don’t like: The Balance app has a small meditation library when compared to Headspace and Calm. It only features two meditation teachers. There is also no yoga or mindful movement content available.

Pricing: Balance is a subscription based app offering a one year free trial. After the trial, a subscription is available monthly or yearly. Lifetime access is also available.

Platforms: iOS and Android

#6. Happify – Best for Gamified Positive Psychology

Happify is an easy to use, self guided app that encourages you to connect with your thoughts and feelings through the use of cognitive behavioral therapy skills and positive psychology. The app does this through journals, activities, and games.

Happify’s science based activities and games can help reduce stress, overcome negative thoughts, and build greater resilience by providing effective tools and programs to improve emotional well being.

Their techniques are developed by leading scientists and experts who have been studying evidence based interventions in the fields of positive psychology, mindfulness and cognitive behavioral therapy for decades.

Key Features:

• Learning Tracks that guide you through activities to achieve goals like conquering negative thoughts or coping with stress
• In app games, activities, journals, and other educational materials with an AI Coach named Anna
• A community feature that allows you to connect with other users

What I like: 86 percent of people who use Happify regularly report feeling better about their lives in 2 months. The gamified approach makes working on your mental health feel less like a chore. The games like Uplift with hot air balloons and Negative Knockout Scenes are creative ways to practice positive thinking. The character strength assessment gives you insights about yourself.

What I don’t like: Some users report that the app can be buggy with long load times, especially when not connected to WiFi. The long onboarding process can be frustrating for new users. Some of the games feel more like hurdles than helpful tools.

Pricing: Happify has a free version. The premium version costs monthly or annually. Two year and lifetime memberships are also available.

Platforms: iOS and Android

#7. Sanvello – Best for Anxiety and Depression Support

Sanvello helps people struggling with stress, anxiety, or depression using mindfulness and cognitive behavioral therapy skills. The app’s guided meditations, journals, and courses help you learn and practice useful CBT skills.

Sanvello is a cognitive behavioral therapy app available as a web platform and a native app for both Android and iOS. It is targeted for adults with mild to moderate symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress and has a solid evidence base to support its efficacy.

Sanvello stands as a leading mental health app, acclaimed for its comprehensive approach in aiding over 3 million users combat stress, anxiety, and depression.

Key Features:

• Guided Journeys designed by psychologists to help users build and maintain skills and increase resiliency
• Peer Support where users can join group conversations to share personal stories and chat with others
• Assessments with short weekly interactive quizzes that provide clinically validated scores for stress, depression, anxiety and resiliency

What I like: Sanvello relies on mainstream respected psychological practices including cognitive behavioral correcting of erroneous thinking, mindfulness, visualizations, self tracking, goal setting, and the option for peer support. The community boards feel supportive. Having everything in one place from mood tracking to therapy options is convenient.

What I don’t like: Sanvello has been acquired by AbleTo. The app is now called AbleTo SelfCare+ and is only available to AbleTo members. Some features can feel locked behind paywalls which limits the free experience.

Pricing: The Sanvello app has a free version and a premium version that costs monthly or annually. Some insurance companies include access to premium as a member benefit.

Platforms: iOS and Android

#8. Daylio – Best for Mood Tracking Without Writing

Daylio is a journaling app that shows how your activities and habits directly affect your mood. Daylio resembles a bullet journal, with very little writing and colorful icons to track your mood, habits, and activities.

Daylio enables you to keep a private journal without having to type a single line. This makes it perfect for people who want to track their emotional patterns but find traditional journaling overwhelming.

Daylio’s most basic functionality allows users to enter their mood on a five point scale and optionally write an associated journal entry. Users can also enter in activities from a pre defined list or create custom activities.

Key Features:

• One tap mood tracking with beautiful icons to personalize your activity tracking
• Insightful charts for mood, habits, goals, and routines with weekly, monthly, and yearly stats
• Year in Pixels mood map to see your whole year at a glance

What I like: Daylio is incredibly easy to use. Logging your mood and activities takes almost no time, and it prompts you to log at least one entry a day. The correlation stats help you discover what activities make you feel better or worse. Being able to see patterns over time has helped many people understand their emotional triggers. The customization options are excellent.

What I don’t like: Although Daylio is one of the great self help apps, it does not offer a wide variety of opportunities. There are no meditations, mindful activities, relaxation games, self discovery tests, or other features. The free version has ads which can be annoying.

Pricing: Daylio has a free version and a premium version that offers a seven day free trial and costs monthly or annually.

Platforms: iOS and Android

#9. The Release App – Best for Mindfulness and Tapping

The Release App is a unique app to promote positive mental health, focus skills and relaxation. Used by parents, classroom teachers, athletes, coaches and even in the workplace, the Release app’s guided exercises can help you reduce stress, difficult emotions and limiting beliefs.

The app combines mindfulness practices with tapping techniques, also known as Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT). The creator, Trina Markusson, has been practicing and studying stress reduction for over 20 years using her life experiences and professional trainings in Mindful Teaching and Mindful Based Stress Reduction and Advanced Certified EFT.

There are 5 categories in the Release App including exercises for kids, athletes, teens, adults and even specific sessions for classroom use.

Key Features:

• Guided tapping exercises combined with mindfulness for emotional release
• Guided focus exercises that help you train your brain to gain awareness of your thought patterns and feelings
• Categories for different users including kids, athletes, teens, and adults

What I like: The exercises have really helped users while working at home. Many start their day off calm when their energy before was with anxiety. The combination of tapping and mindfulness is something you do not find in most apps. The fact that it serves different populations from kids to athletes makes it versatile. Learning to pause and assess situations before reacting is a valuable skill this app teaches.

What I don’t like: The app is not as well known as other options on this list. The user interface is simpler and may not feel as polished as bigger apps. Content library is smaller compared to major competitors.

Pricing: Subscription based pricing available through the app store.

Platforms: iOS and Android

What Is the Best Free App for Emotional Release and Letting Go?

Insight Timer is the best free app if you want quality content without paying anything. The vast majority of Insight Timer’s content is free, making it accessible to everyone. You get access to over 200,000 guided meditations from more than 18,000 teachers around the world.

However, Life7 offers a generous 7 day free trial that lets you explore all premium features. This gives you time to try advanced tools like binaural beats, hypnotherapy sessions, and CBT exercises before committing. Balance also stands out with its incredible one year free trial, giving you plenty of time to build a meditation habit without any financial pressure.

How Do Meditation Apps Help With Letting Go of Negative Emotions?

Letting go is a profound practice that can significantly enhance our mental health and overall well being. When we learn to release the negative emotions and burdens that weigh us down, we open ourselves up to a world of healing and personal growth.

Meditation apps help by providing guided sessions that teach you techniques for emotional release. One of the key benefits of meditation is its ability to reduce the size of the amygdala, the part of the brain responsible for processing stress and emotions. Over time, regular practice helps you better regulate your emotions and handle stressful situations calmly.

Apps like Life7 offer specific tools for this purpose including SOS sessions for panic attacks, vagus nerve stimulation for inner balance, and CBT techniques for reframing negative thoughts. Happify uses gamified activities based on positive psychology to help break negative thought patterns.

Can Apps Really Help With Anxiety and Stress Relief?

Yes, many mental health apps have solid research backing their effectiveness. 86 percent of people who use Happify regularly report feeling better about their lives in 2 months. Over 60 percent of Sanvello self care users feel better in 30 days, as self reported by users’ weekly assessments that measure levels of stress, anxiety and depression.

The key is consistent use. These apps are not magic solutions but tools that work when you engage with them regularly. Apps that combine multiple approaches tend to work best. Life7 stands out because it offers everything from basic meditation to advanced therapies like hypnotherapy and CBT all in one place. This lets you find what works best for your specific needs.

For best results, consider using apps alongside professional support when dealing with serious mental health concerns. Although apps may help reduce insomnia or lessen feelings of anxiety or depression, they are not a substitute for the advice of a mental health professional.