Serenity App — Professional Guided Meditations for Free

Calm and Headspace are arguably among the best-known meditation apps out there, but nearly all of their content is locked behind a paywall. While I firmly believe that high-quality, professional content deserves to be paid for, these apps offer very little in the way of free trials or samples.

In my search for alternatives, I came across Serenity Guided Meditation — a brilliant app that strikes a much better balance between free and paid content. Yes, it has its limitations, but the generous amount of free resources, affordable premium option, and genuinely helpful material have made it one of my personal favourites.

What is Serenity Guided Meditation

Serenity is a mindfulness and meditation app designed to help users reduce stress, improve sleep, and boost emotional wellbeing. It’s available on both Android and iOS, and is suitable for complete beginners as well as more experienced meditators.

I only started using it recently, and I still forget to meditate from time to time (I’ve completed just eight sessions so far), but as a newcomer to mindfulness, I’ve found it incredibly approachable and enjoyable.

How Serenity Guided Meditation Works: A Closer Look at the App

Serenity Guided Meditation is designed with simplicity in mind, making it perfect for beginners. But to really understand what the app has to offer, let’s explore its main features:

Meditation Courses

The app includes both beginner and advanced-level audio courses, divided into progressive stages. You’ll also find themed courses focused on sleep, stress relief, self-care, health and fitness, social wellbeing, lifestyle, work-life balance, and more.

Single Meditations

There are dozens of standalone guided meditations available, covering topics like relaxation, motivation, self-confidence, fitness, and travel.

Daily Meditations

In the free version, you get a short daily meditation every day. On Fridays, there’s a full 10-minute practice session, and on Mondays, you’ll receive a morning motivation audio.

With the premium version, you also unlock longer sessions (22–24 minutes) and meditations specifically designed to improve sleep quality.

Favourites

You can save your favourite sessions for quick access whenever you need them.

Challenges

While not a core feature, the app includes some light achievement tracking — like completing the first level of the beginner course or meditating for 10 days in a row. It’s a small but nice motivational boost.

Progress Tracking

The stats section shows your current streak, total number of sessions, total time spent meditating, average sessions per week, and average minutes per week.

Settings

Nothing particularly fancy here. I did immediately switch to dark mode, though.

You can also change the app language to German, Italian, French, Spanish, or Portuguese — but I’ve stuck with English.

Serenity App: Free vs Premium

At the moment, I’m sticking with the free version — it gives me just enough content for 1–2 short meditations a day, which suits me perfectly. To get started, all you need to do is install the app and complete a quick sign-up process.

🆓 What You Get with the Free Version

• Access to the first level of the beginner’s course, plus one session from the Sleep course.
• Free mini meditations, weekly full practices (every Friday), and Monday morning motivation audios — with ongoing access to past sessions.
• 3 standalone stress-relief meditations.
• The ability to save your favourite sessions.
• Full access to progress tracking with graphs and stats.
• Access to achievement challenges

💎 What You Get with the Premium Version

• Unlimited access to all guided meditation courses.
• Full access to extended-length sessions.
• Ongoing access to all new practices as they’re released.
• Full library of standalone meditations.

The Premium version costs $5.99 per month or $17.49 for 6 months, which is quite reasonable considering the content you unlock.

Discounted Access for Low-Income Users. If you’re a student, retiree, or someone on a low income, you can apply for free access. Just go to Menu → Low income options → Apply now. It’s a thoughtful gesture that makes mindfulness more accessible to everyone.

Why I Use the Serenity App

I haven’t applied for the Low Income Option — I believe there are others who may need free access more than I do. Personally, I’ve found the free version more than enough for my needs. And that’s exactly why I want to highlight some of Serenity’s biggest strengths:

• Simple, beginner-friendly interface. The app is refreshingly clean and easy to navigate. No cluttered menus, no confusing features — just open, choose a session, and start meditating.
• Generous free content. There are dozens of genuinely useful meditations available right from the start — and the library keeps growing. You don’t feel pushed into upgrading.
• Variety of topics. Serenity offers meditations for sleep, stress relief, gratitude, focus, and even sessions for children. There’s something for every mood and need.
• No ads. Even in the free version, there are no annoying ads. That’s a rare and very welcome surprise in today’s world of freemium apps.
• Support for those who need it. While I haven’t tested the Low Income Option myself, the fact that it exists — and appears to be available with just a simple application — says a lot about the developers’ values. If you’ve tried it, I’d love to hear about your experience in the comments.

Any Downsides? Honestly, I haven’t come across any major issues.

Some users complain about audio quality, but I personally find the voice calming and the background music soothing. Others say the free content is limited — but for a free version, it actually offers far more than competitors like Calm. And as for the lack of journals or “wellness trackers” — I actually consider that a plus. No distractions. Just meditation. Moreover, you can even use the free version of the Bearable App to track mood, symptoms, and journaling.

I hope you found this Serenity App review helpful! Let me know your thoughts in the comments — I’d love to hear what you think.