Comparison
Looking for a Calm alternative?
Calm is a meditation and sleep library, and the largest app in this category by a wide margin. relif is a smaller, anxiety-specific app: 20+ relief techniques, guided breathing with haptics and an AI companion, free to download on iOS and Android in eight languages.
Last reviewed:
20+ techniques in one library
Grounding, breathing, body-based and thought-based techniques, each with a plain-language explanation and a timer.
Disclosure
relif is our app. We have tried to describe Calm as its own users would, and to be specific about where it is the better choice. Details were checked on 3 September 2026. Calm changes its pricing regularly, so we point at the store rather than printing a figure that will be wrong next month.
The short answer
Choose Calm if what you want is a deep, beautifully produced library to listen to — sleep stories, music, long meditations — as part of a planned routine. Choose relif if what you want is something to do in the ninety seconds when anxiety actually shows up, plus a companion you can type to afterwards. They are solving different problems with the same category label.
Side by side
| Feature | Calm | relifour app |
|---|---|---|
| Built around | Meditation, sleep and music sessions | Short techniques for anxious moments |
| Session length | Typically 10–30+ minutes | Often under 3 minutes; breathing cycles from 6 seconds |
| AI companion | No conversational companion | Liam — an AI, not a therapist, with cross-session memory |
| Free tier | A rotating selection of content | Unlimited breathing, 3 techniques/day, 5 AI messages/day, mood tracking, gratitude journal |
| Works offline | Downloaded sessions | Breathing exercise only; techniques and chat need a connection |
| Languages | Several, no right-to-left support | 8, including Hebrew and Arabic with full RTL |
| Mood and progress | Basic mood check-in and streaks | Mood 1–5, stress 1–10, 0–100 wellness score, trends |
| Price | Subscription — check the store | Free to download; Premium from $14.99/month or $107.99/year (US list) |
| Maturity | The largest app in the category | New, with a much smaller user base |
Table scrolls sideways on small screens.
What Calm does better
- Catalogue depth. Nothing in relif competes with Calm’s sleep stories, music library or long-form meditation catalogue, and nothing is planned that would.
- Production quality at scale. Narration, licensing and audio engineering at Calm’s volume is a genuinely hard thing to do well.
- Track record. Years of use by a very large audience is a lot of people finding it useful. relif is new, and we are not going to pretend otherwise.
- Offline listening. Downloaded Calm sessions play without a connection. In relif, only the breathing exercise is fully offline.
What relif does differently
- Designed for the unplanned moment. The centre button opens straight into relief. A breathing cycle can be six seconds long; the shortest useful thing in a meditation library is usually three minutes.
- An AI companion with memory. Liam is an AI, not a therapist. It remembers your triggers, which techniques you said helped and how you like to be talked to — and you can view and delete every remembered item.
- A free tier you can use every day. Unlimited guided breathing on every tier, including without an account, plus three relief techniques and five AI messages a day on a free account.
- Techniques beyond meditation. Grounding scripts, affirmations, calming sound and bilateral audio, EMDR-inspired eye movement and somatic regulation, plus an eight-step reframing flow and three journals.
- Eight languages with right-to-left support. Hebrew and Arabic are first-class, not an afterthought.
Price
Calm sells a subscription; because its pricing and promotions change often, check the store for the current figure. relif is free to download, with Premium at $14.99 a month or $107.99 a year (about $9.00 a month) at US list prices. A free trial is offered as a store introductory offer; the exact length is whatever your store shows on the purchase sheet. Full detail on the pricing page.
Privacy
Both apps are consumer wellness products, not covered entities, and both use third-party processors. What relif can say specifically: you can use it without creating an account; chat messages, bookmarks, Liam’s memory and Thought Reframe answers are encrypted with AES-256 before storage; journals, mood entries and shared thoughts are not; data is encrypted in transit; you can export or delete your account from inside the app. Compare that against Calm’s own privacy policy rather than against a marketing claim from either of us.
Who should pick which
- Pick Calm if the goal is sleep, a nightly wind-down ritual, or a large library to explore.
- Pick relif if the goal is something for panic, a racing mind at 3am, or a hard moment at work — and you want an AI companion in the same app.
- Pick both, or neither. They overlap far less than the store categories suggest, and if cost is the deciding factor, MindShift CBT from Anxiety Canada is free — see the full comparison.
Questions about switching
Is there a free alternative to Calm?
relif is free to download and usable daily on the free tier. If you want everything free with no subscription at all, MindShift CBT from the non-profit Anxiety Canada is the honest answer.
Does relif have sleep stories?
No. relif has no sleep-story or meditation-music library, and we do not advertise one. For night-time worry it offers breathing, grounding and a place to write the worry down — see anxiety at night.
Which is better for panic attacks?
Neither treats panic disorder. relif is built closer to the moment — one tap to paced breathing that works offline. Rootd is also worth a look if panic is the whole problem. See panic attacks.
Keep reading
Get relif free
Free to download on iOS and Android
Wellness Disclaimer: relif is a wellness and self-care companion designed to support your emotional wellbeing. It is not a medical device, does not provide medical advice, and is not a substitute for professional healthcare, therapy, or counseling. If you are experiencing a medical or mental health emergency, please contact your local emergency services or a crisis helpline immediately.
Editorial policy: Written by the relif team from primary sources — the product itself, store listings and peer-reviewed or official publications. Not medical advice. Read our editorial policy and sources.
