10 best wellness apps in Australia
Apps for sleep, meditation, fitness, mindfulness and everyday wellbeing.
Last checked 16 September 2026
There are thousands of wellness apps and most of them are a subscription looking for a reason. These ten are the ones we would actually recommend to someone, and the list is deliberately short for that reason.
The order below runs from the mind to the body to the outdoors, not from best to worst. Seven of the ten can be used without paying — two of them free outright — and we have said plainly where a free tier is a real tier and where it is a trial in disguise. Pricing moves constantly, so each app page carries the date we last checked it.
One thing worth saying up front: an app is a companion to a practice, not a replacement for one. If a list like this ends with you booking a class instead of downloading anything, that is a good outcome.
At a glance
| App | Best for | Focus | Free option | Platforms | Read more |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Smiling Mind | Starting out, and for families | Meditation | Free app | iPhone · Android | Read |
| 2 Insight Timer | The largest free library | Meditation | Yes | iPhone · Android | Read |
| 3 Headspace | Meditation beginners who want structure | Meditation | No | iPhone · Android | Read |
| 4 Calm | Winding down at night | Meditation | No | iPhone · Android | Read |
| 5 BetterSleep | Building your own sleep sound | Sleep | Yes | iPhone · Android | Read |
| 6 Sleep Cycle | Seeing your sleep as a trend | Sleep | No | iPhone · Android | Read |
| 7 Nike Training Club | Free workouts, properly made | Fitness | Free app | iPhone · Android | Read |
| 8 FitOn | Variety at home | Fitness | Yes | iPhone · Android | Read |
| 9 AllTrails | Finding a new walk | Walking | Yes | iPhone · Android | Read |
| 10 Strava | Accountability, not data | Running | Yes | iPhone · Android | Read |
Smiling Mind
Best for Starting out, and for families
A not-for-profit out of Melbourne, free with nothing held back behind a plan, and the one we suggest first to anyone who has never meditated. The children's pathways are written for children rather than being adult sessions read more gently, which makes it the rare wellness app a whole household can use. If you only install one thing off this list, make it this.
Key benefits
- Genuinely free, from a not-for-profit, with no upsell
- Made in Australia, including a widely used schools program
- Among the few mindfulness apps written properly for children
Things to consider
- A smaller library than the large subscription apps
- Less polished than Calm or Headspace in places
Insight Timer
Best for The largest free library
Tens of thousands of guided sessions from thousands of teachers, and the timer on its own is worth the install once you practise unguided. The size is the drawback as much as the appeal — there is no path through it, so you either enjoy browsing or you will want something more structured. Start here before paying for anything, so you find out which of those you are.
Key benefits
- The most generous free tier of any meditation app
- Australian teachers among the thousands on the platform
- The timer suits people who already know how to sit
Things to consider
- Quality varies from teacher to teacher, because anyone can publish
- The size of the library can be its own obstacle when starting out
Headspace
Best for Meditation beginners who want structure
The one to choose if you have tried meditating and bounced off it. The courses are ordered, the instruction is plain and the sessions are short enough that starting is not a decision you have to make. It is a subscription with no meaningful free tier, so treat the trial as the way to find out whether the structure is what was missing.
Key benefits
- The clearest teaching of any of the mainstream apps
- Short sessions make a daily habit realistic
- Sleep content included rather than sold separately
Things to consider
- No free tier beyond the trial
- The structure that helps beginners can feel restrictive once you have a practice
Calm
Best for Winding down at night
Less a meditation course than a wind-down: sleep stories, soundscapes and short sessions in an app that is pleasant to open at eleven at night. If your problem is getting to sleep rather than learning to meditate, this is the better of the two big subscriptions. If you want to be taught, Headspace is.
Key benefits
- The sleep content is the strongest of any mainstream meditation app
- Calm, uncluttered design that suits people new to this
- Sessions short enough to fit into an ordinary evening
Things to consider
- Most of the library needs a subscription
- Less structured than a course-based app if you want to learn technique
BetterSleep
Best for Building your own sleep sound
For people who sleep better with something playing. Mixing your own sound — rain on a tent, a fan, a low hum — rather than picking from fixed tracks is what separates it from the meditation apps that bolt a sleep section on the side. The free tier is real, and enough to tell whether sound is your answer.
Key benefits
- The sound mixing is genuinely better than its rivals
- Usable free, unlike the big subscription apps
- Good for shift workers and light sleepers who need masking sound
Things to consider
- The best content sits behind the Premium plan
- Sound all night affects phone battery unless it is charging
Sleep Cycle
Best for Seeing your sleep as a trend
Useful if you suspect your sleep is worse than it feels and want something more than an impression. It needs no watch, which is the practical advantage over every wearable, and the alarm that waits for a light phase is the feature people keep it for. Read the nightly score as a trend line over weeks, not as a measurement of last night.
Key benefits
- Works with just a phone beside the bed
- Long history makes patterns visible over months
- The waking window is gentler than a fixed alarm
Things to consider
- The trial length is advertised inconsistently on their own site
- Sleep scores can become something to worry about rather than act on
Nike Training Club
Best for Free workouts, properly made
The best-produced free workout app there is, and it stayed free. The short mobility sessions are the underrated part of it — five or ten minutes that most people will get more out of than the hard classes. Worth having installed even if you train somewhere else.
Key benefits
- Free, with no tier held back
- Production and coaching quality above most paid apps
- Short sessions make it usable on a bad week
Things to consider
- Workout planning tools are richer on iPhone than on Android
- Built around Nike, so expect the brand throughout
FitOn
Best for Variety at home
The obvious first stop if you want to train at home without paying: a broad range of classes, most of them free, from short walks through to strength and yoga. Broad rather than deep, which suits somebody building the habit more than somebody following a specific programme.
Key benefits
- A genuinely free workout library, which is rare
- Enough variety to keep a home routine interesting
- Short sessions for days when a full workout will not happen
Things to consider
- Meal plans and some content need the paid tier
- Less specialised than a dedicated strength or running app
AllTrails
Best for Finding a new walk
The easiest way to find a walk you have not done before, and the reviews are honest about what a trail is like underfoot rather than how it photographs. Perth and the hills are covered well. Offline maps sit behind the paid tier, which is the one upgrade on this list we would call straightforwardly worth it if you walk past reception.
Key benefits
- Finds walks near you that you would not otherwise know about
- Reviews are specific about conditions and difficulty
- Offline maps are a genuine safety feature outside reception
Things to consider
- Offline maps sit behind the paid tier
- Trail information is community-written, so conditions can be out of date
Strava
Best for Accountability, not data
Keep it for the social side rather than the statistics. If seeing that a friend went out this morning is the thing that gets you out the door, nothing else on this list does that job. If measuring yourself against other people is the thing that puts you off, this is the one to skip.
Key benefits
- The social side is genuinely motivating for a lot of people
- Works with most GPS watches rather than locking you in
- Beacon is a real safety feature for running alone
Things to consider
- The comparison and leaderboards do not suit everyone
- Some analysis is subscription-only
- Worth checking your privacy settings before recording from home
Questions people ask
What is the best free wellness app?
Smiling Mind, for most people. It is an Australian not-for-profit, it is free in full rather than free to a point, and it covers meditation and mindfulness for adults and children. Insight Timer is the other genuinely free option and has a far larger library, though no structured path through it.
Are any of these apps Australian?
Smiling Mind is, built by a Melbourne not-for-profit and used widely in Australian schools. The rest are overseas apps that work normally in Australia; prices shown in the app are usually charged in Australian dollars.
Do I need to pay to get anything useful?
No. Smiling Mind and Nike Training Club are free outright, and Insight Timer, FitOn, BetterSleep, Strava and AllTrails all have free tiers we would call genuinely usable. Calm, Headspace and Sleep Cycle are subscriptions, and their free trials are the sensible way to test them.
Which app is best for sleep?
It depends on what is going wrong. BetterSleep suits people who settle more easily with sound; Calm suits people who want to be talked down at the end of the day; Sleep Cycle does not help you sleep at all but shows you patterns over weeks. If sleep is a persistent problem, that is worth raising with a GP rather than an app.
How were these apps chosen?
An editor picked them on what they offer, what they cost, how much of them is usable free, and who each one genuinely suits. Details are checked against each app's own website and store listing, and every app page carries the date it was last checked. Commercial arrangements play no part in whether an app appears here or where it sits.
How this list was put together
We review wellness apps on what they actually offer: features, accessibility, pricing and the kind of support they provide. Details are checked against the app’s own website and store listings, and apps change, so each page carries the date we last checked it.
The order is an editor’s, not a score. Apps are not ranked by whether they pay us, and an app carrying a commission is marked wherever its link appears.
The same thing, in a room with other people
An app is a good companion between sessions. These are the Perth practices doing the same work in person.