Alternatives Headspace
Headspace is a meditation app with guided sessions from about three minutes up, plus sleepcasts, courses and coaching. Steps is micro journaling in iMessage, a few questions about yesterday and today that you answer in writing. Choose Headspace for a guiding voice, and Steps for a few words in iMessage you can finish between everything else.
| Compared | Steps | Headspace |
|---|---|---|
| Kind of exercise | Micro journaling. You answer a few questions in writing | Meditation. You listen to a guided session and sit Source |
| Where it happens | A message in iMessage on iPhone, iPad or Mac. Nothing to install | Its own app on iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch, and the web Source |
| Time it asks | As long as your answers take, two to four questions, up to five with your own | From quick 3-minute resets to longer sessions, with 10 minutes suggested for beginners Source |
| What you do | Reply to a message in your own words | Guided meditations, sleepcasts, courses, mindful movement and focus music, plus coaching Source |
| AI and your entries | Keeps and finds your words. Never scores your mood or gives advice | Ebb, an AI companion, remembers past talks and recommends based on how you're feeling Source |
| Streaks | No streak. A skipped question brings back your own note | A run streak that resets after 24 hours without a session, and can be hidden Source |
| Price (US) | 30 free days, no card. Then $3 to $15 a month, you choose | $12.99 a month or $69.99 a year, US App Store Source |
Details from Headspace's own website and US App Store listing, checked on 13 September 2026. Prices change, so check theirs before you choose. Headspace is a name that belongs to its owner.
If you came to Headspace for ten quiet minutes and the day keeps getting there first, a journal might fit where a sit doesn't. Steps asks a few questions at the hour you pick, and you can finish them any time that day.
