Meditation Timer Samsara Reviews

I paid for MeditationTimerSamsara years ago and used to love it but the subscription version is a step back. It is also less aesthetically pleasing with garish colors and fonts. But so are most phone apps these days. I understand the dev needs money but I will probably just buy a physical meditation timer now. I do not care about most of the other features. The bells were nice. I usually do not leave negative reviews or any sort of reviews but another annoying new feature is MeditationTimerSamsara nagging me to review it before every meditation session, the opposite of a calm experience. Good luck.

Today I sat down to meditate and discovered that Samsara, an excellent meditation timer I have used for years has been replaced with an ugly paywall. All but one of my timing profiles have been "locked". MeditationTimerSamsara has been deliberately broken unless I pay. I won't.

The sad thing is, I would have been happy to support maintenance of MeditationTimerSamsara voluntarily. But the *vileness* of trying to slide a paywall between me and my daily spiritual practice -- it's an outrage. Uninstalled.

i previously had a glowing review of MeditationTimerSamsara. after using it for years the developer decided to change MeditationTimerSamsara without any notice switching to a subscription model that completely locks previous users out of years of their stats and restricting all modes of use, citing a price of “cup of coffee” for continued use. i understand the need to make it sustainable but not at the expense and disadvantage of people that were your original supporters. also, $20 a year is not a cup of cofee, and for the next 10 years that makes it $200. i would have gladly paid a one time fee for the new version of MeditationTimerSamsara but asking a subscription fee for a simple app that went years without updates is not a good move. the developer states “building it from the ground up” while it only received a cosmetic update, all the options are the same. MeditationTimerSamsara is still missing some key features present in most other apps, like icloud sync for people with multiple devices. this is a fairly simple app that worked just fine for years without any updates and the least you could do is let old users keep the old app, even if without future updates. this is not fair treatment, it feels like being bullied into keeping the stats you accumulated over many years. without any warning too. really disappointed.

MeditationTimerSamsara is buggy (meditation time randomly changes, UX not updated for a the latest iOS) and no longer supported by the developer. It’s been replaced by Nameste, which has similar functionality, but has a $10/yr subscription cost.

I want to like MeditationTimerSamsara, but must acknowledge that it is not intuitive to use. I have had trouble setting up a simple meditation with a sound to indicate the allotted time is up. I can’t get this to work on a regular basis. Moreover, setting up a mediation is confusing, partly because the language used is unclear. Perhaps this is not the right app for meditation.

I have tried several meditation timers. Some of them were just too complicated, and I spent my attention fussing with settings instead of meditating. Samsara is just right -- it has every feature I need, but no superfluous distractions. Also, there is no "online community" ( huge distraction in a competitor's app).
I particularly like Samsara's graphic: a circular arc that gradually completes to a full circle. In addition to being elegant, it lets me see how much time is left without putting on my glasses.

Update: the problem I have with Samsara now is that it uses a lot of power. Since I started meditating more, I find that Samsara is using more of my battery than any other app!

Nearly perfect but the timer does run when the screen is off.

Overall it does the job, but three times in three months it has just put itself on pause in the middle of a meditation.

This is by far the best meditation timer out there - simple but customizable. I would easily give it 5 stars but the pricing modal is insane. I would gladly pay $5 for this timer and even if the price went up to $20 I would probably still pay, but $20 per year!? That is so far beyond what is reasonable for this kind of app that it is just ridiculous. I’m sure the dev could make way more money by changing to a more reasonable pricing modal.

MeditationTimerSamsara is also hard to find in MeditationTimerSamsara Store and there is a very similar app by the same dev for a different price - confusing.

A few small changes and this would be the best timer app ever . . .

as it should be...!

I really like the simplicity of MeditationTimerSamsara, nothing but a timer and related info. My only criticism is the way you set the timer. Scrolling around a circle is incredibly difficult. I constantly find myself stopping on the time I want, only for a slight twitch of my finger as I lift it to nudge the time forward or back. A simple menu, while maybe less aesthetically pleasing , would be far easier!

The things that I like about MeditationTimerSamsara are: 1. Timer has a black background which reduces energy consumption and is not distracting in a darkened room. 2. Time left is displayed both in numbers as well as a circle being completed large enough that a quick glance will inform how much time is left. 3. There are multiple options for starting and ending the period to suits the users preference. What I don't like is the thumbnail of MeditationTimerSamsara will have a red number alert staying how many days have gone by since last using the timer which can be easily confused with other such alerts in other apps in which something of an urgent nature needs to be addressed.

BUT I’m not going to “subscribe” and keep
paying every year forever to get all of the extra features. I want a one time “purchase” option!

I’m of two minds about MeditationTimerSamsara.

On the one hand, I love it...once I figured out how it worked. (For something so simple, it’s tweaking functions are, at first glance, a bit inscrutable. You may need to tackle it after you’ve meditated.)

On the other hand, it’s pricey, given the fact that you can use iPhone’s built-in timer for the same thing. For seven bucks you get...a timer. But a timer that “dings” however you want it to ding. So there’s that.

Am I glad I bought it?

I suppose, yes.

But I paid $1000+ for my phone so, clearly, I’m bonkers.

This has been my go-to app for my meditation practice for years. It is sleek, beautiful, and to the point!

You can set the complete duration of your meditation and set bells at intervals to let you know to change stages if you're doing a meditation with different stages, like a meta meditation. You have many different bell sounds and the ability to have the bell ring once or multiple times. These changes are very easy to make.A++ recommend highly

I’ve been using MeditationTimerSamsara for years as a meditation timer. It’s simple and easy to use. I like that it doesn’t have the “guided meditations” that some other apps have, which in my mind are distractions. Meditation is a silent activity that takes work. MeditationTimerSamsara serves its purpose then gets out of your way so you can focus on that work.

I have been using MeditationTimerSamsara for years. I am happy to pay for it due to it’s simplicity and beautiful design.I don’t see anything that needs improvement and hopefully the designer will keep it free from complexity in the future.

Ideal app for Centering Prayer. Easy to set up, no distracting sounds or voices, and choices of number of times to sound the chimes at start and finish. Best of the 4 apps I tried. In addition, it tracks the number is sessions and frequency to help encourage your regular practice, a nice extra.

This is the perfect app to shift your day. It also lets you choose setting for types of chimes, easy to adjust timer which is perfect. I could ask for a better one. First time I saw it was used on the show Billions and I know several high level executives which use it as well.

Great app for timing and tracking your meditation. Appreciate the “cool down” option to add a couple of minutes onto the end of my meditation with an additional bell. Also, the bell sound is lovely. Thanks for making MeditationTimerSamsara!

I love MeditationTimerSamsara. All I need is a timer and a bell. MeditationTimerSamsara has multiple bells sounds to choose from, and an intuitive interface to pause and restart the timer (gotta have that when you’re a mom). Thank you!

While the interface takes a little getting used to, the quality of the bell sounds and options for what you can see during your session are wonderfully subtle and helpful for meditation.

So I began my meditation Journey with Headspace. It was nice for a couple months but I realized I was ready to move on from guided to unguided meditations. After searching for meditation timers, I found MeditationTimerSamsara. This is most definitely the cleanest and best unguided meditation app. With a variety of bells to choose from, a simplistic layout, and even stats about your progress you can't go wrong with MeditationTimerSamsara.

Everything you need, nothing you don’t. The last thing I wanted for a meditation app was sponsored ads popping up, or any type of on screen distractions. The UX/UI of MeditationTimerSamsara stands above others to me and is well worth the price! Plus he deserves some credit for being the meditation app chose to use by “Bobby Axelrod” in Billions. If it’s good enough for Bobby, it’s going enough for me ;)

I’ve been a happy customer for over 8 hours. This is an incredibly well designed and thoughtful meditation app. Highly recommend.

I've started timing my meditations with this pleasant app, which has warm up and cool down times you can add before and after your meditation. You can set some really lovely sounding bells to signal when the intervals start and finish. I'm very pleased with my purchase; thank you for designing MeditationTimerSamsara!

I’ve been using some sorrow for several years for my daily meditation practice. I like it for simplicity of use and ease of making changes. The is very simple and elegant.

Thanks for a great product!

This is a great meditation app that I’ve used for several years on a daily basis. The ease of setting the timer & chimes makes meditation even more effective since there’s no stress over keeping track of time. The chimes are very soothing, too.

Cleaner than any alternative (and I’ve tried nearly a dozen). Exactly what you need and nothing you don’t. Elegant uncluttered design. There are no excuses not to meditate.

MeditationTimerSamsara works great and is very simple and minimal. It has great tone sounds. I've been using this one for years and haven’t had any regrets. The developer is very responsive at making MeditationTimerSamsara better based on user input.

I’ve tried a half dozen similar meditation timer apps. This is the ONLY ONE which allows background audio from a totally different app to keep running when it plays a bell sound. (Context: I have a separate white noise generator running) All the other timer apps “grab control” of all audio and silence everything happening in order to play their bell.

Thanks for playing well with other apps!

Too many meditation timers are designed in a very un-meditative manner: cluttered with social media links and distracting fluff. Samsara is the opposite. Highly recommended!

This is my favorite meditation timer, but there is one thing I would change. Instead of having to set the reminder bell, most other timers have the reminders automatically set.

I have been learning and practicing meditation for a while. I have a set routine of methodologies I have been taught. MeditationTimerSamsara is the best meditation timer I have found to create custom timers for the various segments of my meditation sessions. I also love that it integrates with Apple Health to keep me accountable. Worth the investment!

This is a lovely companion to a lot of hard work. It is gentle and playful in conversations of both sound and settings. Give it some time to adjust to you and I think you’ll find it a lovely travel companion. Thank you. Cheers

Meditation is meant to be simple and MeditationTimerSamsara definitely reflects that. Very easy and simple to use!

And the first thing I'm doing is re-downloading MeditationTimerSamsara. I had it years ago, and I'm thrilled that the developers have kept it updated! Beautiful, simple, calm.

Like I said, this is the best, minimal, easy and elegant meditation timer. I've been practicing TM for years and this is always my go to timer twice a day. Highly recommend it. Intuitive and doesn't have any cheesy graphics either.

I've been using MeditationTimerSamsara every morning for years. Simple to set up and use, nice range of options, and a good selection of sounds.

I've been using MeditationTimerSamsara for several years. It's got really nice authentic sounding gongs and chimes you can select, and it's really comfortable to toss in between any meditation class i'm teaching without distracting everyone with "technology". The UI is simple and pleasant and the developer is continuously keeping up to date with it. Occasionally adding new features. I always recommend it to friends and fellow teachers.

I’ve shared Samsara with friends and family. We share our graphs at the end of the month with each other. Feels like a little sangha and helps us support our sitting practices. I really like the flexibility of crafting different bell and chime combinations.

I’ve been using MeditationTimerSamsara to time my TM meditation twice a day for years. It’s just what I needed, unobtrusive and easy to set up. I just hope we can get an Apple Watch version soon.

The only missing feature I wish was there would be to easily restart the same timer. I have to bounce between two separate 5-min times with the same settings but a different name if I want to use a 5min timer more than once per day

I’ve been using Samsara for the past 7 years to track my daily meditation in my kundalini yoga practice and it’s a terrific app. Lots of options for bells and reminders. Now that MeditationTimerSamsara can be used across various devices is perfect. I wish it had been like that always. Highly recommend.

Worked great for years but it crashes when I open it for about the last week!

Fantastic update of a terrific timer uncluttered by gimmicks (others tout their community and gold stars for meditation completion - which to my mind go against the point). Beautiful interface. Useful features. Responsive developer