When comparing SoundCloud vs Insight Timer Meditation Timer, the Slant community recommends SoundCloud for most people. In the question“What are the best Android apps?” SoundCloud is ranked 6th while Insight Timer Meditation Timer is ranked 27th. The most important reason people chose SoundCloud is:
Links to related music, based on what you're listening to, can be found in the sidebar.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Recommendations
Links to related music, based on what you're listening to, can be found in the sidebar.
Pro Subscribe to artists
You can subscribe to artists to be notified the instant they upload a new song or give an update.
Pro Explore tab has new music constantly
Explore tab on SoundCloud shows trending music that can be filtered based on genre/tag. There's a constant stream of new music.
Pro Follow people
You can follow people with similar tastes or that often find new music. When they favorite a song, SoundCloud will notify you about it.
Pro Free to use
You don't even have to log in or sign up for an account if you don't want to.
There are paid options for if you want to upload large quantities of audio (eg if you're a music label you'll need this), but it's free to download as much and as often as you like.
Pro Pre-releases
Some music labels, especially newer ones, release on SoundCloud before anywhere else.
Pro Creative Commons filter
SoundCloud allows for finding music that is licensed under Creative Commons.
Pro Good free course
Has a good free intro course.
Pro Huge range of meditations
Pro Select the opening screen
You can choose from three options as the opening screen (the first thing you see when you open the app):
- Community map
- Timer
- Meditation library
Pro Detailed metrics on your meditation activity
The application features a statistics section where you can view your past meditation activity. Metrics include amount of time spent and your overall statistics for a certain time period. It also is a good method to see how your meditation is evolving.
Pro High sound quality
The meditation bells in Insight Timer have a very high sound quality which helps to bring a person into a meditative state.
Pro Able to engage with worldwide community
Insight Timer is used by over half a million users in over 140 countries and features a world map, discussion groups and the ability to share your progress with friends.
Pro Notifications can be disabled while the timer is running
Pro Built-in journal feature
When you're finished with a meditation session, the app allows you to write notes about that session. These notes are stored in a journal and can be exported.
Cons
Con Can't do an advanced search
You can't search, for example, for Creative Commons music with the tag #trap. It could be useful to search for music you like that is under Creative Commons.
Con Interface is full of bugs
The SoundCloud website has tons of problems, including issues with notifications, favorites, and uploading sounds.
Con Audio ads in some uploaded content
Some content on SoundCloud includes audio ads, particularly sponsored podcasts.
(Note that SoundCloud itself doesn't add these - all the audio you're hearing is exactly as it was uploaded.)
Con Glitchy
When using several bells, they often don't sound at the right time.
Con Too cluttered for a meditation app
Con Quickly drains battery
Insight Timer has some technical issues and the application won't close in the background in some cases. This causes your Android device to be quickly drained of its battery.
Con The marketing banner is horrible
Everytime you open the app you have a huge banner in your face trying to sell you stuff. It's the worst thing about the app.
Con Expensive in-app purchase for bell intervals
There's an in-app purchase of roughly $6 that will add an interval feature between bells, to let the user know how far they've progressed in a session.