Is there a free alternative to Breathwrk?
Yes, for the part of Breathwrk that paces you. The timer above runs box breathing at the same four counts the app's box exercise uses, with a tone and a buzz at every turn, offline, and the first three sessions need no account. What it does not have is Breathwrk's catalogue of guided classes, and this page says so rather than pretending otherwise.
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Breathwrk is a breathwork-only app with a deep library: hundreds of guided exercises grouped by goal, with music, voice and a progress screen. Its US App Store listing on 13 September 2026 showed a monthly subscription at $9.00, labelled "Breathwrk Premium 900 Monthly", and a run of in-app purchases from $1.99 to $69.99 whose billing periods the listing did not label. It is free to download; the listing does not itemise what stays free, so the size of its free tier is something this page cannot verify.
Two facts from the same listing matter if you are deciding whether to keep paying. "Offline Access" is listed as a feature, which is rarer than it should be. And the seller is now Peloton Interactive, Inc.: the listing states that Peloton All-Access, Guide and App+ members get Breathwrk as part of their membership. If you already pay Peloton, check before paying twice.
What Breathwrk gives you that a timer does not
A fair comparison starts with what you would lose. Breathwrk sells four things a pacer cannot: a voice that talks you through each exercise, so you follow instead of deciding; a catalogue arranged by goal, so you do not have to design your own practice; production, meaning music and sound design; and the habit machinery of streaks, reminders and a graph. For some people the voice alone is worth the subscription. If silence makes you restless, a plain timer will not fix that.
What no app sells is a better pattern. Box breathing is four in, four held, four out, four held, everywhere, for free. Nobody has a proprietary version of it, and the counts you learned inside Breathwrk run on any timer, including this one.
Side by side
Help Me Breathe's row is the house's own, so read it with that in mind. Breathwrk's row is what its listing said on 13 September 2026; "not verified" means the listing did not say.
| Breathwrk | Help Me Breathe | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $9.00 a month, listed as "Breathwrk Premium 900 Monthly". Other purchases from $1.99 to $69.99, periods not labelled. | $10 a month or $100 a year, one plan, three days free, 14-day refund. |
| Free tier | Free to download; what stays free is not itemised on the listing. | Three sessions on any device with every pattern and length; the anxiety and panic pages run for anyone forever. |
| Install | iOS and Android app. | Nothing to install; opens in the browser, installs as a web app if you want it on the home screen. |
| Offline | "Offline Access" is listed as a feature. | Yes, once loaded; keeps running with the screen locked. |
| Account | Required. | Not for the first three sessions; after that, an email address, no password. |
| Guided voice and library | Yes; this is the product. | No. Seven patterns, a tone and a buzz, your own counts. |
| Evidence | Not stated per exercise on the listing. | Each pattern's page quotes the study it rests on and says where the evidence stops. |
| Owner | Peloton Interactive, Inc. (per the listing). | One person, not a clinician. |
When to keep paying for Breathwrk, and when to stop
Keep it if you open the app for a class, not a count: the guided sessions with a voice are the thing a timer cannot replace, and if they are why you breathe at all, they are worth $9 a month. Keep it if you are a Peloton member, because then it costs you nothing extra.
Stop if you have settled on two or three patterns and skip the talking. At that point you are paying a subscription for a metronome, and the free tier here, or the plan at a similar price with every pattern and your own counts, covers it. Stop, too, if you want to know what the exercise rests on: the pages here quote the trial, or say that there is none, which an app catalogue cannot easily do.
How to switch in five minutes
- Write down the counts you actually use. Breathwrk shows them on each exercise. Most people land on box (4-4-4-4), a long-exhale pattern (4 in, 6 or 8 out), or the double inhale and long exhale of cyclic sighing.
- Find them here. Box, extended exhale, 4-7-8, cyclic sighing and heart coherence each have a page with a timer. Anything else goes in the custom pattern builder, in whole seconds.
- Run one session with the sound on. The tone changes at each phase so you can close your eyes. Press Begin above to try it now.
- Add it to the home screen if you want an icon. The browser's "Add to Home Screen" installs it as an app; it then opens on the timer and works without a signal.
- Cancel the old subscription in the app store, not in the app. Settings, Subscriptions, on either platform.
Where this page stands. It is written by the person who runs Help Me Breathe, who is not a clinician. No link on it pays us, and we have no relationship with the company it names. Prices were read by hand off the vendor's US App Store listing on 13 September 2026 and will have moved; the apps comparison keeps the dated sources.
Common questions
Is Breathwrk free?
It is free to download, and its App Store listing on 13 September 2026 showed a $9.00 monthly subscription plus other purchases from $1.99 to $69.99 whose periods were not labelled. The listing does not itemise what stays free without paying, so the size of the free tier is not something this page can state.
Who owns Breathwrk now?
Its App Store listing names Peloton Interactive, Inc. as the seller and says Peloton All-Access, Guide and App+ members get Breathwrk as part of their membership. If you pay Peloton, check before paying for Breathwrk separately.
Does a free breathing timer do the same thing as Breathwrk?
For pacing, yes: the counts are public and run on any timer. For the guided classes with a voice, the music and the catalogue arranged by goal, no. Decide which of the two you open the app for.
Can I run my Breathwrk patterns on Help Me Breathe?
The common ones have their own pages: box, 4-7-8, extended exhale, cyclic sighing, heart coherence, triangle and an energising pattern. Any other counts go into the custom pattern builder in whole seconds, which is part of the plan.
Does Help Me Breathe work offline like Breathwrk?
Yes. Once a page has loaded it keeps running without a connection and with the screen locked, and installing it from the browser puts an icon on the home screen that opens on the timer.
Does Help Me Breathe earn anything from this page?
No link here pays us, and there is no relationship with Breathwrk or Peloton. The site makes its money from its own plan, which this page names plainly, and from affiliate links on the apps comparison page, which are marked there.