You meditate.Your garden grows.

SoulGarden is a free meditation app for iOS, Android and the web in which a barren desert grows into a living garden with every meditation. It was created in Germany by Oliver Braese and has no leaderboards, no ads and no streak shaming.

Yes. SoulGarden is free and ad-free. You can start right away without signing up, and everything works offline. If you would like to support us, you can become a Founding Gardener.

Founding Gardener is a voluntary one-time purchase for everyone who wants to support SoulGarden from the start: 39 € for the first 100, then 49 € up to the 1,000th Founding Gardener. You get lifetime access to all future premium features, a personal meditation from Olli, a founding item in the new garden and, if you like, your name on our website. The first 100 can also have a say and vote on which features and meditations come next. There is a 30-day money-back guarantee, no questions asked. The app itself stays free.

Yes, SoulGarden is made for people who are starting to meditate. You begin with a breathing minute together with Souly. After that there are guided meditations, a timer, a stopwatch and the course “First Steps”, which guides you through the five elements in seven weeks.

You don't have to. Most beginners believe their mind has to go blank and give up because of it. Thoughts are normal. The actual practice is noticing that your mind has wandered and returning to a simple anchor, such as your breath or your feet on the floor. Every time you come back counts.

Start with very short sessions. Your first meditation in SoulGarden lasts one minute, and you can set the timer as short or long as you like. You can change your posture, move and keep your eyes open.

Many people use a calm breathing practice in the evening to let the day fade out. In SoulGarden you can do this with the timer and soft nature sounds. For persistent sleep problems, please talk to a doctor.

Every minute of meditation brings soul energy, and journal entries and self-practice count as light points too. With enough energy you choose which of the five elements earth, water, fire, air and space returns to your garden. There are fifteen stages in total.

Nothing bad. Your garden never dies. A missed day costs at most one step of your multiplier, once a month the streak protection covers you completely, and when you come back, Souly welcomes you.

Yes. In group meditation you meditate at the same time as others in the app's circle. The course “First Steps” starts with a kick-off on Wednesday, 11 November 2026, at 11:11 (CET) and continues every Sunday at 10:00 (CET). You sign up in the app with an account and your email address.

Yes. In a four-week field study with 30 participants, people meditated almost twice as often with the garden as without it (10.9 vs 6.3 sessions), enjoyed it more and showed more mindfulness. The study “SoulGarden: A Gamified Meditation Application” was published at ACM CHI PLAY 2025 (DOI 10.1145/3748597).

On iPhone (App Store), on Android (Google Play) and as a web app in your browser at app.soulgarden.app. The app is available in English and German.

No, you can start right away. With an account, which only needs your email address, your garden is saved across devices and you can sign up for group meditations and courses.

SoulGarden began as the master's thesis of Oliver Braese, who has more than 2,500 hours of meditation practice himself. Today Olli, Jenny, who co-writes and speaks the meditations, and co-founder Sebastian Fritz keep building the app together.