Headspace is a safe space for mindfulness and daily meditation. The web platform and app were created to improve the world’s health and happiness.
It uses thoughtful and science-backed tools to develop life-changing habits to support positive mental health and happiness.
A 2018 study based on the Headspace app revealed that meditation through the app can reduce human stress by 14% in just ten days. The app can also help relax your mind, improve your focus, and foster a good night’s sleep.
It is an excellent source of meditation resources, and mindfulness exercises on anxiety, worry, stress, and resilience.
Hundreds of the meditations on the platform are by the world’s best experts, also offering daily recommendations based on your likings. You can also meditate alongside friends or join live sessions with members from all over the world.
Headspace Background
Andy Puddicombe and Richard Pierson founded Headspace in 2010. The idea of Headspace came into being after Richard Pierson, 27, suffered extreme burnout from his marketing career for Axe deodorant.
At first, Richard thought things would change if he switched from marketing for an agency to becoming a freelancer. Instead, things took a downhill turn as burnout affected Richard’s social life. He even suffered anxiety whenever he went out in public.
A friend of his, Andy Puddicombe, claimed to know the solution to his problem, which he called “Jeeves”, a supposedly energetic and amiable solution for taking care of your brain.
To Richard, Andy, a then-Buddhist monk with over ten years of Tibetan monastic training across Asia, sounded nothing less than an unusual messenger for a practice roughly 2,500 years old.
The two quickly bonded, and Pierson, who dropped out of school at age 22 to find peace of mind as a monk, offered Andy marketing tips in exchange for one-on-one mindfulness training.
Pierson’s intervention worked for Andy, who was eager to spread the practice just like his teacher. Andy and Pierson were fired up for the meditation and mindfulness concepts.
In 2010, the two started a meditation event business in London. The event later evolved into a robust wellness app with about $50 million in annual revenue and valued at about $250 million.
In 2012, Richard and Andy introduced the first edition of the Headspace app. Since then, the business has taken an uphill projection and even serves some famous customers like Ryan Reynolds and Lebron James.
Headspace is a reasonably easy-to-use app. Once you sign up with your account, you can quickly select a program of choice from a collection of meditation lectures. As of February 2020, the app had been downloaded for over 62M times in 190 countries.
Headspace now employs over 300 staff in London, San Francisco, and Los Angeles offices. Headspace hired Ross Hoffman as its Chief Business Officer.
In 2018, the company launched a subsidiary (Headspace Health) to help FDA-accredited meditation tools to help treat a series of chronic illnesses.
Explore other apps like HeadSpace in this post.
Headspace Business Model and Revenue
Before we know how much Headspace makes, finding out how it makes its money is essential. As a mobile app for Android and iOS devices, Headspace’s business model is based on three income inlets.
These include a subscription plan where users pay to unlock premium content, B2B programs tailored towards teaching employees mindfulness, and Headspace Health. As discussed earlier, Headspace was founded by a former marketing pro turned Buddhist monk.
The Headspace consumer app
The Headspace app is the most relevant source of income for Headspace. It is free to download for Android and iOS.
The free version features a set of basic meditation and mindfulness courses. However, if you wish to explore more content, you must pay a subscription fee.
Also Read: Best Oura Ring Alternatives
B2B programs
Headspace also earns revenue from B2B programs. While the prices for this program are not displayed publicly, the platform packages this program based on the size of the enterprise. Headspace categorizes its B2B offerings under Starter, Premium, and Enterprise.
The Enterprise plan is the most advanced with enterprise-grade tools offering professional support at all stages.
With the Enterprise plan your team can enjoy customized virtual events, surveys, and webinars, and access multiple meditations and exercises on stress, focus, movement, and sleep.
Headspace Health
Headspace Health is the third and last revenue source for Headspace. As mentioned earlier, Headspace Health is the product of a merger between Headspace and Ginger.
The platform was created to provide employees with a full range of mental health services, including therapy, coaching, and psychiatry.
Through the Headspace Health platform, the company reached over 2,700 enterprises with bookings amounting to $300 million by the end of 2021.
Revenue
Headspace is a private company, so it is not obligated to disclose its revenue. However, the company made about $159 million in 2020. After that, Headspace did not release any revenue information for two years.
The only information that the company disclosed was for the number of subscribers (over two million), number of app downloads (65 million), businesses that partnered with the company after the merger (2,700), and its estimated value ($3 billion) after it merged with Ginger.
According to Crunchbase, the company has only raised $170 million in venture capital, and we are not sure if there was more. Another source indicates that Headspace raised $215 million in venture capital from investors.
Some of Headspace’s investors include Waverley, Spectrum Equity Investors, Times Bridge, and Advancit Capital. Headspace was valued at $3 billion following its merger with Ginger.
In another revenue analysis by Appfigures, it was recorded that Headspace made the most revenue in 2022. The source notes that Headspace’s peak revenue was over $100 million that year.
Headspace app is available for free on Google PlayStore and AppStore. However, it allows you to access more features through in-app purchases. It is through these in-app purchases that the app was able to generate up to $15.5 million in the last quarter of 2022.
Also Read: Samsung Health vs Google Fit
User Statistics
Image: SimilarWeb
Headspace claims to have attracted millions of users interested in getting mindful. Additionally, it is reported to have recorded about 70 million downloads across all platforms, with a 611.9 rating on iOS and Google PlayStore.
The company had two million paying subscribers by the end of 2020. 65 million users had downloaded the platform by August 2020, and over 600 companies offered Headspace to their employees by the end of 2020.
In the last quarter of 2022, the Headspace app recorded 1.32 million downloads worldwide. This was down by 21% following a record of 1.7 million downloads in the fourth quarter of 2021.
SimilarWeb reports that Headspace receives a total of 2.5 million visitors, most of whom are male at 51.42%, while their female counterparts come in at 48.58%.
SimilarWeb also states that most Headspace users come from the United States, United Kingdom, India, Canada, and Brazil.
Headspace and Ginger Merge
Headspace merged with an online mental health platform called Ginger in 2021 to create a more solid frontier, Headspace Health.
The deal, valued at $3 billion, combined Headspace’s mindfulness and meditation services with Ginger’s therapy, coaching, and psychiatric services.
The merger was accelerated by the increased use of both Headspace and Ginger following the COVID-19 pandemic that had affected mental health worldwide. Many people had turned to virtual solutions owing to movement restrictions.
Headspace notes that what also determined the need for the merger was the increasing number of employers constantly looking for end-to-end solutions to address employee mental health and wellness.
Employers recorded losses amounting to over $200 billion per year due to lost productivity and health-related costs. Headspace Health adopted an approach that would see more employees access high-quality mental health.
Following the merger, Headspace Health would reach nearly 100 million people across over 190 countries and 2,700 enterprises and health plan partners.
Overall, Headspace Health aims to democratize mental healthcare by providing a full spectrum of affordable, accessible, and comprehensive mental health support for all.
Explore: Best GoodRx Alternatives
How Does Headspace Work?
Upon creating an account, you will be redirected to the homepage, where the “Wake up” tag will greet you. It is then followed by a series of short explanation videos demonstrating how to let go or step away from mental stressors.
You will notice a menu bar at the bottom of the screen with four categories to toggle between. These categories include Meditate, Sleep, Move, or Focus.
The social connection provided on the platform allows you to add friends and families from your contact list as buddies.
The app bases its teachings on eight principles derived from Tibetan and Buddhist traditions. The Noting technique labels experiences as soon as they arise into a thought or a feeling.
Visualization is all about picturing something or someone, while focused attention projects all your attention onto one object, goal, or mantra.
The resting awareness technique lets your mind roam freely as you meditate rather than being focused on breathing or visualization. The loving and kindness approach focuses more on the mentality of sending kindness, goodwill, and warmth toward others.
Reflection focuses on you and questions to self. The body scan technique conducts a mental scan on your body, head to toe, to ensure that your body is in sync with your mind. Lastly, the skillful technique focuses on the person you love or sensations from your heart.
In addition to guided meditations, Headspace offers monthly check-ins, where you can share your feelings or write notes to yourself.
The sleep casts or narrated stories are there to soothe you into a good night’s sleep, and you can set the daily mindfulness moments to pop up on your home screen.
Check Out: Best MyfitnessPal Alternatives
Headspace App Features
Daily meditations
Daily meditations set you on the path of discovering a happier and healthier life. Daily meditation features a set of guided meditations and mindfulness based on the activities for the day.
Additionally, it has a run streak sub-feature that records your consistent meditations to keep you on track and stay committed to your goal.
Through daily meditations, you can easily learn how to breathe and quickly reset mentally with three-minute mini-meditations. The feature also ensures that you wake up to short inspirational videos to brighten your day.
Sleep sounds & meditations
You can easily create relaxing conditions for a peaceful night’s sleep with sleep sounds & meditations. You can use sleep music to establish a soothing baseline with little to no vibrations to not only put you to sleep but also keep you asleep longer.
There are three music samples to help you fall asleep. Dream music is light and mellow to quickly send you to sleep. Sea shapes are more of the ebb and flow of a clarinet, while the cloudy Concerto features a mix of rain sounds and the organ.
Stress relief & coping meditations
This feature will help you ease stress and anxiety through “SOS” sessions during episodes of anxiety. It enables you to learn breathwork essential for relaxing and calming your body down.
The Weathering the Storm collection is there to ensure that you build resilience. This feature also has meditation to help you cope with anger or sadness and quickly adapt to change.
Find focus and build productivity
This feature helps you cultivate excellent conditions for a relaxed and precise focus. It is really helpful, especially if you are working from home. You can listen to guided meditations or music from a curated playlist to set the mood for productivity.
Centered fitness and tension release
This feature helps you release stress and tension with easy mindful movement. It also has a guide on mood-boosting activities such as yoga and guided running.
It also has Centered Fitness Courses on 28 days of mindful fitness and cardio. This app lets you train with experts and Olympians like Leon Taylor and Kim Glass.
Pricing
Headspace offers paid plans tailored to your needs. You can choose between its annual plan for $69.99 and monthly plan for $12.99. The yearly plan gives you the best value of $5.83 monthly and comes with a 14-day free trial.
Headspace also has student and family packages. The student’s plan goes for $9.99 per year and is only available for students in the United States, Canada, the UK, France, Germany, India, Spain, and Portugal.
The students should be 18 years or older, attending a post-secondary or university program.
The students’ plan can help students drop stress from their study schedules and prioritize restful sleep with soothing stories, music, and soundscapes.
The plan also simplifies students’ years by assisting them to be kind to their minds through hundreds of meditations and resources.
The family package allows you to create up to six accounts for $99.99 annually. The family plan is for any family member you choose as long as you enter the same physical address when signing up.
If you already subscribe to a monthly or annual plan, you can upgrade to the family plan and get a prorated credit back to your account.
Headspace subscriptions are renewed automatically based on how you subscribed for the services. If you wish to upgrade your subscription, disable the auto-renew feature to allow the current plan to expire. You can select a new plan once the current one expires.
Is Headspace Worth it?
If you plan to start the meditation journey, Headspace is the right platform. It offers multiple mindfulness and meditation courses in a comfortable and easy format, ideal for beginners.
The app then gradually introduces you to advanced techniques, though its courses only last up to 30 minutes.
Headspace is worth trying as mindfulness and meditation approaches are non-intimidating and easy to follow. The best part is that as you go deep into meditation, you can complete even advanced courses in the app.
Headspace also has meditation doses and mindfulness blocks for toddlers and children up to 12 years. While you need to pay to access Headspace resources, it offers free trials for its web and app version, but make sure you cancel it before your card is charged.
The app can significantly boost your well-being, reduce emotional reactivity, and promote positive thinking.
A 2019 study examining the effectiveness of meditation apps ascertained that headspace is indeed helpful in reducing job strain, ambulatory blood pressure on a workday, and improving psychological well-being.
On the downside, you might find Headspace insufficient if you are an advanced meditator. Its meditations do not go beyond 30 minutes, which might not be enough for someone looking for a deeper practice.
While the students and family subscription plans are helpful, one can easily miss them as they are only available through the web. Overall, I highly recommend Headspace to anyone looking to improve their well-being and de-stress.
