After Hours / No. 43

Calm vs Headspace for sleep: stories, sleepcasts and price

Both apps do far more than sleep. If bedtime is what you are paying for, here is how their sleep formats and prices compare.

By Lalai8 November 20263 min read

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Published by Lalai, one of the apps discussed. Based on public product information, not independent hands-on testing. Brand names identify their respective products; no affiliation or endorsement is implied.

A folded pocket atlas opens into a miniature evening landscape

Picture your evening / Illustrative scene

The short answer

Both have narrated sleep audio, sleep music and sounds. Calm’s centrepiece is its Sleep Stories; Headspace’s is the sleepcast, a 45–55-minute narrated setting remixed each night. Headspace lists $12.99 a month or $69.99 a year. Calm’s US listing showed Premium prices from $14.99 to $79.99, depending on plan and offer.

Sources & review notes ↗

01 / A closer look

Sleep Stories or sleepcasts?

Calm’s bedtime centrepiece is the Sleep Story: a narrated story, often read by a well-known voice.↗ Its App Store listing describes more than 100 of them, with new ones added every month.↗

Headspace’s equivalent is the sleepcast. Headspace describes these as 45–55-minute narrated tours of a setting that begin with a wind-down and are remixed from night to night, so the same title is never quite the same twice.↗

If you like hearing exactly the same recording every time, that difference matters more than any feature count. Our guide to why sleepcasts change goes into it.

At a glance

Calm, if you want…

A large library of Sleep Stories, many read by well-known voices, alongside meditation, music and nature sounds, with some content free for good.

Headspace, if you want…

Sleepcasts that change a little each night, sleep music and sounds, inside a broader meditation and mental-health programme.

Inside Lalai

An evening of your own.

Explore Lalai’s illustrated stories and sound collection.

Explore the story worlds Now on the App Store

Original AI-generated editorial illustration

02 / A closer look

Music and sounds

Both offer sleep music and background sounds. Calm’s listing mentions music, nature sounds and sleep sounds such as ocean waves, heavy rain and a campfire.↗ Headspace’s lists sleep sounds and sleep music alongside its sleepcasts.↗

If what you mostly want is a sound rather than a story, you may not need either subscription. Our night sounds play free in your browser, with a sleep timer and no ads.

Original AI-generated editorial illustration · Movable layered-paper hills arranged across a sculptural tabletop

03 / A closer look

What they cost

Headspace’s US App Store listing states its prices plainly: $12.99 a month or $69.99 a year.↗ Calm’s listing doesn’t state plan prices in its description. Its in-app purchase list, checked on 8 November 2026, showed Calm Premium at prices from $14.99 to $79.99, which vary with the plan and any current offer.↗

Calm Sleep, Calm’s separate sleep app, is sold on its own: its listing gives $69.99 a year, and a main Calm subscription does not unlock it.↗↗

Calm is free to download and says some of its content is free for good.↗ Headspace’s listing talks about a free trial; we did not find it describing a standing free library. Whichever you try, note the date the trial ends and the price it renews at.

04 / A closer look

Where Lalai fits

Lalai is narrower than either. It is a sleep app built around hour-long stories read slowly over painted scenes, with night sounds you mix by hand and original music underneath. It costs $24 a year or $3 a month, and The Night Train Through the Snow is free in full, with no account.↗

If you want meditation courses or a mental-health programme, Calm or Headspace is the better fit. If what you want at bedtime is a story, hear Lalai’s openings first in the story collection.

Sources & editorial notes

Reviewed 8 November 2026. Product descriptions were checked against Lalai’s catalog, implementation and support materials, and the official competitor pages below. Features may change. Editorial recommendations describe listening preferences; they are not claims of medical benefit.

Lifestyle scenes, conceptual story worlds and decorative cutouts are AI-generated illustrations, not photographs of actual customers or endorsements. Phone screens within generated scenes are illustrative; the separate app mockups use Lalai’s supplied screenshots. Story artwork comes from Lalai’s existing asset library. Developer descriptions are publisher sources, not independent testing. Tell us about a correction.