Review Insights · App Store
BetterSleep: Relax and Sleep
Ipnos Software Inc. · 390,122 ratings · ★ 4.7
4.7
★★★★★
390,122 ratings
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Top complaints - extracted from 60 negative reviews
Recurring phrases mined from 1-2★ reviews. The bigger the percentage, the more users have the same problem. Fix the top 2-3 in your version and you have product-market fit on day one.
1
"free"
27 negative reviews mention this · 45% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Do not get!!!. You have to pay $60 a year! And nothing is free!" - Floppy doggy
2
"sounds"
23 negative reviews mention this · 38% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Disappointing recently. I’ve had this app since 2018 and have absolutely loved using it until they started to require you to purchase everything. I used to be able to listen to the mixes I’ve made through the years and now they want me to pay to access them!! I th…" - omgall the names are gone
3
"sleep"
18 negative reviews mention this · 30% of all complaints
★★★★★ "just do better. only giving a two because i’ve used this app for so long and once loved it. now as im going to sleep tonight i can’t use my saved playlist because we are forced to purchase the subscription. smh can’t believe they stooped this low" - BossBlaze20
4
"years"
14 negative reviews mention this · 23% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Disappointing recently. I’ve had this app since 2018 and have absolutely loved using it until they started to require you to purchase everything. I used to be able to listen to the mixes I’ve made through the years and now they want me to pay to access them!! I th…" - omgall the names are gone
5
"money"
14 negative reviews mention this · 23% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Ummm. I could not hear anything on there. And most of the stuff cost money." - Gina the Queen of games
6
"subscription"
12 negative reviews mention this · 20% of all complaints
★★★★★ "just do better. only giving a two because i’ve used this app for so long and once loved it. now as im going to sleep tonight i can’t use my saved playlist because we are forced to purchase the subscription. smh can’t believe they stooped this low" - BossBlaze20
7
"everything"
11 negative reviews mention this · 18% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Disappointing recently. I’ve had this app since 2018 and have absolutely loved using it until they started to require you to purchase everything. I used to be able to listen to the mixes I’ve made through the years and now they want me to pay to access them!! I th…" - omgall the names are gone
8
"every"
11 negative reviews mention this · 18% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Disappointing recently. I’ve had this app since 2018 and have absolutely loved using it until they started to require you to purchase everything. I used to be able to listen to the mixes I’ve made through the years and now they want me to pay to access them!! I th…" - omgall the names are gone
9
"been"
10 negative reviews mention this · 17% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Glitchy and Laggy. I have used this app for a very long time. I love the actual sleep sounds but the app itself needs improvement. The app is so slow and if you go out of the app the app will crash and you need to start all over again. You have to wait like 1…" - Leah sanders
10
"better"
9 negative reviews mention this · 15% of all complaints
★★★★★ "just do better. only giving a two because i’ve used this app for so long and once loved it. now as im going to sleep tonight i can’t use my saved playlist because we are forced to purchase the subscription. smh can’t believe they stooped this low" - BossBlaze20
11
"listen"
9 negative reviews mention this · 15% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Disappointing recently. I’ve had this app since 2018 and have absolutely loved using it until they started to require you to purchase everything. I used to be able to listen to the mixes I’ve made through the years and now they want me to pay to access them!! I th…" - omgall the names are gone
12
"paywall"
9 negative reviews mention this · 15% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Everything is behind a paywall now. It’s official, the BetterSleepp app is trash. I’ve been using it for years and the longer I use it the more things they lock up and they’ve officially locked mixes that I made so time to delete it. I DO NOT RECOMMEND!" - AnnaaNicoleee
📋 All 60 negative reviews
Every 1-2★ review we fetched. Use the copy button to grab them all for your own analysis (paste into ChatGPT/Claude with a prompt like "summarize core user problems, group by theme, ignore bugs, focus on missing features").
Slow!!
Ever since I upgraded and started paying for this app, it seems like it lags like crazy and takes forever to load anything. Terrible.
Disappointing recently
I’ve had this app since 2018 and have absolutely loved using it until they started to require you to purchase everything. I used to be able to listen to the mixes I’ve made through the years and now they want me to pay to access them!! I think that’s a little ridiculous especially for people who already have the app and sounds saved to their library.
Horrible
This used to be the best app but every date has added more pop us and ads to buy the subscription. After the last update none of my saved lists will play it keeps popping up to pay for the full app.
Do not get!!!
You have to pay $60 a year! And nothing is free!
Ummm
I could not hear anything on there. And most of the stuff cost money.
Subscription
Feeling: disappointed
No more free version
Nothing is free anymore in the app. Basically false advertisement
Disappointing
So disappointed. I stopped using it for a few weeks and when I came back to it everything was unavailable. I’ve had this app for over a year now.
All my mixes were only available if I paid for them. I understand paying for a subscription but only having four sounds available out of ALL of your sounds is so disappointing. It’s annoying to be asked to pay for everything on this app when I used to use it every night FOR better sleep. Sadly will be deleting.
All my mixes were only available if I paid for them. I understand paying for a subscription but only having four sounds available out of ALL of your sounds is so disappointing. It’s annoying to be asked to pay for everything on this app when I used to use it every night FOR better sleep. Sadly will be deleting.
Everything is behind a paywall now
It’s official, the BetterSleepp app is trash. I’ve been using it for years and the longer I use it the more things they lock up and they’ve officially locked mixes that I made so time to delete it. I DO NOT RECOMMEND!
Charged me even though I cancelled within the 7 day free trial period.
I subscribed to a 7 day free trial and cancelled before the 7 days were up. It seemed like a great ap the few times I used it, but the company charged my credit card 39.99 even though I cancelled within the 7 day free trial time period. I am disappointed in this, have contacted apple and hope the owners of better sleep make this right.
Paywall
I used this app for years and had a nice mix of 4-5 rain/thunder sounds. Then I updated the app and all but 1 sound went behind a paywall. The one that’s left (Rain) literally sounds a sink overflowing. This app used to be clean and simple - it now feels bloated and money grabby. What a shame.
What even happened to free version of this app?!
Back then, there was a premium option, but there were also plenty of choices available in the free version, which was fair. Now, it’s frustrating that so little can be listened to without a paywall. It’s disappointing to see this change. I feel it’s unfair to those who use the free version of the app. Unfortunately, I won’t be supporting this app anymore.
Better sleep review
I was on vacation and my son. Needed stream noises to sleep I downloaded this app and realized that I had to pay for it I just used YouTube instead that’s free at least
Absolutely Scam
Newly updated version of the app now requires subscription/payment to access pretty much every sound and feature. This is what is wrong with app development, things that were free now cost money. Now you have to pay for the privilege of playing white noise. Deleting now.
Nah
Had to go through a ton of largely unskippable items before getting to a paywall. Don’t waste your time. I’ll just stick to YouTube.
Charged me $52 for a free trial
Scam. Here I am, 1am, trying to fall asleep. I download this app to play some brown noise. Pop up windows every five seconds about free trials, so I click the free trial and then it charges me $52 for a year. That’s so messed up! I don’t have that kind of money. How am I supposed to sleep now. It doesn’t even work with Bluetooth either- which I would have found out if there were an actual free trial.
Will have to dispute this charge.
Will have to dispute this charge.
This app is garbage.
All they do is provide sleep sounds. Or a combination of them. Why they charge an OUTRAGEOUS amount of money (Not just once, but YEARLY) for what is essentially a short loop of audio is completely ridiculous. And if that's not bad enough, they strong-arm you into buying by having this ANNOYING pop-up show up every time you launch it, and they PURPOSELY make the X to close it look like a star that conveniently blends into the background so you have to spend MORE TIME than necessary just to click on some sounds. I have had enough. I'm going to find a simple rain sound app or just use YouTube that is FAR LESS predatory and annoying. I have been using this app since before they got greedy and irritating. I hope they add advertisements, run off what little is left of their remaining users and put the final nail in the coffin for what was once a great app.
And if you think after reading this, "Hey, this dude could really use a nap," you'd be right! And I would be napping right now if I didn't have to deal with the annoyance of that dreaded pop-up!
And after deleting the app, I just recently learned that nearly all of their sounds require payment. I was somehow coasting for free. So now it's completely useless. Just like the people who have run this app into the ground.
It's apps like this, and the people behind it is why the middle finger was invented.
And if you think after reading this, "Hey, this dude could really use a nap," you'd be right! And I would be napping right now if I didn't have to deal with the annoyance of that dreaded pop-up!
And after deleting the app, I just recently learned that nearly all of their sounds require payment. I was somehow coasting for free. So now it's completely useless. Just like the people who have run this app into the ground.
It's apps like this, and the people behind it is why the middle finger was invented.
HATE IT
THIS FREAKING APP KEEPS ASKING ME ABOuT THE TRIAL!!!!! I WANT TO SLEEP!!!!!!!!!! CHANGE THIS NOW!!!!!!!!! 😡😡😡😤😤😤😤😤😤
Can’t even get past the title screen
I used to love this app back in 2015, I decided to redownload it again today. You immediately get hit with a paywall up front and for whatever reason it doesn’t even fit my screen.
I loved this app before when it was free and you could mix the noises together, it helped me mentally a lot of times.
I understand times are rough right now and expensive but this is just corporate greed at this point. It’s disappointing to see a lovely app just be a paywall.
I loved this app before when it was free and you could mix the noises together, it helped me mentally a lot of times.
I understand times are rough right now and expensive but this is just corporate greed at this point. It’s disappointing to see a lovely app just be a paywall.
Paywall
Nearly every sound is behind a paywall
Utter Disappointment
I’ve been using this app to
sleep for ages now, since it was called relax melodies. For time reference my mom introduced it to me when i was about 7 or 8 to help with my sleep. Back then almost everything was completely free. I am now 19 and the app has become 100% pay to listen. This is beyond disappointing and they should be ashamed of themselves. I understand having a pay wall for certain aspects of your app but to make an app that was once based on accessibility and being mostly free become the complete opposite is absurd. If i could give 0 stars I would.
sleep for ages now, since it was called relax melodies. For time reference my mom introduced it to me when i was about 7 or 8 to help with my sleep. Back then almost everything was completely free. I am now 19 and the app has become 100% pay to listen. This is beyond disappointing and they should be ashamed of themselves. I understand having a pay wall for certain aspects of your app but to make an app that was once based on accessibility and being mostly free become the complete opposite is absurd. If i could give 0 stars I would.
Everything is now premium
They are so hard up for money they just made literally every option premium.
The update is horrible
This app was amazing! Multiple good sounds to use, perfect combinations with what we had. But the update ruined it entirely, I can’t use a single thing that helped me sleep now because this damn update blocked almost everything from use. Quick mention that I really wanted to use something that my mom made, it had THREE THINGS. And they can’t be used without premium and it sucks. Honestly considering deleting this app or just never using it again because it ruined my mood. I just want to use waterfall, music box, and the white noise again without having to pay a crazy amount of money :( and now this app just feels like a darn MONEYSCAM.
It’s a no for me, dog
$70? No thanks. Not remotely worth that.
Terrible
I use this app for years, and as of the last year or two every couple weeks or every couple months they were just taken out all the free sounds, and I’d have to pick new sounds to use. I’m not trying to pay monthly subscription to listen to something while I sleep. Finally deleted it and got a new one.
Used to be good
Used to be a good app with lots of sounds so you could customize what you wanted to listen to. Now you need to pay for everything. This app literally got a million times worse
No free app choice
I wanted to try this app longer than 7 days before committing to a yearly subscription! No available “free app with adds” choice given.
was great for what it use to be
I use to use the free version a lot because it had a decent amount of free options i could make mixes to. but coming back after the first update when they moved certain noises to the paid only option, i never thought it could be any worse. in short most of the noise people would want to try out or listen to is locked behind a paywall, and not only that but the few noises you could use wouldn't even be enough to please a diverse crowd. i'm not saying the app is fully bad, if you got the extra money laying around it's great for what it is, but as someone who doesn't want endless subscriptions i don't have the budget for a full year for a app that i would use on and off. at this point id just market it as the full paid app i see no difference at this rate cause the free options are mid to me
Greedy People Run This Show
Used to be free, years ago. Now they want money for noise. YouTube has it for free, just like many others. App is deleted for good now.
No More Free Sounds
At one point you used to offer limited free options. That is NO LONGER AN OPTION. I already have a sleep clock at home, would still like to have an option when traveling, but the cost is crazy high for minimum usage! The app is useless and will be deleting!
Everything is a money-grab
I’ve had this app for YEARS and used it religiously when traveling because it had the best sleep sound choices. I loved being able to customize what I was listening to, but now you get roughly 4 sounds for free… all of my saved mixes are now gone and stuck behind a pay-wall. Ridiculous, but I refuse to pay for something that has been free to years. I’m so disappointed in this app.
Misleading subscription -Charged without using app
I downloaded this app expecting to explore its features but was immediately prompted with a subscription that was not clearly explained. I did not intentionally agree to paid subscription, and I did not use the app after realizing there was a cost involved.
Despite this, I was charged $76.00, which is extremely frustrating. There was no meaningful use of this service,and the pricing was not made clear enough before the change occurred.
This experience feels misleading and disappointing. I would strongly caution others to be very careful when downloading, as it is very easy to be charged without understanding the subscription terms.
Despite this, I was charged $76.00, which is extremely frustrating. There was no meaningful use of this service,and the pricing was not made clear enough before the change occurred.
This experience feels misleading and disappointing. I would strongly caution others to be very careful when downloading, as it is very easy to be charged without understanding the subscription terms.
Disappointed longtime user
I’ve used this app for years, and suddenly, the sounds I’ve been using for free are no longer available without a paid subscription. No thanks. I’ll use Apple’s free built-in white noise from now on.
Obsolete app now unless $$$
I’ve used this app for many years, but only intermittently (like when traveling w a snorer). Horribly disappointed by the update. Previously had dozens of free sounds, and now there are only 4 super basic ones (rain, ocean, bird, a melody). It is essentially obsolete now, unless you purchase a subscription. Such a sellout. There are better free options available through iPhone’s pre-installed sound settings
Changed
I’ve used the same 3 sounds for a decade. Suddenly they’re all premium? No rain sounds appear to be available.
Worthless now.
Worthless now.
Greed
Used to be able to listen to 20% of sounds free. Now you can listen to sub 5% free. This app has been ruined.
Alarm doesn’t work
The alarm is silent. What good does a silent alarm do? DO NOT USE THIS APP!
Expensive
I used to use this app all the time, yet now i’m really frustrated on how you have to buy everything. You only get 7 sounds to pick from and that’s it. You might as well just buy the entire thing instead of making it seem free yet it’s not. I know it’s not that much money, but I just don’t want another thing to buy when it used to be a great app without you having to pay for mostly everything.
No free features
There isn’t a free option to try this, unless you sign up for a subscription on another app. The sign up flow is a waste of time.
Was better before
I’ve had this app for awhile like back when it was all free, but now you gotta pay to get 90% or more if the sounds. I had my own mixes made and I can’t even use them because the sounds I used I have to pay to use them. This all as gone WAY downhill and as someone who used to use it EVERY night, I think it’s time to get rid of it. It’s shame because it used to be great and now I can’t use any of the sounds that help me sleep.
Nothing like it used to be
The level of greed this app has become is ridiculous. 99.5% of the app is paid now for some irrational reason. It used to have tons of free sounds and music. Now that it’s a money grab with only a couple free sounds it’s worthless if you just want to unwind and relax after a hard day because when you get home you have to pay real hard earned money for a few more sounds. If I could rate zero I would. Had the app over many phones and finally deleting.
Year Only??!
You have to buy an entire year for $70+?? Eff that!
Ava
I think it’s ridiculous that I have to pay to listen to white noise. I’ve been using this app for years and no longer will be using it.
just do better
only giving a two because i’ve used this app for so long and once loved it. now as im going to sleep tonight i can’t use my saved playlist because we are forced to purchase the subscription. smh can’t believe they stooped this low
Disappointed
I used to have this app before and loved it. However, now most of their sounds you need to purchase. I remember when you could list to over 90 percent of the sounds. Now, they want you to pay over $50 a year. Going to look for another app and if I have to pay, it will be for a more reasonable price.
Greedy
Used this app for years. Now I can’t even listen to my custom mix without ads popping up that asks me to subscribe and pay.
Glitchy and Laggy
I have used this app for a very long time. I love the actual sleep sounds but the app itself needs improvement. The app is so slow and if you go out of the app the app will crash and you need to start all over again. You have to wait like 10 business days to click from one thing to another it’s so annoying. If the app was not so lagging/ functioned better maybe I would consider spending money in the app but I refuse to spend money in the app when it’s so laggy/slow. It’s been like this for awhile I am surprised they haven’t fixed this.
review
if it’s a thing for rain and sounds then why do you have to buy all of the rain sounds i love the app just not the fact i have to pay for what it’s used for
Scammed
I used to use this app with free sounds because it was the best app and I had discovered it before it even changed its name to Bettersleep. Anyways, I had this and was using for a while, there weren’t many premium sounds but the sounds I used were free. Until I needed a new iPad. I had to redownload the app, when I did, everything was premium. It says there’s 300 sounds but there is about 7 free sounds. And the worst part? 5 dollars. 5 DOLLARS TO SLEEP FOR A MONTH. Honey. WHAT R WE DOING. Go back to the old version
Once was good
Been a paying member for years now and have recently became very disappointed with the lack of new content. The ones labeled new are now months old and actual new items are very rare. If you’ve never had the app then it’s a good deal because there are lots of stories and meditation but unfortunately for me I’ve heard them all.
+ 10 more in the clipboard copy
Sentiment summary
95%
Positive (4-5★)
2%
Neutral (3★)
2%
Negative (1-2★)