Review Insights · App Store
Waking Up: Meditation & Wisdom
Waking Up Course, LLC · 42,324 ratings · ★ 4.9
4.9
★★★★★
42,324 ratings
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Top complaints - extracted from 20 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
"meditation"
5 negative reviews mention this · 25% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Overpriced. I paid for a family plan for a year and felt it wasn’t worth the money. I enjoyed the 30 day intro course because I felt like it taught me the “why” behind meditation, but after that, I felt like the content was way overpriced. And now that…" - Christopher "Money" Robinson
2
"subscription"
5 negative reviews mention this · 25% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Hard to believe. That someone with his politics espouses mindfulness of any kind. Very disappointed. Will not be paying for this subscription any longer." - Michelle 1025
3
"through"
5 negative reviews mention this · 25% of all complaints
★★★★★ "BUYER BEWARE! They will keep charging you and make it difficult to cancel!. See title. I have had numerous $60 and $120 charges come through. After my first charge of $120 I thought I canceled but here I am still getting charged. It’s super difficult to figure out how to cancel and I thought I was canceled, but I g…" - Mnichoks
4
"find"
4 negative reviews mention this · 20% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Everything is paywalled. I understand a lot, or even most of the content being paywalled, but I couldn’t find a single thing I could interact with and listen to other than “How is Waking Up Different”. The content might be good, if you wanna pay $150 a year. Maybe …" - Lapis_reviews
5
"trial"
4 negative reviews mention this · 20% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Everything is paywalled. I understand a lot, or even most of the content being paywalled, but I couldn’t find a single thing I could interact with and listen to other than “How is Waking Up Different”. The content might be good, if you wanna pay $150 a year. Maybe …" - Lapis_reviews
6
"content"
3 negative reviews mention this · 15% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Overpriced. I paid for a family plan for a year and felt it wasn’t worth the money. I enjoyed the 30 day intro course because I felt like it taught me the “why” behind meditation, but after that, I felt like the content was way overpriced. And now that…" - Christopher "Money" Robinson
7
"harris"
3 negative reviews mention this · 15% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Overpriced. I paid for a family plan for a year and felt it wasn’t worth the money. I enjoyed the 30 day intro course because I felt like it taught me the “why” behind meditation, but after that, I felt like the content was way overpriced. And now that…" - Christopher "Money" Robinson
8
"someone"
3 negative reviews mention this · 15% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Hard to believe. That someone with his politics espouses mindfulness of any kind. Very disappointed. Will not be paying for this subscription any longer." - Michelle 1025
9
"right"
3 negative reviews mention this · 15% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Everything is paywalled. I understand a lot, or even most of the content being paywalled, but I couldn’t find a single thing I could interact with and listen to other than “How is Waking Up Different”. The content might be good, if you wanna pay $150 a year. Maybe …" - Lapis_reviews
10
"wanted"
3 negative reviews mention this · 15% of all complaints
★★★★★ "SCAM - STEALS $$. I downloaded and wanted to try this out. I opted for the free trial (7 days) and immediately cancelled the same day - so I wouldn’t forget. I just got charged $161.99 . And to top it off the only button that doesn’t work on the app is the “…" - RealtorJoe614
11
"free"
3 negative reviews mention this · 15% of all complaints
★★★★★ "SCAM - STEALS $$. I downloaded and wanted to try this out. I opted for the free trial (7 days) and immediately cancelled the same day - so I wouldn’t forget. I just got charged $161.99 . And to top it off the only button that doesn’t work on the app is the “…" - RealtorJoe614
12
"difficult"
3 negative reviews mention this · 15% of all complaints
★★★★★ "BUYER BEWARE! They will keep charging you and make it difficult to cancel!. See title. I have had numerous $60 and $120 charges come through. After my first charge of $120 I thought I canceled but here I am still getting charged. It’s super difficult to figure out how to cancel and I thought I was canceled, but I g…" - Mnichoks
📋 All 20 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").
Overpriced
I paid for a family plan for a year and felt it wasn’t worth the money. I enjoyed the 30 day intro course because I felt like it taught me the “why” behind meditation, but after that, I felt like the content was way overpriced. And now that I see what a hateful man Sam Harris, I would rather not give him anymore money.
Hard to believe
That someone with his politics espouses mindfulness of any kind. Very disappointed. Will not be paying for this subscription any longer.
Terrible app terrible human
Terrible and not a wise man at all
SCAM - STEALS $$
I downloaded and wanted to try this out. I opted for the free trial (7 days) and immediately cancelled the same day - so I wouldn’t forget. I just got charged $161.99 . And to top it off the only button that doesn’t work on the app is the “contact us” button.
Bad value and fake
App does not do much and Sam Harris is a bad person
BUYER BEWARE! They will keep charging you and make it difficult to cancel!
See title. I have had numerous $60 and $120 charges come through. After my first charge of $120 I thought I canceled but here I am still getting charged. It’s super difficult to figure out how to cancel and I thought I was canceled, but I guess I’m not. I’m hoping someone from support can reach out to make this right because each time I try to write to support I get an error message. Good luck to anybody who subscribed.
Better off with Calm or Balance
I wanted to like this app but it is a poor attempt at replicating the main meditation apps like Calm, Balance, or Mindspace and has the audacity to charge twice as much as all the mainstream apps. Billing practices are predatory and they make canceling the subscription very difficult. It seems the creator didn’t want to spend money on other narrators or loves to sound of his own voice. Everyone has different talents and his voice is not made for narrating or guiding meditations.
Harassing
They will spam your inbox if you don’t sign up and pay for what is offered free all over the internet. The 4.9 rating just tells me people are lazy.
What is he talking about?
I am often accused of being too much of an empiricist, but this sort of thing makes no sense to me at all. I gave it a try because I thought it might help me understand what “mindfulness” is all about. But meditating on why I can’t see my own head? No, not for me.
Sam’s Gone Pro Epstein
Don’t watch his recent YouTube video about Epstein. His voice will forever be ruined. I had to unsubscribe from his channel and the app after it. Putrid.
Super disappointed
This app feels like the SHEIN version of the calm app. Those sweet sounding samples you hear on the IG ads are nowhere to be found once you’re in the app. Weird poorly recorded and possibly AI voices in some of them. Really redundant “trying to reach word count” vibes in the meditations with very little actual substance. Not to mention, no way to cancel subscription in app. You have to go to their website and what do you know, no where to cancel there either. Have to send a support request and then they said they’ll be in contact over email. Somehow they’ve evaded their app showing up in the list of subscriptions you can usually view and manage in your Apple settings as well. Do not get this app
Predatory Billing.
I wanted to give this app a try with their 7-day trial period and was immediately billed over $100 before the trial period even began. Imagine “waking up” to see unexpected charges on your account. Mildly infuriating!
Predatory billing for an overrated app
Years after cancelling+deleting the app, I'm still getting billed for an annual subscription and having to go through hoops with my bank to keep them from billing me more in the future
Not a good meditation app
Feels like a therapist with ADHD. Jumps from point to point for you to focus on not staying in one place very long losing concentration. It's coupled with agressicely long silent pauses that make you think the session is over and breaks the rhythm of the meditation. Don't waste your time on the trial.
Beware. Hard to track subscription
Underhanded in my opinion. Sub is through the website, not Apple subscriptions. Hard to track unless you remember that you signed up on the website. Until you get hit with a charge and you can’t figure it out.
Why is it mainly men’s voices?
The main narrator is the most unrelaxing voice I’ve ever heard. He sounds like someone’s boss at a financial company. Why aren’t there more women narrators? It almost makes me uncomfortable how not relaxed his voice is. ADD MORE WOMEN ITS WEIRD NO ONE WANTS A MANS VOICE TELLING U TO REALX???
Conditioning False Expectations
What Sam has done with this app is creating more problems for people because it creates false expectations inside of you through his vague questioning.
It’s extremely harmful for highly sensitive individuals. Every meditation is the same concept. It makes you feel like something is expected of you but you will never find the answers, which leaves you feeling broken, unworthy and unfulfilled! Avoid this app and Sam Harris’ ramblings at all cost! You deserve better and you can have better by simply reconditioning yourself to fell worthy just for existing. You don’t need to look for anything. Self-acceptance is already yours. It was there when you were conceived and it will be there we you are finished in this life. Be at peace with it. Be at one with it. It is yours by right and it will always be there for you ❤️
It’s extremely harmful for highly sensitive individuals. Every meditation is the same concept. It makes you feel like something is expected of you but you will never find the answers, which leaves you feeling broken, unworthy and unfulfilled! Avoid this app and Sam Harris’ ramblings at all cost! You deserve better and you can have better by simply reconditioning yourself to fell worthy just for existing. You don’t need to look for anything. Self-acceptance is already yours. It was there when you were conceived and it will be there we you are finished in this life. Be at peace with it. Be at one with it. It is yours by right and it will always be there for you ❤️
Everything is paywalled
I understand a lot, or even most of the content being paywalled, but I couldn’t find a single thing I could interact with and listen to other than “How is Waking Up Different”. The content might be good, if you wanna pay $150 a year. Maybe the 7 day trial is enough for you to use it enough and see how you like it, but not for me right now.
No month to month
It’s so frustrating and unfortunate that when you find an app that aligns with what you need (based on reviews and research) they expect you to pay the entire amount up front. Do you guys know what’s going on around here?! Most people can barely afford groceries, so yes we need options, especially for things that are meant to be tools to help our nervous system.
Nope
Too expensive for what it is. For this price the app itself better be impressive. It’s difficult to navigate. If I didn’t finish listening to the lecture I have to go through too many steps to find the lecture to continue listening. Plenty of free meditation and spiritual content on youtube, so the app itself should be what’s making the difference.
Sentiment summary
98%
Positive (4-5★)
1%
Neutral (3★)
1%
Negative (1-2★)