Best Yoga Apps

Yoga will make your life better. I promise.

Overview

Any health or fitness regime needs repetition and commitment to be effective. A universally beneficial regime that can be easily done at home is yoga. Whether you have a specific health need (aches, pains, mental wellness) or just want to feel better in general, yoga is a good option. If you are a yoga virgin, nothing compares to an in-person lesson with an experienced teacher, but your iPhone or iPad can approximate that experience. Just remember, before starting your practice don't eat a heavy meal right before (ideally, don't eat anything or just eat a light meal an hour or so beforehand), pay attention to your breathing, and every pose needs a counterpose.

Essential Apps

$0.99
Yoga Pro for iPad: Asanas and Exercises

by ARAWELLA CORPORATION

This app (and the iPhone version linked below) has three major features that set it apart from the pack: 1) you can create your own yoga routines (perfect for the more experienced), 2) with the initial purchase of this app, you get a lot of ready-made routines that you can sort by difficulty or health goal, and 3) the "Personal Yoga Teacher" feature lets you fill in specifics about yourself and your goals to get a routine generated just for you. Every pose is modeled by a real person, includes useful textual and oral information about how to perform them, and individual pose pages include pictures of which muscle groups the pose engages. The interface is intuitive and includes impressive customizable settings like the duration of each pose in a routine, the background audio, and a calendar that tracks your practice. Pro tip: Download the free version, Yoga Free (linked below) to preview the interface and app before purchasing All-in YOGA. If you like it, purchase All-in YOGA instead of purchasing a subscription in Yoga Free because they each give you the same content, but the former is much more cost effective. The drawbacks of this app is the oral instruction does not give enough notes on adjustments for each pose and some of the poses are modeled incorrectly in little ways. Scroll down to the Custom section for links to all of the alternate versions of this app and others in this AppGuide.
$4.99
Universal Breathing - Pranayama

by Saagara

Breathing is an essential part of a successful yoga practice and Pranayama is breath yoga. This app is straightforward and is only focused on breath. Sounds easy, but this form of meditation and physical control is a revelation once you get the hang of it. Choose from three difficulty levels, number of breaths per minute, and practice duration. If their routines aren't what you're looking for, you can create your own routine too. If you're not clear on what a Pranayama practice is or how to use the app, their information guide is comprehensive, making this app great for raw beginners and seasoned practitioners.

Notable Apps

Free
iYoga+

by Breitschmid Productions

This app's videos are awesome and make it the best app for beginners. Unlike other apps, the "lessons" are full videos of the sequence and not a collection of video clips. As a result, you see how to transition from pose to pose from a real person (who as far as I've seen, does the poses perfectly). Unfortunately, this app only provides 8 lessons with no chance to get more and doesn't have any options to customize the difficulty (nor does it say what the lesson's difficulty is) or speed of your practice.
$3.99
Pocket Yoga HD

by Rainfrog, LLC

If Pocket Yoga had more routines and options for pose references, it would be the best thing ever for non-beginners. Unlike other apps, every routine is well-conceived: poses flow into each other elegantly, every pose is countered, and resting poses are included where needed. The interface is gorgeous and the five pose sequences can be customized according to pose repetitions and difficulty. The drawbacks of this app lie in its limited content, the use of an illustrated model instead of a real person, and lack of individual descriptions of poses. However, the illustrations show the poses done perfectly (unlike real life models that often fail to pay attention to little details like spine elongation) and the app has a little practice tracker, and soundtrack customizer. The companion app, Pocket Yoga Practice Builder (linked below) is great for making your own sequences.
$1.99
YogaCoach

by everTHINK, Inc.

This app's interface and overall content isn't as well done as the other apps I've picked for this section, but its inclusion of different kinds of breathing exercises and the great video clips of the poses being done <i>perfectly</i> make it worth recognition. The voiceover gives useful tips on pose adjustments and video clips make it great for beginners who need to see exactly how poses are done. The major shortcomings of this app lie in its inability to download additional poses and lack of customizable features. Additionally, their "Healing Yoga" and "Theme Yoga" sequences often are just collections of poses and don't pay attention to flow or counterposes.

Decent Apps

$0.99
Sworkit Pro

by Ryan Hanna

The interface and amount of content is lacking, but this app's good for a quick workout or randomized routine (and also has a free version linked below). Though not labeled as such, its other workouts incorporate pilates. This is best for non-beginners because it does not describe poses, so you need to know your way around them. The sequences have good flow and you can customize the duration and track your usage across weeks and months.
Free
Simply Yoga FREE

by Daniel Miller

Simply Yoga is probably the most popular yoga app in the App Store because it's free and lets you start your routine immediately. It's not bogged down with features, settings, and additional information. Instead, it provides a stripped down menu of session duration and workout routine (though, only one routine is available in the free version). The best part of the workouts provided in this app is that they work out the entire body. The worst part of this app is that the model does not do many of the poses correctly and sometimes does not do the same things the voiceover tells you to do, making it confusing and misleading for beginners.
Free
Yoga 101

by myyogaminute.com

The lessons in Yoga 101 (also available is Yoga 201 and 301) are developed from vinyasa flow yoga, the most popular style of yoga practiced in the U.S. This kind of yoga focuses on smooth transitions and the use of breath in your practice. Each of the lessons in the Yoga 101 to 301 series features full length videos of yoga sequences with a real model so you can see how to transition from pose to pose. The voiceover narration is useful and offers a lot of important notes on adjustment. Yoga 101 only provides one lesson free. Additional lessons can be downloaded for $1.99 each.
$4.99
YOGAmazing - Yoga Video App

by Wizzard Media

After paying the initial cost to download this app, you get at least fifty yoga lessons at any given time. The videos are streamed to your iDevice like a podcast. The app does have occasional ads or viewer polls, which can get annoying when all you want to do is get started. While the amount of lessons that is provided gives you bang for your buck, the lack of organization and information in the app makes it difficult to navigate. For each lesson, or episode, you do not see the duration or difficulty level, so most of the time, you have to choose blindly. Ultimately, the variety of lessons, ranging from the standard energizing routines to ones targeting specific health and mental concerns might make this app worth looking at if other yoga apps aren't cutting it.

Specialized Yoga

$2.99
Yoga for Weight Loss

by Saagara

This app is from Saagra, the same developer as the Pranayama app, and meshes breath control with hatha yoga poses that focus on thyroid stimulation and toning through endurance. Like all Saagra apps, all of the sequences pay attention to breathing with each pose and the breath difficulty can be chosen before each session. Overall, the app is quite limited for the cost as bigger but similarly priced apps like All-in YOGA HD also have sequences that will help with weight loss, but also have other routines for other health concerns.
Free
Yoga Face

by myyogaminute.com

The idea of exercising or "stretching" your face may seem absurd, but this practice has long been used by those who tend to carry a lot of tension in their face and those who want to erase signs of aging. The app comes with five free lessons and for $3.99, you can unlock eight additional lessons ranging from "Neck Smoother" to "Lower Lid Firmer."
$4.99
Yoga in Bed: Awaken Body, Mind & Spirit in 15 Minutes

by Vook

This app is tailored for those who want to get a head start on their day before they get out of bed. This app gives you the option of reading through routines, watching video clips of stretches and sequences, or a combination of the two. Choose from 20 poses and create a new wake up routine for yourself. The only thing to keep in mind while using this app is paying close attention to how your body feels while doing yoga in bed. Not all mattresses will be able to give you adequate support in certain poses, which can lead to you straining or pulling a muscle.
$3.99
Airplane Yoga

by Michael Huffman

This app won't blow your mind with innovative and exciting yoga routines, but it is tremendously useful if you are someone who travels a lot. Being in a tight, confined space for extended periods of time can wreak havoc on your body. This app (also available in a free version) offers little stretches and routines you can do before and during your travels. Each pose and stretch has a description of the action and a video. On top of this collection of poses, it also has a cute section where it gives you tips for "zen-like air travel."