Practise without leaving the house with our favourite yoga apps

Apps for everyone from the dedicated yogi to the beginner hoping to test the water
Train at home with these yoga apps

Despite signing up with all the best intentions, sometimes actually getting to a yoga class can be the biggest challenge. Whether you’re the kind of yogi who regularly cancels at the last minute, or are new to yoga and would prefer to do classes alone, downloading a yoga app is an easy way to practise those asanas, without leaving your living room.

What are the benefits of practising yoga using an app?

Sure, by now you’ve probably heard about the benefits of yoga, from better posture to improved energy, but finding a studio you love (and can afford) can sometimes be tricky. For beginners, a yoga app is a cheap way to practise different styles of yoga without a pricey studio subscription. For more experienced yogi’s, a yoga app can be a good tool to enhance your at-home practise, whether that’s a more intense focus on one pose in particular (because who doesn’t want to be able to upload handstand photos on instagram this summer), or just a more interesting solo practise.

What will you need to practise properly at home?

Before you get started, most yoga apps will require you to have the basics set up. This includes a space to practise that’s big enough for you to comfortably move, a good yoga mat, a yoga towel and if you’ve got one, perhaps a yoga block or strap. If you’re new to practise, a large book can easily replace a block and a tea towel or scarf can replace a yoga strap.

Which are the best yoga apps on the market?

To help you work out which app is best for you, we’ve downloaded and tested some of the most popular on the market. Here are the ones we've picked as the best out there for every type of yogi.

5 Minute Yoga

Yoga apps to use in your at-home practise

Best for: Those who have five minutes to practise.

Some yogis believe that five minutes of practise a day is far more beneficial than one hour-long class a week. If you’re a complete beginner, or find it hard to fit yoga into your daily life, this is the app for you. When you open it up and click start, you’ll be taken through your daily postures, with an image and description to guide you. The timer will record your pose for 40 seconds and after five poses you’re done. The app also tracks which postures you’ve practised each day, allowing you to see your progress.

The pros: The app is super easy to use and being just five-minutes long, it’s a really good introduction to daily practise.

The cons: If you find you have longer to practise you’ll only be able to go back over the days you’ve already done to add to your routine, unless you subscribe.

How much: The app is free to download and use, however if you want to unlock all the sessions on the app and the option to play music, you’ll need to pay for a premium membership. This costs $9.99 as a one-off purchase, with a number of cheaper options if you want to try it out for a shorter period.

Download: iTunes | Google Play

YogaGlo

Yoga apps to use in your at-home practise

Best for: People who prefer to be running or spinning than practising their cycling pose

If yoga isn’t your workout of choice but something you need to do to stretch those tired muscles, YogaGlo is the app for you. With a wide variety of classes all in one place, this app really does make practising at home a lot easier. You can narrow down sessions by duration and change your yogi level to see a suggested list of classes and programmes to follow. There’s also a search function which allows you to find exactly what you’re looking - we were especially impressed with the yoga for runners and prenatal yoga programmes. For more advanced yogis, the option to set goals, save your favourite styles and tweak your ‘adventure level’ is satisfying. Plus, there’s also a good amount of mat pilates and meditation sessions on the app.

The pros: The search function is really handy, and each class has a video, allowing you to follow along at home as if you were in a class.

The cons: There isn’t a free version of the app, but if you use it regularly, the extensive library makes it worth the cost.

How much: The app is free to download and when you sign up you can get unlimited access to all of the classes for seven days as part of a free trial. After this, you’ll need to subscribe, which costs $21.49 a month.

Download: iTunes

Down Dog

Best for: Those who have tried yoga before and found it boring.

If you’re someone who goes through ‘phases’ of being addicted to different classes, you’re not alone. Chances are you’ve probably tried yoga before, found it boring and are looking for an app that will keep you motivated. Despite being named after one of the most basic yoga poses out there, Downward Dog has over 30,000 different sessions available for you to try, so with this app, you’ll never do the same class twice - kind of like having a personal yoga teacher in your pocket. Every time you log onto the app you can choose your level, the type of class you’re looking for, how long you’ve got to practise and anything you want to focus on (we particularly enjoyed the hip opening classes).

The pros: We liked the option to download the workouts, so you can take your practise offline.

The cons: You only get three classes on the free version of the app, after this you will need to subscribe.

How much: The app is free to download, but after you’ve used up your three classes, you’ll need to subscribe to continue using the app. A subscription costs $7.99 per month or $49.99 per year, although there are other options available in the app.

Download: iTunes | Google Play

Pocket Yoga

Yoga apps to use in your at-home practise

Best for: Yogis who want to learn how to master one specific posture.

For the price of your morning coffee, you can download Pocket Yoga and search through more than 200 postures you might need help with. Each of the tutorials has an animation and a voiceover to teach you how to correctly hold the posture. There’s also 27 longer sessions, where you can amend the duration, difficulty and even the environment to make things more personalised. We particularly liked that you can easily connect the app to your Spotify account, allowing you to build your own yoga playlist.

The pros: Everything is downloaded to your phone allowing you to take your practise completely off-the-grid.

The cons: This is really more of a pose-led app, so those looking for longer sessions to tap into might get frustrated at the offering. It’s also probably not one for complete beginners, as learning some poses completely from an app feels a little risky.

How much does it cost: The app costs $2.99 to download on the Apple or Google app stores.

Download: iTunes

Daily Yoga

Yoga apps to use in your at-home practise

Best for: Those looking to use yoga to tone up or lose weight.

While yoga isn’t necessarily the kind of class you sign up to if you’re hoping to burn calories, regular practise can help you lose weight and tone up. Whether you’re looking to tone or just find an app that helps you commit to daily practise, Daily Yoga can help. With different programmes depending on your goal (getting into yoga as a beginner, staying healthy, losing weight, improving, or toning up), each day you’ll follow a different class to help you get there.

The pros: The programmes are well-focused and challenging. We tried the 14 day abs challenge and felt like it helped to strengthen the core in a way our normal practise didn’t.

The cons: In order to unlock a lot of the programmes you’ll need to subscribe. Also, turning yoga into more of a ‘workout’ won’t be for everyone.

How much: The app is free to download and you can sign up to a seven day trial to unlock all of the content for free. After this, the cheapest subscription costs $12.99 a month or $39.99 a year.

Download: iTunes | Google Play

Yoga Studio

Best for: Those who want to be able to completely customise their practise.

If you’ve ever wished you could press fast-forward during a certain section of a yoga class, Yoga Studio might be yoga app for you. With the option to create your own class and then download it to your phone, you can completely tailor your practise. For beginners, or those newer to certain asanas, the pose section of the app is incredibly detailed, giving you a photo, description, benefits and modifications of hundreds of yoga poses, as well as different combinations to try. There’s also the option to access a number of the different collections, which teach you the basics, and more - we particularly liked the desk series, which offered five classes you could do from your desk on your lunch break.

The pros: This app gives you the chance to build your own yoga class which is rather impressive.

The cons: If you don’t want to build your own, it can be a little fiddly to find a yoga class using the search function.

How much: The app is free to download and there’s a seven day free trial that allows you to see what you’re getting, after that it’s $9.99 a month, or $95.99 annually.

Download: iTunes | Google Play

Find What Feels Good

Yoga apps to use in your at-home practise

Best for: Those who are already one of the five million ‘Yoga with Adriene’ YouTube subscribers.

When YouTube-famous yoga instructor Adriene Mishler decided to launch her own yoga app, it quickly became one of the most popular on the market. There’s no free version of the app, but Adriene’s online teaching success means you know you’re in safe hands. When you sign up, you get hours of HD video classes with Adriene and her instructor friends and you’ll instantly be part of the community, where you can even chat to other yogis after class. You can stream the videos when you’re practising at home, or save and download them to your phone when you’re travelling.

The pros: If you’re the kind of yogi who prefers learning from one instructor, you won’t get bored here. The app has plenty to offer and even has a video on how to make Adriene’s yogi tea.

The cons: If you want to try out loads of different instructors. It's worth watching a few of Adriene’s YouTube videos before downloading.

How much does it cost: The app is free to download, after that you’ll need to choose one of the subscription plans. If you choose the $9.99, you get a seven-day free trial. With the $99.99 yearly plan, you’ll get a 30-day free trial.

Download: iTunes | Google Play

Fiit

Best for: Those who want to pay for an app that does more than just yoga.

If you’re looking for more of an all-round app that has elements of yoga, Fiit ticks a lot of boxes. On the free version of the app, there are a number of yoga classes with well-known instructors such as Catt Meffan and Chris Magee and if you subscribe, you’ll have access to 40 different sessions.

We particularly liked the total strength classes and felt that even for complete yoga newbies, it was very easy to follow along. Of course, the other plus when it comes to Fiit is the wide variety of non-yoga classes on offer, from HIIT to pilates, led by famous trainers.

The pros: If you want one app that does everything, Fiit is worth paying for.

The cons: Unlike other yoga apps, you won’t get as much choice here when it comes to customising the yoga practise to suit you.

How much does it cost? Fiit is free to download and the free version of the app offers enough for you to get a feel for things. The premium version of the app (currently only available in the UK), which allows you to unlock more content, track your progress with the Fiit device and receive the cables to plug your phone into the TV, costs £20 a month, £45 a quarter or £120 a year.

Download: iTunes

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