Slo vs Headspace (2026): Sound Mixer or Guided App?

Slo suits you if you want ambient sound sitting quietly under sleep or work, with 200+ recorded sounds, 89 of them free, a volume for every layer, and a timer from 15 minutes to 24 hours that fades out before it stops. Headspace suits you if you’d rather be led, through guided meditation and narrated Sleepcasts. Slo is our own app, so read this with that in mind.

The short answer: the question underneath this is whether you want a voice in your ear at bedtime. If you don’t, Slo builds the mix you want and gives you the same one back tomorrow, and a single purchase is one of the ways to pay for it. If you do, Headspace has the guided meditation, the Sleepcasts, the sleep music and the wider mindfulness library, and a sound app won’t stand in for those.

The Headspace details on this page come from its official product and help pages, read on July 31, 2026. Slo’s figures come from our own app source, version 3.132, on September 14, 2026. Neither app can guarantee better sleep.

Slo vs Headspace at a glance

If you care most about…	Better fit	Why
Building your own ambient mix	Slo	Stack any number of layers, set a volume on each, and the app stores that balance per combination.
Guided mindfulness and meditation	Headspace	Guided practice is what the product is built around.
Narrated bedtime experiences	Headspace	Sleepcasts put narration and ambient audio after a wind-down.
Trying a mixer directly in a browser	Slo	180 sounds and 36 presets play free at slonoise.com with no account.
A produced sleep-audio library	Headspace	It carries Sleepcasts, sleep music, noise colors, soundscapes, and Sleep Radio.

This page compares what the two apps do and how you use them. Neither one is a way to deal with insomnia, and nothing here promises you a better night.

What is the main difference?

Slo is for picking recorded sounds and putting them together. The app holds 200+ sounds and keeps 89 free for good, including 22 noise-color recordings across seven colors, 5 of them brown. The mixer has no layer cap, gives each layer its own volume, and remembers the balance for every combination, so tonight’s mix returns tomorrow unchanged. Mixes you save export to a file that another device can import. The sleep timer runs from 15 minutes to 24 hours, and the sound fades out over up to 2 minutes instead of cutting off. On iPhone and Android, playback runs as a background audio service and keeps going with the screen off. Each sound downloads on first play and stays on the device, so in the app a saved mix plays with the phone offline. For the full library there’s a monthly subscription, a yearly subscription, or one lifetime purchase. Slo is on iPhone, Android and Mac, with 180 sounds playing free at slonoise.com without an account.

What Headspace has and Slo doesn’t is a long list. No Sleepcasts, no guided meditation, no sleep tracking, no adaptive audio, no alarm, no recorder and no voice.

Headspace is for guided mental-health and mindfulness content. Its sleep library includes Sleepcasts, bedtime meditations, sleep music, soundscapes, noise colors, and longer Sleep Radio tracks. Its official help center documents access through the website and the iOS and Android apps.

Soundscapes or guided meditation?

That’s the choice most people are actually making here, and it depends on what you want the audio to do. If it should sit under sleep or work while your attention goes elsewhere, a mixer is the straighter road. If you want it to lead you somewhere, a narrated library is.

Slo’s mixer combines sounds and lets you set each layer on its own. Start with one steady sound and one texture, such as one of the 5 brown noise tracks with rain over it. If the rain keeps catching your ear, take it out, and the app keeps the rest of the balance where you had it.

Headspace’s official library offers finished recordings and documents no comparable manual mixer. A Sleepcast opens with a short wind-down, then narrates a scene with environmental sound behind it, and the details change between listens, so a familiar one doesn’t turn into an audiobook you have to follow.

Neither format is more relaxing on its own. Some nights you want the control; some nights you want to press play and let someone else talk.

Noise colors and soundscapes

Headspace’s current sleep library goes well past white noise. It lists white, brown, pink, green, gray, and orange noise, plus nature-based soundscapes, binaural-beat tracks, sleep music, and radio-length programs.

Slo has 200+ sounds across noise colors, nature and atmospheric categories, with 22 noise recordings covering brown, pink, white, grey, green, blue and violet. Variety isn’t what separates them. Picking sound and balancing it is the whole of Slo’s interface, and one part of Headspace’s.

Meditation and structured content

For a guided meditation practice, Headspace is the obvious one. Its app puts expert-led meditation, focus content, sleep support, and programs for kids and families in one place. Slo has none of that and nobody talks in it; recordings play, and the timer ends them.

Platforms and pricing

Headspace officially supports web access plus iOS and Android apps. Slo runs on iPhone, Android and Mac, and 180 of its sounds play free in a browser. On the web the timer tops out at 60 minutes, while the app’s runs to 24 hours.

Exact amounts stay off this page, since they move by region. Headspace says your renewal price depends on how you subscribed in the first place. Slo sells the full library as a monthly subscription, a yearly subscription or a one-time lifetime purchase, so it’s the one you can stop paying for.

Which should you choose?

Choose Slo if:

• You want a volume on every layer, with no cap on how many you stack.
• You need a background for sleep or work that runs up to 24 hours and then fades out.
• Paying once suits you better than subscribing.
• You want to hear 180 free browser sounds before anything lands on your phone.

Choose Headspace if:

• You want meditation instruction and a structured mindfulness course.
• Narration, Sleepcasts and produced sleep music are what you’d reach for.
• Browsing finished sessions appeals to you more than building a mix.

Frequently asked questions

Does Headspace have brown noise?

Yes, and more than that one. Its official sleep library lists brown noise alongside white, pink, green, gray, and orange noise.

Does Headspace let me mix sounds?

Its documentation covers soundscapes, sleep music, noise tracks, and Sleepcasts, and we found no official manual layer mixer there like Slo’s, which takes any number of layers and holds a volume for each. Look at the current app if mixing is the thing you need.

What is a Headspace Sleepcast?

It’s a bedtime recording that opens with a wind-down, then walks you through a narrated place with ambient sound behind it. Headspace says the details of a Sleepcast generally change between listens.

Can I use Slo or Headspace on a computer?

Both work on a computer. Headspace’s official help center points desktop users to its website, while Slo has a Mac app and plays 180 of its sounds free in any browser with no account.

Official sources checked July 31, 2026

• Headspace: sleep audio library
• Headspace: Sleepcasts overview
• Headspace: app content overview
• Headspace: supported platforms
• Headspace: renewal-price guidance
• Slo app source, version 3.132 (sound list, timer, fade-out and store products), and the slonoise.com sound catalogue, reviewed September 14, 2026

Related guides

• Slo vs Calm
• Best sleep sound apps in 2026
• Brown noise vs white noise vs pink noise
• How to use sound mixing

Filip Kowalski is the developer of Slo and writes about sound, sleep, and focus.