Free BetterSleep alternative — without the upsells
BetterSleep runs about $59.99/year as of writing. Here's the honest comparison — including what they do better.
| BetterSleep | SoftWaves | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | ≈ $59.99/yr, frequent upsells | Free (all night, every sound) |
| Sound mixing | 40+ toggles at bedtime | Two-layer mixer, set in the daytime |
| Night interface | Busy mixing board | Near-black one-button night interface |
| Notifications | Frequent | None at night, ever |
| Account required | Pushed early | None needed — press play |
Credit where due: BetterSleep proved people want personalized soundscapes, and its sound library is broad — the layering idea is genuinely good.
BetterSleep hands you a mixing board with forty toggles at midnight — decision fatigue as a feature — wrapped in an aggressively monetized shell. The idea underneath (layered, personal soundscapes) is right; the delivery fights sleep itself.
SoftWaves keeps the layering (a deliberately simple two-layer mixer) but moves every decision to the daytime. At night there's one button. And there's no subscription standing between you and the sounds: the catalog is ours, so it plays free.
If you love deep manual sound-tweaking, BetterSleep has more knobs. If you want to stop fiddling and sleep, that's the product we built.
Play tonight's sound freeQuestions
- Is BetterSleep free?
- BetterSleep has a limited free tier with frequent subscription prompts (about $59.99/year as of writing). SoftWaves plays everything free with no upsells at night.
- Can I layer sounds like BetterSleep?
- Yes — the SoftWaves mixer layers two sounds with independent volumes, and your mix lives at a shareable link. It's deliberately simpler: set it in the daytime, one button at night.
- Will I get notifications?
- Never at night. That's a product rule, not a setting.