Best White Noise App in 2026: 8 Apps Compared

BetterSleep, formerly Relax Melodies, is our pick for most sleepers. It offers more than 200 sounds across nature, water, city, animal and brainwave categories, and its mixer lets you layer several sounds at different volumes into a saved mix. That layering matters, since many people sleep better with rain plus a low fan hum than with a single loop. Sleep tracking, guided meditations and stories sit alongside the sounds, and a fade-out timer stops playback gradually as you fall asleep.

The free tier is useful but limited, with only part of the library available without paying, and Premium costs about $59.99 per year in published listings after a trial. The app is also large and packed with features, which can feel like overkill if you just want rain sounds. If you want a full bedtime routine in one app, though, BetterSleep is the most complete option here. Note that this app is a comfort tool for sleep, not medical advice, and ongoing sleep problems should be checked by a doctor.

myNoise is the app for people who have tried white noise before and found it too sharp, too dull or just not right. Instead of a single volume slider, it gives you sliders for different frequency bands, so you can shape a sound to your hearing and your room. You can move from clean white, pink and brown noise to detailed soundscapes such as rain on a tent or a distant train, all with the same level of control. Offline playback helps on flights and in places with poor signal.

The interface is plain and technical, and new users may need a few sessions to learn how the sliders work. The core app is free, with full access available as a one-time in-app purchase listed at about $11.99 in published comparisons. If you are sensitive to certain frequencies, or you want a sound shaped exactly to your taste, myNoise is worth the learning curve.

Dark Noise is the easiest white noise app to live with on an iPhone or Mac. Open it, pick a sound, and you are done, with no account setup and no clutter. Widgets and Shortcuts let you start a favourite sound from the home screen or with Siri, which matters at bedtime when you do not want to fumble through menus in the dark. Sound quality is high, with remastered loops for rain, thunder, beach and airplane sounds.

The limits are platform and price. Dark Noise is Apple only, so Android users need another app, and the full version for new users costs $2.99 per month or $19.99 per year, with a lifetime option at $49.99 in published reports, after a free tier with a smaller set of sounds. If you are in the Apple ecosystem and want calm without complexity, Dark Noise is a polished, dependable pick.

White Noise Lite, by TMSoft, is the no-fuss option. It plays a wide range of white noise, fan, rain and nature sounds, with a timer and background playback, and it does not ask you to learn mixing or accounts first. That simplicity suits guests, children, and anyone who wants to press one button at bedtime. The free version covers the core sounds well, and the Pro version is listed at $2.99 in published comparisons.

The interface looks dated compared with Dark Noise or BetterSleep, and ads appear in the free version. Those are minor issues for a bedtime tool you use with your eyes closed. If you want a simple sound machine on your phone, and you do not need layered mixes or sleep tracking, White Noise Lite is a solid, honest choice.

Noisli is best known as a focus tool, but it works just as well at night. Its mixer lets you combine rain, thunder, wind, forest, cafe chatter and white noise at different volumes, with a clean, calm interface that does not distract you. A built-in timer and a plain text editor help for work sessions, and the web version means you can use it on a laptop as well as a phone. For people who want one app for both work focus and sleep masking, Noisli covers both jobs.

The free tier is limited to 90 minutes per day in published listings, which is enough for a work session but short for a full night of sleep, so overnight users will likely need Pro at $10 per month. Sleep tracking and bedtime stories are also missing, since Noisli is a sound mixer first. If focus is your main need and sleep is secondary, Noisli is a strong pick.

A Soft Murmur is the simplest mixer on this list. Open the site or app, turn up rain, thunder, waves, wind or a crackling fire, and mix them by volume. There is no account, no subscription push and no learning curve, which makes it ideal for a quick test of whether mixed sounds help you sleep or focus. It also works well on a laptop for office masking, since it runs in a browser.

The limit is scope. With only ten sounds and volume as the main control, A Soft Murmur cannot match myNoise for shaping or BetterSleep for variety. There is no sleep tracking, no fade-out routines and no stories. If you want a free, instant sound mixer with no fuss, it is excellent. If you want a full sleep system, pair it with, or upgrade to, BetterSleep.

SimplyNoise does one job well: it plays white, pink and brown noise, with a slider to shape the tone, in a browser for free. That simplicity is the point. If you know that brown noise helps you sleep, or white noise helps you focus, you do not need a library of rain and ocean sounds, you just need clean, steady noise without ads or accounts getting in the way. The mobile app is listed at $0.99, which makes it one of the cheapest paid options here.

There is no mixing, no nature library and no sleep features, so SimplyNoise will feel too basic if you want variety. It is also a browser-first tool, which suits a laptop at work better than a phone at bedtime, though the app covers mobile use. For pure colour noise, free and reliable, SimplyNoise is hard to beat.

Endel takes a different approach, generating soundscapes that adapt to the time of day, your activity and, where linked, wearable data. Instead of looping a rain recording, it builds a changing soundscape for sleep, focus or relaxation, which some listeners find less repetitive over a full night. Modes are clearly labelled, so you can pick sleep at bedtime and focus during work without building a mix yourself.

Full access is subscription-led, with published listings around $19.99 per month or $119.99 per year on app stores, though a free tier exists for basic use. Control is also less direct than myNoise, since you guide Endel rather than shaping every frequency yourself. If you like adaptive, ever-changing sound and you do not want to build mixes, Endel is an interesting, modern option. If you want exact control, myNoise remains the better pick.