STAmina Apnea Trainer: price, free tier, and platforms
What STAmina Apnea Trainer costs, what you get without paying, and which hardware it runs on, set next to BreathHold. STAmina has Apple Watch and Garmin apps; BreathHold does not.
Both apps are free to install and charge for the full version. STAmina's current price sits on its App Store and Google Play listings, which change too often to quote here. BreathHold is $4.99 monthly or $29.99 yearly with a 14-day trial on the yearly plan, as of 2026-08-29. STAmina also runs on Apple Watch and Garmin; BreathHold does not.
This comparison is written by the BreathHold team. We strive for accuracy and fairness, but acknowledge our inherent bias. All data verified from public app store listings as of the publication date.
BreathHold makes one of the two apps compared here. STAmina wearable facts come from getstamina.app and the Garmin Connect IQ store, read on September 10, 2026; the remaining STAmina store facts were checked on August 12, 2026 and are marked as such. We have not run a controlled side-by-side test, and neither app can tell you how long you will hold your breath after training with it.
At a glance
| Feature | BreathHold | STAmina Apnea Trainer |
|---|---|---|
| iPhone | Yes, iOS 15.6 or later, iPhone only per the App Store listing | Yes |
| Android | Yes | Yes |
| Apple Watch | Not yet | Yes: standalone STAmina Apnea Coach, Apple Watch 3 or watchOS 8 minimum (getstamina.app, read 2026-09-10) |
| Garmin | Not yet | Yes: STAmina Companion on Connect IQ, live heart rate and contraction marking, no SpO2; HR charts need PRO (apps.garmin.com and getstamina.app, read 2026-09-10) |
| Price | $4.99 per month or $29.99 per year, 14-day trial on the yearly plan only (2026-08-29) | Free to install with in-app purchases; see the store listing for the current price |
| Preset CO2 tables | Easy, Classic, Hard (40/50/60% of max) | CO2 tolerance table |
| Preset O2 tables | Custom builder only | O2 deprivation table |
| Other table types | Equanimity (premium), rhythmic breathing | Wonka, Mix, Custom, Pranayama |
| Custom / editable tables | ||
| Breath-hold tests that set intervals | Max hold and CO2 baseline | Personal record sets the programme |
| Contraction marking | Unlimited, per its listing | |
| Heart rate / SpO2 | With a compatible monitor or pulse oximeter | |
| Cloud sync or account | Cloud sync and backup, per its listing | |
| Apple Health | Synchronisation, per its listing | |
| Box and rectangular breathing | Pranayama only | |
| Instructional videos | 8, most in the subscription | |
| Spoken cues | With downloadable voice packs | English, French, Russian |
| Freediving school directory | ||
| Store record | 1K+ Play downloads as of July 2026 | 4.9 from ~5,400 US ratings; 100K+ Play downloads (checked 2026-08-12) |
What STAmina does better
STAmina Apnea Trainer
Pros
- A standalone Apple Watch app, so the table runs on your wrist without the phone
- A Garmin Connect IQ companion with live heart rate and contraction marking
- Six table types per its listing: O2 deprivation, CO2 tolerance, Wonka, Mix, Custom and Pranayama
- The Wonka table times the hold from your first contraction, with one breath of rest
- Unlimited contraction tracking with review after the session
- Cloud sync and backup, so a new phone does not mean a lost history
- Heart rate and oxygen saturation with a compatible monitor or pulse oximeter
- Apple Health synchronisation and training reminders
- Voice guidance in English, French and Russian, recorded by voice actors
- Ten years of iteration and roughly 5,400 US App Store ratings behind it
Cons
- The heart-rate feature depends on hardware you may not own
- Garmin heart-rate charts sit behind STAmina PRO, and the Garmin app reads no SpO2
- Its listing leads with breath-hold and lung-capacity outcome language
- Its audience list stretches from freedivers to runners, so the table descriptions matter more than the pitch
- No instructional video library
What BreathHold does differently
BreathHold
Pros
- Two tests feed the tables: a max breath-hold test and a CO2-baseline test
- CO2 tables in Easy, Classic and Hard, holding at 40%, 50% or 60% of your recorded max
- Custom builder covers hold, rest, rounds and progression, including O2-style tables
- Equanimity tables run each hold to your first urge-to-breathe signal, or that signal plus 15 or 30 seconds
- Box, rectangular, full-cycle and rhythmic breathing in the same app as the tables
- Spoken phase cues with downloadable voice packs per language
- A safety acknowledgement before first use, a safety resources page and a medical citations sheet
- A directory of freediving schools if you want in-water instruction
Cons
- No Apple Watch app and no Garmin app
- No preset O2 table: you build that yourself in the custom editor
- No contraction marking
- No external heart-rate or SpO2 support and no Apple Health writes
- No account and no cross-device sync; history lives on the device
- iPhone-only on iOS, with no iPad app
- Equanimity tables, Full Breath Cycles and most videos need the subscription
- One US App Store rating, against thousands for STAmina
Does it run on my hardware?
STAmina is the answer if the hardware question is a wrist. Apnea Coach runs standalone on Apple Watch Series 3 and later, and STAmina Companion on the Garmin Connect IQ store streams live heart rate from the watch while you mark contractions on it. Two limits worth knowing before you buy the watch for it: the Garmin app reads no oxygen saturation, and the heart-rate charts are part of STAmina PRO.
BreathHold runs on the phone only. On iOS that means iPhone, iOS 15.6 or later, with no iPad build and no watch app. Not yet, and nothing on this page should be read as a promise that either arrives.
Neither wrist is a safety device. A heart rate on a screen is session context, and no reading makes an unsupervised in-water hold acceptable.
The differences that actually decide it
Table variety versus table provenance
STAmina wins on breadth. Six named types, and the Wonka variation genuinely has no equivalent in most apps. BreathHold ships fewer shapes but is more specific about where the numbers come from: you take a max-hold test and a CO2-baseline test in the app, and the baseline is what sets the intervals. If you already know the table you want, STAmina's library is the better tool. If you want the app to derive the table from a measurement you just made, BreathHold's path is shorter.
Either way, the names describe interval patterns. A conventional CO2 table keeps the hold steady while recovery gets shorter; a conventional O2 table keeps recovery steady while the hold gets longer. Neither app measures your blood gases, and neither structure guarantees an adaptation. CO2 table vs O2 table has the detail.
Contractions
This is STAmina's clearest functional lead on the phone: unlimited contraction marking, with the data reviewable after the exercise. BreathHold has nothing equivalent.
Interpret those marks carefully whichever app records them. Involuntary breathing movements commonly appear during longer voluntary breath holds, but their timing, strength and pattern vary between people and between attempts, and they are not a reliable gauge of blood oxygen or a signal that a fixed amount of safe time remains. A later first contraction does not mean the hold was safer. See breath-hold contractions.
Sensors and sync
STAmina reads heart rate and oxygen saturation with a compatible monitor or pulse oximeter, syncs to Apple Health, and backs up to the cloud. BreathHold does none of these: no sensors, no Health writes, no account, so your history is only on the phone you recorded it on. If you change devices often, that is a real reason to pick STAmina.
Breathing sessions beyond the tables
BreathHold's non-apnea sessions are box, rectangular, full breath cycles and rhythmic breathing, with spoken cues; STAmina's is Pranayama. If paced-breathing sessions are part of your week, BreathHold covers more of them in one place. If you only want apnea tables, this row is noise.
When to choose STAmina instead of BreathHold
Choose STAmina if any of these is true: you train with a watch, on either Apple or Garmin; you want the Wonka or Mix structure specifically; you log contractions and want them stored per session; you own a heart-rate monitor or pulse oximeter and want the readings alongside the table; you switch phones and want the history to follow you; or you would rather trust an app with 5,400 ratings than one with one. That last point is fair, and we are not going to argue with it.
Choose BreathHold if you want the table intervals derived from tests you take in the app, if box and rectangular breathing belong in the same app as your tables, or if you want the freediving-school directory and safety pages that STAmina's listing does not describe.
What this comparison does not settle
We have not run a controlled side-by-side test, so nothing here ranks training quality. Neither app supervises anyone. BreathHold has no cloud sync and no account, which means a new phone starts with an empty history and nothing restores it. And rival store prices move by country and by promotion, so check the listing rather than trusting a number on any comparison page, this one included.
Whichever app you choose
No app supervises you. Never practice breath holding in water alone: use a trained buddy who understands freediving rescue and watches the diver throughout the attempt, because apps and timers do not replace trained in-water supervision. Never hyperventilate before a hold: it can delay the urge to breathe without preventing oxygen from falling, which increases the risk of loss of consciousness. Practise alone only on dry land, and read the safety guide first.
Get either app
- STAmina Apnea Trainer: App Store, Google Play
- BreathHold: App Store, Google Play
Sources
- STAmina Apnea Trainer on the App Store: version 8.2.0, checked 2026-08-12 for six table types, contraction tracking, cloud sync, Apple Health, voice languages, sensor requirement and ratings.
- STAmina Apnea Trainer on Google Play: rating, downloads and update date, checked 2026-08-12.
- STAmina official website: Apnea Coach watch app requirements and the Companion help pages, read 2026-09-10.
- Garmin Connect IQ store: STAmina Companion listing, read 2026-09-10.
- BreathHold on the App Store and Google Play: version 2.6.0, checked 2026-08-12; subscription prices as of 2026-08-29.
- Freediving Safety, Divers Alert Network
- Hypoxia in Breath-Hold Diving, Divers Alert Network
- Involuntary breathing movements during breath holding (1981) and a 2023 pilot study of respiratory-muscle activity
Related reading
Ready to start training?
Build CO2 and O2 tables, follow guided sessions, and keep your training history in one place.
Frequently asked questions
Related Resources
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