A German-built breathing and meditation app (iOS + Android) that gives away the whole breathing part for free and sells guided meditations either by subscription or as a 59.99 € one-time purchase — aimed at people who cannot fall asleep and are tired of paying Calm or 7Mind every year.
39, because nothing anywhere on the 13 pages proves that a single human other than you has ever used ATEMZUG, while you ask a stranger for 59.99 € lifetime — more than double the $24.99 that Pace and Sym Breathing charge for the same no-subscription promise.
What stands out on atemzug.app.
You charge 59.99 € lifetime with no evidence, while Pace charges $24.99
What isYour pricing block lists a one-time 59.99 € for lifetime access. The market research found Pace (HRV Resonant Coherence) at $24.99 lifetime and Sym Breathing at $24.99 lifetime, both no-subscription breathing apps. iBreathe, also one-time purchase, carries roughly 17,000 ratings at 4.9 stars. Your site shows no rating, no user count, no quote.
Why it mattersYour buyer is a person who got burned by subscriptions and is therefore extra suspicious of paying anything up front. Facing a 59.99 € button with no proof and a "Bald kommt mehr" list of unfinished features (badges, Apple Health, no date), the rational move is to take the free breathing exercises and never pay. You end up with a free app and no revenue.
Your single strongest argument names nobody
What isThe article "Meditations-App ohne Abo" talks about 60 to 80 € per year but never writes Calm, Headspace or 7Mind. Meanwhile undulate.app runs an article titled "Best Breathing App (No Subscription)" and othership.us runs "10 Best 4-7-8 Breathing Apps" and "15+ Best Box Breathing Apps" — people are actively searching this comparison, and those pages get the traffic.
Why it mattersComparison searches ("Calm Alternative ohne Abo", "7Mind Alternative Einmalkauf") are the moment someone has their wallet out. Right now you rank for none of them because your text is too polite to name anyone, and your 59.99 € looks expensive in isolation instead of cheap next to 7Mind's 149.99 €.
Nine articles, not one email field
What isEvery article under /blog/ ends without a contact option, without a newsletter box, without even a mailto link; the sitemap holds 13 pages and none of them collects an address. The only interactive element in the whole product, "Wünsch dir was", is an external Tally link that opens in the browser.
Why it mattersSomeone reading "Besser einschlafen ohne Medikamente" at 23:40 is not going to install an app right then. If you cannot write to that person again, every single visitor you earn from those nine articles is a one-shot. For a solo product with no ad budget, that is the most expensive leak you have.
Where your users actually are — in this order.
Not all at once. Rank 1 first, and only move on once it works.
Your own App Store and Google Play listings — the English-language store pages plus the in-app review prompt
Why here: You built a bilingual app but every one of the 13 pages in your sitemap is German — which means your English store listing is almost certainly a translated afterthought and carries zero reviews. The research shows what reviews are worth in exactly this niche: iBreathe reaches 4.9 stars over roughly 17,000 ratings and is described as the highest-rated app in its category, with a reviewer explicitly praising the one-time purchase price. That is the same argument you make, backed by evidence you do not have.
Why before the next one: Every other channel on this list dumps people onto a store page. Sending Reddit traffic to a listing with no ratings and a weak first screenshot wastes the one Reddit post you get to make.
Roundup outreach by email: undulate.app ("Best Breathing App (No Subscription)"), othership.us ("10 Best 4-7-8 Breathing Apps" and "15+ Best Box Breathing Apps")
Why here: These three articles already exist and already rank for the exact intent you sell against — no subscription, 4-7-8, box breathing. undulate.app even writes that paying Calm for breathing alone is like renting a villa when you need a studio apartment. That is your pitch, written by someone else, on a page you are not on. Getting added costs an email.
Why before the next one: It is the only channel here where a fresh account is irrelevant and where one hour of work can put you in front of readers who are mid-comparison. Reddit needs ten days of warm-up before you may say a word about yourself.
r/breathwork on Reddit (23,003 members per reddapi.dev)
Why here: It is the only community found whose topic is literally your three core exercises — 4-7-8, box, coherent breathing. And you have something to say there that no big app has: a pattern editor precise to a tenth of a second. People who have practised for years do not want a fixed 4-7-8; that is a genuinely interesting conversation starter in a 23,000-member room, and small enough that a thoughtful post does not vanish.
Why before the next one: r/Meditation has 3.6M members but the conversation there is mostly advice requests and pain and anger, per gummysearch — a breathing-app post drowns. Start where your specific feature is on-topic.
AlternativeTo (alternativeto.net) — submitted as an alternative to Calm, Headspace and Breathwrk
Why here: Your own keyword list contains "Calm Alternative ohne Abo" and "breathing app no subscription". AlternativeTo is the page people land on when they type exactly that, and it lets you attach the tags that are your whole point: no subscription, one-time purchase, no ads, offline. Calm's $399.99 lifetime price next to your 59.99 € does the arguing for you.
Why before the next one: Lower ceiling than Reddit and it is a slow burn, but it is 40 minutes of work that keeps paying — so it goes above the sleep subreddits, which need weeks of warm-up for one risky post.
r/insomnia (72K+ subscribers as of a 2020 study) and r/sleep (668k members per gummysearch)
Why here: You have one detail that is genuinely on-topic in a sleep sub without being an ad: your Schlaf mode is deliberately built with no blue at all, warm dimmed. Blue light before bed is the single most argued-about topic in those rooms, so a post about how you built a breathing animation that emits no blue is a technical contribution, not a pitch.
Why before the next one: Biggest reach on the list, but also the hardest room: people there are exhausted and openly hostile to app promotion. Only go in after r/breathwork has taught you which of your arguments actually lands.
These channels are not worth it for you right now.
A plan that recommends everything is not a plan. This is the time you get back.
Product Hunt launch
You get one launch day and you would spend it with zero reviews, a German-only website and a 59.99 € lifetime price that looks steep next to Pace's $24.99 — and only a fraction of submissions get featured. The Product Hunt crowd is builders, not people lying awake at 3am; you would collect upvotes and no installs.
TikTok or Instagram Reels
Your entire visual inventory is App-UI screenshots and mockups — no people, no video, per the site analysis. Building a short-video channel from that means inventing a production pipeline from scratch, which is 8-10 hours a week you do not have while the store listing still shows no ratings.
Apple Search Ads / paid installs
You would be paying to send strangers to a listing with no ratings, competing against Calm and Headspace for the same keywords. And you do not yet know your free-to-Plus conversion rate, so you cannot tell a good cost per install from a ruinous one.
The Facebook pages found in the research (Zeit für Achtsamkeit, 1,465 likes; Institut für Achtsamkeit, 162 likes)
Both are business pages, not discussion groups — you cannot post into them, only comment under someone else's marketing. 162 likes is not reach, it is a rounding error.
Four weeks, step by step.
Fix the trust hole and stop the leak
Goal: Named price comparison live on the site, an email field under all nine articles, dates on all nine articles, and the review prompt moved to the end of the 7-day course.Get listed by other people, keep warming up
Goal: Three roundup emails sent, AlternativeTo entry submitted, Reddit account past 50 comment karma.First post of your own
Goal: The r/breathwork post is live, not removed, and has at least five real replies; first store ratings visible.Sleep audience and honest stocktake
Goal: One post in r/insomnia that survives, first ratings on the store page, and a written decision on whether 59.99 € stays.Written out. Ready to send.
No placeholders, no gaps. Read them once, change anything that does not sound like you, and send.
Free forever. No ads. No account. No subscription needed.
ATEMZUG guides you through 4-7-8 breathing, box breathing and coherent breathing with a flower that opens as you breathe in and settles as you breathe out. Every phase has its own tone and its own vibration, so once you know them you can keep your eyes closed for the whole session and still know exactly where you are.
What costs nothing, forever:
- All breathing exercises, including 4-7-8, box breathing (4-4-4-4) and coherent breathing (5 in, 5 out)
- The 7-day course
- One guided meditation
- The pattern editor: build your own rhythm to a tenth of a second, name it, save it
No payment details, no sign-up, no ads at any point.
Three looks:
Light - sage green and cream.
Dark - petrol.
Sleep - warm and dimmed, with no blue in it at all. Built for the fifteen minutes before you actually want to be asleep.
ATEMZUG Plus unlocks the full meditation library. Seven days free, then choose what suits you: 4.99 EUR a month, 29.99 EUR a year (that is 2.49 EUR a month), or 59.99 EUR once for lifetime access including all future updates. A subscription is one option, not the only one.
In English and German.
We would rather you closed the app calm than kept it open. Quiet is the product, not your attention.
Why this worksIt leads with the free tier because that is the only claim you can prove today with no ratings on the page, and it puts the three concrete numbers (4.99 / 29.99 / 59.99) in the text so someone comparing against Calm at 69.99 a year sees the answer before tapping. The no-blue Sleep mode is the one detail no competitor listing in the research mentions. Translate this into German with 7Mind's 149.99 EUR lifetime as the mental anchor rather than Calm.
Never do thisDo not write that breathing helps against insomnia, anxiety or any condition — health claims get listings rejected and, in Germany, invite trouble under advertising rules for health products. Describe what the app does, not what it cures.
Hi,
I read your "Best Breathing App (No Subscription)" piece — the line about paying for a villa when you only need a studio apartment is exactly the reason I built the thing I am writing about.
ATEMZUG is a breathing and meditation app for iOS and Android, in English and German. Here are the facts in the format your table uses:
Free tier: all breathing exercises (4-7-8, box 4-4-4-4, coherent 5/5), a 7-day course, one guided meditation, and a custom pattern editor precise to a tenth of a second. No account, no payment details, no ads.
Paid tier (full meditation library): 4.99 EUR/month, 29.99 EUR/year, or 59.99 EUR once for lifetime including future updates. 7-day free trial.
Platforms: iOS and Android.
Languages: English, German.
The one thing that actually makes it different: each breath phase has its own tone and its own vibration, so the session works with your eyes shut. Most apps in this category still need you to watch a circle. There is also a Sleep display mode built with no blue in it at all.
One honest note so you do not have to dig for it: at 59.99 EUR my lifetime price is more than double Pace at 24.99 USD. What you get for it is the meditation library, not just the breathing — the breathing part is permanently free.
Three screenshots attached (Light, Dark, Sleep). Happy to answer anything or send more assets. Either way, thanks for writing a comparison that names actual prices — that is rarer than it should be.
Best,
ATEMZUG
Why this worksIt hands over exactly the fields a comparison table needs, in table order, so including you is copy-and-paste work. Naming your own price disadvantage against Pace before they find it is what makes the rest of the email believable to someone who gets five pitches a week — and it matches the honesty line your own homepage runs on.
Never do thisDo not offer money, affiliate cuts or a free lifetime code in the first email. Comparison-site authors treat that as a bribe, and it turns an editorial mention into a paid placement you cannot cite later.
I have been doing box breathing and 4-7-8 on and off for about two years. The thing that kept breaking it for me: every app I tried needed my eyes open. Circle expands, circle contracts — close your eyes and you lose the phase, so you start counting in your head, which is exactly the mental chatter you were trying to leave.
What fixed it for me was giving every single phase its own tone and its own vibration. Inhale one tone, hold another, exhale another, second hold another. After maybe three rounds your body knows where it is without looking. Eyes shut the whole session.
Two things I learned building it that might be useful even if you use something completely different:
1. The hold phases need a quieter marker, not a louder one. My first version used a sharp click to mark the holds and it kept jolting me out of the state. Low, soft, short works. Anything percussive on a hold is a mistake.
2. Fixed presets are a trap once you have been at this a while. 4-7-8 is a starting point, not a law. I run 4.5-7-8.5 because a flat 7-second hold makes my jaw tense, and being able to set that to a tenth of a second changed more for me than any preset ever did.
Disclosure so nobody feels tricked: the app is mine, it is called ATEMZUG, iOS and Android, and all the breathing exercises plus the pattern editor are free with no account and no ads. I am not linking it here — search the name if you are curious.
What I actually want to know: does anyone else here run a non-standard ratio, and what did you land on? I am trying to work out whether the tense-jaw thing on long holds is common or just me.
Why this worksIn a 23,000-member sub the currency is a specific practitioner detail, and "quiet marker on the hold phase" is one nobody can fake. The post gives away two usable insights before the disclosure, asks a real question at the end so the thread has somewhere to go, and skips the link entirely — which is what keeps a young account's post standing.
Never do thisDo not put a store link anywhere, not even in a reply when someone asks for it — tell them the name and let them search. And do not answer the ratio question yourself in the comments; let other people fill the thread, otherwise it reads as a monologue with a product at the end.
Five sub-scores, 20 points each.
Four numbers to check again in 30 days.
Ratings visible on the App Store and Google Play listings combined
Email addresses collected through the new Tally form under the nine blog articles
External pages that name ATEMZUG (roundups, AlternativeTo, Reddit threads that stayed up)
People who start the ATEMZUG Plus 7-day trial
The market research ran out of search quota partway through, so I could not verify the current sidebar rules of r/breathwork, r/insomnia or r/sleep, and I have no keyword volume data for a single one of your search terms — the channel ranking rests on community size figures from third-party tools (reddapi.dev, gummysearch) and on which competitor pages actually exist, not on measured demand. I also could not check whether German advertising law for health products limits what you may claim, which matters because your blog talks about sleep; get that looked at before you write anything stronger than what is already on the site. The one thing that outweighs everything else here: you are asking 59.99 EUR from strangers while Pace and Sym Breathing ask 24.99 USD and your page shows not one review — until there are stars on that store listing, every other item on this plan is pouring traffic into a bucket with a hole in it. Fix the review prompt first, in week 1, before you write a single Reddit comment.