The sounds of a babbling brook, rainstorm, or crackling fire mask disturbances and get your mind right for relaxation and productivity. Sleep, work, and travel easier by trying out our recommendations for best white noise apps.

White Noise

This free white noise app is one of the best available—it allows you to choose between 40 relaxing sounds, including pouring rain, an oscillating fan, airplane travel, dripping water, a purring cat, and nighttime frogs. When you’re feeling creative, you can also create a playlist or design your own sounds and share with others.

Easily return to appealing sounds by marking them as favorites, and don’t worry about the app running all night—it’s equipped with a timer. You can also use the app’s alarm to gently bring you out of sleep. White Noise is simple to use, but with a ton of sound options, you may find yourself scrolling for quite some time trying to find the best sound fit.

Available on iOS and Android as well as desktop.

MyNoise

Whether you’re looking for some quiet background noise for writing, sleeping, studying, or meditation, this app delivers. Equipped with sounds like white noise, rain, spring, and temple bells, MyNoise is somewhat unique in that it uses a simple calibration process to match the app’s sounds to your hearing, audio equipment, and listening environment.

MyNoise adjusts its sounds according to the frequencies of your listening environment, which allows it to mask out sounds at quieter volumes. You’ll find alarms, timers, and other standard functionality on this one, as well. 

Available on iOS and Android. Also available on iTunes and other music streaming services.

Coffitivity

If you’re less interested in the soothing sounds of a rainforest or calm breeze, and instead are looking to erase silence with quiet ambient noise more akin to the sounds of a café, try Coffitivity.

As one of the best white noise apps, Coffitivity aims to help users focus and get creative with sounds like “morning murmur,” “lunchtime lounge,” and “Paris paradise.” This white noise app is the real deal for getting a serious amount of work done. With a limited amount of sounds to choose from, Coffitivity is seriously simple to use. If you’re looking for more options, go premium at just $9 a year.

Available on iOS and Android.

Relax Melodies

Complete with guided meditations, Relax Melodies is a great free app if you’re looking for something offering a bit more than just white noise sounds. You can choose between 50 sounds or mix a combination of sounds (from the app and your own music library) to create a sleep track that works for you.

The abundance of options and strong functionality are what makes this white noise app so great, but if you’re overwhelmed by too many options, choose something different. With so many sound options, you could find yourself scrolling through Relax Melodies all day.

Available on iOS and Android.

Noisli

If you’re a frequent coffee shop worker looking to minimize noise distractions, Noisli is a great pick. This app is designed to help boost productivity, but also offers great sound options for sleeping and relaxation.

Choose between 16 different sound loops or mix your own combination—layering the sounds of a thunderstorm with those of a flowing stream, for example. Its simplicity and ease of use make this truly effective app worth the $1.99 for iOS and Android users. Noisli is also available as a free Chrome plug-in or web app.

Available on iOS and Android, as well as desktop.

Rain Rain

One of the best white noise apps, Rain Rain offers 26 free sound loops and other sound packs for an additional price. Similar to Noisli and White Noise, you can customize sounds and set a sleep timer to help you relax.

Available on iOS, Android, and Kindle Fire devices. No web-based app is available at this time.

White noise machines

If apps are not your thing, you can always opt for a white noise machine. Thought more expensive than an app, you won’t be limited by phone volume, and many of the top-quality machines have excellent sound quality. We like the Marpac Dohm and the Conair Sound Therapy Machine.