Oniri vs Awoken vs Elsewhere vs Lucidity: Which Dream App in 2026?

Whether you want to record your dreams for creativity, interpret your dreams to better understand yourself, or control your dreams with lucid dreaming, you might have come across one of those dream apps.

Those four apps are popular options on iOS and Android when it come to working with your dreams. Some have been around for more than a decade. But how to choose between them?

We tested them for you. We analyzed hundreds of reviews, installed and paid them, and summarize our findings below. All the apps were given the same care during testing, and every claim below is something you can check yourself.

TL;DR#

• Awoken is the oldest app but is not maintained anymore. It's Android-only, free but with ads, and the cloud backup function doesn't work, so you lose your data if you lose your device.
• Elsewhere is made for dream journaling and dream interpretation. It's good for the community but doesn't have any lucid dreaming features.
• Oniri and Lucidity have a mix of dream journaling, lucid dreaming, and dream interpretation features. Oniri is slightly more expensive but has more features like widgets, soundscapes, and night cues.

Oniri vs Awoken vs Elsewhere vs Lucidity, side by side#

(If you're on a small screen, scroll the table horizontally to see all apps.)

How we tested#

We collected data and reviews on both the App Store and the Google Play Store, and everywhere the apps were mentioned. We analyzed hundreds of reviews to see what people like, dislike, and complain about. The four apps compared here are the most popular choices, and a selection of their reviews is quoted below, with the good and the bad summed up for each app.

We installed, purchased, and tested all four, on an iPhone and an Android phone where both versions exist. We tried and used all features, from the essentials to each app's unusual trick.

For each app we outline what users say, what worked in our tests and what didn't, all features, price, pros and cons, and our verdict.

The four dream apps in detail#

Here are the four apps, ranked by how complete their set of features is and how enjoyable they are to use.

1. Oniri (iOS & Android)#

Features#

• Tag emotions, people, places, symbols and dream signs on every entry
• Statistics, correlations and nightmare analysis to find patterns
• AI interpretation that asks you follow-up questions first
• Reality-check reminders, home-screen widgets and guided MILD, WBTB, WILD and SSILD
• Soundscapes, binaural beats and night cues
• Voice transcription, a sketch pad, and export to PDF, TXT or CSV

Pros#

Cons#

Our verdict#

Oniri is the only app of the four that takes journaling, interpretation and lucid dreaming all seriously, and the only one where the three work from the same data. A dream is structured data rather than a paragraph: symbols, the people in it, the places, the emotions, a sketch or a voice note. All that data feeds the statistics, so you can see what emotions appear with what person, which symbols often appear together, or who comes back frequently in your nightmares. And you can just tap to add people, places and emotions, which makes it easy to use in the morning, when the dream is slipping away.

The free tier is unusually wide, and reviewers notice it more than any feature: unlimited entries, all the tagging, reality checks, widgets, export, no ads. Premium buys the AI interpretation, voice notes, more statistics, the guided lucid dreaming techniques and the audio, so the three jobs live in one app.

The Android app lagged behind for a long time, and many reviewers complained about missing features and bugs. But it was rebuilt from scratch in 2026, and recent reviews are much better. Users say the Android version is now on par with iOS.

What people say about Oniri#

★★★★★4.6on the App Store · 3,738 ratings

Oniri FAQ#

What is Oniri best at?

Covering everything in one app. It's the only one of these four that does deep journaling, AI interpretation and a full lucid dreaming toolkit, on both iPhone and Android, and the three share the same data, so your journal makes the interpretation and the statistics better over time.

How much does Oniri cost?

$12.99 a month or $59.99 a year, after a 7-day trial. Journaling, tagging, reality-check reminders, widgets and export are free with no ads. Premium adds the AI interpretation, voice notes, more statistics, the guided techniques and the audio. If you only want to journal, you can use it for years without paying.

Can you move a journal from another app into Oniri?

Yes. Oniri imports TXT and CSV and exports PDF, TXT and CSV, all on the free tier, so you can bring your dreams from another app and take them with you if you ever leave. Of the four here, Awoken is the one you'll struggle to leave, because it has no export at all.

2. Elsewhere (iOS & Android)#

Features#

• Automatic tagging of characters, settings and symbols
• Jungian, Freudian and spiritual interpretation lenses on the same dream
• Generated dream art on every entry
• Scan a handwritten journal page straight into an entry
• Share dreams publicly, with friends or in a dream group
• A world map of your dreams, and other people's
• iPhone, Android and a web app

Pros#

Cons#

Our verdict#

Elsewhere is the youngest app of the four, released in 2023, with a monochrome, editorial design and generated art on every entry. Where Oniri lets you tag your dream in detail, Elsewhere keeps the process very simple: enter your dream, and it gets tagged automatically, with an image and an interpretation. On the paid tier you can read the same dream through a Jungian, Freudian or spiritual lens. Its symbol content is credited to David Fontana and the dream researcher Kelly Bulkeley.

Elsewhere is really built around the community. You can share your dreams publicly, with friends, or in a dream group, and see all public dreams on a world map. If you want to share your dreams with others, that's what it's built for. It doesn't have any lucid dreaming features, though, so look at the other apps if that's your goal.

The pricing is fiddly. A real free tier, then two annual plans at $49.99 and $99.99 that differ by how much AI you are allowed: the cheaper one comes with roughly 35 image generations and 50 interpretations, and credit packs top you up beyond that. Ask for a reading every morning and fifty lasts you about seven weeks, so count before you subscribe.

What people say about Elsewhere#

★★★★★4.9on the App Store · 106 ratings

Elsewhere FAQ#

Is Elsewhere good for lucid dreaming?

No, and it doesn't claim to be. There are no reality checks, no alarms and no induction techniques. Elsewhere is about journaling, interpretation and sharing your dreams. Pick Oniri or Lucidity if lucidity is the goal.

How much does Elsewhere cost?

There is a free tier, then annual plans at $49.99 and $99.99 that differ by how much AI you get. The $49.99 plan comes with roughly 35 image generations and 50 interpretations, with credit packs on top. There is no free trial of the paid tier.

Can you export your dreams from Elsewhere?

Yes, to CSV, and it's free, like in Oniri and Lucidity. Of the four apps here, Awoken is the only one with no export at all.

Can you lock Elsewhere with Face ID or a PIN?

Yes, we found this option in our test, but it's a bit buried in submenus and hard to find. It looks like it was added recently, because some reviews complain that this is not possible.

Which platforms does Elsewhere run on?

iPhone, Android and a web app, which no other app in this comparison offers. Android is the shakier half: 4.2 on Play against 4.93 on the App Store, with the low reviews clustering on sign-up failures and getting data out, though both averages rest on a few dozen ratings.

3. Lucidity (iOS & Android)#

Features#

• Seven-day course, a lesson each morning and evening
• Guided practice timers for SSILD, WBTB, MILD and WILD
• Emotions, people, places, objects and themes per entry, with an emotion graph
• Reality-check reminders you can retime and reword
• AI analysis and auto-tagging on Pro
• Unlimited free journaling

Pros#

Cons#

Our verdict#

Lucidity teaches. Its seven-day course gives you a morning lesson and an evening one, and the practice screens have a timed dial that runs the visual, tactile and auditory phases and counts you through them, with equivalents for WBTB, MILD and WILD. They unlock several days into the course, so a week of using the app its way is the price of trying the thing you downloaded it for. Once you're asleep, though, it has nothing to offer beyond an alarm you set yourself.

The journal comes closest to Oniri's tagging depth. It tracks emotions, people, places, objects and themes, draws an emotion graph across your entries, and lets you mark the odd specifics like sleep paralysis, your mood on waking or the colour of a dream. Journaling is free, and what costs money is the AI layer, at $49.99 a year. That's the weak part, with short, fairly general readings and no image generation. The developer works alone but answers most reviews within hours, and a July 2026 auto-save bug that lost half-awake notes was patched in a few days.

Overall, it's a consistent app with a good balance of journaling and lucid dreaming, and one of the oldest on Android. But its AI features are limited next to what Oniri or Elsewhere give you for a similar price.

What people say about Lucidity#

★★★★★4.7on the Google Play · 7,163 ratings

Lucidity FAQ#

Is Lucidity on iPhone?

Yes, since 2024, published under Christopher Benz. It started as an Android app, and the iOS version is new enough to have almost no ratings yet. Be careful searching: an unrelated iOS app by another developer is also called Lucidity.

What does Lucidity Pro unlock?

AI dream analysis, auto-tagging and the lucid dreaming assistant, at $12.99 a month or $49.99 a year with a 7-day trial. Journaling, emotion tracking and the graphs stay free and unlimited, which is more generous than the complaints suggest.

Does Lucidity play audio cues during the night?

No, and it's the biggest gap in an otherwise complete trainer. Lucidity covers the daytime habit and the technique lessons well, but once you're asleep it has nothing beyond an alarm you set. For overnight cueing you're looking at Oniri's audio tracks, or Awoken, which does it for free.

Who makes Lucidity?

One developer, publishing as b3nz on Google Play and as Christopher Benz on the App Store. Replies to reviews usually come within hours, and the July 2026 auto-save bug that was eating half-awake notes was patched in about three days. Journaling and export are both free, so take a copy every few months and you're covered whatever happens to the app.

4. Awoken (Android)#

Features#

• Reality-check reminders with a totem sound you learn to react to
• Dream Clues: real audio cues played into your sleep
• PIN-protected journal that never leaves the phone
• Sketch a dream, or record one by voice on premium
• Free, ad supported, with a small one-time unlock

Pros#

Cons#

Our verdict#

Awoken is the oldest app of the four, and the one every early lucid dreaming article recommended. It's free, it's small, and it does one thing extremely well. Reminders fire through the day with a totem sound you learn to associate with checking reality, and overnight Dream Clues play audio into your sleep, which is real cueing rather than a marketing word. Free means ad supported, though, and the banners run inside the entry screen while you write, which for a dream journal is the worst place an ad could be.

Now the catch, and it's a big one. Its Dream Cloud backup did not work in our testing, matching a year of reviews all quoting the same error, and there is no export, so whatever you write stays on that phone. Reviewers who switched devices describe losing years of dreams. The app hasn't been updated since July 2024, the interface feels outdated, and the journal is minimal (a date, a text field and a lucid checkbox), so there isn't much to find patterns in. Overall, a valid free option for reality checks, but you get what you pay for, and we wouldn't trust it with your dreams.

What people say about Awoken#

★★★★★4.4on the Google Play · 21,565 ratings

Awoken FAQ#

Is Awoken still worth using in 2026?

As a free reality-check trainer with overnight audio cues, yes, and it has done that job well for over a decade. As a place to keep your dreams, no: its cloud backup did not work in our testing, there is no export, and the app has not been updated since July 2024.

Is Awoken on iPhone?

No. Awoken is Android only and always has been. Any comparison that lists it as an iPhone option is wrong.

Is Awoken free?

Yes, funded by ads, and one of those ads sits at the bottom of the screen where you write your dream. One reviewer says the distraction made them lose a dream twice. A small one-time purchase removes the ads, though several people report it can't be restored on a new install.

Where does Awoken keep your dreams?

On the phone, and nowhere else. That's a genuine privacy position (no account, nothing sent anywhere, a PIN on the journal) and it's also the problem, because the Dream Cloud backup that was supposed to be the escape hatch has been returning a server error for over a year, and there's no export. Whatever you write is tied to that handset.

Where these four dream apps actually differ#

On paper the four apps overlap a lot. Here is where they really differ.

Price#

Awoken is free with ads and a small one-time unlock, and that remains its strongest argument. The other three let you journal for free forever and charge a yearly subscription for the extras. In Elsewhere and Lucidity that's mostly the AI, and Elsewhere's is metered, so heavy users run out and end up buying credit packs. Oniri's Premium covers the AI along with the guided lucid dreaming techniques and the audio. If all you want is a journal, Oniri, Elsewhere and Lucidity cost you nothing.

Keeping your dreams#

This is the only dimension where one of them fails outright. Oniri, Elsewhere and Lucidity sync to an account for free and let you export. Awoken's backup did not work for us and it has no export, which makes it the wrong place for anything you want to keep. Use it for the reality-check training, and keep the dreams themselves in an app with an export button.

Lucid dreaming#

Oniri has the widest toolkit: reality-check reminders and widgets, guided MILD, WBTB, WILD and SSILD, and soundscapes, binaural beats and night cues that play while you sleep. Lucidity has a seven-day course, with timers that count you through each technique, but nothing at night. Awoken does reality checks and night cues and nothing else, and Elsewhere does none of it.

No app makes anyone lucid on its own. The largest study of reality testing found it did little by itself; what worked was reality testing combined with MILD and a brief wake-back-to-bed.^[1] The apps that help are the ones that turn that combination into a habit. And around 55% of people have already had at least one lucid dream,^[2] so most beginners are closer than they think.

Meaning#

Oniri and Elsewhere take two different approaches. Oniri asks you questions about your life before it interprets, and builds the reading from your answers and from the patterns in your past dreams. Elsewhere lets you switch between a Jungian, Freudian or spiritual lens on the same dream, with symbol content credited to the authors it names. Lucidity's interpretation is the thinnest of the three. Awoken has no interpretation at all, which some of its reviewers consider a feature.

Who is actually behind them#

Nobody compares this, and it tells you more than the feature lists do. Lucidity is one developer, Christopher Benz, while Elsewhere and Oniri are small teams, and all three answer their reviews, often within hours. Awoken's developer stopped shipping in July 2024, and everything awkward about using it now follows from that one fact.

So check the last update date before you trust any dream app with years of entries, then read the most recent one-star reviews rather than the most helpful ones. A stalled app shows up there first, usually as several people quoting the same error message.

Platform#

Awoken is Android only. Elsewhere adds a web app to iPhone and Android, which no one else here has. Lucidity started on Android, and its iOS version is still new. Oniri runs on both, and since the 2026 rebuild the Android app is the same as the iPhone one.

What none of these dream apps do well#

Each app has its gaps, but a few things are missing from all four.

Nightmares are the first one. Oniri's nightmare analysis shows who and what keeps coming back in your bad dreams, and Elsewhere lets you flag one, but none of the four walks you through the rehearsal techniques clinicians use to change a recurring nightmare. Given how many people arrive at a dream journal because something keeps waking them at 3am, that is a strange blind spot.

Sleep timing is the second gap. Wake-back-to-bed is the most useful thing in the lucid dreaming literature, and none of these four can tell you when your own REM periods fall. Two will help you set an alarm. None will pick the hour, and the apps that try need a watch or a $200 mask.

Handing your dreams to another person is unsolved too. If you see a therapist and want them to read the last two months, your options are a PDF export or reading aloud from your phone. Nothing here was designed for it, and dreams are one of the few things people genuinely do bring to a professional.

And none of the three that interpret will tell you whose server your dream goes to. It leaves your phone the moment you ask, and not one listing names the provider, ours included. Awoken is the only one of the four where nothing you write goes anywhere, and a few of its reviewers consider that the whole point.

Which dream app should you use?#

If you want one app for the whole practice, with the deepest journal, interpretation and lucid dreaming tools, that's Oniri. If you'd rather share your dreams with a community and compare Jungian and Freudian readings, and don't need lucid dreaming, choose Elsewhere. If you want a course that teaches lucid dreaming step by step, go for Lucidity. And if you want to spend nothing and train reality checks, Awoken can do it, but keep your actual dreams in an app with an export button.

If you're still not sure, the longer breakdowns are in our roundup of dream journaling apps, interpretation apps and lucid dreaming apps, each of which tests a wider field than these four. And whichever you pick, export your dreams once a year.

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All the apps were given the same care during testing, including Oniri, which we develop ourselves. We applied the same testing methods, and analyzed the reviews from users the same way as other apps. All links are unaffiliated. No app paid to be featured on this list. Prices, ratings and versions were checked in August 2026.