Comparison · Updated
Lucidity vs Oniri: which dream app is right for you?
If you want to have lucid dreams, Lucidity is the better app. It teaches you step by step, guides your practice at night and keeps your dreams on your phone, for less money. Oniri is a good dream journal with sounds for the night.
Where Lucidity wins
- A step-by-step program that gets you lucid
- Guided practice screens for every technique
- A complete wake back to bed routine
- Dreams stay on your phone, no account
- Costs less: from $48 a year
Where Oniri wins
- Soundscapes and binaural beats at night
- Home-screen widgets
The real difference between Lucidity and Oniri
Oniri is a dream journal that added lucid dreaming tools. Lucidity is a lucid dreaming coach with a dream journal inside.
That sounds like a small difference. It isn't. It decides what you see when you open the app, what you do each evening, and whether you're still practicing three weeks later.
Both apps run on iPhone and Android, both have a free journal and AI dream interpretation, and both are actively updated. I build Lucidity, and I've watched thousands of people try to learn lucid dreaming. Most give up because they get a pile of techniques and no order to follow them in. Lucidity exists to fix exactly that.
Learning to lucid dream: a real program
In Lucidity you follow 7 modules of short morning and evening lessons with Moony, your guide. Each lesson takes a few minutes, and each one ends with a small mission for the night.
The order matters. You build dream recall first, because there's nothing to work with if you don't remember your dreams. Reality checks and dream signs come next. The induction techniques open on day 4, once the groundwork is in place.
- 1Dream recallRemember more of your dreams, every morning.
- 2Reality checksBuild the habit of asking: am I dreaming?
- 3Dream signsSpot what keeps coming back, and learn your sleep cycles.
- 4Your techniqueMILD, WILD or SSILD, the one that fits you.
- 5Sharpen itRefine your method night after night.
- 6StabilizeStay in the dream once you're lucid.
- 7Dream controlChoose what happens next.
- ★Your first lucid dreamGuided practice every night until it happens.
Oniri gives you a set of techniques and lets you pick. That works if you already know what you're doing. If you're starting from zero, a program that tells you what to do tonight is what gets you to your first lucid dream.
Guided practice that Oniri itself calls the best
Knowing a technique and doing it half-asleep at 4am are two different things. That's why every technique in Lucidity has its own practice screen.
For SSILD, a dial counts you through the visual, touch and sound phases, so you don't have to count in your head while falling asleep. MILD and WILD have their own guided screens too.
This is the part of Lucidity that even our competitor rates highest. In its own review of lucid dreaming apps, Oniri wrote this about Lucidity's SSILD timer:
The best implementation of that technique we found in any app.
Wake back to bed, fully guided
Wake back to bed (WBTB) is one of the most effective ways to have a lucid dream. You sleep a few hours, wake up briefly, then go back to sleep with a technique in mind. Your next dreams are long and vivid, and you're far more likely to become lucid in them.
Lucidity runs the whole routine for you. In Oniri, you set the alarm yourself and then start its guided flow.
- 1Go to bed as usual
Lucidity reminds you at your normal bedtime.
- 2Wake up after 4 to 6 hours
The app sets the alarm for you, right when your longest dreams are about to start.
- 3Stay awake for 5 to 20 minutes
A short timer and a few things to do, so you're alert without fully waking up.
- 4Fall back asleep with your technique
The practice screen counts you through MILD, WILD or SSILD as you drift off.
Privacy: your dreams stay on your phone
Dreams are about as personal as writing gets. Sex, fears, family, the ex you still think about. You should decide where that goes.
In Lucidity, your journal stays on your phone by default. You don't need an account to write. Cloud sync stays off until you turn it on, and you can lock the app with a PIN or Face ID. It works fully offline, on a plane or in airplane mode at night.
Oniri works the other way around: your journal lives in your Oniri account, on their servers. If keeping your dreams to yourself matters to you, that difference alone settles it.
Dream journal
Both apps have a deep journal, and this is the one area where they're close. In Lucidity you type or speak your dream, and voice is turned into text. People, places, emotions and symbols can be picked up automatically, so a morning entry takes a minute or two.
The calendar and statistics show you what keeps coming back in your dreams. Those patterns are your dream signs, and spotting them is how you become lucid.
Oniri lets you tag the same kind of details by hand and adds home-screen widgets. Both export your dreams, and both are free to journal in, with no limit on entries.
Dream interpretation
Lucidity gives you a personal interpretation grounded in psychology. It maps the emotions of the dream on Plutchik's emotion wheel, picks out its themes and symbols, and adds every symbol to your personal dream dictionary, so you see what each one means in your dreams.
Oniri asks you a few questions before it interprets. With Lucidity Pro, interpretations are unlimited, and new guided methods are on the way.
How long until your first lucid dream?
It depends on how well you remember your dreams when you start. Someone who recalls a dream most mornings can get there within the first week. Someone who hasn't remembered a dream in months needs a few weeks of recall practice first, which is exactly why the program starts there.
What makes the difference is doing a little every day: the morning lesson, a few reality checks, the evening lesson, then the technique as you fall asleep. Lucidity reminds you of each step, so you don't have to rely on willpower.
Here's what people write after their first lucid dream:
Insanely good and works really well, it helped me get lucid in 4 nights and it explains clearly and in detail about my dream, the emotions, symbols and even a dream insight.
Google Play review
This is the only thing I've used since hearing about lucid dreaming, now I lucid dream, and it's only been 10 days.
Google Play review
It's a great app, it took me 1 week to lucid dream. Hope you like it too :)
Google Play review
It's kind of creepy how accurate the dream analysis is. The AI finds themes and patterns in dreams we thought may be meaningless nonsense.
Google Play review
Who's behind each app
Lucidity has been around since 2014, which makes it one of the longest-running lucid dreaming apps. It's built by a lucid dreamer, for lucid dreamers, and every review gets a personal answer, usually within hours. Oniri has been around since 2015 and is built by a small team in Switzerland. Both are actively updated, which is more than you can say for many apps in this category: Awoken, DreamWell and WorldWithin have all stopped.
Lucidity vs Oniri: full comparison
| Feature | Lucidity | Oniri |
|---|---|---|
| Basics | ||
| iPhone | ✓ | ✓ |
| Android | ✓ | ✓ |
| Price | from $48/yr | $59.99/yr |
| Free dream journal | ✓ Unlimited | ✓ |
| Still updated | ✓ | ✓ |
| Learn to lucid dream | ||
| Step-by-step programLessons in a set order | ✓ 7 interactive modules | Lessons |
| Guided MILD, WILD, SSILDPractice screens with timers | ✓ | ✓ |
| Guided wake back to bedAlarm and routine in the app | ✓ Full routine | Set alarm yourself |
| Reality-check reminders | ✓ Custom | ✓ |
| Night audio | ✕ | ✓ |
| Dream journal | ||
| Voice to text | ✓ | ✓ |
| People, places, emotions | ✓ Also automatic | ✓ |
| Export your dreams | ✓ | ✓ |
| Import from other apps | ✓ | ✓ |
| Privacy | ||
| Dreams stay on your phone | ✓ | ✕ Account |
| No public feed | ✓ | ✓ |
| PIN or Face ID lock | ✓ | ✓ |
| Dream interpretation | ||
| AI dream interpretation | ✓ Unlimited | ✓ |
| Personal dream dictionaryBuilt from your own dreams | ✓ From your dreams | Statistics |
| Emotion map | ✓ Emotion wheel | ✓ |
From the App Store and Google Play listings, November 2026.
Price
Lucidity Pro
from $48/yr
Full program, guided practice, unlimited interpretation, voice to text, cloud sync. Journal free.
Oniri Premium
$59.99/yr
Or $12.99 a month. Journal free.
Both journals are free forever. You pay for the extras, and Lucidity's extras cost less. You can try Lucidity Pro free for 3 days.
Where Oniri does well
If you want sound while you sleep, Oniri has soundscapes and binaural beats for the night, plus home-screen widgets for reality checks. Lucidity puts its effort into what gets people lucid most reliably: a clear program and guided wake back to bed.
Which one should you choose?
Choose Lucidity if you want
- to have your first lucid dream, step by step
- guided practice screens for each technique
- a complete wake back to bed routine
- your dreams kept on your phone, no account
- to pay less
Choose Oniri if you want
- soundscapes and binaural beats at night
- home-screen widgets
- your journal stored in an online account
Switching from Oniri to Lucidity
- 1Export from Oniri
In Oniri's settings, export your journal as a CSV or TXT file.
- 2Import in Lucidity
Install Lucidity and import the file. Your dreams keep their dates.
- 3Start the program
Your history stays with you, and Moony's first lesson starts tonight.
Frequently asked questions
Is Lucidity better than Oniri?
For learning to lucid dream, yes. Lucidity takes you through a 7-module program with morning and evening lessons, guided practice screens for MILD, WILD and SSILD, and a complete wake back to bed routine with its own alarm. It keeps your dreams on your phone and costs less. Oniri is the better pick if you want sounds playing while you sleep.
Is Oniri free?
Oniri's dream journal is free, and Premium costs $12.99 a month or $59.99 a year. Lucidity's dream journal is free and unlimited too, and Lucidity Pro starts from $48 a year.
Which is more private, Lucidity or Oniri?
Lucidity. Your dreams stay on your phone by default, you can journal without an account, and cloud sync stays off until you turn it on. Oniri stores your journal in your Oniri account.
Can I move my dreams from Oniri to Lucidity?
Yes. Export your journal from Oniri as a CSV or TXT file, then import it in Lucidity. Your whole history moves with you, and Lucidity's statistics and interpretation work on your old dreams too.
Which app is better for beginners?
Lucidity. It starts with dream recall, then reality checks and dream signs, and only then opens the induction techniques, on day 4. Beginners get results instead of trying advanced methods on night one and giving up.