Curious About Yoga International? I'm A Yoga Teacher & Here's My Honest Take

As a yoga teacher, I'm always looking for ways to grow my practice, learn something new, or squeeze in a quick flow. Truth be told, I often turn to in-person classes—but I jumped on the chance to review Yoga International.

Yoga International began as a print magazine created by the Himalayan Institute back in 1991, and was acquired by Gaia, a spiritual content streaming service, in 2021. Today, Yoga International serves as a "digital yoga studio," with yoga, meditation, and pranayama videos that you can stream on your phone, tablet, laptop, or TV.

According to their mission statement, Yoga International strives to offer the best yoga classes and teachers in the world, "so you can experience the transformational health benefits of yoga," while they, "stay true to yoga and our mission to help you find the path that works best for you."

And indeed, with literally hundreds of yoga teachers from around the world and thousands of yoga classes in a variety of styles, there's something for everyone interested in yoga on this app.

When you create your account, you're prompted to provide some information about yourself and where you are in your yoga journey (whether you're an instructor or not, how often you practice yoga, how often you meditate, your goals, etc.).

The user experience is also one of the more impressive ones that I've experienced. It allows you to save your favorite classes into a playlist to return at a later date. You can also follow your favorite instructors to stay updated on their newest classes

I signed up for Yoga International and was prompted to select my goals, my yoga interests, and my skill level. I said I wanted to reduce pain, meditate daily, build strength, and reduce stress, plus that I was a yoga teacher and specifically interested in Vinyasa and Iyengar yoga, as well as yoga nidra.

As I perused the app, the first thing I wanted to do was a quick, calming meditation. The beauty of their search function is that they always ask you how much time you have, whether that's just a few minutes or 45.

For my fist every class, I opted for Corina Benner's "Release Into The Tender Embrace Of Mother Earth" 14-minute meditation. Spoiler: It totally did the trick. After my session, I felt calm, cool, collected—and connected.

Of course, I also wanted to try the yoga classes. I already teach three classes a week and try to take at least one class myself on top of that, so with Yoga International, I was looking for short, strengthening flows, or targeted flows for specific pain points that I can't always focus on in an in-person class.

For example, I took Nam Chanterrwyn's "The Sacral Clock: A 5-Minute Exercise to Relieve Back Pain" video. Not only did I learn a lot about the mobility of the pelvis in just 5 minutes, but the stretches were super effective (and I'm actually pumped to take them to the classes I teach).

From there, the rest was history. I did a ton of different short flows (we love a 10-minute workout that actually gets you sweating!), a handful of meditations, and pranayamas.

Yoga International is, for all intents and purposes, an app for online yoga classes and connecting deeper with your yoga practice. My favorite aspect of the app is, by far, the huge variety in yoga styles offered, as well as length of class times, skill level, and of course, the instructors from all around the globe.

As a yoga teacher myself, I'm acutely aware of how yoga and yogic culture has been commodified, appropriated, and/or lost in translation, so it's important for me—and should be for anyone interested in yoga, I think—to seek teachers and classes that are authentic, well-intentioned, and true to yoga's origins.

While Yoga International definitely has more yoga than anything else, there is a decent sized collection of guided meditations as well—over 700, in fact. Plus, there's plenty of options depending on how much time you have, what your goal is, and how much experience you have with meditating.

Pranayama (or "breath control," sometimes known as breathwork) is a practice in the yogic tradition that involves breathing in a specific sequence to control the breath, and subsequently, the body and mind.

One aspect of this app that, to me, really makes it stand out, is the amount of additional educational content you can access. They have a host of articles on all things Ayurveda, yoga philosophy, and more, as well as a handful of podcasts discussing the history of yoga, how to improve your asana practice, Ayurveda, etc.

Whether you're a yoga teacher yourself or just looking to dive deeper into certain poses or areas of the body, Yoga International has a bunch of longer courses and workshops that are much more thorough and educational than your typical half hour flow class.

For additional charges, Yoga International offers a variety of different trainings to help you master your practice—and/or become a better yoga teacher. Whether you want to learn how to breathe properly, understand anatomy and physiology, or learn how to create your own awesome yoga sequences, there's probably a course about it!

This section of the app might be a bit too much to bite off for a beginner, but if you've established a yoga practice or you're a teacher, it's definitely worth browsing the training offerings to see if any pique your interest.

You can sign up for Yoga International by visiting their website or downloading the app. You'll be prompted to start the trial and either select a monthly or annual subscription, then you'll answer questions about your yoga practice and goals so the app can suggest the right classes for you.

Yoga International offers a 7-day free trial, and if you want to subscribe, it's $19.99 a month or $169 annually.

If you do not want to keep the subscription, be sure to proactively cancel ahead of time, as some reviews mention difficulty canceling subscriptions.

The Yoga International app has a 4.6 rating from approximately 6,000 reviewers in the Apple App Store, and a 2.9 rating from about 1,700 reviewers on the Google Play Store.

As one five star reviewer happily writes, she was "intrigued by the variety of courses offered," so she started the trial, and it turned into the "best decision" she's made on her holistic journey. "The contents of the site for the membership price can’t be beat," she writes, adding, "The information, choices of courses, and challenges offered are amazing...and the best part is they continue to add new courses and challenges which are informatively narrated."

In another review, a customer says the app has been a "life changer" for her as a working mom and caregiver to her mother. "Getting to yoga classes was next to impossible. I’ve tried lots of other apps plus videos, but nothing comes close to this app," she says.

Not all reviews are quite so shiny. As one self-reported yoga teacher writes, she gives the content 5 stars, but the app itself only 2. "Sadly the usability of the app has left much to be desired [...] There are many more annoying issues. They need a good QA team on board to check on all the bugs, both mobile app and web. I don’t want to level up on my subscription because all these bugs."