Head to head
Pulsetto vs Sensate: electrical stimulation against infrasonic resonance
These two turn up on the same shortlists constantly, and they do fundamentally different things to your body. Getting that straight first saves you from buying the wrong one.
The short answer
Pulsetto passes a small electrical current through the vagus nerve at your neck for $259. Sensate rests on your sternum and uses sub-audible vibration for roughly $398. Only one of them is transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation in the sense the research uses the term.
Pick Pulsetto if you came here wanting the mechanism the studies are about, or if the price matters.
Pick Sensate if what you actually want is something reliably calming to lie down with, and you would rather have 90 days to decide than 30.
Disclosure: Vagus Lab may earn a commission if you buy through links on this page. It does not change how we score devices. Our method is published and applied the same way to devices we have no commercial relationship with.
They are not the same category of device
This is the part most comparisons skip, so it goes first.
Pulsetto is electrical. It sits around your neck and delivers a low current to the vagus nerve where it runs up either side, which is the same general approach used in the transcutaneous stimulation trials, just at the neck rather than the ear.
Sensate is not electrical. It is a smooth stone shaped device you rest on your breastbone, and it produces infrasonic resonance, vibration below the range you hear, paired with an audio track in the app. The company frames this as engaging the vagus nerve indirectly through the relaxation response rather than stimulating it directly.
That distinction is not pedantry. It decides which body of research applies to what you are buying, and the answer for Sensate is that the tVNS literature does not.
Side by side
| Pulsetto | Sensate | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $259, free shipping | ~$398 (£299 UK, €357 EU) |
| Mechanism | Electrical stimulation of the vagus nerve | Infrasonic resonance, not electrical |
| Where it sits | Around the neck | On the sternum, lying down |
| Session | 4 to 20 minutes | 10 to 30 minutes |
| The experience | Tingling and light muscle twitch | Low vibration paired with a soundscape |
| App | Required | Required, free soundscape library included |
| Subscription | Optional premium content at $9.99 a month | Optional, none required per the manufacturer |
| Consumable | Conductive gel | None |
| Returns | 30 days | 90 days risk free, the longest we have found |
| Named in indexed publications | No | No, one company published pilot report |
What each one can actually point to
Sensate publishes one study report on its own site. Twenty five adults used the device daily for two weeks and filled in questionnaires about stress, sleep and wellbeing. The document itself says it is a pilot with a small sample and no control group. It is not indexed on PubMed.
Pulsetto has no trial of its own either. What it has is a mechanism that sits inside a studied field: meta-analyses of transcutaneous stimulation report improvements in insomnia and depression scores, with the reviewers themselves grading the evidence low to very low.
So the fair summary is one device with no evidence in a studied field, and one device with no evidence in a field that has barely been studied. Our full read of the research covers what does and does not hold up.
What each one is like in practice
Sensate is the easier sell on experience. You lie down, put it on your chest, start a soundscape and it hums for ten to thirty minutes. Nothing about it is strange and most people find it immediately pleasant.
Pulsetto feels like something. Tingling at the neck, sometimes a light twitch, and it takes a few sessions before that reads as normal rather than alarming. Sessions run four to twenty minutes and you can be doing something else.
If you know from experience that you abandon anything that feels like a chore, that is a genuine point for Sensate. If you would find a device that hums on your chest hard to take seriously, that is a genuine point for Pulsetto.
Price and what happens if you change your mind
Pulsetto is $259 with free shipping on the offer our link reaches. The stimulation programs run on the free app tier, with an optional premium content subscription on top. The return window is 30 days, you pay return shipping, and the shipping fee is not refunded.
Sensate lists at £299 in its UK store and €357 in the EU, which is roughly $398 at recent rates. The product page states no subscription is required for the essential experience, and the return window is advertised as 90 days risk free.
Three months to decide is a meaningful advantage for a device whose effect is subtle and cumulative. It is also the main thing Sensate’s higher price buys you.
Who should pick which
Pick Pulsetto if you want electrical vagus nerve stimulation specifically, you want to spend less, or you want short sessions you can run while doing something else.
Pick Sensate if the outcome you want is calm rather than a mechanism, you value the long return window, or the idea of current at your neck puts you off entirely.
Look further if you are buying on published evidence rather than on either of these. The ear clip used in the trials costs $900 and asks for 30 to 60 minutes a day, and it is the only consumer device named in trial methods.
Frequently asked questions
Not in the electrical sense. Sensate uses infrasonic resonance, sub-audible vibration transmitted through the sternum, and the company positions that as engaging the vagus nerve indirectly through the relaxation response. Transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation means a small electrical current applied at the ear or the neck, which is the mechanism the research literature is about.