Pray First vs Shades Mountain
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Pray First
This app guides users through prayer with structured plans and worship music. It helps foster a deeper connection with God by offering tools to personalize prayer lists and enhance the prayer experience.
- Guided prayer plans
- Access to worship songs
- Personalized prayer list creation
- Enhanced prayer effectiveness
- Deeper connection with God
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What is prayer? It’s simply talking with God. While there is no art to prayer, there are some ways that can help us grow closer to God through prayer. The Pray First app walks you through guided prayer plans, gives you access to worship songs, and allows you to create a personalized prayer list. Find a new level of purpose, effectiveness, and enjoyment in your prayer life. For more information about our app, you can visit: prayfirstapp.com
Shades Mountain
This app enhances your on-campus experience with tools for connection, giving, event discovery, and group management. It also facilitates children's check-ins and helps you engage with the church's mission.
- Online connection card
- Giving capabilities
- Event discovery
- Group management
- Children's check-in
- Connect with church mission
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The Shades app offers you a suite of tools to complement your on campus experience. You can complete our online connection card, give, find upcoming events, manage your groups, check in your kids, and much more! Download the app to connect with Shades and its mission as we send transformed people to influence their world for Christ.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Pray First at monthly against Shades Mountain's every 29 months. Pray First also leads on ratings volume (389 vs 2). On price, rating, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.9 for Pray First against 5.0 for Shades Mountain. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Pray First has 389 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two.
Pray First ships an update monthly, Shades Mountain every 29 months. The most recent releases landed on September 16, 2026 and September 20, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Pray First | Shades Mountain |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.9 (389 ratings) | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 92.3% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 389 — better | 2 |
| Update frequency | Monthly — better | Every 29 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.1 — better | 16.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 26 MB | 16 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Church of the Highlands | Shades Mountain Baptist Church |
Customer experience
Pray First
Shades Mountain
Bugs and requests
Pray First
Reported bugs
5 issues- Login screen shows blank page after email entry
- Cannot sign up - forced to use guest mode
- Prayer details fail to load when tapping topics
- Spanish language menu only, content remains English
- Prayer list details require workaround (share to text)
Requested features
7 requests- Prayer list sharing capability
- Group prayer creation and management
- Dark mode for nighttime reading
- Prayer list as default home screen
- Full-screen prayer expansion
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- Increased character limit for titles
- Complete Spanish language translation
Shades Mountain
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Pray First
No in-app purchases
Shades Mountain
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Pray First free?
Is Shades Mountain free?
Which has better reviews, Pray First or Shades Mountain?
Do Pray First or Shades Mountain have ads?
Which is updated more often, Pray First or Shades Mountain?
Other comparisons
