Universalis vs Vigilemus
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Universalis
This app provides daily Catholic Mass readings and the Liturgy of the Hours. It offers offline access to prayers, saints' biographies, and commentaries, with customizable display options and optional spoken audio add-ons.
- Liturgy of the Hours (Divine Office)
- Daily Mass readings and prayers
- Offline access
- Customizable display (fonts, themes)
- Saints' biographies and reflections
- Optional spoken audio add-on
- Latin and English options
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Universalis is a missal and a breviary, and more besides. It gives you the Liturgy of the Hours (Divine Office) and the Mass for every day; plus valuable additional material. Tens of thousands of people use Universalis daily. Come and join them! • Single purchase: the app lasts for ever. It does not need a subscription to make it work. • No Internet needed: everything you need is already built in. • No cleverness needed: each day, Universalis works out exactly what you need to see. • View any date: past, present and future. • Use your own local calendar: USA, Canada, Singapore, Ireland, and every diocese in Australia, New Zealand and the UK. • Easy to read and use: a choice of fonts; big or small type; dark or light theme; page-turning or scrolling. • Optional add-on: spoken audio read by real human beings (this needs a subscription: see below). • Latin if you want it: by itself or alongside the English. • Help and support: tips and instructions are included; or press “Contact Us” to send us a message, and we will reply. EXTRA MATERIAL • The “About Today” page tells you what saints are being celebrated today, worldwide. It includes reflections, biographies and illustrations. • “Mass Today” gives you the Order of Mass and today’s readings and prayers, all in one page. Bishops have been known to use it to say Mass from their iPads! • “Spiritual Reading” gathers the patristic and hagiographic readings for all the saints and feasts of the day. • “The Rosary” has a verse of Scripture for every Hail Mary of every Mystery. Spoken audio is included. • Daily Books takes selected spiritual classics and presents them in daily instalments to focus and enrich your prayer life. • Commentaries on the day’s Mass readings from a leading biblical scholar. And more – Home Screen widgets; liturgical events for your iOS calendar; daily email service; copy and paste into other apps; reminders and alarms; Mass readings on your Apple Watch. LITURGY OF THE HOURS (Divine Office) The complete official Liturgy of the Hours of the Catholic Church, as used worldwide. Morning (Lauds), daytime (Terce, Sext and None), evening (Vespers), night (Compline) and the deeply reflective Office of Readings. Do as many or as few of them as you like. • The psalms and canticles match the official English and American books. Scripture readings – United States: RSV. Elsewhere: Jerusalem Bible (with RSV as an optional add-on). READINGS AT MASS The exact prayers and readings at Mass for each day. • England, Wales, Scotland: the official ESV version. • United States: the official NAB version. • Elsewhere: Jerusalem Bible readings and Grail psalms, as used at Mass in most of the English-speaking world. OPTIONAL ADD-ON AUDIO (in-app purchase required) Just press the button and listen! If you want to see what you are hearing, the text is highlighted to follow the sound. After an initial download, no Internet is required. Works with CarPlay too. • Spoken English Liturgy of the Hours: every Hour of every day of every year. Monthly or annual subscription. • Spoken English Mass Readings: First and Second Reading and the Gospel. Jerusalem Bible translation only. Monthly or annual subscription. (You can listen to a sample before subscribing. Following App Store rules, subscriptions renew automatically but you can cancel auto-renewal at any time.) • Sung Latin Compline (Night Prayer): by the boys of the Schola Cantorum of the London Oratory School. Single purchase. -- Privacy policy and terms of service: universalis.com/n-ios-privacy.htm
Vigilemus
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Vigilemus — Latin for "let us keep watch" — is a Catholic daily prayer companion. • Today: the day's Mass readings in the Douay-Rheims, the Church Fathers on the day's Gospel (Catena Aurea), the liturgical season, Holy Days of Obligation, and a daily patristic reading. The readings, the calendar and the season follow the modern Roman Missal. • The Hours: the complete Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary — Matins through Compline, season-aware, with the rubrics set apart from what is said aloud. • The Rosary: all twenty mysteries with their fruits, a guided player, and the prayers in full. • The Stations of the Cross: St. Alphonsus Liguori's way, one station to a screen, offered on the Fridays of Lent and on Good Friday. • Prayers, chaplets and litanies: the common prayers of the Church with their traditional rubrics; the Seven Dolours and the Chaplet of St. Michael; and seven litanies — the Holy Name, Loreto, the Sacred Heart, St. Joseph, the Saints, the Precious Blood and Humility. • Narration, inside the app: three hours of spoken audio ship with Vigilemus — every hour of the Little Office, the Rosary, the prayers and the litanies, 235 recordings in all. Nothing streams and nothing is downloaded, so an hour can be prayed with no signal at all. The chaplets and the Stations are text. • Novenas: a calendar-aware novena tracker that knows when each novena must begin to end on its feast, with optional reminders. • Reference: the whole Douay-Rheims Bible, the Catena Aurea on the four Gospels, a treasury of patristic readings, and search across it all — a passage by its reference, a prayer by its name, a line of the Little Office. Every text is public domain or in free devotional use. The app works entirely offline and collects nothing — no account, no analytics, no advertising. No ecclesiastical approbation is claimed for this app.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Vigilemus at Free against Universalis's $9.99. Vigilemus also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 10). Universalis's advantage is chart position (#10 vs unranked) and device support (4 vs 2). On update cadence and ads 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
Vigilemus is free to download; Universalis costs $9.99 up front. Universalis sells 10 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. Vigilemus asks for nothing beyond the download.
Universalis ships an update every 3 weeks, Vigilemus every 6 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 13, 2026 and October 29, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Universalis | Vigilemus |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $9.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 4.9 (9.8K ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 94.5% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 9.8K — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks — better | Every 6 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Paid | — |
| Best chart rank | #10 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.6 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 78 MB | 111 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Universalis Publishing | Noah Chanin |
Bugs and requests
Universalis
Reported bugs
2 issues- Gospel readings sometimes incorrect
- App crashes when trying to change hymns or readings
Requested features
5 requests- Add Salesian saints and young saints
- Include NAB translation for US users
- Add option for 1962 liturgical calendar
- Improve hymn selection, especially for seasons
- Implement more inclusive language in prayers
Vigilemus
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Universalis
- Daily Mass Readings1 Month trial$1.991 Month
- Daytime Hours1 Month trial$2.991 Month
- All Hours1 Month trial$2.991 Month
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- Daily Mass Readings1 Month trial$19.991 Year
- Daytime Hours1 Month trial$29.991 Year
- All Hours1 Month trial$29.991 Year
- Add-on translation: RSV Hours$1.99
- Sung Latin Compline$3.99
- Revelations of Divine Love$5.99
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- Journey into Light$5.99
Vigilemus
No in-app purchases









