Comparison

Universalis vs Holy Rosary

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Universalis

This app provides the Liturgy of the Hours and Mass readings for every day, along with additional spiritual content. It offers offline access, customizable display options, and optional spoken audio. It's designed for daily prayer and spiritual enrichment.

Highlights
  • Liturgy of the Hours (Divine Office)
  • Daily Mass readings and prayers
  • Offline access
  • Customizable display (fonts, themes)
  • Spiritual reading and commentaries
  • Optional spoken audio add-on
Features
Read full description

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

About

Holy Rosary

This app guides users through praying the Holy Rosary with scriptural passages read before each Hail Mary. It automatically loads the correct mysteries for the day, including seasonal variations for Sundays, and allows manual selection. Audio recordings from Catholic University students enhance the prayer experience.

Highlights
  • Scriptural passages before each Hail Mary
  • Automatic daily mystery loading
  • Seasonal mystery selection for Sundays
  • Manual mystery selection
  • Audio recordings by Catholic University students
  • Pray on-the-go functionality
Features
Read full description

Holy Rosary - Scriptural Edition, featuring audio recordings of students from the Catholic Franciscan University of Steubenville. The appropriate mystery is loaded for that particular day when the application launches. For Sundays, the mysteries are chosen based on the current liturgical season. You can also manually choose which mysteries you would like to pray along with by tapping the image on the screen and choosing from the menu. A passage of scripture is read prior to each Hail Mary which helps us to dive deeper into the mysteries of the rosary as we ponder our Lord's birth, life, death and resurrection. Many people use this at night before they go to bed, or listen/pray along while they are in their cars or on-the-go. Just launch, press play and pray!

Screenshots

Universalis4 screens
Holy Rosary4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Holy Rosary at Free against Universalis's $9.99. Holy Rosary also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 11) and iOS requirement (9.1 vs 15.6). Universalis's advantage is update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 5 months) and ratings volume (9.6K vs 598). On rating, review sentiment, ads and device support 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Holy Rosary is free to download; Universalis costs $9.99 up front. Universalis sells 10 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. Holy Rosary asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.9 for Universalis against 4.9 for Holy Rosary. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Universalis has 9.6K ratings behind it against 598, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 95% of Universalis's written reviews are positive against 99% of Holy Rosary's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Universalis ships an update every 3 weeks, Holy Rosary every 5 months. Both last shipped on October 20, 2026.

Scorecard7 real differences · 4 level
Universalis versus Holy Rosary: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterUniversalisHoly Rosary
Price$9.99Free — better
Rating4.9 (9.6K ratings) — better4.9 (598 ratings)
Positive reviews94.6% of reviews98.9% of reviews — better
Number of ratings9.6K — better598
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeks — betterEvery 5 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
Best chart rank#5 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch — betteriPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.69.1 — better
Further details — not scored
Size78 MB67 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperUniversalis PublishingJoe Meineke

Customer experience

Universalis

All ratings9,598 ratings
Positive98.5%
Neutral0.6%
Negative0.9%
Written reviews646 reviews
Positive94.6%
Neutral2.9%
Negative2.5%

Holy Rosary

All ratings569 ratings
Positive97.4%
Neutral1.4%
Negative1.2%
Written reviews87 reviews
Positive98.9%
Neutral0.0%
Negative1.1%

User reviews

Universalis

From 9.6K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🙏 Wonderful Catholic app
  • 🙌 Great app for Catholic devotions
  • 📚 This is a wonderful app for the laity
  • 🙏 Excellent resource for Mass and Liturgy of the Hours
  • 🌟 Comprehensive and easy to use

Room to improve

  • 🤔 Hymns selection could be improved
  • 🤔 Navigation can be confusing
  • 🤔 Kenyan version text does not match book
  • 🤔 Difficult to navigate, missing menu buttons

Holy Rosary

From 598 App Store ratings

What we love

  • ✨ Meaningful meditation on the mysteries
  • 🙏 Helpful for daily prayer routine
  • 🎨 Beautiful imagery
  • 👍 Easy to use and navigate
  • 🎙️ Pleasant and soothing narration

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Occasional technical issues like freezing or jumping back in the prayer
  • 🎨 Some users desire more racially inclusive imagery
  • 🔍 Difficulty skipping ahead or going to a specific mystery

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

Holy Rosary

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • Inconsistent wording in some prayers
  • Background noise distracting in certain mysteries

Requested features

3 requests
  • Add the traditional concluding prayer
  • Offer the rosary in additional languages
  • Provide an option to display the current bead/decade

In-app purchases

10 purchases

Universalis

Subscriptions6
  • Daily Mass Readings1 Month trial$1.991 Month
  • Daytime Hours1 Month trial$2.991 Month
  • All Hours1 Month trial$2.991 Month
Show 3 more
  • Daily Mass Readings1 Month trial$19.991 Year
  • Daytime Hours1 Month trial$29.991 Year
  • All Hours1 Month trial$29.991 Year
One-time4
  • Add-on translation: RSV Hours$1.99
  • Sung Latin Compline$3.99
  • Revelations of Divine Love$5.99
Show 1 more
  • Journey into Light$5.99
None

Holy Rosary

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Universalis free?
Universalis costs $9.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Is Holy Rosary free?
Holy Rosary is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Universalis or Holy Rosary?
Universalis is rated higher. Universalis averages 4.9 out of 5 from 9.6K ratings, while Holy Rosary averages 4.9 from 598 ratings.
Do Universalis or Holy Rosary have ads?
Neither Universalis nor Holy Rosary shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Universalis or Holy Rosary?
Universalis ships an update every 3 weeks, and Holy Rosary every 5 months. Most recently, Universalis was updated on October 20, 2026 and Holy Rosary on October 20, 2026.

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