Comparison

Catholic Calendar vs Pray Always †

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

Head to head
About

Catholic Calendar

Access daily Mass readings, saints' biographies, and the Order of Mass. Offers the Liturgy of the Hours, Rosary with scripture, and offline access. Customizable display options and helpful support are included.

Highlights
  • Daily liturgical calendar
  • About Today page with reflections
  • Order of Mass
  • Rosary with scripture audio
  • Offline access
  • Customizable display
  • Home Screen widgets
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. The Catholic Calendar app lets you join in with the tens of thousands of people who use Universalis daily, through a free app plus a small monthly subscription of roughly $0.99 / £0.79 / €0.99 (the App Store will tell you the exact figure). If you prefer a single purchase instead of a monthly subscription, get the Universalis app instead of the Catholic Calendar app. WHAT YOU GET FOR FREE • A complete liturgical calendar listing every saint and feast for your region. • The “About Today” page tells you what saints are being celebrated today, not only in your region but worldwide. It includes reflections and biographies. • The Order of Mass with all the possible alternative texts. • The Rosary with a verse of Scripture for every Hail Mary of every Mystery. Spoken audio is included if you want to listen to it. • No Internet needed: everything you need is already built in. • No cleverness needed: each day, Catholic Calendar 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. • Help and support: tips and instructions are included; or press “Contact Us” to send us a message, and we will reply. And more – Home Screen widgets; liturgical events for your iOS calendar; copy and paste into other apps; reminders and alarms. THE MONTHLY SUBSCRIPTION ADDS: (Your first month is free.) LITURGY OF THE HOURS: 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 are from the Jerusalem Bible or the RSV. • Latin if you want it: by itself or alongside the English. 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. • Latin if you want it: alongside the English. AND ALSO… • Illustrations in the About Today page. • “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. • 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 – daily email service; Mass readings on your Apple Watch. 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 & terms of service: universalis.com/n-ios-privacy.htm.

About

Pray Always †

This app provides an Orthodox Christian prayer book to help users maintain their daily prayer life, even with busy schedules. It aims to make prayer accessible for everyone, facilitating a consistent spiritual practice.

Highlights
  • Orthodox Christian prayer book
  • Daily prayer guidance
  • Accessible for busy schedules
  • Facilitates consistent prayer life
  • Spiritual practice tool
Features
Read full description

Take your prayer book with you with Pray Always † for iOS. Daily prayer is essential to a healthy Orthodox Christian life. With today's busy schedules, not everyone has as much time as they desire for their prayer life. The goal for this app is to allow even the busiest to take time to pray.

Screenshots

Catholic Calendar4 screens
Pray Always †4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ratings volume: Catholic Calendar at 993 against Pray Always †'s 81. Pray Always †'s advantage is iOS requirement (13.0 vs 15.6). On price, rating, review sentiment and update cadence 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

Both are free to download. Catholic Calendar sells 10 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month and Pray Always † sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.8 for Catholic Calendar against 4.7 for Pray Always †. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Catholic Calendar has 993 ratings behind it against 81, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 82% and 82% positive.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Catholic Calendar ships an update every 3 weeks, Pray Always † monthly. The most recent releases landed on November 6, 2026 and November 1, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
Catholic Calendar versus Pray Always †: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterCatholic CalendarPray Always †
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (993 ratings) — better4.7 (81 ratings)
Positive reviews81.9% of reviews — better81.8% of reviews
Number of ratings993 — better81
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeks — betterMonthly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch — betteriPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.613.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size77 MB10 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperUniversalis PublishingNegnet Solutions

Customer experience

Catholic Calendar

All ratings984 ratings
Positive95.5%
Neutral1.1%
Negative3.4%
Written reviews171 reviews
Positive81.9%
Neutral5.8%
Negative12.3%

Pray Always †

All ratings69 ratings
Positive94.2%
Neutral1.4%
Negative4.3%
Written reviews55 reviews
Positive81.8%
Neutral5.5%
Negative12.7%

User reviews

Catholic Calendar

From 993 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Keeps me informed and organized
  • 👍 Best app for daily prayer
  • 👍 Great prayer tool
  • 👍 Wonderful spiritual aid
  • 👍 Faithful companion

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Psalter
  • 🐛 Notification Bells TAKE OVER MY iPhone!!!
  • 🐛 App crashes
  • 🐛 Something is wrong
  • 🐛 Subscription not sharable across apple family members

Pray Always †

From 81 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Easy to use and navigate
  • 🙏 Essential for daily prayer
  • 🌟 Great selection of prayers
  • 📖 Includes full Psalter
  • ✨ Helpful for inquirers and new converts

Room to improve

  • 💸 Unexpected subscription charges
  • ❓ Confusing upgrade pricing
  • 🖼️ Images not loading
  • 🤔 Awkward translations
  • 📱 App freezing/unresponsive

Bugs and requests

Catholic Calendar

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • App crashes when you try to open
  • Crashes on iPhone 6 with IOS 12
  • App refuses to open
  • Update with widget for iOS14 opens and immediately closes

Requested features

8 requests
  • Look up option
  • Memorial Dates
  • Add Eastern Catholic Saints' Feasts, & other Feasts only celebrated by Eastern Catholics, to the Eastern General calendar
  • Add Holy Rosary & Divine Mercy Chaplet
  • Add 1961 General & local liturgical calendars, 1961 Roman Breviary, 1962 Roman Missal
Show 3 more
  • Alerts
  • Spanish daily readings
  • Add dates to calendar

Pray Always †

Reported bugs

7 issues
  • Inserted images will not load
  • App is frozen and won't scroll
  • App freezes up after update
  • App is frozen
  • Cannot use the app at all, it is frozen
Show 2 more
  • Subscription doesn't show in Apple account but charged monthly
  • Cannot cancel subscription in app or Apple account

Requested features

27 requests
  • Add prayers for before and after meals
  • Ability to select text
  • Include Paschal hours
  • Hymns from Triodion and Pentecostarion
  • Section on Confession
Show 22 more
  • Ability to add more prayers to sections
  • Add own prayer rule
  • Include Fifth prayer of St Macarius
  • Include ninth prayer of Peter the Studite
  • Adjust dark/night mode with system settings
  • Include hymns from Lenten Triodion and Holy Week
  • Include basic Kontakia for Pre-Lent and Great Lent
  • Include Prayer of St Ephraim the Syrian
  • Add The Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom
  • Add Vespers & Matins
  • Add more Akathists, Canons, and Troparion/Kontakion
  • Personalize and add own prayers
  • Include Orthodox prayer for pets
  • Include more icons
  • Copy of the Divine Liturgy text
  • Update Jesus Prayer page with an icon of Christ
  • Include an icon gallery
  • Include St. Brigid of Kildare
  • Make modern English translation available
  • Add more prayers like Jordanville Prayer Book
  • Add customization for Patron saint, Hierarchs, Spiritual Father, Living & Departed names
  • Backup customizations to iCloud

In-app purchases

10 purchases

Catholic Calendar

Subscriptions6
  • Daily texts7 Days trial$0.991 Month
  • Daily Mass Readings1 Month trial$1.991 Month
  • Daytime Hours1 Month trial$2.991 Month
Show 3 more
  • All Hours1 Month trial$2.991 Month
  • Daily Mass Readings1 Month trial$19.991 Year
  • All Hours1 Month trial$29.991 Year
One-time4
  • July 2011$0.99
  • September 2011$0.99
  • October 2011$0.99
Show 1 more
  • Sung Latin Compline$3.99
1 purchases

Pray Always †

One-time1
  • Full Version$2.99

Questions

Is Catholic Calendar free?
Catholic Calendar is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Pray Always † free?
Pray Always † is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Catholic Calendar or Pray Always †?
Catholic Calendar is rated higher. Catholic Calendar averages 4.8 out of 5 from 993 ratings, while Pray Always † averages 4.7 from 81 ratings.
Do Catholic Calendar or Pray Always † have ads?
Neither Catholic Calendar nor Pray Always † shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Catholic Calendar or Pray Always †?
Catholic Calendar ships an update every 3 weeks, and Pray Always † monthly. Most recently, Catholic Calendar was updated on November 6, 2026 and Pray Always † on November 1, 2026.

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