Comparison

Catholic Calendar vs Ember

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 Catholic Mass readings, saints, and celebrations. Includes the Rosary with scripture and offline access. Offers optional monthly subscriptions for the full Liturgy of the Hours and more detailed Mass texts.

Highlights
  • Daily liturgical calendar
  • Saints and feast days
  • Order of Mass
  • The Rosary with scripture
  • Offline access
  • Liturgy of the Hours (subscription)
  • Customizable display options
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

Ember

This app offers a minute-long daily prayer rooted in Scripture, with guided breaths and Scripture citations. It also includes the full Rosary, liturgical calendar integration, and customizable prayer reminders. Designed for privacy, it collects no user data and is completely free.

Highlights
  • Minute-long daily Scripture prayer
  • Full Rosary and decade prayers
  • Liturgical calendar integration
  • Home and Lock Screen widgets
  • Customizable prayer reminders
  • Private by design, no data collection
Features
Read full description

Prayer that fits inside a real day. Ember is a Catholic prayer app built around a practice, not an endless scroll. Arrive with one slow breath. Pray one Scripture-rooted line — with its citation right there. Hold it until it settles. Sixty seconds later, your ember is glowing, and the Word goes with you into the day. THE DAILY PRAYER Begin with the Sign of the Cross and a guided breath. Pray each line slowly — hold to pray, release, amen. Close with the Glory Be. It takes about a minute. It is the minute that changes the other 1,439. ROOTED IN THE WORD 1,260 prayer lines across 14 collections — Trust, Peace, Gratitude, Morning, Beloved, Evening, Hope, Courage, Providence, Mercy, Presence, Charity, Wonder, and Joy. Every line is rooted in Scripture, the Catechism, the saints, or the Church's traditional prayers, and every line carries its citation. Nothing vague, nothing invented, nothing repeated until you have prayed the whole library. THE ROSARY, BEAD BY BEAD Ember knows today's mysteries — Joyful, Sorrowful, Glorious, or Luminous, following the Church's rhythm through the week and the seasons. Pray the full Rosary or a single decade: every prayer written out, every bead counted, the fruit of each mystery held in view. About 20 minutes for the whole crown, 3 for a decade. THE CHURCH'S CLOCK Ember keeps the liturgical calendar: seasons, feasts, and a theme that quietly wears the day's vestment color — violet in Advent and Lent, white in Christmastide and Easter, green through Ordinary Time. One-tap prayer times set reminders at the hours the Church has always prayed: the Morning Offering, the noon Angelus, the three o'clock Hour of Mercy, the Evening Examen. A STREAK THAT STAYS KIND Pray daily and your ember glows brighter. Miss a day and it simply dims, ready to be rekindled — no guilt, no broken chains. Faithfulness, not perfection. ALWAYS WITH YOU • Home Screen and Lock Screen widgets with a real line and its citation • Reminders that carry a whole prayer — worth the glance on its own • Add your own intentions and prayers; they join your feed and daily practice • Favorites, beautiful share cards, and themes that feel like candlelight PRIVATE BY DESIGN Prayer is between you and God. Everything stays on your iPhone: no account, no ads, no analytics, no tracking. Our App Store privacy label is "Data Not Collected," and we intend to keep it that way. FREE. ALL OF IT. FOREVER. The daily prayer, the full Rosary, all fourteen collections, the longer 5- or 7-line prayer, every theme and icon, unlimited prayers in your own words, up to six daily reminders, widgets, and favorites. No subscription, no unlock, no ads — nothing to buy, ever. Prayer should not have a paywall. Begin again. The Lord was already waiting.

Screenshots

Catholic Calendar4 screens
Ember4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Ember at none against Catholic Calendar's 10. Ember also leads on update cadence (every 2 days vs every 3 weeks) and review sentiment (100% vs 82%). Catholic Calendar's advantage is ratings volume (926 vs 2) and device support (4 vs 1). On price 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Catholic Calendar sells 10 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month. Ember asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Ember holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Catholic Calendar has 926 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 82% of Catholic Calendar's written reviews are positive against 100% of Ember's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Catholic Calendar ships an update every 3 weeks, Ember every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on October 19, 2026 and October 16, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard8 real differences · 2 level
Catholic Calendar versus Ember: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterCatholic CalendarEmber
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (926 ratings)5.0 (2 ratings) — better
Positive reviews82.1% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings926 — better2
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeksEvery 2 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch — betteriPhone
Requires iOS15.6 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size78 MB5 MB
Age rating4+9+
DeveloperUniversalis PublishingPerry Hampton

Customer experience

Catholic Calendar

All ratings926 ratings
Positive95.5%
Neutral1.1%
Negative3.5%
Written reviews168 reviews
Positive82.1%
Neutral5.4%
Negative12.5%

Ember

All ratings2 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

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

Ember

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

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
None

Ember

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Catholic Calendar free?
Catholic Calendar is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Ember free?
Ember is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Catholic Calendar or Ember?
Ember is rated higher. Catholic Calendar averages 4.8 out of 5 from 926 ratings, while Ember averages 5.0 from 2 ratings.
Do Catholic Calendar or Ember have ads?
Neither Catholic Calendar nor Ember shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Catholic Calendar or Ember?
Catholic Calendar ships an update every 3 weeks, and Ember every 2 days. Most recently, Catholic Calendar was updated on October 19, 2026 and Ember on October 16, 2026.

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