Shofar vs Ultimate Zmanim
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Shofar
Experience the sound of the Shofar directly on your iPhone or iPod Touch. Select from various Shofar calls like Tekiah, Shavarim, Teruah, and Tekiah Gedolah to hear authentic recordings. Ensure your device's volume is up and vibrate is off for optimal listening.
- Listen to Shofar sounds
- Tekiah, Shavarim, Teruah calls
- Tekiah Gedolah sound
- Authentic recordings
- Jewish app
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You can listen to the Shofar sounds right on your iPhone or iPod Touch with this application. Just click on the Shofar sound you want to hear, i.e. Tekiah, Shavarim, Teruah or Tekiah Gedolah and listen to a recording of a Tokea (Shofar blaster). IMPORTANT: To hear the sound, you must have vibrate off and make sure your volume is up while in the application. Please enjoy this little Jewish app, but please refrain from using it on the holiday. RustyBrick's present to you!
Ultimate Zmanim
This app provides accurate Jewish calendar times, including Shabbat candle lighting, holidays, and daily prayer times, with customizable reminders and offline functionality. It offers a user-friendly interface with timeline navigation and Apple Watch integration for convenient access to important halachic times.
- GPS-based zmanim calculations
- Shabbat candle lighting times
- Holiday and weekly parashah information
- Daf Yomi tracking
- Customizable daily reminders
- Apple Watch companion app
- Offline functionality
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Ultimate Zmanim is the premiere zmanim app for iOS, now with even more features. iOS Features: - GPS-based calculations - Calendrical information, including Shabbat candle lighting times, weekly parashah, chagim, and daf yomi - Daily reminders, scheduled based on zmanim - Beautiful printouts for your shul's bimah or your fridge - Over 100 calculations to customize according to - Companion watch app featuring complications - Today widget in Notification Center - Intuitive timeline navigation - Force touch shortcuts to quickly access alarms, location settings, and more - Split-screen multitasking support on iPad watchOS Features: - Native to watchOS, so it's faster than ever - Expanded complications - Tap a zman for a detailed explanation of the calculation - Force touch menu options, including one to reload your location --- Description: Ultimate Zmanim calculates times using your GPS for maximum accuracy. There's also a rich location picker, so you don't have to be online to set it up. Ultimate Zmanim always works, even when there's no internet. Ultimate Zmanim doesn't stop with the daily zmanim - it also lists chagim, the weekly parashah for both in Israel and out, candle lighting times, and daf yomi. Today's zmanim fade out as they pass, so you can tell what's next at a glance. Ultimate Zmanim also runs on Apple Watch, so you can get notifications, and information about the next upcoming zman right on your watch. With Zmanim Alarms, Ultimate Zmanim can remind you of important zmanim throughout the day. Shema, t'fila, and weekly candle lighting are all covered. Ultimate Zmanim supports printing of the daily Zmanim via AirPrint. You can use this to hang them up in public places, such as your shul, school, or mikveh. You can look up zmanim for any day by tapping on the timeline or the Hebrew date to show a date picker. Tap again to hide it. You can also drag in either direction for convenient access to the previous or the next day. The timeline also supports both the Hebrew and Gregorian calendars. Open the date picker to switch between them. Ultimate Zmanim will remember your selection across app launches. Ultimate Zmanim has been a long time in the making, and I hope you enjoy using it as much as I enjoyed building it! --- What users from the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom are saying: "Best zmanim app out there, gorgeous and intuitive, thanks!!" - tzviki123 "This is my favorite Zmanim app. It's got a beautiful design and the widget is also super helpful. Keep up the great work!" - Bmw1821 "This app nails the difficult challenge of making spiritual software. I love going through my day knowing that my phone will alert me to all the ritually important times." - portal keeper "Great presentation of halachic zmanim with really nice apple watch interface" - Paul Claman "I live in England and I carry it around with me where ever I go. It's got all the info you need including what day of daf hayomi it is.... 5*****" - Rubi roxx ---
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Ultimate Zmanim at 4.3 against Shofar's 2.1. Ultimate Zmanim also leads on update cadence (every 2 weeks vs every 126 months) and review sentiment (78% vs 59%). Shofar's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1) and iOS requirement (8.4 vs 15.0). 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
Both are free to download. Ultimate Zmanim sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Shofar asks for nothing beyond the download.
Ultimate Zmanim holds the better App Store score, 4.3 against 2.1. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Ultimate Zmanim has 131 ratings behind it against 18, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 59% of Shofar's written reviews are positive against 78% of Ultimate Zmanim's.
Shofar ships an update every 126 months, Ultimate Zmanim every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 16, 2026 and October 21, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Shofar | Ultimate Zmanim |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 2.1 (18 ratings) | 4.3 (131 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 58.7% of reviews | 77.9% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 18 | 131 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 126 months | Every 2 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac, Apple Watch — better |
| Requires iOS | 8.4 — better | 15.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 3 MB | 7 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | RustyBrick, Inc. | Moshe Berman |
Customer experience
Shofar
Ultimate Zmanim
User reviews
Shofar
From 18 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Works great for some users
- 🎶 Pleasing shofar sounds
- 💡 Useful for learning shofar calls
- 🆓 Free to use
- 😊 Brings peace and focus
Room to improve
- 🐛 Does not work for many users
- ❌ No sound at all
- 💥 Crashes on startup
- 🚫 Won't open
- 🔊 Sounds cut off abruptly
Ultimate Zmanim
From 131 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Easy to use
- 🌟 Accurate Zmanim calculations
- 🌍 Global Zmanim data
- ✨ Clean and intuitive interface
- 🎨 Customizable options
Room to improve
- 🐛 App crashes/doesn't open
- 🐛 Location issues
- 🐛 Watch app/complications not working
- 🐛 Incorrect Zmanim times
- 🐛 Updates breaking the app
Bugs and requests
Shofar
Reported bugs
21 issues- Does not work
- Used to work but now does not
- Didn't work once
- Not working
- No sound at all
Show 16 moreShow fewer
- Doesn't work
- No sounds when you tap
- Force closes
- Won't open up
- Kicks me off every time I try to open it
- App is useless because it DOES NOT WORK
- Doesn't work on iOS8
- Doesn't play any sounds
- Nothing plays when you make a selection
- Not working on ios 10
- Shevarim is 7. Teruah is 3. Get it right.
- Tekiahs are too high pitched and the Tekiah Gedolah is only 1 second longer than the regular Tekiah.
- Each sound worse than the other.
- Sounds like dragging furniture across the room.
- Sounds are OK but they cut off too abruptly.
- Tekiah sounds like it came from a different shofar than shevarim and teruah?
Requested features
5 requests- Full set of blasts with one press
- More than one choice of shofar (e.g., Yemenite version)
- Explanation of each sound's meaning
- Write-up of each sound
- Add succession of tekiah shevarim teruah
Ultimate Zmanim
Reported bugs
28 issues- App keeps alerting with LA time instead of current location
- White screen when opening app on iPad
- App will no longer open on iPad
- Update broke the app
- Winter time displayed after upgrade
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- Error in the app
- First update messed up Zmanim, widget info incorrect, Zmanim same for Jerusalem and Brooklyn
- App shuts right off after new update
- App doesn't open since the update
- App does not open since the last update
- Version 11.7.1 did not completely address the issue with iOS16 update, gets 'stuck'
- 'Reset To Today' function does not bring back to the current date
- One day discrepancy in Zmanim including calendar calculations since iOS16 update
- Omer counting is wrong on some days
- Zmanim alerts giving alerts for a location five hours ahead
- Hebrew titles in the widget not working
- Bug in Chanukah: started a day early, repeated Light 1, repeated Light 3, others a day late, ended a day late
- Watch complication not available for most watch faces
- iOS 14 widgets not found for Infograph and Infograph modular watch faces
- Zmanim are all off on Apple Watch 5, no complications
- Watch os versions keeps on uninstalling itself
- Cannot do anything like print
- Ad's background music
- Location resets to current waypoint when trying to check other cities
- If location services are off, Zmanim are not shown
- Latest version contains a mistake: changing location does not hold, reverts to current location
- Crashes on iPhone 5c with iOS10.3, blank screen
- Cannot check Zmanim for anywhere else, switches back to current location
Requested features
15 requests- Mizrach compass
- Apple Watch face complication to display custom Zmanim
- Customization to carry over to watch app
- Daf Yomi (Yerushalmi) option
- Hebrew date in the widget
Show 10 moreShow fewer
- Alert/alarm for Sunset (Shkiah)
- Pull to refresh option
- Add Jewish holidays
- Dark mode support
- iOS 14 widgets
- Jewish calendar for holidays
- Ability to add and title Jewish dates (birthdays, yahrtzeits)
- Option to choose what to show on iWatch complication
- Support for Infograph watch faces
- Reminders for Maariv/Tzeit Hakochavim
In-app purchases
Shofar
No in-app purchases
Ultimate Zmanim
- Premium Pack$2.99
Questions
Is Shofar free?
Is Ultimate Zmanim free?
Which has better reviews, Shofar or Ultimate Zmanim?
Do Shofar or Ultimate Zmanim have ads?
Which is updated more often, Shofar or Ultimate Zmanim?
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