Kol Yaakob vs Shaar Binyamín
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Kol Yaakob
This app provides an official Sephardic daily Siddur based on Syrian customs. It includes a full table of contents with prayers for the entire year, weekdays, holidays, and special occasions. Features GPS location services to orient prayer direction and display sunrise/sunset times.
- Official Sephardic Siddur
- GPS prayer orientation
- Sunrise & sunset times
- Full table of contents
- Prayers for all occasions
- Aleppo, Syria customs
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Kol Yaakob is a weekday Siddur app built around the Kol Yaakob Siddur and the Aram Soba (Aleppo) tradition, redesigned with a clean book-style interface for faster daily use. Browse the Siddur by organized sections, switch between Hebrew-style and English-style book lists, and open the original scanned pages in a focused reader. The reader supports PDF, horizontal or vertical reading, full-height page display, page scrubbing, a section picker, fullscreen double tap, and page bookmarks. Find what you need quickly with search across section names, Siddur text, and page numbers. Keep important pages saved in the dedicated Bookmarks tab, and use customizable home-screen shortcuts for Zemanim, Search, Bookmarks, and common Siddur sections such as Shacharit, Mincha, Arbit, Birkat Hamazon, Bedtime Shema, Counting the Omer, and Hallel. Kol Yaakob also includes a full Zemanim tab based on your current location or a fixed location. View the Hebrew date, Perasha, Shabbat and holiday times, candle lighting, Shabbat end, and morning, afternoon, and evening zemanim. Today's Prayers guidance shows practical reminders for Tachanun, Hallel, Al HaNissim, Ya'aleh VeYavo, seasonal Amidah changes, Sefirat HaOmer and a new jump to Torah feature that takes you right to the Perasha of the week when appropriate. Tap many zmanim and prayer rules for short explanations, and export the current Zemanim page as a PDF. Fixed-location settings include ZIP lookup, current-location autofill, latitude, longitude, altitude, Israel/Diaspora mode, and candle-lighting offset. Settings also show upcoming candle-lighting times. Additional tools include a direction-to-Jerusalem compass, light/dark/system appearance options, and reader controls for the way you prefer to use the Siddur. This app is intended for weekday use and should not be used on Shabbat or Yom Tov.
Shaar Binyamín
Access the complete Tehilim in Hebrew, Spanish, and phonetic formats. Search prayers by number, day, or segula. Enjoy a full-screen reading experience with a double-click.
- Tehilim in Hebrew, Spanish, and Phonetic
- Search by number, day, or segula
- Full-screen reading mode
- Offline access
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Shaar Binyamin ahora trae el Tehilim a la palma de tu mano todo el Tehilim en Hebreo, Español y Fonetica Con esta app podrás buscar tus tehilim por número, día o segula También podrás leer en pantalla completa al dar doble click en el rezo
Screenshots
Verdict
Kol Yaakob and Shaar Binyamín both sit at 4.4 stars, but that hides the real split: 83% of Shaar Binyamín's written reviews are positive against 64% of Kol Yaakob's. Shaar Binyamín also leads on iOS requirement (8.0 vs 18.6). Kol Yaakob's advantage is ratings volume (118 vs 16). On price, rating, 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Shaar Binyamín holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 4.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Kol Yaakob has 118 ratings behind it against 16, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 64% of Kol Yaakob's written reviews are positive against 83% of Shaar Binyamín's.
Kol Yaakob ships an update every 4 months, Shaar Binyamín every 2 months. Both last shipped on November 1, 2026.
| Parameter | Kol Yaakob | Shaar Binyamín |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.4 (118 ratings) | 4.6 (16 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 63.5% of reviews | 83.3% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 118 — better | 16 |
| Update frequency | Every 4 months | Every 2 months — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 18.6 | 8.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 13 MB | 101 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Sephardic Heritage Foundation | Benjamin Assa |
Customer experience
Kol Yaakob
Shaar Binyamín
Bugs and requests
Kol Yaakob
Reported bugs
20 issues- New update crashes
- New update loses place
- Bookmark issues
- Added pages not available
- Missing words in birchat hamazon
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- App crashes after loading
- App crashes when turning page
- App crashes on opening
- Dark mode has lines of non-dark mode
- App stops working after update
- Page turning bug (historical)
- Index and bookmarks not referred to correctly
- Index is off
- Hebrew/English translation of index is off
- Bookmark titles incorrect
- Swipe to turn page doesn't work well
- Text blurry when zoomed
- Text doesn't wrap around screen when zooming
- No rotation for biggest screen
- No magnification option
Requested features
12 requests- Add Tehilim
- Open amida at designated time
- Use microphone for live cursor
- Add tefillah times
- List of shuls and prayer times
Show 7 moreShow fewer
- Shabbat times
- More sections for daily prayers
- Option for pinch zoom
- Landscape mode support
- Larger text option
- Sub-sections in index
- Copy index from Keter Shelomo
Shaar Binyamín
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Kol Yaakob
No in-app purchases
Shaar Binyamín
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Kol Yaakob free?
Is Shaar Binyamín free?
Which has better reviews, Kol Yaakob or Shaar Binyamín?
Do Kol Yaakob or Shaar Binyamín have ads?
Which is updated more often, Kol Yaakob or Shaar Binyamín?
Other comparisons
