Comparison

Divine Mercy vs Ember

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

Head to head
About

Divine Mercy

Explore the message and devotion of Divine Mercy with this comprehensive app. Access daily meditations, interactive prayers like the Chaplet and Way of the Cross, and hundreds of quotes from St. Faustina's Diary. Receive configurable prayer reminders and engage with novenas to deepen your faith.

Highlights
  • Interactive Chaplet of Divine Mercy
  • Daily meditations from St. Faustina's Diary
  • Configurable prayer reminders
  • Quotes from St. Faustina's Diary
  • Interactive novenas
  • Interactive Way of the Cross
Features
Read full description

The message of The Divine Mercy is simple. It is that God loves us – all of us. And, He wants us to recognize that His mercy is greater than our sins, so that we will call upon Him with trust, receive His mercy, and let it flow through us to others. Thus, all will come to share His joy. From the Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception, promoters of the authentic Divine Mercy message since 1941, this free app offers the complete message and devotion in an easy to navigate format. • Interactive Chaplet of Divine Mercy with multiple audio voices. • Daily meditations from the Diary of St. Faustina. • Configurable prayer reminders. • Hundreds of quotes from the Diary of St. Faustina organized by themes. • Interactive novenas to The Divine Mercy, St. Faustina, and St. John Paul II. • Interactive Way of the Cross. Discover why the message of Divine Mercy is the largest grassroots movement in the history of the Catholic Church. "There is nothing that man needs more than Divine Mercy." – St. John Paul II "Devotion to Divine Mercy is not a secondary devotion, but an integral dimension of a Christian's faith and prayer." – Pope Benedict XVI

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

Divine Mercy4 screens
Ember4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Ember at 5.0 against Divine Mercy's 4.2. Ember also leads on review sentiment (100% vs 67%) and update cadence (every 2 days vs every 2 months). Divine Mercy's advantage is ratings volume (397 vs 2) and device support (4 vs 1). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Ember holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.2. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Divine Mercy has 397 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 67% of Divine Mercy's written reviews are positive against 100% of Ember's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Divine Mercy ships an update every 2 months, Ember every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on October 15, 2026 and October 16, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
Divine Mercy versus Ember: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterDivine MercyEmber
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.2 (397 ratings)5.0 (2 ratings) — better
Positive reviews67.3% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings397 — better2
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 2 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — betteriPhone
Requires iOS15.0 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size39 MB5 MB
Age rating12+9+
DeveloperMarian Fathers of the Immaculate ConceptionPerry Hampton

Customer experience

Divine Mercy

All ratings397 ratings
Positive77.8%
Neutral6.8%
Negative15.4%
Written reviews156 reviews
Positive67.3%
Neutral8.3%
Negative24.4%

Ember

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

Bugs and requests

Divine Mercy

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • Notifications broken with most recent update
  • Stops in the middle of the Chaplet
  • Crashes
  • App doesn't work right now after 5 years
  • Chaplet recitation too slow

Requested features

7 requests
  • Move purgatory board and intention for the day on main landing page
  • Adding a widget to IPhone where I don't need To open the app to see what today's intention is for quick and easy reference when in prayer
  • Option for Fr Gaitely's voice back
  • Dark mode option
  • Advanced analytics dashboard
Show 2 more
  • Alarm capability within the app
  • Speed control on the auto chaplet

Ember

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Divine Mercy

No in-app purchases

None

Ember

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Divine Mercy free?
Divine Mercy is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Ember free?
Ember is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Divine Mercy or Ember?
Ember is rated higher. Divine Mercy averages 4.2 out of 5 from 397 ratings, while Ember averages 5.0 from 2 ratings.
Do Divine Mercy or Ember have ads?
Neither Divine Mercy nor Ember shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Divine Mercy or Ember?
Divine Mercy ships an update every 2 months, and Ember every 2 days. Most recently, Divine Mercy was updated on October 15, 2026 and Ember on October 16, 2026.

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