Highlands vs First 5
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Highlands
This app connects users with a church community, offering on-demand messages, live service streaming, and a Bible reading plan. Users can also find information on church events, locations, and more.
- On-demand messages
- One Year Bible reading plan
- Live service streaming
- Church event information
- Church location details
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Church of the Highlands exists to help people Know God, Find Freedom, Discover their Purpose, and Make a Difference. Stay connected with Highlands wherever you go! This free resource allows you to experience messages on-demand, read the One Year Bible, watch services live online, access information about church events, locations and much more! For more information about our church, please visit us on the web at http://churchofthehighlands.com.
First 5
This app provides daily biblical teachings to help users establish a consistent spiritual practice. It offers tools for highlighting, saving, and sharing scripture, along with a built-in Bible and community features.
- Daily biblical teachings
- Highlight, save, and share scripture
- Integrated Bible reader
- Customizable reminders
- Community groups
- Exportable notes
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Transform your time with God using the First 5 app, developed by Proverbs 31 Ministries. First 5 is specifically designed to greet you with a short teaching in God’s Word daily before you get distracted by social media and everything else competing for your attention. It’s our hope you create a daily habit of reading God’s Word through your time spent in the First 5 app. Features • New Teaching Every Day: We unpack books of the Bible, focusing on passages of Scripture each day and seeing how they apply to our lives. • Highlight, Save and Share: You can highlight any portion of our daily teachings to bookmark, share or add a personal note. Review your notes and activity through your profile and use the export feature to save them to your device. • Reminder Functionality: Set up a reminder in the app to go off at any time you choose. This way, you can read each teaching at a time that works best in your schedule. • Bible: Don't have your Bible handy? Use this feature for your daily Bible reading. You can search any passage of Scripture and even bookmark, highlight and create a graphic to share with a friend. * Community: Find community among our First 5 friends in private and public groups.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ads: Highlands at none against First 5's shown. Highlands also leads on rating (4.8 vs 4.5) and update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 3 months). On price, ratings volume, in-app purchases and device support 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.
Highlands holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.5. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 462 and 879 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 85% of Highlands's written reviews are positive against 73% of First 5's.
Highlands ships an update every 3 weeks, First 5 every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on September 29, 2026 and September 28, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Highlands | First 5 |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.8 (462 ratings) — better | 4.5 (879 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 85.3% of reviews — better | 72.9% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 462 | 879 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks — better | Every 3 months |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free — better | Ad-supported |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple TV — better | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.1 | 14.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 88 MB | 40 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Church of the Highlands | Proverbs 31 Ministry, Inc. |
Customer experience
Highlands
First 5
User reviews
Highlands
From 462 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Easy to navigate and find content
- 📖 Excellent One Year Bible reading plan feature
- 🎬 Comprehensive sermon library with live streaming
- ✨ Improved graphics and modern design
- 🙏 Spiritual growth and connection to church
Room to improve
- 🐛 Frequent app freezing and glitching
- 🐛 Audio playback issues and stuttering
- 📱 Poor landscape mode support on iPad
- 🔊 Bluetooth connectivity problems in vehicles
- ♿ Limited accessibility features for low vision users
First 5
From 879 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Solid biblical teaching
- 👍 Comprehensive and beautiful app
- 👍 Excellent resource for Bible study
- 👍 Helpful for spiritual growth
- 👍 Intuitive and user-friendly
Room to improve
- 🐛 App crashes or freezes
- 🐛 Glitchy or buggy functionality
- 🐛 Restricted access requiring sign-up
- 👎 Text is too small, no font size options
- 👎 Lack of dark mode or night theme
Bugs and requests
Highlands
Reported bugs
13 issues- Cafe order online shows church addresses instead of menu
- Cannot skip forward/backward in audio without freezing
- App freezes at half screen on iPad
- Sermon playback doesn't resume from saved position
- Screen locks cause audio to stop playing
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- Glitching when using app with Waze simultaneously
- Watch message link kicks users back to previous screen
- Video content fails to load properly
- Landscape mode not supported for message viewing
- Copy-paste feature removed in recent update
- Service notes highlighting and annotation removed
- Toolbar in One Year Bible reading is distracting and won't hide
- Select all and speak function no longer works
Requested features
14 requests- Highlight and underline text in One Year Bible
- Calendar feature to track completed Bible readings
- Ability to save and access notes within app
- Blank note pages for services without outlines
- Copy and paste functionality for devotionals
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- Dark mode option for One Year Bible reading
- Prayer request submission button
- Chromecast support for casting to TV
- Apple Pay integration for tithes and offerings
- Audio narration for One Year Bible readings
- Better Bluetooth integration for car audio systems
- Ability to copy location addresses for navigation apps
- Highlights Kids Studio content
- Resume playback feature for sermon progress
First 5
Reported bugs
4 issues- App not loading or showing blank screen
- Inability to access past or current studies
- Login/sign-in issues and account problems
- Repeated log-outs and sign-in requirements
Requested features
5 requests- Add dark mode or night theme
- Improve font size and zoom options
- Allow offline access to past studies
- Implement text-to-speech feature
- Provide more customization options
In-app purchases
Highlands
No in-app purchases
First 5
No in-app purchases
