Comparison

Pray Always † vs Forward Day by Day

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

Head to head

Pray Always †

Orthodox Christian Prayer Book

Free

🌟 Lifestyle

★ 4.769 ratingsView app →

Forward Day by Day

Free

🌟 Lifestyle

★ 4.384 ratingsView app →

About

Pray Always †

This app provides an Orthodox Christian prayer book to help users maintain their daily prayer life, even with busy schedules. It aims to make prayer accessible for everyone, facilitating a consistent spiritual practice.

Highlights

Orthodox Christian prayer book
Daily prayer guidance
Accessible for busy schedules
Facilitates consistent prayer life
Spiritual practice tool

Features

Read full description

Take your prayer book with you with Pray Always † for iOS. Daily prayer is essential to a healthy Orthodox Christian life. With today's busy schedules, not everyone has as much time as they desire for their prayer life. The goal for this app is to allow even the busiest to take time to pray.

About

Forward Day by Day

This app provides daily spiritual practices for busy individuals, including meditations, prayers, and scripture readings. It offers integrated podcasts for listening and customizable display preferences for a personalized experience.

Highlights

Daily meditation
Daily prayers
Daily scripture readings
Integrated podcasts
Customizable display preferences
Bilingual (English/Spanish)

Features

Read full description

Forward Day by Day offers prayer on the go—daily spiritual practices for busy people. In English and Spanish. The app includes the daily meditation from Forward Day by Day, as well as all daily prayers from The Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church, and the daily scripture readings from the lectionary. Integrated podcasts allow users to listen within the app as they read. Display preferences provide various fonts and text sizing options. Forward Day by Day is an offering of Forward Movement, a ministry of the Episcopal Church.

Screenshots

Pray Always †4 screens

Forward Day by Day4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Pray Always † at 82% against Forward Day by Day's 46%. Pray Always † also leads on rating (4.7 vs 4.3) and iOS requirement (13.0 vs 15.0). Forward Day by Day's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1) and update cadence (every 2 weeks vs monthly). On price, ratings volume, ads 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Pray Always † sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Forward Day by Day asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Pray Always † holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.3. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 69 and 84 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 82% of Pray Always †'s written reviews are positive against 46% of Forward Day by Day's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Pray Always † ships an update monthly, Forward Day by Day every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 23, 2026 and September 10, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level

Pray Always † versus Forward Day by Day: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
Parameter	Pray Always †	Forward Day by Day
Price	Free	Free
Rating	4.7 (69 ratings) — better	4.3 (84 ratings)
Positive reviews	81.8% of reviews — better	46.3% of reviews
Number of ratings	69	84 — better
Update frequency	Monthly	Every 2 weeks — better
Ads	No	No
In-app purchases	Yes	No — better
Monetization	Free with in-app purchases	Free — better
Devices	iPhone, iPad, iPod	iPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS	13.0 — better	15.0
Further details — not scored
Size	10 MB	78 MB
Age rating	4+	4+
Developer	Negnet Solutions	Forward Movement

Customer experience

Pray Always †

All ratings69 ratings

Positive94.2%

Neutral1.4%

Negative4.3%

Written reviews55 reviews

Positive81.8%

Neutral5.5%

Negative12.7%

Forward Day by Day

All ratings84 ratings

Positive82.1%

Neutral8.3%

Negative9.5%

Written reviews67 reviews

Positive46.3%

Neutral14.9%

Negative38.8%

User reviews

Pray Always †

From 69 App Store ratings

What we love

👍 Easy to use and navigate
🙏 Essential for daily prayer
🌟 Great selection of prayers
📖 Includes full Psalter
✨ Helpful for inquirers and new converts

Room to improve

💸 Unexpected subscription charges
❓ Confusing upgrade pricing
🖼️ Images not loading
🤔 Awkward translations
📱 App freezing/unresponsive

Forward Day by Day

From 84 App Store ratings

What we love

👍 Great content and devotions
👍 Customizable experience
👍 Encouraging and accessible
👍 Useful for daily prayer
👍 Good for staying connected

Room to improve

🐛 Tiny font size
🐛 Inconsistent internet connection issues
🐛 App not opening/crashing
🐛 Difficult navigation
🐛 Not available offline

Bugs and requests

Pray Always †

Reported bugs

7 issues

Inserted images will not load
App is frozen and won't scroll
App freezes up after update
App is frozen
Cannot use the app at all, it is frozen

Show 2 more

Subscription doesn't show in Apple account but charged monthly
Cannot cancel subscription in app or Apple account

Requested features

27 requests

Add prayers for before and after meals
Ability to select text
Include Paschal hours
Hymns from Triodion and Pentecostarion
Section on Confession

Show 22 more

Ability to add more prayers to sections
Add own prayer rule
Include Fifth prayer of St Macarius
Include ninth prayer of Peter the Studite
Adjust dark/night mode with system settings
Include hymns from Lenten Triodion and Holy Week
Include basic Kontakia for Pre-Lent and Great Lent
Include Prayer of St Ephraim the Syrian
Add The Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom
Add Vespers & Matins
Add more Akathists, Canons, and Troparion/Kontakion
Personalize and add own prayers
Include Orthodox prayer for pets
Include more icons
Copy of the Divine Liturgy text
Update Jesus Prayer page with an icon of Christ
Include an icon gallery
Include St. Brigid of Kildare
Make modern English translation available
Add more prayers like Jordanville Prayer Book
Add customization for Patron saint, Hierarchs, Spiritual Father, Living & Departed names
Backup customizations to iCloud

Forward Day by Day

Reported bugs

44 issues

Blank screen when opening app
App not opening
Stopped working on iPhone XR
Not connected to Internet or won’t open
Revolving circle and not opening

Show 39 more

Message: Not connected to the internet
No internet connection error
Cannot Launch App
App quit working
App is Broken
Crashville
App Falls Short
Very buggy
Not working!
Where's the text?
Technical issues
App not working
Spacing errors
Text does not have proper spacing between words
Lord's Prayer reads "sinsas" instead of "sins as"
The Saint isn't always the saint according to the calendar
Daily Saint does not show up at all
Meditations missing?
Daily meditation does not fit the iPhone screen
Text won't shift to landscape mode
App not working on iPad
Content doesn't fit the screen
Daily prayer now sticks on the time of day
Link to Daily prayers anytime is broken
Won't swivel as iPad is turned
Typo fixes needed
Lord's Prayer spacing is off
Meditation "bleeds" off the viewing area
Cannot swipe back to today's meditation
Slow to load
Daily Meditation page is blank
Bug: it will only load the current day once I change the settings from Rite I to Rite II and vice versa
Meditation bleeds off the screen
Problem with the devotionals section bleeding off the screen
The fonts are really small with no way to enlarge them
Cannot pinch to enlarge
No landscape mode for larger font
Daily meditation does not fit the iPhone screen
Text won't shift to landscape

Requested features

16 requests

Ability to swipe from left edge to go back
3-reading setting for Daily Office
Information about saints linked to Daily Office
Ability to stretch text on iPod
Option to enlarge font size

Show 11 more

Reminders at certain times of the day
Update the app
Cache a few days or a month of data for offline use
Include author biographies
Add a search function
Consider making this a universal app for iPad functionality
More interactive features
Make it accessible to people not familiar with the Episcopal Church
Customize the office more (e.g., General Thanksgiving at Morning Prayer)
More of the daily offices included
Option to customize the office more

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Pray Always †

One-time1

Full Version$2.99

None

Forward Day by Day

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Pray Always † free?

Pray Always † is free to download, with in-app purchases available.

Is Forward Day by Day free?

Forward Day by Day is free to download, with no in-app purchases.

Which has better reviews, Pray Always † or Forward Day by Day?

Pray Always † is rated higher. Pray Always † averages 4.7 out of 5 from 69 ratings, while Forward Day by Day averages 4.3 from 84 ratings.

Do Pray Always † or Forward Day by Day have ads?

Neither Pray Always † nor Forward Day by Day shows ads.

Which is updated more often, Pray Always † or Forward Day by Day?

Pray Always † ships an update monthly, and Forward Day by Day every 2 weeks. Most recently, Pray Always † was updated on September 23, 2026 and Forward Day by Day on September 10, 2026.