Comparison

The Novena App vs iConfess

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

Head to head
About

The Novena App

This app provides a comprehensive collection of traditional Catholic novenas to deepen faith and strengthen connection with God. Users can access a vast array of prayers, create personalized novenas, and track their spiritual journey with a user-friendly interface and helpful features like dark mode and quick search.

Highlights
  • Vast array of traditional Catholic novenas
  • Create and track personalized prayers
  • Favorite and easily access beloved novenas
  • Dark Mode for comfortable reading
  • Clean, intuitive user interface
  • Quick search for instant access
Features
Read full description

The Catholic Novena App is a comprehensive, lightweight, and trusted source for novenas in English, designed to help users deepen their faith and strengthen their connection with God through daily prayer. Access a vast array of traditional Catholic novenas or create and track your own personalized prayers. With a user-friendly interface and a range of customization options, the Novena App is the ideal spiritual companion for anyone looking to enrich their prayer life and grow closer to God. With its rich selection of prayers, carefully curated from the deep traditions of the Catholic Church, the app brings a meaningful prayer experience right to your fingertips. † Features † • Easily favorite and access your most beloved novenas • Dark Mode for comfortable reading at any time • Clean, intuitive user interface • Quick search for instant access to specific novenas Copyrights: All copyrights, trademarks, design rights, patents, and other intellectual property rights (registered and unregistered) in and on Catholic Prayers are inspired by various sources and books dedicated to the Catholic faith. Courtesy: Our sincere thanks to various online prayer sources and Christian prayer books for their inspiration. Privacy Policy: The app respects user privacy and does not collect or share any personal information without the user’s knowledge. Our purpose is solely to share prayers and support spiritual growth. For more details, read our privacy policy at: https://reeba256.github.io/privacypolicy Contact Us: For questions or suggestions, reach out to us at reebasebastian@icloud.com—we’d love to hear from you!

About

iConfess

This app helps Catholics engage more regularly with the sacrament of confession. It provides guidance on how to make a good confession, locate nearby churches with confession times, and set reminders to foster spiritual habits.

Highlights
  • Examination of conscience guide
  • Find nearby confession times
  • Set confession reminders
  • Spiritual habit formation
  • Guidance for making a good confession
Features
Read full description

Confession is such an important sacrament for us as Catholics, and yet it can be intimidating and difficult to go to regularly. iConfess was designed to break down these barriers so that we can benefit more often from this wonderful sacraments and lead lives of holiness. Confession can be intimidating: Confessing your sins to priests is hard and nerve-racking, which is why iConfess walks you through how to make a good confession. Part of this includes completing an examination of conscience, so that you can include all the sins since your last confession. Confession can be hard to find: Often times, we aren't familiar with the confessions times at the churches near us. iConfess allows you to easily find churches near your location, and shows you the relevant confession or mass times, according to your preferences. Confession can be difficult to do regularly: Sometimes we can go months or years without confession because we simply never get around to it. iConfess provides the ability to set reminders to create a variety of spiritual habits, including going to confession regularly. The goal of all of these features is to enable every Catholic to dive deeper into the sacrament of Confession, so that they can receive forgiveness and continue on their path to sainthood. If you have any requested features or any feedback, please don't hesitate to reach out: iConfessionApp@gmail.com

Screenshots

The Novena App4 screens
iConfess4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: The Novena App at 4.8 against iConfess's 4.0. The Novena App also leads on ratings volume (913 vs 70). iConfess's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 3) and ads (none vs shown). On price, device support and iOS requirement 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. The Novena App sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month. iConfess asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

The Novena App holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: The Novena App has 913 ratings behind it against 70, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 42% of The Novena App's written reviews are positive against 52% of iConfess's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

The Novena App ships an update every 6 months, iConfess every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on November 7, 2026 and November 3, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
The Novena App versus iConfess: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterThe Novena AppiConfess
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (913 ratings) — better4.0 (70 ratings)
Positive reviews41.7% of reviews51.6% of reviews — better
Number of ratings913 — better70
Update frequencyEvery 6 monthsEvery 2 months — better
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationAd-supportedFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPod
Requires iOS15.015.0
Further details — not scored
Size82 MB57 MB
Age rating4+12+
DeveloperReeba SebastianXavier Polisetty

Customer experience

The Novena App

All ratings909 ratings
Positive96.4%
Neutral1.7%
Negative2.0%
Written reviews12 reviews
Positive41.7%
Neutral8.3%
Negative50.0%

iConfess

All ratings68 ratings
Positive72.1%
Neutral8.8%
Negative19.1%
Written reviews31 reviews
Positive51.6%
Neutral16.1%
Negative32.3%

Bugs and requests

The Novena App

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

iConfess

Reported bugs

16 issues
  • Examination of conscience gets stuck on 8th commandment on iPhone
  • App constantly locks up
  • Button actions don't work
  • Unable to choose 'married' as proper ID
  • Examination of conscience hangs at 8th commandment
Show 11 more
  • AI integration is broken
  • Daily examination of conscience not working
  • Next button on examination of conscience does nothing
  • Freezes on opening screens when choosing station in life
  • Examination of conscience stops part way through
  • Goes through 8 of 10 commandments and gets stuck
  • Many screens don't work
  • Cannot click 'Next' sometimes
  • Message part of the app is broken
  • Next button hangs and works inconsistently
  • Swiping up inconsistent

Requested features

8 requests
  • Allow editing confession log
  • Record date of last confession
  • Option to choose 'married' as proper ID
  • Ability to write daily within the app
  • Link or questionnaire for applying reminders
Show 3 more
  • List of commandments after review as a cheat sheet
  • Add list of rosary mysteries
  • Set reminders for reconciliation

In-app purchases

3 purchases

The Novena App

Subscriptions3
  • Novena Plus$0.991 Month
  • Novena Pro$4.996 Months
  • Novena Go$8.991 Year
None

iConfess

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is The Novena App free?
The Novena App is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is iConfess free?
iConfess is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, The Novena App or iConfess?
The Novena App is rated higher. The Novena App averages 4.8 out of 5 from 913 ratings, while iConfess averages 4.0 from 70 ratings.
Do The Novena App or iConfess have ads?
The Novena App shows ads; iConfess does not.
Which is updated more often, The Novena App or iConfess?
The Novena App ships an update every 6 months, and iConfess every 2 months. Most recently, The Novena App was updated on November 7, 2026 and iConfess on November 3, 2026.

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