iConfess vs Shrive
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
iConfess
This app guides users through the Sacrament of Confession with detailed examinations of conscience, prayers, and educational resources. It also offers guided Rosary and Litany prayers with professional narration and progress tracking.
- Guided Rosary and Litany with audio narration
- Comprehensive examination of conscience
- Collection of Catholic prayers
- Educational resources on confession
- Progress tracking for prayers
- Smart search for examination topics
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Prepare for a good confession, pray the Rosary, and keep a private record of your spiritual life — all in one calm, beautiful app. Your confession stays between you and God. Everything you write in iConfess is kept only on your device, encrypted. Never uploaded, never shared, never seen by anyone else. No account, no cloud, no tracking, no ads. PRIVATE BY DESIGN • All data stays on your iPhone or iPad, encrypted • Face ID / Touch ID lock, asked when you open the app or return after 30 seconds • Optional app password • Passphrase-protected backup file that you save wherever you choose — iConfess never uploads it • No accounts, no analytics, no tracking EXAMINE YOUR CONSCIENCE • My Focus Areas — the struggles you chose to watch, always first • Daily Examination — a few honest questions for each day, with Confess and Focus buttons • Ten Commandments — a thorough examination, commandment by commandment • Other Examinations — capital sins, precepts of the Church, theological virtues, sins of omission • Add your own in your own words — it goes straight to My list • Personal notes on any question CONFESS • My list gathers everything you want to confess • Step-by-step Guide: what to say and what to expect • Finish confession to log the priest's advice, your penance and resolutions — your list clears itself • Penance reminder with links to the prayers you were given PRAY • Guided Holy Rosary with audio — all four mystery sets, today's mysteries suggested • Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary with audio • Background audio with lock screen controls • Prayers before, during and after confession, and everyday prayers • Favorites at the top for the prayers you bookmark JOURNAL • Confession log with dates, advice and penance • Resolutions — grouped into Working on and Kept • My Notes and Saved prayers and readings LEARN • What confession is, how to go, and how to make a good examination • Clear, faithful explanations of mortal and venial sin DESIGNED FOR YOU • Soft, readable design in light and dark mode • iPad sidebar layout • Works fully offline Free. No ads. Made with love for the faithful. "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins." — 1 John 1:9
Shrive
This app helps Catholics prepare for and engage in the sacrament of confession. It allows users to privately log sins, track the date of their last confession, and provides a comprehensive guide for the confession process. The goal is to facilitate a deeper spiritual connection.
- Log sins privately
- Track last confession date
- Comprehensive confession guide
- Spiritual preparation tool
- Widgets for confession tracking
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Shrive is the ULTIMATE confession App for Catholics providing a variety of features for preparation of the sacrament. LOG YOUR SINS: Safely and privately record all of your sins so you will easily be able to read them off to the priest. REFLECT: Easily reflect before confession or even when in the confession like to help you make the most honest confession SEE WHEN YOUR LAST CONFESSION WAS: Shrive will automatically keep track when you go to confession. Upon first launch, it will ask you approximately when you last went to confession. Shrive also has widgets that count up to when you were last at confession. COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE TO CONFESSION: Whether this is your first or you’ve been confessing for 20 years, we understand that you may get nervous. Shrive will show you exactly what you got to say to the priest in the “Confession Time” menu including the Act of Contrition, your sins, and when your last confession was. GET CLOSER TO GOD: Logging your sins the moment you realize them will make you more likely to get to Heaven. Note: Shrive is NOT a replacement for the sacrament of reconciliation, rather it's a resource that you can use in confession to help you get closer to God.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Shrive at 100% against iConfess's 0%. Shrive also leads on rating (5.0 vs 3.0) and update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 3 months). iConfess's advantage is iOS requirement (15.0 vs 17.4). 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Shrive holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 3.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Shrive has 5 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 0% of iConfess's written reviews are positive against 100% of Shrive's.
iConfess ships an update every 3 months, Shrive every 3 weeks. Both last shipped on October 30, 2026.
| Parameter | iConfess | Shrive |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.0 (1 ratings) | 5.0 (5 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 0.0% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 1 | 5 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 3 months | Every 3 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 17.4 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 50 MB | 15 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Blueinstinct App Solutions | William Gallegos |
Customer experience
iConfess
Shrive
In-app purchases
iConfess
No in-app purchases
Shrive
No in-app purchases







