Small Surah vs Critica
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Small Surah
This Islamic app provides 13 essential Surahs from the Holy Quran for daily prayers. It features Arabic text with diacritics, Bengali and English transliterations, and audio recitation for each Surah. The app boasts a clean and elegant design.
- 13 essential Surahs
- Arabic text with diacritics
- Bengali transliteration
- English transliteration
- Audio recitation
- Clean design
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Small Surah is a beautifully designed Islamic app that brings you the most commonly recited Surahs of the Holy Quran. FEATURES: - 13 essential Surahs for daily prayers - Arabic text with full diacritics - Bengali transliteration & pronunciation - English transliteration - Audio recitation for every Surah - Clean, elegant design SURAHS INCLUDED: - Surah Al-Fatiha - Surah Al-Falaq - Surah An-Naas - Surah Al-Ikhlas - Surah Al-Kauthar - Surah Al-Lahab - Surah An-Nasr - Surah Al-Kafirun - Surah Al-Quraish - Surah Al-Fil - Surah Al-Asr - Surah Al-Qadr - Surah Al-Maun Perfect for Muslims who want to memorize and recite Surahs correctly in their daily prayers. May Allah accept your prayers. Ameen.
Critica
This app provides critical annotations for Islamic texts, including the Quran, Hadith, Sira, Fiqh, and Tafsir. It flags and explains issues like violence, misogyny, and historical errors, citing specific sources for verification. Designed for readers seeking a deeper, critical understanding of Islamic tradition.
- Annotated Quran (Meccan/Medinan)
- Six Sunni & Twelver Shia Hadith collections
- Event-based biography of Muhammad (Sira)
- Classical jurisprudence (Fiqh) on contested topics
- Major classical Tafsir commentaries
- Source citation for every claim
- Filterable flags for critical issues
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Critica is a critical-edition reference covering the full primary sourcebase of Islam across five tabs: • QURAN — All 114 surahs, grouped Meccan / Medinan, with section-by-section annotations. • HADITH — The six Sunni books (Bukhari, Muslim, Abu Dawud, Tirmidhi, Nasa'i, Ibn Majah) and the Twelver Shia al-Kafi, with the most consequential and most-cited narrations. • SIRA — Muhammad's biography by event cluster — Mecca, Hijra, Badr, Uhud, the Jewish-tribe encounters, Khaybar, the conquest of Mecca, the Farewell Sermon. • FIQH — Classical jurisprudence on contested topics across the four Sunni madhabs (Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i, Hanbali) and the Twelver Ja'fari school: apostasy, marriage age, hudud, polygamy, jizya, FGM, and more. • TAFSIR — Major classical exegetes (Tabari, Ibn Kathir, Qurtubi, Razi, Tabarsi, Zamakhshari) with their distinctive readings of famous verses. Every flag is sourced. Each section cites a specific ayah (Q surah:verse), a hadith number (Bukhari 5134), a sira page (Ibn Hisham 2:240), or a madhab manual (al-Mughni 9:486) so a curious reader can verify the claim in any translation. The eleven flag categories: • Violence • Misogyny • Slavery • Hostility to unbelievers • Anti-LGBTQ teaching • Harm to children • Scientific errors • Historical errors • Contradictions • Moral problems • Logical issues Filter by flag to focus on one kind of issue at a time. Tap any flag to expand its full annotation. The reading level is middle-school to high-school. The tone is editorial, not polemical — the reader assumed throughout is someone who was told the tradition was perfect and noticed otherwise, and wants substantive engagement with what mainstream critical scholarship has actually said. SOURCES Patricia Crone, Michael Cook, John Wansbrough, Gerd-R. Puin, Christoph Luxenberg, Tom Holland, Robert G. Hoyland, Fred Donner, Joseph Schacht, G.H.A. Juynboll, Ignaz Goldziher, Jonathan Brown, Wael Hallaq, Ibn Warraq, and the Skeptic's Annotated Quran. Classical sources cited directly include the Six Books of Sunni hadith, al-Kafi, Ibn Hisham's recension of Ibn Ishaq, al-Tabari's history, and the classical tafsirs of Tabari, Ibn Kathir, Qurtubi, Razi, Tabarsi, and Zamakhshari. Critica is the Islamic-tradition companion to Decanon (the same critical-edition treatment applied to the Protestant Bible).
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Critica at 5.0 against Small Surah's 1.0. Critica also leads on ads (none vs shown) and iOS requirement (17.0 vs 26.2). Small Surah's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1) and update cadence (fortnightly vs monthly). On price, ratings volume 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. Critica sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Small Surah asks for nothing beyond the download.
Critica holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 1.0. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1 and 1 respectively.
Small Surah ships an update fortnightly, Critica monthly. The most recent releases landed on October 21, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Small Surah | Critica |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 1.0 (1 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 0.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 1 | 1 |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly — better | Monthly |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Ad-supported | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 26.2 | 17.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 8 MB | 19 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 17+ |
| Developer | Abul Kalam Sekh | OMAR DANIEL GRAZIANO |
Customer experience
Small Surah
Critica
In-app purchases
Small Surah
No in-app purchases
Critica
- Full Access$9.99









