Comparison

CathoLock vs Prayer Explorer

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

Head to head
About

CathoLock

This app helps you prioritize prayer by blocking distracting applications. Schedule prayer times, set intentions, and receive reminders to reconnect with your faith and guard your digital well-being.

Highlights
  • App blocking for focus
  • Prayer scheduling
  • Customizable intentions
  • Novena tracker
  • Digital Rosary
  • Traditional prayers
Features
Read full description

Defend your prayer life. CathoLock is a Catholic prayer rule for your phone. Schedule a prayer, lock the apps that pull you away, and unlock them when the prayer is done. How it works 1. Choose which apps to block. 2. Set a prayer and an intention. 3. Pray when CathoLock asks. 4. Unlock, and return to the phone on purpose. Home in version 2.0 Home follows the Church's day. Today's Ordo shows the feast, the season, and the color, on the Modern (US) calendar or the Traditional calendar. Under it, a stained-glass frame holds a confession reminder and the Daily Examen. Prayers you can begin free The Jesus Prayer, Morning Offering, and the other foundational prayers. A Rosary and the Chaplet of Divine Mercy. Lectio Divina on the daily Gospel. The Daily Examen. Personal Prayer, in your own words. Intellectual Formation, opening with St. Thomas Aquinas's Prayer before Studying. Conclave Conclave is the subscription that keeps a full rule. It adds a repeating schedule and more than one prayer. It adds the guided Rosary and guided chaplets, the Angelus (Regina Coeli in Easter), novenas, litanies, the Stations of the Cross, and a self-guided Liturgy of the Hours. There is even a latin language option! Silent Night holds the shields overnight until your first prayer the next day. Desert Mode activates them through the day, and an Amen opens the phone for fifteen minutes. Creating a Prayer Chain for your parish, family, or rosary circle is part of Conclave. Joining a chain, and praying an intention, stay free. Free and Conclave CathoLock is free to download. The free tier is one prayer for today, the journal, and joining a Prayer Chain. The free lock covers that prayer. It does not hold the phone all day. Conclave Monthly is $5.99. Conclave Yearly is $24.99. Family Monthly is $9.99. Family Yearly is $59.99 and can be shared with your Family Sharing group. Priests, deacons, religious, seminarians, and FOCUS missionaries may receive Conclave as a gift. Subscriptions You may purchase an auto-renewing monthly or yearly subscription, for yourself or for your Family Sharing group, through an In-App Purchase. • Payment is charged to your Apple ID at confirmation of purchase. • The subscription renews unless you turn off auto-renew at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. • Manage or cancel in your Apple ID account settings. Canceling stops the next renewal. It does not end the period you already paid for. • If a free trial is offered, any unused part of that trial is forfeited when you buy a subscription, where applicable. Privacy policy: catholock.com/privacy Terms of Use: catholock.com/terms Verbum Verum is a small, independent developer. Subscribing keeps this ministry going.

About

Prayer Explorer

A free Catholic prayer and study companion offering traditional prayers, guided rosary, and a Bible reader. It features liturgical calendar information, custom prayer lists, and private, on-device data storage. Optional thanksgiving donations are available.

Highlights
  • Traditional Catholic prayers
  • Voice-guided Holy Rosary
  • Liturgical calendar
  • Public-domain Bible reader
  • Customizable prayer lists
  • On-device data privacy
Features
Read full description

Prayer Explorer is a quiet, free companion for Catholic prayer and study. It brings together the day's liturgical calendar, traditional prayers, the Holy Rosary with voice-guided Pray Along, and a public-domain Bible reader. EVERYTHING IS FREE. Every prayer, every mystery, every reading, every feature. No accounts, no ads, no subscription, no tracking. WHAT'S INSIDE • A library of traditional Catholic prayers. Search and favorite. • Praylists: build your own prayer sequences, like three Hail Marys for a personal intention or a custom Stations set. • The Holy Rosary with all four mystery sets. Pray Along mode listens to your voice and gently follows you line by line, so you can pray with your eyes on the page or with them closed. • The Divine Mercy Chaplet, the Angelus, the Memorare, and dozens more. • Today's liturgical day: season, color, rank, feasts, and Holy Days of Obligation. • Daily Mass reading references with a one-tap link to the official USCCB text. • A full liturgical calendar by month, with feasts and color dots. • A Bible reader with public-domain translations (WEB, KJV, Douay-Rheims), text-to-speech, voice picker, line-by-line highlighting, verse favorites, and personal notes. • Reading plans you can track over time. PRIVATE BY DEFAULT Favorites, notes, Praylists, and progress all stay on your device. Pray Along processes your voice on the device. Nothing is uploaded. No analytics. No third-party scripts. The Privacy Policy at prayerexplorer.com/privacy lays it out in plain English. PROUD TO PRAY If the app has helped you pray, you can send a small thanksgiving from inside the app. It is entirely optional. Nothing is gated behind it. A Catholic translation note: the in-app Bible uses public-domain translations for study and prayer. The official Lectionary text for Mass is not reproduced. Tap "Open Official Readings" to read it on the USCCB site.

Screenshots

CathoLock4 screens
Prayer Explorer4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is monetization model: Prayer Explorer at free against CathoLock's free with in-app purchases. Prayer Explorer also leads on iOS requirement (15.1 vs 18.0). CathoLock's advantage is ratings volume (7 vs 1). On price, rating, ads and in-app purchases 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. CathoLock sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $5.99 per month and Prayer Explorer sells 3 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for CathoLock against 5.0 for Prayer Explorer. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: CathoLock has 7 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
CathoLock versus Prayer Explorer: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterCathoLockPrayer Explorer
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (7 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings)
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings7 — better1
Update frequencyWeekly—
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Apple WatchiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS18.015.1 — better
Further details — not scored
Size92 MB53 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperRYAN ANTHONY HOLMESJonathan Do

Customer experience

CathoLock

All ratings7 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Prayer Explorer

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

4 purchases

CathoLock

Subscriptions4
  • Conclave Monthly$5.991 Month
  • Family Monthly$9.991 Month
  • Conclave Yearly1 Month trial$24.991 Year
Show 1 more
  • Family Plan1 Month trial$59.991 Year
3 purchases

Prayer Explorer

One-time3
  • Light a Candle$1.99
  • Send a Blessing$4.99
  • Become a Patron$9.99

Questions

Is CathoLock free?
CathoLock is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Prayer Explorer free?
Prayer Explorer is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, CathoLock or Prayer Explorer?
CathoLock and Prayer Explorer are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 7 and 1 ratings respectively.
Do CathoLock or Prayer Explorer have ads?
Neither CathoLock nor Prayer Explorer shows ads.

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