Apps
Best Rosary Apps: An Honest Catholic Comparison
Hallow, Laudate, iRosary, Daily Rosary Meditations, Pocket Rosary, Click To Pray: what each rosary app really offers, what it costs, and which keep the traditional fifteen mysteries.
The best rosary app is the one that helps you actually pray the Rosary, bead by bead, without pulling you elsewhere. For a free, simple rosary app with Latin, Pocket Rosary is hard to fault; for audio that sounds like someone praying beside you, iRosary; for a daily meditation, Daily Rosary Meditations; for a free all-in-one Catholic app, Laudate. Most of them, however, follow the modern scheme of twenty mysteries. If you want the Rosary of fifteen mysteries as the Church prayed and indulgenced it for centuries, with the 1962 calendar, that is what Iter Fidei was built for. Here is each rosary app, compared honestly.
What makes a good rosary app?
A rosary app does not replace the beads, and the Rosary needs no technology at all: its whole form is described in our guide on how to pray the Rosary. What a good app adds is help: it keeps count, shows the mystery and the prayers, and lets you pray along with a voice when you are driving, walking or too tired to read. Five questions separate one app from another:
- Audio: is there a voice to pray with, and does it sound like prayer rather than a recording on repeat?
- Price: is the Rosary free, or behind a subscription?
- Latin: can you pray the Ave Maria and the Pater noster in the Church's own language?
- Distraction: does the app keep you on the beads, or push streaks, feeds and notifications?
- Which Rosary: the traditional fifteen mysteries, or the twenty of the modern scheme?
That last point deserves a word. The Rosary of fifteen mysteries, Joyful, Sorrowful and Glorious, was fixed in its form by St Pius V in the bull Consueverunt Romani Pontifices (1569) and commended again and again by Leo XIII in his encyclicals on the Rosary. In 2002 John Paul II proposed five further "Luminous" mysteries in Rosarium Virginis Mariae. Most current rosary apps include them, usually on Thursdays; Pocket Rosary, for instance, lists all four sets. They lie outside the traditional Rosary, as our page on the mysteries of the Rosary explains; a traditional Catholic will simply want an app that lets him keep to the fifteen.
The rosary apps compared
| App | Price | Platforms | Audio | Latin |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hallow | Limited free tier, paid subscription | iOS, Android | Yes, many guided Rosaries | — |
| Laudate | Free | iOS, Android | Podcasts | Yes, Latin Rosary |
| iRosary | Free, optional "Ultra" upgrade | iPhone, iPad | Yes, English and Spanish | No |
| Daily Rosary Meditations | Free | iOS, Android | Yes, daily episode | No |
| Pocket Rosary | Free, optional tips | iPhone, Mac | No (vibration cues) | Yes |
| Click To Pray eRosary | Free | iOS, Android | Yes | No |
| Iter Fidei | Free early access | iOS, Android (coming soon) | Yes, synchronised | Yes, beside English |
Hallow
Hallow is the best-produced Catholic prayer app, and its Rosary sessions are narrated by priests, religious and well-known Catholic voices, with music and short reflections. It is polished and easy to begin with. Two things to know: most of its library sits behind a paid subscription, and its register is that of modern meditation and wellness. We look at it more closely in Is Hallow a Catholic app?
Laudate
Laudate is the free generalist among Catholic apps. Its Rosary is interactive, bead by bead, and there is a Latin Rosary, the Seven Sorrows Rosary, the Franciscan Crown and the Servite Rosary, along with many chaplets and daily podcasts. It costs nothing and has no subscription. The interface is dated and crowded, and the rest of the app follows the current calendar and lectionary.
iRosary
iRosary, by Opicury Software, is one of the pioneers of the mobile rosary. The new iRosary is free to download, with an optional "Ultra" upgrade (offered at $7.99 a year at the time of writing) for richer audio and customisation. Its distinctive point is the audio: studio-recorded male and female voices in English and Spanish, mixed afresh each time so that the prayer does not sound like the same recording on repeat. It also works with Apple CarPlay. It is published for Apple devices.
Daily Rosary Meditations
The daily rosary meditations app of the School of Faith, a lay Catholic formation apostolate founded in 2005 in Overland Park, Kansas, grew out of a popular podcast. Each day brings a new episode: a Scripture reading, a meditation by its two presenters, Dr Mike Scherschligt and Dr Troy Hinkel, and the Rosary itself, all in under twenty-five minutes. There are also prayer groups and a community feature. It is free, on iOS and Android. It suits those who want a voice and a reflection every morning more than those who want silence.
Pocket Rosary
Pocket Rosary, by Tercaet, is the quiet one: no login, no streaks, no notifications, and, according to its privacy label, no data collected. It suggests the mysteries of the day, walks you bead by bead and keeps count, with vibration cues so that you can pray without looking at the screen. It offers ten languages including Latin, shows the fruit of each mystery and includes the Franciscan Crown. There is no audio, and it follows the twenty-mystery scheme. It is free with optional tips, for iPhone and Mac.
Click To Pray eRosary
Click To Pray eRosary is the free app of the Pope's Worldwide Prayer Network, launched in October 2019 together with a Bluetooth "smart rosary" bracelet. It offers a standard, a contemplative and a thematic Rosary, with audio, images and reflections, oriented towards the monthly prayer intentions of the Pope.
The traditional Rosary on your phone: Iter Fidei
None of the apps above is wrong to exist, and several are made with real devotion. But most follow the modern scheme of twenty mysteries, and none is built around the traditional liturgy in which the Rosary has always been set. That is the gap our rosary app is made to fill. Iter Fidei is coming soon to iOS and Android, and early access is open now:
- The fifteen mysteries as handed down, the Joyful, Sorrowful and Glorious, one set each day according to the traditional weekly order.
- Latin and English side by side, with synchronised audio to pray along word by word.
- Guided mystery by mystery, with the parts of the Rosary and its prayers laid out in order: the Creed, the Pater, the Ave, the Gloria, the Hail Holy Queen.
- Offline, with no feed, no streaks and no wellness branding.
- Set in the whole traditional day of prayer: the Mass of the 1962 Missal, the Divine Office, the litanies and the novenas, such as the 54-day Rosary novena.
If you pray the Rosary simply and want only a counter, any of the free apps above will help you. If you want the Rosary of the saints, in its traditional form and in the Church's own language, that is what we built.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best rosary app?
It depends on what you need. Pocket Rosary is the best free app for a simple, silent Rosary with Latin; iRosary has the most natural audio; Daily Rosary Meditations gives a new meditation each day; Laudate is the best free all-in-one Catholic app. For the traditional Rosary of fifteen mysteries in Latin and English with audio, Iter Fidei is built for exactly that.
Is there a free rosary app?
Yes, several. Laudate, Daily Rosary Meditations, Pocket Rosary and Click To Pray eRosary are free, and iRosary is free to download with an optional paid upgrade. Hallow offers a limited free tier, but most of its content requires a subscription. Iter Fidei offers free early access.
What is the best rosary app with audio?
iRosary is known for its audio, with several recordings mixed so that each Rosary sounds fresh, and Daily Rosary Meditations gives a full spoken Rosary each day with a meditation. Hallow offers many narrated Rosaries behind its subscription. Iter Fidei has synchronised audio in Latin and English, so that you can follow every word as it is prayed.
Is there a rosary app in Latin?
Yes. Pocket Rosary offers Latin among its ten languages, and Laudate has a Latin Rosary. Iter Fidei sets the Latin beside the English, with audio, so you can learn the Latin prayers by praying them.
Do rosary apps include the Luminous Mysteries?
Most of them do, usually on Thursdays, because they follow the scheme proposed by John Paul II in 2002. The traditional Rosary has fifteen mysteries in three sets of five, completed across the week. Iter Fidei keeps to the fifteen as handed down.
Can you pray the Rosary on an app instead of beads?
Yes. The Rosary consists in the vocal prayers and the meditation on the mysteries, and an app can guide both well, especially when you are away from your beads. Note, however, that some of the traditional indulgences, such as those attached to blessed beads, require the blessed rosary to be held while praying. Many people therefore keep their beads in hand and use the app only for the text and the voice.
Which rosary app is the most traditional?
Most mainstream apps follow the modern scheme of twenty mysteries and the current calendar. A holy Rosary app built for the tradition keeps the fifteen mysteries, the Latin prayers and the old calendar; that is the purpose of Iter Fidei, which serves the Rosary together with the Mass and Divine Office of 1962.
Iter Fidei guides the Rosary mystery by mystery, with the fifteen traditional mysteries, in Latin and English with synchronised audio, even offline. It is coming soon to iOS and Android, with free early access. Join early access here.
Sources. Pope St Pius V, bull Consueverunt Romani Pontifices (1569); Pope Leo XIII, encyclicals Supremi Apostolatus Officio (1883) and Octobri Mense (1891); The Raccolta; Holy Scripture (Douay-Rheims).