Universalis App: What It Offers, and a 1962 Alternative

Universalis is a website and app that gives you the Liturgy of the Hours and the readings and prayers of Mass for any date, in English, in Latin, or both. Published by Universalis Publishing Ltd, it is one of the most established tools for the modern Roman Office: the website is free to use, the apps are a one-off purchase, and everything works offline. It follows the reformed, post-conciliar liturgy and calendar. Here is what it offers, what it costs, and how it compares with the traditional Office of the 1962 Roman Breviary.

What Universalis is

Universalis computes the liturgy of the day for you. Open it, and it shows:

• Every hour of the Liturgy of the Hours — the Office of Readings, Morning Prayer, Mid-morning, Midday and Mid-afternoon Prayer, Evening Prayer and Night Prayer;
• All the readings and prayers for Mass, with the Order of Mass;
• A full liturgical calendar, with many national and local calendars to choose from;
• Any date in any year, past or future;
• English, Latin, or both side by side.

The English texts depend on where you are: the publisher states that users in the United States receive the New American Bible, those in Great Britain the English Standard Version, and the rest of the world the Jerusalem Bible with the Grail Psalms. The app needs no internet connection once installed.

What the Universalis app costs

The website is free. The apps are paid, without a subscription for the texts themselves:

• iPhone and iPad: a single purchase of $9.99 (£9.99);
• A small monthly subscription is also offered as an alternative to buying outright;
• Android: a single purchase on Google Play;
• Mac, Windows and e-readers: a registration code bought from the publisher, which also covers the mobile apps;
• Audio: spoken readings and a spoken Liturgy of the Hours are optional add-ons sold by subscription.

One-month free trials are offered on most platforms. These are the prices the publisher listed in October 2026; check its site for current figures in your country.

What Universalis does well

Universalis is careful, quiet and dependable. It has no meditation branding and no social features; it simply resolves the day and lays out the texts. Its Latin option is unusual among Office apps, and its choice of local calendars means a user in England or the United States sees his own feasts. For anyone who prays the modern Liturgy of the Hours — a priest, a religious, a layman taking up Morning and Evening Prayer — it is a sound choice, and many have used it for years.

Universalis and the traditional Office

The question for a traditional Catholic is not whether Universalis is good software, but which Office it contains. It contains the Liturgy of the Hours, the Office reformed after the Second Vatican Council and published in 1971, on the reformed calendar. The traditional Office is that of the Roman Breviary, whose last typical edition is that of 1962. They differ in four plain ways:

• The hours. The Roman Breviary keeps the night Office of Matins and seven day hours — Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers and Compline — after the psalmist: "Seven times a day I have given praise to thee" (Psalm 118:164). The reform suppressed Prime and turned Matins into the Office of Readings.
• The psalter. Since St. Pius X's constitution Divino afflatu (1911), the Breviary prays all hundred and fifty psalms every week. The Liturgy of the Hours spreads the psalter over four weeks and omits a few psalms and verses.
• The calendar. The 1962 calendar keeps Septuagesima, the Ember days, the vigils and the octaves of Christmas, Easter and Pentecost; many feasts fall on other days or have another rank. Our traditional Latin Mass calendar explains it.
• The texts. Hymns, antiphons, lessons and collects differ: the reform replaced or rearranged a large part of what the old Breviary assigns to each day.

Our article on the Liturgy of the Hours sets out these differences in full, and What is the Divine Office? walks through the traditional hours one by one.

The Mass works the same way. Universalis gives the readings of the modern lectionary, on a cycle of three years for Sundays and two for weekdays. The Tridentine Mass has its own proper texts, the same each year, set out in the Roman Missal of 1962. On most days, someone holding Universalis at a traditional Mass will be reading different texts from the priest at the altar.

A traditional 1962 alternative: Iter Fidei

Iter Fidei is built on the traditional books from the start:

• The 1962 Divine Office — Matins, Lauds, Prime, the little hours, Vespers and Compline, on the traditional calendar. See our Divine Office app page.
• The Mass of the day according to the 1962 Missal, with its proper texts.
• Latin and English side by side, laid out to be prayed.
• Audio to pray along.
• The Church's prayers — the Rosary, the litanies, chaplets and novenas, in their unchanged wording.

It is coming soon to iOS and Android, with free early access open now. If you already use the Divinum Officium website for the old Office, Iter Fidei offers the same tradition as a phone app.

	Universalis	Iter Fidei
Office	Liturgy of the Hours (1971)	Roman Breviary (1962)
Mass	Modern lectionary readings	1962 Mass of the day, with its propers
Calendar	Reformed, with local calendars	Traditional 1962
Languages	English, Latin, or both	Latin and English side by side
Platforms	Web, iOS, Android, Mac, Windows	iOS and Android (coming soon)
Price	Free website; one-off app purchase; audio by subscription	Free early access

Which should you use?

If you pray the modern Liturgy of the Hours, Universalis is one of the best tools for it, and its free website is a good place to start. If you pray the 1962 Office and assist at the traditional Mass, you need texts and a calendar drawn from the 1962 books, and our comparison of the best Divine Office apps shows which breviary apps provide them. For other options — iBreviary, Laudate, Hallow — see our comparison of the best Catholic apps, or our review of iBreviary, its nearest rival.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Universalis?

Universalis is a Catholic website and app, published by Universalis Publishing Ltd, that shows the Liturgy of the Hours and the readings and prayers of Mass for any date, in English, Latin or both, with a full liturgical calendar.

Is the Universalis app free?

The website is free. The apps are paid: on iPhone and iPad a single purchase of $9.99, on Android a single purchase, with a small monthly subscription also offered, and on computers a registration code. Audio is a separate subscription. Free trials are offered.

Is Universalis a Catholic app?

Yes. It carries the official liturgy of the Catholic Church in its current form — the Liturgy of the Hours and the Mass readings of the modern Roman rite — with Catholic calendars for many countries.

Does Universalis have the traditional Latin Mass or the 1962 Breviary?

No. Its Latin texts are those of the modern Liturgy of the Hours and the modern Missal. The 1962 Breviary and Missal, and the traditional calendar, are not part of it.

What is the difference between Universalis and iBreviary?

Both carry the modern Liturgy of the Hours and Mass texts. Universalis is a polished paid app with a free website, local calendars and an English-Latin option; iBreviary is free, available in several languages, and includes a partial Latin section of the 1962 books.

What is a traditional alternative to Universalis?

For the 1962 Office on the web, the Divinum Officium site; as a phone app, Iter Fidei, which carries the 1962 Office and Mass in Latin and English with audio.

Iter Fidei carries the 1962 Divine Office, the traditional Mass of the day and the prayers of the Church, in Latin and English with audio. It is coming soon to iOS and Android. Join early access here.

Sources. Holy Scripture, Douay-Rheims: Psalm 118:164. Breviarium Romanum, editio typica 1962; Missale Romanum, editio typica 1962; St. Pius X, apostolic constitution Divino afflatu (1911).