14 reviewed · updated 2026
The best prayer apps
All 8 prayer apps we reviewed have a free tier - so the real question is what each one puts behind the paywall.
Every product here has its own full review on this site. How we review →
Our picks
Best overall
Lectio 365
Free, twice-daily guided prayer in a scripturally serious voice, with no upsell and no streak guilt. The rare app in this category with nothing to sell you.
Best guided audio
Abide
The most polished production here and the strongest on anxiety and sleep specifically. Free to start, around $39.99/yr.
Best prayer list
Echo Prayer
The best-designed way to actually remember who you said you would pray for. Free to start, around $4.99/mo or $39.99/yr.
Best for long structured lists
PrayerMate
Built for praying through many people and categories on rotation - missionaries, church lists, daily cycles. Around $2.99/mo for Pro.
Best book instead
The Valley of Vision
If the problem is not remembering to pray but not knowing what to say, this collection of Puritan prayers helps more than any app. $13.99.
How to choose
Prayer apps do one of three quite different jobs, and picking the wrong category is why people abandon them. Guided-prayer apps (Abide, Pray.com, Lectio 365) talk you through a session with audio. Prayer-list apps (Echo Prayer, PrayerMate) are organisers - they remember who and what you said you would pray for. Liturgical apps hand you the historic daily office. Decide which of those you actually want before comparing features.
For guided prayer, Lectio 365 is free and the best place to start - twice-daily guided prayer written in a scripturally careful, non-syrupy voice, from the 24-7 Prayer movement. Abide is the most polished in the category (free to start, around $39.99/yr) and the strongest on sleep and anxiety content specifically. Pray.com has the largest content library but also the most aggressive upsell and the highest price at roughly $69.99/yr.
For prayer lists, Echo Prayer is the better-designed option and free to start (around $4.99/mo or $39.99/yr for premium); PrayerMate is the more powerful organiser if you pray through a genuinely long and structured list - missionaries, church members, categories on rotation - at around $2.99/mo for Pro. If you have ever told someone you would pray for them and then not remembered, this is the category you want, not guided audio.
A caution on subscription pricing here, because this category is unusually aggressive about it. Several apps present a free tier that is really a trial, then gate the daily content most people came for. Before subscribing, use the free tier for a full week and check specifically whether the thing you open the app *for* is inside or outside the paywall. Two of the most heavily advertised apps in this space charge more per year than a study Bible costs once.
The books in this category are not an afterthought. The Valley of Vision ($13.99) is a collection of Puritan prayers that many people find does more for their praying than any app, and Tim Keller's Prayer ($17.99) is the standard modern book on the subject. If your difficulty is not remembering to pray but not knowing what to say, a book is the better purchase.
One honest observation from reviewing these: the apps with streaks and daily-goal mechanics produce good short-run engagement and noticeably more guilt. If a broken streak has ever made you avoid opening a prayer app, choose one without them.
Everything we reviewed, compared
| Name | Type | Rating | Starting price | Free tier | Platforms |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abide | App | 4.9 | Free, then ~$39.99/yr Premium | Yes | iOS · Android · Web · Apple Watch |
| Pray.com | App | 4.8 | Free, then ~$69.99/yr Premium | Yes | iOS · Android · Web |
| Lectio 365 | App | 4.8 | Free | Yes | iOS · Android · Apple Watch · Web (limited) |
| PrayerMate | App | 4.8 | Free, then around $2.99/mo Pro | Yes | iOS · Android |
| Doxa | App | 4.8 | Free, then ~$59/yr Premium | Yes | iOS · Android |
| Echo Prayer | App | 4.8 | Free, then ~$4.99/mo or ~$39.99/yr | Yes | iOS · Android |
| Soultime | App | 4.7 | Free, then around $39.99/yr Soultime+ | Yes | iOS · Android |
| Pray As You Go | App | 4.5 | Free | Yes | iOS · Android · Web · Podcast feed |
| The Valley of Vision | Book | 4.8 | $13.99 hardcover | No | — |
| Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God | Book | 4.7 | $17.99 hardcover | No | — |
| A Praying Life | Book | 4.7 | $15.99 paperback | No | — |
| The Book of Common Prayer | Book | 4.7 | Free (older versions public domain) | Yes | — |
| Power Through Prayer | Book | 4.6 | Free (public domain) | Yes | — |
| The Power of a Praying Wife | Book | 4.4 | $12.99 paperback | No | — |
Apps
Abide
Abide has quietly become the favorite of Christians who tried Calm or Headspace and wished the meditations would just open a Bible - voice-led, scripture-anchored, and built for the moments when your nervous system needs help before your theology does.
Prayer Apps
Pray.com
The biggest non-denominational Protestant prayer app on the market, built around audio you can fall asleep to - and a celebrity bench most competitors cannot touch.
Prayer Apps
Lectio 365
A free daily prayer app from the international 24-7 Prayer movement that has quietly become the rhythm-keeper for Christians who wanted contemplative prayer to actually stick - and discovered it could.
Prayer Apps
PrayerMate
The quiet workhorse of evangelical intercession - a structured, list-driven prayer organizer that has earned a near-cult following among people who actually pray for everyone they said they would.
Prayer Apps
Doxa
A newer Christian app that wraps worship music, guided prayer, and topical reflection into one daily flow - and is quietly winning over readers who found Hallow too Catholic and Glorify too lean.
Prayer Apps
Echo Prayer
A small, beautifully designed prayer-list app from Echo Ministries that quietly does one job better than almost anyone else - turning your prayer life into something you actually return to.
Prayer Apps
Soultime
A Christian meditation and mental wellness app that listens for how you feel first and recommends a Scripture-anchored session second - and that order is the whole point.
Prayer Apps
Pray As You Go
A free 11-minute daily audio prayer from the Jesuits in Britain, unchanged for two decades - and quietly one of the most loved prayer apps on either side of the Tiber.
Prayer Apps
Books
The Valley of Vision
Arthur Bennett’s slim collection of Puritan prayers has quietly become the modern standard prayer book in Reformed circles - and the gift-book the rest of the church keeps quietly buying.
Books on Prayer
Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God
Tim Keller’s 2014 book has quietly become the modern study desk’s default doorway into prayer - equal parts pastoral, exegetical, and historically aware.
Books on Prayer
A Praying Life
The most quietly beloved modern book on prayer in the evangelical world, built around a startling idea - that real prayer looks more like a child tugging a parent’s sleeve than a disciplined adult performing piety.
Books on Prayer
The Book of Common Prayer
The 1549 prayer book that gave English-speaking Christianity its Daily Office has quietly become the structured prayer rhythm readers of many traditions reach for when their own words run out.
Books on Prayer
Power Through Prayer
The short, white-hot classic that argues the church’s power has never come from its methods or its machinery but from praying people - written for preachers, read by everyone who has ever felt their own prayer life go cold.
Books on Prayer
The Power of a Praying Wife
The book that quietly built an entire genre of "praying for your spouse" titles - and still sits on more nightstands than almost any other prayer book in print.
Books on Prayer
Frequently asked questions
What is the best prayer app?
Lectio 365 for most people: it is free, offers twice-daily guided prayer in a scripturally careful voice, and has nothing to sell you. Choose Abide instead if you want the most polished guided audio and specific help with anxiety or sleep, or Echo Prayer if what you actually need is a way to remember the people you promised to pray for.
Is there a completely free prayer app?
Lectio 365 is genuinely free with no paid tier. Pray As You Go is also free. Abide, Pray.com, Echo Prayer and PrayerMate all run a free tier with a paid upgrade - usable without paying, but the daily content you probably came for is often behind the paywall. Use the free tier for a full week before subscribing.
Is Hallow or Abide better?
They serve different audiences. Hallow is explicitly Catholic - rosary, examen, liturgical calendar, saints - and is the better app if that is your tradition. Abide is broadly evangelical and stronger on anxiety, sleep and general guided meditation. Hallow is around $69.99/yr, Abide around $39.99/yr. Neither is a good general pick for someone who wants the other tradition.
Why are prayer apps so expensive?
Because the guided ones are audio production businesses - writers, narrators, composers, ongoing daily content - rather than software. That is a legitimate cost. It is also why the free options here are mostly the ones backed by a ministry (Lectio 365 by 24-7 Prayer, Pray As You Go by the Jesuits) rather than by a venture-funded company.
What is the best app for keeping a prayer list?
Echo Prayer if you want good design and a straightforward list with reminders. PrayerMate if you pray through a long, structured, rotating set - church members, missionaries, categories by day. Both are cheaper than the guided-audio apps because there is no content production behind them.
Do prayer apps actually help you pray more?
The list-based ones measurably help with the specific problem of forgetting. The guided ones help most when you do not know how to begin. Neither fixes an absence of desire, and the ones with streaks and daily goals can make a missed day feel like a failure, which is counterproductive. If that pattern is familiar, choose an app without streak mechanics.
Is there a Catholic prayer app?
Several, and they are a distinct category from the general prayer apps: Hallow is the largest and most polished, the Ascension App is free and strong on Bible-in-a-Year and Catechism-in-a-Year, Universalis handles the Liturgy of the Hours, and iBreviary and Magnificat cover the daily office and the Mass. See our Catholic apps guide for the full comparison.
What is Lectio 365?
A free daily-prayer app from the 24-7 Prayer movement offering morning and evening guided prayer, built on the lectio divina pattern of reading, reflecting and responding to Scripture. It is written in a restrained, biblically grounded voice rather than a therapeutic one, which is why it is our overall pick despite being the least commercially sophisticated app in the category.