- Starting price
- Free
- Free tier
- Yes
- Platforms
- iPhone · Android · Apple Silicon Mac and Vision compatibility
- Developer
- MinistrySafe, LLC
- Launched
- 2017
- Updated
- Aug 3, 2026
The verdict
EasterNow is a focused, free Holy Week devotional: scheduled alerts surface Gospel events, supporting passages, Old Testament connections, locations, maps, analysis, and sharing as the week unfolds. Its narrow scope is a strength, and it can restore attention to a week easily compressed into two Sundays. Its clock times and sequence are a devotional harmonization, not information the Gospels specify in every case; historical locations can also be debated. Apple says the app collects no data while Google says it collects app activity and device IDs, so the privacy claim needs reconciliation. Use it beside the Gospels, not instead of them.
Try EasterNow ↗Opens easternow.com
EasterNow guides a user through Passion Week from the triumphal entry to the Resurrection. Instead of presenting a static reading plan, it schedules notifications at moments meant to correspond with events in Jesus' final week. Opening an alert reveals New Testament passages, Old Testament framework or prophecy, a topographical map, explanatory analysis, and a sharing option. Notification permission is central to the intended experience.
The idea predates the app. Gregory Love began sending real-time Passion Week text messages to a student group in 1999. He and Kimberlee Norris—husband-and-wife attorneys, student-ministry volunteers at Christ Chapel Bible Church, and founders of MinistrySafe—expanded the list until more than 15,000 people reportedly received the messages in 2016. The scale made texting impractical, and the mobile app launched in 2017 as a free MinistrySafe-supported project.
The product's theological perspective is evangelical, with strong emphasis on biblical prophecy, the cross, and bodily Resurrection. Its founders connect the project to Christ Chapel Bible Church in Fort Worth. MinistrySafe is a separate child-safeguarding organization they founded; that sponsorship does not turn EasterNow into a safeguarding app, background-check system, or reporting tool.
This researched review uses Apple ID 1210527891, official store records and policies, the creators' published history, and external launch reporting. We did not run the app across a complete Passion Week or validate every notification timestamp. Apple reports approximately 4.9 from 96 US ratings; Google reports roughly 4.9 from 65 ratings and more than 10,000 downloads. Those scores indicate user satisfaction, not scholarly consensus on the harmonized chronology.
✓ The good
- Focused Holy Week rhythm - notifications distribute attention across the week rather than compressing the story into Good Friday and Easter Sunday
- Scripture-forward structure - each moment points users toward New Testament passages and related Old Testament context
- Location context - maps help readers imagine movement among Jerusalem-area settings and connect geography with narrative sequence
- Completely free - there is no advertised account, subscription, in-app purchase, or premium content gate
- Annual reset - the app adjusts the Passion Week start date to Easter each year rather than remaining tied to one calendar
- Personal ministry origin - the product grew from decades of student-ministry messages rather than a generic seasonal content campaign
✗ Watch out
- Exact timing is reconstructed - the Gospels do not supply a clock time or undisputed order for every event and harmonizations differ
- Seasonal usefulness - the core experience is concentrated in one week, leaving little ongoing value during most of the year
- Privacy labels conflict - Apple says Data Not Collected while Google lists app activity and device identifiers with no deletion path
- Client maintenance is aging - both platforms last show 2024 updates, including certificate and notification fixes rather than ongoing feature work
- English only - the public stores list no translated interface or Scripture experience
- Accessibility is undocumented - Apple records no supported accessibility declarations and map or notification alternatives are unclear
Best for
- Christians who want a structured, notification-led devotional from Palm Sunday through Resurrection morning
- Families, small groups, or student ministries willing to read and discuss the underlying Gospel passages together
- Visual learners who benefit from a basic geographic map alongside the narrative
- People who routinely rush from one Easter service to another and want the intervening events brought into daily attention
Avoid if
- You need a historically certain timestamped chronology or one that represents every scholarly and liturgical tradition
- Frequent notifications, including inconvenient times, would disrupt sleep, work, school, worship, or accessibility needs
- You want a year-round devotional library, church calendar, Lent program, or detailed critical commentary
- The unresolved Apple and Google privacy discrepancy is unacceptable for a single-purpose seasonal app
What EasterNow is
EasterNow is a seasonal devotional timeline. It schedules a series of Passion Week moments, attaches Scripture references and explanation, locates events on a map, relates New Testament events to Old Testament background, and lets the user share items. Release history shows an annual Easter-date reset and periodic notification or certificate maintenance.
It is not a Gospel harmony with full scholarly apparatus, an archaeological atlas, a liturgical calendar for every tradition, a Bible translation, a child-protection product, or an always-current church app. It proposes one guided way to inhabit Holy Week. The biblical text remains primary, and uncertainty should be acknowledged where the text does not fix a precise hour or sequence.
Why EasterNow interrupts the week instead of assigning one long reading
A reading plan asks the user to remember a scheduled session. EasterNow reverses the prompt: the unfolding story arrives through alerts. A notification during an ordinary Tuesday or late Thursday can make the time between Palm Sunday, the Last Supper, arrest, trials, crucifixion, burial, waiting, and Resurrection feel less like blank calendar space.
The mechanism can deepen attention or become theatrical precision. A phone vibration cannot reproduce first-century timekeeping, and an alert timestamp can imply certainty the sources do not offer. Label each moment mentally as “the app's devotional reconstruction.” Read the cited passage in context, compare parallel Gospels, and let the interruption lead to prayer or conversation rather than treating the clock as inspired data.
Notifications are the main feature and the main usability risk
Apple explicitly says scheduled-notification permission is required. The app can then surface each event without the user remembering to open it, and the annual calendar reset follows the current Easter date. Version history includes fixes for alerts that failed in some scenarios, confirming that delivery is operationally critical rather than decorative.
Mobile operating systems can delay alerts, battery settings can suppress them, time zones can move them into inconvenient hours, and a user may not want every moment visible on a workplace or family lock screen. Install before Palm Sunday, enable the requested channel, inspect preview privacy, allow background behavior if appropriate, and choose quiet or summary settings when rest and obligations matter more than simulated timing.
Scripture, prophecy, and maps provide orientation—not certainty
Each event includes supporting New Testament passages, Old Testament framework, analysis in light of the Resurrection, and a topographical map. The combination helps readers see that Passion Week is not an isolated episode and that movement between the city, temple, meal, garden, trials, crucifixion, burial, and empty tomb carries narrative meaning.
Connections still require interpretation. Christians differ over which Old Testament texts are direct prophecy, typology, pattern, or broader context. Gospel chronologies are not identical in presentation, and traditional locations are sometimes disputed. The app should prompt reading, not close the discussion. A study Bible, Gospel harmony, atlas, pastor, or scholarly commentary can explain why reconstructions differ.
The privacy claim is simple on Apple and contradictory on Android
Apple's developer disclosure says EasterNow collects no data from the app. That fits a no-account, scheduled-content product. Google Play, however, says the Android app collects app activity and device or other identifiers, shares no data, encrypts data in transit, and does not offer deletion. The linked MinistrySafe policy governs a much broader safeguarding business and does not clearly isolate EasterNow telemetry.
Both disclosures are developer-supplied rather than independently verified. Platform libraries can differ, but users deserve an explanation of why a devotional with no account needs identifiers or activity, which vendor receives them, how long they persist, and why deletion is unavailable. Android users can restrict permissions and reset an advertising identifier, but those are not substitutes for accurate disclosure.
Pricing
EasterNow app
$0
The complete advertised Passion Week experience is free on iPhone and Android with no listed in-app purchases, subscription, or required donor tier.
Notification and data use
Device costs only
Scheduled alerts require permission and the app may use connectivity for content or maps. Ordinary mobile-data, roaming, battery, and device charges remain the user's responsibility.
Group use
$0 app fee
Churches and families can invite people to download the app, but printing, travel, events, staffing, and any external study materials are separate expenses and permissions.
EasterNow is one of the simpler products in this directory: the app is free and neither store lists an in-app purchase. There is no premium analysis tier, seasonal pass, recurring subscription, or account wall in the public description. MinistrySafe sponsors the project.
The free model lowers the cost of group adoption. A church can invite members to install it without negotiating licenses, and a family can try one season without a cancellation reminder. The app's content and branding remain copyrighted; free download should not be interpreted as permission to reproduce the full text or media in another product.
The hidden cost is attention. A week of alerts can enrich devotion or fragment it, and late or workday notifications can be intrusive. Decide in advance whether to receive every alert, use a quiet summary, or open the timeline manually. A missed push is not a missed spiritual obligation.
No purchase means no financial lock-in, but the app remains dependent on MinistrySafe's willingness to update certificates, notification code, store requirements, and annual calendar logic. Keep the cited passages or a parallel reading plan available if the client fails during the one week it is meant to serve.
Where EasterNow falls behind
Chronology is presented too confidently in store copy. “As they would have unfolded” and “real time” are effective devotional language, but the interface should mark reconstructed times and link to a methodology explaining Gospel harmonization, date assumptions, Jewish and Roman timekeeping, and alternative views.
Maintenance is seasonal and aging. iOS last updated in March 2024 for certificates and Android in October 2024. A notification-dependent product needs pre-season testing every year, transparent supported operating systems, and a dated status page before users entrust the week to it.
Privacy is unresolved. Apple's Data Not Collected declaration and Google's activity-and-identifiers collection cannot both describe the same data path without a platform explanation. The broad MinistrySafe privacy notice is not a substitute for one short EasterNow policy.
Accessibility is not documented. Apple shows no declared features, and the public site does not state whether every notification has screen-reader-friendly text, whether maps have textual location descriptions, whether type scales, whether colors meet contrast, or whether alerts can be grouped without losing sequence.
The experience is English-only and tied to one evangelical presentation. Orthodox, Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, Reformed, Anabaptist, and other communities may structure Holy Week, terminology, prophecy, and liturgical participation differently. The app can supplement those practices but does not represent them all.
EasterNow vs. Join The Journey vs. Lent Companion vs. Lectio 365
Join The Journey is Watermark's year-round Bible reading and devotional app with daily commentary, audio, discussion prompts, and community pathways. It offers much more ongoing content but lacks EasterNow's minute-by-minute seasonal focus. Lent Companion provides Catholic daily Lent reflections, Mass readings, prayers, music and seasonal formation, placing Holy Week inside a longer liturgical journey.
Lectio 365 provides twice-daily guided prayer rooted in Scripture throughout the year, with an ecumenical evangelical-charismatic voice and offline audio. It develops a durable prayer rhythm rather than a historical timeline. EasterNow is the narrowest and easiest to add temporarily.
Choose EasterNow for one free notification-led Passion Week; Join The Journey for daily Bible reading; Lent Companion for Catholic Lent and Holy Week formation; or Lectio 365 for year-round guided prayer. A local church's services and the four Gospels should frame any app choice.
The bottom line
EasterNow turns an excellent pastoral instinct into a simple product: do not hurry from the triumphal entry to the empty tomb without noticing what happens between. Its alerts, passages, Old Testament connections, maps, and short analysis can make Holy Week more attentive, and the complete experience costs nothing. The most important discipline is epistemic: the schedule is a devotional harmonization, not a divinely supplied set of clock times. Install early, test notifications, protect lock-screen privacy, read the full Gospel context, and let your church's worship take precedence over a phone. MinistrySafe should now reconcile the Android data label and demonstrate annual maintenance before the 2027 season.
Alternatives to EasterNow
Join The JourneyA year-round daily Bible-reading and devotional app from Watermark with audio, commentary, prompts, and group pathways.
Lent CompanionA Catholic seasonal app for Lent with daily reflections, Mass readings, prayers, music, and a fuller liturgical framework.
Lectio 365Free guided morning and evening Scripture prayer throughout the year, with downloadable audio and a broader rhythm.
DwellA polished subscription audio Bible for building a custom Holy Week listening plan with multiple voices and translations.Frequently asked questions
Is EasterNow free?
Yes. EasterNow is free on iPhone and Android, and neither store lists subscriptions or in-app purchases. It is sponsored by MinistrySafe.
How does EasterNow work?
It schedules Passion Week notifications from Palm Sunday through Easter morning. Each moment can include New Testament and Old Testament references, analysis, a location map, and sharing. Notification permission is required for the intended real-time experience.
Are EasterNow's times historically exact?
They should be treated as a devotional reconstruction. The Gospels do not provide an exact modern clock time or undisputed sequence for every event, and scholars and traditions differ in harmonization.
Does EasterNow reset every year?
Yes. Its release history says the Passion Week start date resets to Easter each year. Because the clients last updated in 2024, install early and confirm the current season appears correctly.
Is EasterNow a MinistrySafe child-safety app?
No. MinistrySafe sponsors and publishes it, and the founders also created that safeguarding organization, but EasterNow itself is a Holy Week devotional and timeline.
Does EasterNow collect data?
Apple says the app collects no data. Google says Android collects app activity and device or other identifiers, with encryption but no deletion. The linked policy does not clearly reconcile the difference, so the most accurate answer is platform-dependent and unresolved.
Can children use EasterNow?
The stores classify it for broad ages, but Passion narratives include betrayal, violence, crucifixion, death, grief, and theological interpretation. A parent or ministry leader should preview the material and guide age-appropriate discussion.
Sources & further reading
More Devotional Apps
Spoken GospelA reading plan that gives you a 3-minute spoken-word video on every chapter of the Bible - the rare Bible companion that actually changes how the page reads.Join The JourneyA free, church-built Bible rhythm that spends a week in one Acts passage and aligns reading, practice, podcast, and Sunday teaching—substantive, communal, and more transparent theologically than technically.
The Quiet CollectionEmily P. Freeman’s small library of spoken prayers and seasonal reflections is unusually calm, finite, and subscription-free—but the collection-by-collection cost and a broken privacy link deserve attention.
Jesus Calling DevotionalSarah Young’s best-known devotional now lives inside a polished text-and-audio library—but the 2023 switch from one-time purchases to subscriptions makes legacy access the first thing to understand.
MessengerXMessenger International gives away John and Lisa Bevere's course, ebook and audiobook library with nothing locked behind a payment, and the iOS listing carries a 4.9 average on 30,884 votes. The harder question is the accounting - and the ministry's last public Form 990 covers FY2018.
The Bible with Nicky and PippaAlpha International's 365-day devotional, now carrying the Gumbels' names instead of the Bible in One Year branding. Same Apple ID, same Android package - so the only honest question is whether the rename changed anything.