Prayer apps
Free Hallow alternatives (and who each one suits)
Hallow is a Catholic prayer app, and a very good one. Its US App Store listing describes "over 10,000 different sessions" of guided audio, and most of that sits behind a subscription: $69.99 a year or $9.99 a month in the US, with a Friends & Family plan at $119.99 a year for up to six people. If that's more than you want to spend, or you're not Catholic and it feels like someone else's house, there are free apps that do a lot of the same work.
I should say up front that Mutter, one of the apps below, is ours. I've tried to be as fair to the others as I'd want them to be to us. Every price and platform here was checked on the app's own website or its App Store or Google Play listing on 15 October 2026, and each one is linked so you can see for yourself. Prices change, so it's worth a look before you download.
First, Hallow's own free version
It's easy to miss, but you don't have to pay to use Hallow. Its listing says the free version includes daily prayers, including the Rosary, and a 9-day Intro Prayer Challenge, and its help centre says "Hallow will always include free content for anyone who wants to pray." You do need an account, even for the free part. If you're Catholic and you mostly want the Rosary and a daily prayer in your ears, try the free version for a couple of weeks before you go looking elsewhere.
It's also fair to say where Hallow is simply better than everything below. Nothing free comes close to the amount of guided audio it has, and it's on Apple devices, Android, Amazon devices and the web, in seven languages. If you want a different guided session every day for a year, that's what you're paying for.
Pray As You Go: free daily audio prayer, Ignatian style
If what you like about Hallow is being talked through prayer, Pray As You Go is the closest free thing I know. It comes from the Jesuits in Britain, and each day there's a guided session of 10 to 13 minutes with Scripture, music and a reflection, in the Ignatian tradition. The listing also has the Examen, imaginative contemplations, sleep prayers, prayers for children and guides in sign language.
The App Store listing says "All of our content is always free, no subscription required." Its website calls it a free service supported by donations, and links to the iPhone app, the Android app and podcast versions on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube.
Who it suits: Catholics, and anyone else who's comfortable with Catholic spirituality and wants one good recording a day rather than a big library. It's built around that one daily session, so if you like to browse, you'll run out of things to do.
Lectio 365: free morning, midday and night prayer
Lectio 365 is made by 24-7 Prayer, a movement that began with a student-led prayer vigil in 1999, and it's Protestant in feel without being narrow about it. The morning prayer follows a pattern they call P.R.A.Y.: pause, rejoice with a psalm, ask, and yield. At midday there's the Lord's Prayer with a short reflection, and at night an Examen-style look back over the day. You can listen with or without music, or just read it yourself, and download a week ahead.
Its listing calls it "A completely free daily devotional app", and its website links to both the App Store and Google Play. On the App Store it's listed for iPhone only, not iPad.
Who it suits: Protestants and evangelicals who want something like Hallow's daily rhythm, with the option to listen or read. Like Pray As You Go, it's one set devotional each time rather than a library.
Laudate: free Catholic prayer, mostly for reading
If you're Catholic and you came to Hallow for the Church's prayers more than the guided audio, Laudate has a huge amount of it for nothing. Its App Store listing includes daily Mass readings, the Liturgy of the Hours in English and Latin, the New American Bible, the Douay-Rheims Bible offline, many rosaries and chaplets, the Stations of the Cross, confession guides and the Catechism. It's free, with no in-app purchases listed, and its privacy label says the developer doesn't collect any data from the app. There's an Android version on Google Play too.
Who it suits: Catholics who want to read and pray the traditional prayers, the Hours especially. It's busy to look at, and its US App Store rating is 4.0 from about 3,800 ratings, lower than the others here, with some reviewers mentioning crashes. It has a few podcasts, but it isn't a guided audio app.
YouVersion: free Bible, plans and a daily guided prayer
YouVersion is a Bible app first, but if what you're really after is help reading Scripture every day, I think it's hard to beat. Its site says it's "100% free. No ads or purchases ever." and that every day you get "a new Bible verse, short devotional, and Guided Prayer". There are daily reading plans, and over 3,500 Bible versions in 2,300 languages. It's on the App Store and Google Play.
Who it suits: Christians of any church who want a Bible habit and a short prayer with it. It isn't Catholic in content, and it doesn't have the prayer library Hallow has.
Abide: freemium, for falling asleep to Scripture
Abide isn't free, but it's worth a mention because people often look at it next to Hallow for the sleep content. It's made by Guideposts, its listing claims more than 2,000 meditations and 365+ bedtime stories, and it doesn't name a denomination. It's free to download with in-app purchases (Premium is listed at prices from $7.99 to $44.99), and the listing says it contains advertising. It's on Google Play as well as the App Store. Its listing doesn't spell out exactly what's free, so give the free version a few nights before you decide whether to pay.
Who it suits: anyone who mostly wants Christian audio to fall asleep to and is happy to pay for it in the end.
Mutter: free, and built around your phone
Mutter is ours. It's a free iPhone app (iOS 17 or later) with no ads, no subscription and nothing to buy. It's written for any Christian, whatever church you go to.
It's built around one habit. With App Guard, before the apps you choose open (Instagram, TikTok, whatever you reach for without thinking), Mutter shows you a prayer, and you say Amen to open the app. There's a morning prayer each day with its own drawing, a prayer list for the people you pray for, and groups where a few of you pray the same prayer for a set number of days. To read, there's the Bible in three translations (the BSB, KJV and WEB), Spurgeon's Morning and Evening, and 254 hymns, 174 of them with an organ to sing along to.
Who it suits: someone who wants prayer to meet them in the middle of the day, on the phone they're already holding, and who'd rather read than listen to long sessions. It's not the app for you if you want hours of guided audio or the Rosary, and it isn't on Android.
So which one?
If you're Catholic and love to listen, start with Hallow's free version, then Pray As You Go. If you're Catholic and like to read the prayers of the Church, Laudate. If you're Protestant and want a daily rhythm you can listen to, Lectio 365. If what you need is the Bible itself, YouVersion. If your phone is the thing that keeps pulling you away from prayer, give Mutter a try.
I've put Mutter and Hallow side by side in more detail in Mutter vs Hallow, and there's a longer list with privacy labels and ratings in the best Christian prayer apps.
Questions
Is there a completely free version of Hallow?
Hallow itself has a free tier. Its App Store listing says daily prayers, including the Rosary, and a 9-day Intro Prayer Challenge are free. You need an account to use it. Most of the rest of the library needs a subscription.
What's the best free alternative to Hallow for Catholics?
For guided audio, Pray As You Go, from the Jesuits in Britain, which says all its content is free. For reading the Church's prayers, the Mass readings and the Liturgy of the Hours, Laudate.
Are these apps on Android?
Hallow, Pray As You Go, Lectio 365, Laudate, YouVersion and Abide all link to Android versions. Mutter is iPhone only.