Free With Ads or Paid With None: What Pays for a Prayer App

A prayer app is paid for in one of three ways: by ads, often with a paid option to remove them; by a subscription, with no ads; or by an endowment, with no ads and no subscription. You can tell most of it in a minute, from three lines of its App Store page: the price line, the Contains field and the App Privacy section.

We make Deeny. Deeny has no ads and is paid for by its subscription, Deeny Pro, so we stand on one side of this question. We describe four other apps only as their own App Store pages and websites described them on 25 October 2026, and we say where each one is the better choice.

Three Ways a Prayer App Is Paid For

Keeping a prayer app working takes ongoing work, and someone pays for it. None of the three models is wrong in itself: each is a different trade with you, in money, in attention or in data.

Free, With Ads

Muslim Pro, made by Bitsmedia, and Athan both read "Free · In-App Purchases" on the App Store, and both list "Advertising" under Contains. Each offers a Premium subscription that takes the ads away, by the month or the year, and each sells an in-app purchase named after the ads: "Premium Version No Ads" for Muslim Pro, "Remove Ads" for Athan.

The strength of this model is real: the app costs no money to anyone, including someone who cannot pay, and a reader who would rather not see ads can pay to remove them.

The App Privacy sections show the other side of the trade. Both have a "Data Used to Track You" heading, and both name "Third-Party Advertising" among the purposes of the data they declare. The label says it openly, which is what a label is for.

A Subscription, With No Ads

Pillars, in its website's words, gives "all the core features you need for free, including prayer times, the Qibla, widgets and tracking", and is "ad-free".

Its premium plan "keeps Pillars financially self-sustainable" and adds extras such as Apple Watch support, PrayFirst (app blocking) and the Fajr Smart Alarm. Its website explains the choice of no ads: "your privacy is an amaanah".

Deeny is in this group too. Its App Store page says it in one line: "Deeny has no ads. Pro is what pays for it."

An Endowment, With No Ads and No Subscription

Mawaqit's App Store page calls the app "100% Free and without any Ads, no subscription needed" and "A dedicated endowment (for the sake of Allah)". Its website says it is run "entirely as a non-profit initiative".

The app shows the prayer and iqamah times set by the mosques you follow, as their imams set them, and lets you donate to your masjid. Its App Privacy section reads "Data Not Collected".

How to Read the Model on a Store Page

You do not need to install an app to know how it is paid for:

1. The price line. Under the name, the App Store shows "Free" or a price, and "In-App Purchases" when the app sells something inside it. Muslim Pro, Athan and Deeny show both; Mawaqit's page shows no purchases.
2. The Contains field. "Advertising" there means the app shows ads. On Google Play, the same fact is a "Contains ads" label, which Google's help page says does not cover offers to buy an upgrade.
3. App Privacy. Apple's support page explains the headings. "Data Used to Track You" is data from the app "linked with your data collected from other companies' apps". The purposes under each heading, such as Third-Party Advertising or Analytics, say why.
4. The privacy policy. In Apple's words, the labels are "self-reported by the developer". The policy gives the detail: what the app keeps, where, and for how long. Our piece on privacy and ethics in Islamic apps says why this matters in a worship app.

Side by Side

What each app's own pages stated on 25 October 2026. For Deeny, the iPhone app, version 2.1.2.

We leave prices out: the store pages list them where there are any, and Deeny shows its own in the app.

What Deeny's Subscription Pays For

On iPhone, Deeny's free part is prayer times (more than 20 calculation methods; the times work offline once fetched), reminders for the five prayers, the Qibla compass and Today's Surahs, with no ads.

Deeny Pro adds the app locks (Salah Focus at each adhan, and a lock for study or sleep), the Fajr alarm, Istiqama for extra worship, and the prayer tracker after its first two days.

Deeny Pro is sold by the week, the month or six months; the six-month plan starts with 3 free days. In return there are no ads, no tracking across apps or websites, and your data is never sold. From our privacy policy:

• Your prayer journal, streaks and worship log stay on your device, and Deeny never sees which apps you lock.
• There is no sign-up: no name, no email, no password. Deeny signs you in anonymously.
• Our servers in the European Union keep a small anonymous profile: setup answers, city and approximate location, a few settings, a notification token and your Pro status.
• Usage events are kept only if you agree, and deleted after 90 days. The Fajr alarm photo is checked by Google Gemini through OpenRouter and deleted after 30 days.

Which Model Suits You

• Choose an endowed app like Mawaqit if you want everything free, with no ads and no subscription, and the times of the mosques you follow. For a mosque's own timetable, it is the better choice than Deeny.
• Choose Pillars if you want to track your prayers for free with no ads. Its core features include tracking; Deeny's tracker is part of Deeny Pro after the first two days.
• Choose Muslim Pro or Athan if you want a broad app at no cost in money and are at ease with ads, or would rather pay to remove them. Muslim Pro's page lists the Quran, a prayer tracker, duas and dhikr beside the prayer times.
• Choose Deeny if your prayers slip because of the phone itself. On iPhone, a lock keeps your chosen apps closed from each adhan until you have prayed, and the Fajr alarm has no snooze.

Whichever you choose, read the store page, then the privacy policy, and pick the trade you are at ease with. Our page on what "free" should mean for a prayer tracker goes further on free tiers, and the guide to choosing a prayer app by category on the rest.

Frequently Asked Questions

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If you want a prayer app paid for by its users rather than by advertisers, Deeny Pro is that trade: on iPhone, its lock keeps the apps you choose closed from each adhan until you have prayed, with no ads and your data never sold.

One app instead of three: prayer times, a lock that holds your chosen apps until you've prayed, and a Fajr alarm you can't snooze, with a tracker that shows your progress. Built by Muslims, for Muslims: no ads, your data never sold.