Is There an App Like Hallow for Confession?

Yes. Hallow itself has a free audio Confession Guide, with a 10-minute examination of conscience, but it doesn't keep a list of what you want to confess, so you can pair it with a dedicated confession app such as Confess (iPhone, free), Metanoia (iPhone and Android, free) or Holier (iPhone, paid, uses AI). If you'd rather have one prayer app that also includes confession prep, Little Way and Laudate come closest.

We make Holier, one of the apps below. We've tried to be fair, including where another app is the better pick. The facts here come from each app's store listing and website as checked on October 12, 2026.

Does Hallow have an examination of conscience?

Yes, as audio. Hallow's website lists a free Confession Guide led by Fr. Frankie Cicero, in three sessions: "Confession Steps" (15 minutes), an "Examination of Conscience" (10 minutes), and "After Confession" (7 minutes). It also lists an "Examinations" collection of five themed examinations (the Beatitudes, the Greatest Commandments, Catholic social teaching, the seven deadly sins, and 1 Corinthians 13), which its page says can help you prepare for Confession; that collection asks you to subscribe. Its App Store listing (October 2026) also names Ignatian Examen sessions and a journal after every prayer.

What Hallow doesn't describe, on its listing or its website, is a place to keep what you want to confess. You listen, reflect, and remember. If you tend to go blank in the confessional, that's the gap a confession app fills.

The difference matters. The Ignatian examen is a short daily prayer: you thank God for the day, look back over it with him, notice where you fell short, and ask for help tomorrow. An examination of conscience is the fuller look you take before Confession, so you can confess your serious sins by kind and number, as best you can remember (CCC 1456; Code of Canon Law, can. 988). The two fit together well, and we explain both in the daily examen and examination of conscience.

What Hallow does well

Hallow is one of the most popular Catholic apps there is: 4.9 stars from more than 379,000 ratings on the App Store, and over 10 million downloads on Google Play (October 2026). Its listing describes more than 10,000 audio sessions, from the Rosary to sleep stories, plus Lectio Divina, Divine Mercy prayers, challenges like Pray40, and Hallow Family for sharing intentions. If you want to be led in prayer by a voice, morning and night, it's hard to beat.

It's a free download with a subscription for the full library: $9.99 a month or $69.99 a year in the US, per its description. Its privacy label declares Data Used to Track You (purchase history and user ID) and Data Linked to You, including email address, name and user content. That's worth knowing if you plan to write anything personal in its journal.

Apps built for confession

These apps are made to help you prepare for the sacrament, or include real confession prep alongside prayer.

If you want one prayer app with confession prep built in: Little Way

Little Way is a daily prayer app built around St. Thérèse of Lisieux: a morning offering, small acts of love, the Rosary, and a nightly examen that looks at gratitude, your day and a virtue to work on. According to its App Store listing (October 2026), it also has confession prep across eight areas of life, with prompts for your state of life and a step-by-step guide for the confessional. Its listing says "Your examination never leaves your device."

If you want a free, private examination: Confess or Metanoia

Confess (iPhone) and Metanoia (iPhone and Android) are free, need no account and declare Data Not Collected. Confess offers a quick Daily Check, a Full Examination by state of life and a "Going Today" walkthrough. Metanoia has 243 questions by the Ten Commandments, a Confession Mode, a daily examen and 14 languages, and it's open source.

On Android: ConfessIt or Metanoia

ConfessIt has been on Android since 2012, is free and open source, and walks you through what the priest will say. Metanoia is the native alternative with a daily examen built in.

If you want a nightly habit: Holier, or Lumen without AI

Holier: Catholic Confession is our iPhone app (iOS 17.6 or later) by Reconciled Software. Like an evening session on Hallow, it's something you open for a few quiet minutes at night, but instead of listening, you talk: it guides a short examination of conscience as a chat in the Ignatian examen tradition, and anything you name goes onto a numbered confessional list that opens with "Bless me, Father." It also offers help in the moment of temptation and counts the days since your last Confession and examen. Your sin list is encrypted on your iPhone with a key that never leaves it, and conversations are processed to power the AI, then discarded. It's a free download; full use takes a subscription, with no free trial. It helps you prepare; only a priest absolves. Holier has no audio prayers, so it doesn't replace Hallow.

Lumen offers a seven-step evening examen, says no AI touches your entries, and is meant for people prone to scrupulosity: no streaks, no nagging.

What to look for if you're coming from Hallow

• How it guides you. Hallow leads you by voice. Most confession apps give you questions to read; Holier asks about your day in a chat; Lumen guides you through seven steps.
• Price. Many confession apps are free, with no subscription at all. Confess, Metanoia, ConfessIt and Laudate cost nothing.
• Where your list lives. A list of sins is more private than a prayer journal. Check the App Store privacy label and whether the list stays on your phone.
• The confessional screen. Look for a clean, readable list you can open when you kneel.

Can I use Hallow and a confession app together?

Yes. A simple rhythm: pray with Hallow in the morning or on the way to work, and use a confession app for a few minutes at night, or the evening before you go. Keep it to one nightly habit. If Hallow's Examen session is already your evening prayer, a confession app you open only when something comes to mind or before you go, like Shrive's sin log or Confess's Going Today walkthrough, may suit you better than a second nightly routine.

Whatever you use, the app only helps you prepare. You still confess to a priest, in person, and only a priest can absolve (CCC 1461; Code of Canon Law, can. 965). Reading your list from your phone in the confessional is fine, as we explain in can I read my sins from my phone?

Hallow vs Laudate: which is better for confession?

For confession prep alone, Laudate offers more: its listing describes five confession guides for different groups, it's free, and it declares Data Not Collected. Hallow offers far more guided audio prayer, including its own free audio Confession Guide. We compare them in detail in Hallow vs Laudate vs confession apps, and every confession app side by side in the best Catholic confession apps. If privacy is your first question, see confession app privacy compared. And if it's been a while, how to go to Confession covers every step.