Hallow vs Laudate vs Confession Apps: Which Is Best for Confession Prep?

Both can help you prepare: Laudate is free and includes five confession guides for different groups, and Hallow, an audio prayer app, offers a free three-part Confession Guide with a spoken examination of conscience, plus Ignatian Examen sessions. Choose Laudate to read your way through the sacrament, and Hallow to be led through it by voice; if you want help remembering your sins and a list to read in the confessional, a dedicated confession app such as Confess, Metanoia, ConfessIt or Holier does that job better than either. Here's what each offers, according to its store listing and website as checked on October 12, 2026.

We make Holier, one of the apps below. We've tried to be fair, including where another app is the better pick.

Hallow vs Laudate at a glance

Hallow and Laudate are two of the best-known Catholic apps, and they're built for different things. Hallow is for praying: guided audio sessions, challenges and a journal. Laudate is for finding: the readings, the Liturgy of the Hours, prayers, the Catechism and canon law, all in one free app. Neither is mainly a confession app, but both come up when people search for one.

Prices are US prices. Privacy is each app's App Store privacy label, which is the developer's own statement.

What does Hallow offer for Confession?

Hallow is an audio-guided Catholic prayer and meditation app with more than 10,000 sessions, from the Rosary to sleep stories. Its App Store listing names Ignatian Examen sessions and a journal after every prayer. Its website goes further: a free Confession Guide led by Fr. Frankie Cicero, in three sessions (the steps of Confession, a 10-minute examination of conscience, and a prayer after Confession), and an Examinations collection of five themed examinations of conscience, from the Beatitudes to the seven deadly sins, for subscribers. It also offers daily prayers such as Lectio Divina, the Rosary and Divine Mercy, challenges like Pray40, and Hallow Family for sharing intentions.

Its strengths are real. It's the most rated app here by far, with 4.9 stars from 379,390 ratings on the App Store and more than 10 million downloads on Google Play. A guided examen each night is a good habit, and a good one to have before Confession. The free tier includes daily prayers, including the Rosary, and a nine-day intro challenge; the full library is $9.99 a month or $69.99 a year.

If you're wondering whether Hallow alone is enough for confession prep, we look at that question in is there an app like Hallow for Confession?

What does Laudate offer for Confession?

Laudate is a free, all-in-one Catholic reference app with no in-app purchases. Its App Store listing describes "5 Confession apps for different groups," which guide you through the sacrament of Reconciliation, alongside the Mass readings, the Liturgy of the Hours, many chaplets and rosaries, the Catechism, the documents of Vatican II and the Code of Canon Law.

Its privacy label says Data Not Collected, and Google Play's Data safety section says no data collected. It has 4.7 stars from 31.4K reviews and more than a million downloads on Google Play, and 4.0 stars from 3,766 ratings on the App Store. If you want one free app on your phone for the whole of Catholic life, Laudate is hard to beat.

Hallow vs Laudate: where each falls short for Confession

Neither falls short as an app. They fall short only if you ask them to do a confession app's job.

• Hallow is made for listening and praying. Its examinations of conscience are audio sessions, and neither its listing nor its website describes a place to keep a list of what you want to confess. Most of its library needs a subscription, though the Confession Guide is free, and its privacy label includes Data Used to Track You.
• Laudate has confession guides, but they sit inside a large reference app. Its listing doesn't say whether they keep a list from one evening to the next, and it doesn't name a guided nightly examen.

So: Hallow helps you pray, and Laudate helps you find the words. What neither is built for is remembering what you want to confess over a week or a month, and laying it out for the moment you kneel down.

When is a dedicated confession app better?

A dedicated app is better when you want any of these:

• A guided examination of conscience that walks you through questions and lets you mark what applies. Metanoia has 243 questions by the Ten Commandments; Confess arranges its full examination by state of life and cites the Catechism on each question.
• A list that builds over time, so nothing depends on memory. Confess keeps a running confession list across sessions; Holier adds what you name each evening to one list.
• A screen for the confessional itself. Confess shows your list on a black "private confession screen," Metanoia has a Confession Mode with the opening words, your list and the Act of Contrition, and ConfessIt walks you through what the priest will say and how to respond.
• Privacy built around sins. Confess, Metanoia and ConfessIt all say your data stays on your device.

Many people use both kinds: Hallow or Laudate for daily prayer, and a confession app for the list. They don't compete. For the full field, see the best Catholic confession apps, and for reading from a screen, can I read my sins from my phone in Confession?

Where Holier fits

Holier: Catholic Confession is an iPhone app by Reconciled Software (iOS 17.6 or later; no Android). Each night 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 offers help in the moment of temptation, a chat with encouragement and a prayer, and tracks the days since your last Confession and your last examen. Version 1.3 (October 2026) added a daily reminder time and lets you review what the chat found before it's saved. Your sin list is encrypted on your iPhone with a key that never leaves it; conversations are processed to power the AI, then discarded. You sign in with Apple, and there's a passcode lock. It's a free download, and full use takes a subscription of $7.99 a week, $79.99 a year, or $149.99 once, per its App Store listing (October 2026), with no free trial. Holier is new. It prepares you; only a priest absolves.

It isn't the right pick for everyone. If you're on Android, try Metanoia or ConfessIt. If you want free, Laudate, Confess and Metanoia cost nothing. For children, ConfesGuide includes a simplified children's examination. If you'd rather not involve AI, Metanoia says it makes zero network calls. And if what you love is audio prayer, Hallow does that far better than Holier, which has none.

So which should you use?

• For daily prayer, a nightly examen and a confession guide to listen to: Hallow.
• For a free all-in-one app with confession guides: Laudate.
• For confession prep, free: Confess on iPhone, Metanoia or ConfessIt on Android.
• For a nightly examen that becomes your confessional list: Holier.

Whatever you choose, the app is only the preparation. The words themselves are simple, and the priest will help you. If it's been a while, start with how to go to Confession and what to say in Confession.