What Is Holier? The Catholic Confession App, Explained

Holier: Catholic Confession is an iPhone app that helps Catholics prepare for Confession, with a short nightly examination of conscience as a chat, help in the moment of temptation, and a numbered list of sins to read in the confessional. It's made by Reconciled Software, LLC, it's a free download with a paid subscription, and it only prepares you: a priest hears your Confession and absolves.

This page is written by the people who make Holier. We've kept it to plain facts, including who should pick a different app.

Holier: key facts

What does the Holier app do?

Holier is built around one habit: a few quiet minutes each evening, then a Confession you're ready for. According to its App Store listing (October 2026), it does five things:

• A nightly examen, as a chat. In the Ignatian examen tradition, Holier asks about your day and you answer in your own words. The guide is AI. Since version 1.3 you can review and edit what the chat found before it's saved.
• A confessional list. Anything you name goes onto one numbered list, organized by the seven deadly sins, that opens with "Bless me, Father" and the time since your last Confession. You read it when you kneel.
• Help in the moment of temptation. A chat with encouragement and a prayer, for when it's hard right now.
• Days since your last Confession and examen, so you can see how long it's been.
• A passcode lock, and since version 1.3, a daily reminder at the time you choose.

If you're new to the examen itself, we explain it in the daily examen.

Who makes Holier?

Holier is made by Reconciled Software, LLC, the seller on the App Store. Its App Store subtitle is "The Habit of a Good Confession," it sits in the Reference category, and its website is holier.app. The current version is 1.3, released in October 2026. The app is new: it has a 5.0 rating from 5 ratings on the App Store (October 2026), so there isn't much public feedback yet.

How much does Holier cost?

Holier is a free download, and full use requires a subscription: $7.99 a week, $79.99 a year, or $149.99 once for lifetime access, according to its App Store listing (October 2026). There's no free trial. You sign in with Apple to use it. It runs on iPhone with iOS 17.6 or later. There's no Android version and no web app.

Is Holier private?

Your sin list is encrypted on your iPhone with a key that never leaves it. We can't read your sins, so even if we were asked, we couldn't hand them over. The chat is different: conversations are processed to power the AI, then discarded. They're never stored.

Holier's App Store privacy label declares Data Not Linked to You: usage and diagnostics data, email address, name, other user content and sensitive info. Our listing says conversations are never stored; the label still declares user content and sensitive info, because the conversation is sent off your phone to be processed by the AI. It lists email address and name as not linked to you, while the app asks you to sign in with Apple. One honest trade-off: because the key stays on your phone, if you lose the phone and its key, your list is gone. We compare every confession app's label in confession app privacy compared.

Is Holier Catholic? Does it replace a priest?

Holier is built on Catholic practice: the Ignatian examen, the seven capital (or "deadly") sins (CCC 1866), and the sacrament of Confession as the Church teaches it. It isn't an official Church app and has no imprimatur.

It doesn't replace a priest. Only a priest can absolve sins (CCC 1461; Code of Canon Law, can. 965), and Confession happens in person. Holier doesn't hear confessions, give absolution, rule on whether a sin is mortal, or stand in for a confessor. Whether a sin was mortal depends on grave matter, full knowledge and deliberate consent (CCC 1857 to 1859), and an app can't see the last two, so that question belongs with your priest. When you're ready, how to go to Confession walks you through the rite.

Who is Holier for, and who should pick something else?

Holier suits Catholics on iPhone who want a short evening habit that turns into a Confession they're ready for: people coming back after years away, people who go blank in the confessional, and people working against the same temptation again and again.

It isn't the best pick for everyone:

• On Android: try ConfessIt or Metanoia, both free.
• If you want free: Confess (iPhone) and Metanoia (iPhone and Android) cost nothing and need no account.
• For children: Holier is rated 13+. ConfesGuide and Confessio: Confession Prep include examinations for children.
• If you don't want AI involved: Lumen says no AI touches your entries, and Confess and Metanoia say they make no server connections at all.
• If you want audio prayers: Hallow or Pray As You Go.

We compare all of these fairly in the best Catholic confession apps.

Holier vs Confess

Confess is a free iPhone app with no account that declares it collects no data and walks you through examination questions that cite the Catechism. Holier is a paid iPhone app that uses AI to ask about your day each evening and builds your list from your answers, and it adds help in the moment of temptation.

Is Holier the same as Hallow, or the HOLY dating app?

No. Holier is not Hallow, the audio prayer app made by Hallow, Inc., and it isn't connected to Christian Dating: HOLY, a dating app by United Young Inc. We wrote about Hallow and confession in is there an app like Hallow for confession?

And the name isn't "holier than thou." It's about becoming holier yourself, slowly, one evening and one Confession at a time, by God's grace and not by comparing yourself with anyone.