Seraph vs Divine Office
The Catholic Liturgy of the Hours as text and audio, and a quieter flame that never asks for an account. This page is written by the maker of Seraph — read it knowing that — and it will be generous to Divine Office, because Divine Office has earned it.
Our bias, declared: we make Seraph. The linked Divine Office sources support the specific free-access rules, Hours and audio shape, site community wording, store listings, privacy wording, and donation language identified below; this is not an independent review of either app. Our product details describe Seraph’s current published offering. If we've got something wrong, tell us and we'll fix it.
The main difference
Consider Divine Office if you want the Roman Breviary: Invitatory through Night Prayer, text and audio, the Hours of the Church. Their homepage is that office in the browser — Invitatory, Office of Readings, Morning Prayer, Midmorning, Midday, Midafternoon, Evening Prayer, Night Prayer — and it markets the app as now free, with monthly and one-time donations on the same page. The US listing is Surgeworks, Inc.’s Liturgy of the Hours app: official text and audio of the Roman Catholic Church (Breviary), approved for use in the United States by USCCB on that listing, and a feature that lets you “view locations where other Christians around the world are simultaneously praying with you.” The catch is the door, and the product. The homepage’s licensing notice: “this website can only be accessed and used from the United States of America.” Join Free / LogIn on that site is for community prayer requests and comments — we found no first-party sentence that the app requires an account to pray the Hours. And the product is the multi-hour Breviary, not a silent one-flame office with a full Bible you can finish.
Choose Seraph if you want something quieter: one flame kept daily, the whole King James Bible readable free, guided prayer paced by breath — and a hard privacy line: no account to create, no ads, and a public vow of no prayer analytics. Your prayer life stays on your device. Seraph+ is $6.99/mo or $59.99/yr on our US App Store listing and on our pricing page. The daily office is free. Sacred Seasons, including Advent, are not. There is no Seraph+ trial.
Side by side
| Feature | Seraph | Divine Office |
|---|---|---|
| Annual price | $59.99/yr | No paid plan. The US App Store listing (id914635909) is priced “Free · Designed for iPad. Not verified for macOS” and has no In-App Purchases section — we re-read the listing on September 9, 2026. Their FAQ: “Since 2016, the app is free, our work is sustained only by contributions from our community members.” |
| Monthly price | $6.99/mo | None. Their contribute page is a donation form: suggested monthly amounts from $2.50 to $100 USD, a custom amount, and a separate one-time gift. The same page: “A monthly recurring payment is not required.” That is a donation, not a plan price. |
| Family plan | — | None published — there is no subscription to share. Monthly donate amounts on the contribute page are gifts, not a family SKU. |
| Free trial | None — the free tier is the trial | Not applicable. There is no paid library to trial. |
| Free, forever | Daily verse · 2 guided sessions · the whole KJV Bible (1,189 chapters) · every reading plan · streak flame · reminders | The Hours they describe. The US listing names official text and audio of daily prayers from the Liturgy of the Hours, including Solemnities, Feasts, and Memorials, and the locations-of-others feature. Their homepage serves Invitatory through Night Prayer in the browser and shows community prayer requests anyone can read. |
| Subscription opens | Full guided-prayer library (12 sessions) · Sacred Seasons (Advent & Lent) | Nothing. No paid tier exists on the pages cited here. The US listing has no In-App Purchases section. Their Google Play listing has no In-app products section on this check. The FAQ repeats that the app is free and is sustained by contributions. |
| Account required | No — no sign-up exists | For the site community, yes to post. Their homepage has Join Free and LogIn, and “Join now to post your own prayer request.” The licensing notice on that page: registering “will also allow you to comment and post prayer requests.” Their community guidelines: “Only registered members can post intercessory prayers”; “Anyone, even anonymous users, can read the prayer intentions.” The US listing does not state an account is required to pray the offices. We do not invent an app login from site Join Free. |
| Liturgy of the Hours | Quiet daily office paced by breath. Not the Roman Breviary. No Invitatory-through-Night-Prayer cycle. | The product. The homepage names Invitatory, Office of Readings, Morning Prayer, Midmorning Prayer, Midday Prayer, Midafternoon Prayer, Evening Prayer, and Night Prayer. The US listing: “the official text and audio of daily prayers from the Liturgy of the Hours of the Roman Catholic Church (Breviary).” |
| Pray with others | None. No globe, no “in prayer” map, no public prayer requests. | Two first-party pages. The US listing: “lets you view locations where other Christians around the world are simultaneously praying with you.” Their homepage names Prayer Lights 3D Globe and says location “will only be used to display your Prayer Light and is not associated with you in any way.” We print both. We do not treat the site globe sentence as the listing’s wording. |
| Prayer analytics | None — a public vow. Prayer data never leaves your device | Three first-party pages do not say the same sentence. Apple’s App Privacy label on the US listing (self-reported, not verified by Apple): Data Not Linked to You — Location, Diagnostics. This check found no “Data Linked to You” section and no “Data Used to Track You” section. Their Google Play Data safety section: “This app may share these data types with third parties” — Location; “This app may collect these data types” — Location and App info and performance; Data is encrypted in transit; Data can’t be deleted. Their privacy policy collects name, e-mail, or approximate location when you register; also collects when you subscribe to a newsletter, respond to a survey, complete a profile, visit the website, or use the apps; uses cookies for traffic and login; says intercessory prayers are public; last name hidden by default; does not sell PII except to trusted third parties under confidentiality agreements. Last modified March 11, 2025 on this check. We print all three. We do not restate rating or ranking marketing from those pages. |
| Bible | Full KJV bundled; offline on iPhone | The Hours with psalms, hymns, and scripture, not a Bible library you can finish. The US listing names psalms, hymns and scripture inside the Liturgy of the Hours. Their privacy page footer: readings and canticles in the Hours are from the New American Bible © 1970, “approved for use only in the United States.” We do not invent an offline Bible of 1,189 chapters inside Divine Office. |
| Platforms | iPhone and web | The US listing Information section names iPhone, iPad, Mac (Apple M1 or later), and Apple Vision. The same listing’s lockup prints “Not verified for macOS.” We print both. Their Google Play listing is the Android storefront; developer named Divine Office, Catholic Ministry. The homepage is a web office, with the US-only licensing notice above. |
| Tradition | Broadly Christian, KJV | Catholic Liturgy of the Hours. The US listing seller is Surgeworks, Inc.; it calls the text “the official prayer book of the Catholic Church” and “suitable for all Christian faith traditions,” and says it “has been approved for use in the United States by USCCB.” Their FAQ: “we have a license agreement with USCCB since 2020.” We print both USCCB sentences. |
| If you cannot pay | No scholarship or sponsorship path published. Advent and most guided sessions require Seraph+. | The Hours they describe are already free. Their FAQ: the app is free and “sustained only by contributions.” Their contribute page asks for monthly or one-time gifts and says a monthly recurring payment is not required. No scholarship path is named on the pages cited here. |
Divine Office’s US listing and site publish no subscription because there is none to sell. Their contribute page accepts monthly and one-time gifts — that is a donation, not a plan price. No worldwide cheapest-price claim is made here — they do not sell a plan. Their own privacy pages do not agree on what is collected; read the table, not a single label.
What Divine Office does better
The Hours themselves. If “Invitatory through Night Prayer, with the ribbons already placed” is the requirement, they meet it. Their listing is the Breviary as text and audio. We are a simpler daily office. We gate ten guided sessions and Sacred Seasons behind Seraph+. They do not sell a tier above the Hours.
They also ship Android, serve the office on the web (for visitors who pass the US licensing notice), and let you see other people praying at the same hour. Their FAQ has called the app free since 2016. If you want the Catholic Liturgy of the Hours, Android, a globe of others at prayer, or a donation-funded Breviary with no tier above it, Divine Office is the honest recommendation, and we are not in that contest.
What Seraph does differently
Restraint as a feature, and a Bible you can finish. No account between you and prayer — Divine Office’s site asks you to Join Free to post a request, and we found no matching app-account sentence on the listing. Prayer data never leaves the device; their US listing reports Location and Diagnostics as not linked, and their Play listing reports Location shared with third parties. Two prices, written in plain numbers: $59.99 a year or $6.99 a month, auto-renew, cancel anytime. The entire KJV free — not a day’s office of psalms — bundled offline on iPhone, every chapter. A public web office with no US-only licensing gate. A streak that forgives a missed day instead of shaming it. No ads on free or paid. Guided prayer paced by breath. Compare the plan and features that fit your use, rather than assuming one worldwide price difference.
Three disclosures that belong here. The web subscription and the iPhone subscription are separate purchases and do not unlock each other. The complete offline Bible is the iPhone app; on the web, chapters you have already opened stay readable. And restoring a web subscription in a new browser emails a magic link, so we will not claim “no email ever.” There is no Seraph+ trial: you never try a paid session before buying it. The daily office is the trial of Seraph, not of the paid library.
When each app wins
Divine Office — if you want the Catholic Liturgy of the Hours as text and audio
Start from their homepage or the US listing. Pray Morning Prayer. Take Night Prayer. Use the audio if your hands are busy. Use Android if that is your phone. Give through their contribute page if the work is worth supporting. Create a site account only if you want to post a prayer request — reading the Hours on the site does not require that, on the pages cited here. Do not come here first for a full Bible you can read offline, or for a silent one-flame office with no account and a public vow that prayer never leaves the device. They are the Liturgy of the Hours from Surgeworks, and they say so.
Seraph — if you want a quiet office with no account, a full KJV, and a price you can read before you install
Ours, last on purpose. A flame, the KJV, two free guided sessions, reading plans, no sign-up. Paid for the remaining sessions and Sacred Seasons, free for the office. Small, new, iPhone-and-web only. If none of those sentences is what you came for, Divine Office is the better fit, and we would rather you found it here than felt sold to.
Sources and scope
Checked against the following official Divine Office pages on . These references do not establish an independent review or endorsement of Seraph. Subjective product fit remains our assessment.
- Divine Office homepage
Supports Invitatory through Night Prayer in the browser, community prayer requests, Join Free / LogIn, “Join now to post your own prayer request,” the US-only licensing notice (“this website can only be accessed and used from the United States of America”), registering to comment and post prayer requests, Prayer Lights 3D Globe, location “only be used to display your Prayer Light and is not associated with you in any way,” the app marketed as now free, and monthly / one-time donate controls on the same page. We do not reuse rating, award, or testimonial marketing from that page.
- Divine Office — FAQ
Supports “Since 2016, the app is free, our work is sustained only by contributions from our community members,” “The app is free,” and “we have a license agreement with USCCB since 2020.” We do not reuse award marketing from that page.
- Divine Office — Privacy Policy
Supports collection when you register, subscribe to the newsletter, respond to a survey, complete a user profile, visit the website, or use the apps; name, e-mail, or approximate location at registration; cookies for traffic and login; intercessory prayers public; last name hidden by default; no sale of PII except trusted third parties under confidentiality agreements; last modified March 11, 2025; and the NAB © 1970 copyright line for readings and canticles in the Hours, approved for use only in the United States. The US listing’s App Privacy label is cited separately above.
- Divine Office — Contribute
Supports monthly donation amounts ($2.50 through $100 USD and custom), a one-time contribution, “A monthly recurring payment is not required,” and PayPal or mail as alternatives. That is a donation, not a subscription.
- Divine Office — Community guidelines
Supports “Only registered members can post intercessory prayers” and that anyone, including anonymous visitors, can read those intentions. This is site-community language. We do not treat it as an app-account rule.
- Divine Office US App Store listing (id914635909)
Supports “Free · Designed for iPad. Not verified for macOS,” no In-App Purchases section on this check, seller Surgeworks, Inc., Liturgy of the Hours text and audio, “approved for use in the United States by USCCB,” “view locations where other Christians around the world are simultaneously praying with you,” “suitable for all Christian faith traditions,” App Privacy as parsed from the live HTML (Data Not Linked to You — Location, Diagnostics; no Track section and no Linked section on this check), and the Information device list (iPhone, iPad, Mac with Apple M1 or later, Apple Vision). We do not restate their rating, download, or award marketing.
- Divine Office on Google Play
Supports an Android listing, developer Divine Office, Catholic Ministry, the same Liturgy of the Hours text-and-audio product copy, no In-app products section on this check, and Data safety “This app may share these data types with third parties” — Location / may collect Location and App info and performance / Data is encrypted in transit / Data can’t be deleted. We do not restate review counts or install totals from that page.
Daily office free, with no account · Seraph+ $6.99/mo or $59.99/yr · auto-renews · cancel anytime
Web and iPhone subscriptions are separate purchases and do not unlock each other