Seraph vs Pray As You Go
A free daily Ignatian audio companion for the commute, and a quieter flame that charges for Advent. This page is written by the maker of Seraph — read it knowing that — and it will be generous to Pray As You Go, because Pray As You Go has earned it.
Our bias, declared: we make Seraph. The linked Pray As You Go sources support the specific free-access rules, daily audio shape, store listings, privacy wording, and donation model 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 Pray As You Go if prayer for you is something you press play on while travelling. Jesuits in Britain’s site opens as an audio sanctuary: “Listen to guided prayer, every day, for free.” Their US listing is blunt about the till: “All of our content is always free, no subscription required.” A new session is produced every day, lasting between ten and thirteen minutes, combining music, scripture and questions for reflection — “a framework for your own prayer,” not a sermon. The catch is the product itself: an audio companion, not a Bible you can finish, and not a silent office paced by breath.
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 | Pray As You Go |
|---|---|---|
| Annual price | $59.99/yr | No paid plan. The US App Store listing (id865934048) is priced “Free · Designed for iPad” and has no In-App Purchases section — we re-read the listing on September 9, 2026. The same page: “All of our content is always free, no subscription required.” |
| Monthly price | $6.99/mo | None. Their donate page: “Pray As You Go is a completely free service.” The same page funds that promise by asking for gifts: “We don’t seek a profit. We seek a praying community. We are funded by gratitude.” That is a donation, not a plan price. |
| Family plan | — | None published — there is no subscription to share. Kids & Youth is a content category of audio prayers for children and families, not a shared paid plan. |
| 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 entire audio library. A new 10–13 minute session every day · Examen, imaginative contemplation, sleep prayers, mental health guides, prayers for children, and sign language · automatic downloads so you can pray off-grid. |
| 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 and Google Play listing both describe the content as always free. |
| Account required | No — no sign-up exists | No for the app, stated on Google Play: “Always free and always simple. No subscription or registration.” Their privacy policy says they do not collect personal data for users of the app and website; a mailing list and donate flow are optional, and they say those fall under Jesuits in Britain’s policy. We found no in-app account requirement on the pages cited here. |
| Audio vs text office | Quiet text office paced by breath. No daily audio session. | Audio is the product. The site is built for a commute, a walk, or a pause: press play. Lasting between ten and thirteen minutes, each daily session combines music, scripture and some questions for reflection. The same page plays today’s session in the browser. The US listing calls it an “audio sanctuary.” |
| 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 — Usage Data and Diagnostics. This check found no “Data Linked to You” section and no “Data Used to Track You” section. Their Google Play Data safety section: “No data shared with third parties” and “No data collected.” Their privacy policy: no personal data for app and website users; navigation and error data that “will never identify the user,” which “may be stored by Google Firebase”; no IDFA; Google Analytics cookies on the website. We print all three. We do not restate rating or ranking marketing from those pages. |
| Bible | Full KJV bundled; offline on iPhone | Daily audio with Scripture, not a Bible library. Their donate FAQ: “The Bible translation you'll typically hear on Pray As You Go is the NRSV. However, for the Psalms we use the Grail version, and very occasionally we will use either the New Jerusalem version of the Bible or Nicholas King SJ's own translation.” The same privacy page repeats the NRSV copyright line. |
| Platforms | iPhone and web | The US listing Information section names iPhone, iPad, Mac (Apple M1 or later), and Apple Vision. Their Google Play listing is the Android storefront — the site’s Play button goes there. The website itself plays the daily session. pray-as-you-go.org 301s to that origin. |
| Tradition | Broadly Christian, KJV | Ignatian; a work of the Jesuits in Britain. The US listing: “We are based on the spirituality of St Ignatius of Loyola,” and “Although we are a Catholic app, our audience is from a wide range of denominations.” Their donate FAQ: they follow the liturgical calendar of the Society of Jesus for the British Province. |
| If you cannot pay | No scholarship or sponsorship path published. Advent and most guided sessions require Seraph+. | The whole audio library is already free. Their donate page asks for gifts to “keep Pray as You Go free and accessible to everyone.” Footer copy on the privacy page identifies Jesuits in Britain CIO as registered charity 1207742 in England and Wales and SC053495 in Scotland. |
Pray As You Go’s US listing and site publish no subscription because there is none to sell. Their donate page accepts gifts toward the work — 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 Pray As You Go does better
The price of zero, and an office you can hear with your eyes on the road. Their daily 10–13 minutes cost nothing, and neither do Examen, imaginative contemplation, sleep prayers, mental health guides, children’s prayers, or sign language. If “free audio every day, forever” is the requirement, they meet it. We gate ten guided sessions and Sacred Seasons behind Seraph+.
They also ship Android, play today’s session in the browser, and publish automatic downloads. Their Play listing says no registration. If you want a commute companion, Ignatian imaginative prayer, Android, or a donation-funded audio library with no tier above it, Pray As You Go 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. Prayer data never leaves the device — we do not send navigation or error statistics to Firebase, and we do not run Google Analytics on the office. 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 excerpt — bundled offline on iPhone, every chapter. A public web office you read, not an audio stream you hear. 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
Pray As You Go — if you want a free daily audio companion for the commute
Start from their homepage or the US listing. Press play. Take the Examen or an imaginative contemplation if that is the hour you have. Use Android if that is your phone. Give through their donate page if the work is worth supporting. Do not come here first for a full Bible you can read offline, or for a silent text office with a public vow that prayer never leaves the device. They are a daily audio companion, 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, Pray As You Go is the better fit, and we would rather you found it here than felt sold to.
Sources and scope
Checked against the following official Pray As You Go pages on . These references do not establish an independent review or endorsement of Seraph. Subjective product fit remains our assessment.
- Pray As You Go homepage
Supports “Listen to guided prayer, every day, for free,” a daily session lasting between ten and thirteen minutes with music, scripture and questions for reflection, “a framework for your own prayer,” commute / walk / stillness copy, App Store and Google Play buttons, Examen, imaginative prayer, mental health, Kids & Youth, sign language, automatic downloads, and a web player for today’s session. We do not reuse testimonial or user-count marketing from that page.
- pray-as-you-go.org
Supports the hyphenated hostname as a first-party alias: it 301s to https://prayasyougo.org/. Path URLs on the hyphenated host currently land on the homepage, so privacy and donate are cited on prayasyougo.org.
- Pray As You Go — Privacy Policy
Supports “Pray As You Go does not collect any personal data for users of our app and website,” navigation and error data that will never identify the user and “may be stored by Google Firebase,” no IDFA, Google Analytics cookies on the website, optional mailing list and donate falling under Jesuits in Britain’s policy, the NRSV copyright line, and registered charity Jesuits in Britain CIO 1207742 / SC053495. The US listing’s privacy-policy field points at https://pray-as-you-go.org/privacy; on this check that URL did not keep the /privacy path, so this origin is the live policy.
- Pray As You Go US App Store listing (id865934048)
Supports “Free · Designed for iPad,” no In-App Purchases section on this check, “All of our content is always free, no subscription required,” daily 10–13 minute guided prayer, Examen, imaginative contemplations, sleep prayers, mental health guides, prayers for children, sign language, Ignatian spirituality, Jesuits in Britain as seller, “a Catholic app” with a mixed-denomination audience, App Privacy (Usage Data and Diagnostics collected not linked; no Linked or Track sections on this check), and the device list (iPhone, iPad, Mac with Apple M1 or later, Apple Vision). We do not restate their rating or download marketing.
- Pray As You Go on Google Play
Supports an Android listing, “Always free and always simple. No subscription or registration,” the same ten-to-thirteen-minute music / scripture / reflection copy, developer Jesuits in Britain CIO, and Data safety “No data shared with third parties” / “No data collected.” The site’s Android button resolves here. We do not restate review counts or install totals from that page.
- Pray As You Go — Donate
Supports “Pray As You Go is a completely free service,” “We don’t seek a profit. We seek a praying community. We are funded by gratitude,” gifts as the way they keep the service free, the NRSV / Grail / occasional New Jerusalem or Nicholas King SJ translation FAQ, and the Jesuit British Province liturgical calendar. We do not reuse download totals or operating-cost marketing 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