An honest comparison from the team that builds Niyat — including where Just Pray's alarm beats us.
Short answer: Choose Just Pray if your struggle is the habit itself — a scan-to-dismiss Fajr alarm, accountability tracking, and a gamified good-deeds tracker built for people who never learned to pray, are rebuilding after a break, or want to deepen an existing commitment. Choose Niyat if you have (or are building) the habit and want the destination too — a full Quran with khatm tracking, cited-source AI answers, a dua library, and Prayer Lock in one app.
This comparison comes from the team behind Niyat, so let's be honest up front: Just Pray is good at the one job it was built for. Its own site says it was made "in response to the need for a dedicated prayer habit-builder rather than an all-in-one Islamic application." Launched in August 2025 by Ihsan Studios (founder Adam Masoud) and grown organically through the founder's TikTok audience rather than paid ads, it is a focused behavior-change tool. Niyat's bet is different — that once the habit forms, the destination (a completed Quran, a full day of worship) belongs in the same calm app. Here is the breakdown.
| Feature | Niyat | Just Pray |
|---|---|---|
| Core focus | All-in-one daily companion | Prayer habit-builder and accountability tool |
| Habit & accountability tools | Streaks and daily consistency tracking | The whole app — prayer tracking, a "Garden of Deeds" good-deeds tracker, and a Learn to Pray section (added in v1.12.2) |
| Fajr wake alarm | Adhan notifications for every prayer | Signature scan-to-dismiss alarm — you must scan a real object to turn it off |
| Prayer lock | Yes — Prayer Lock (v1.9.2) can block chosen apps during prayer windows until you log the prayer or the window ends | Not advertised — accountability comes from tracking and alarms, not app blocking |
| Full Quran + khatm tracking | Built-in — follow progress toward completing the whole Quran | No — not part of its positioning |
| Cited AI Q&A | Yes — answers cite the Quran, hadith collections, and classical scholarship | No |
| Dua library | Growing dua library with sources | No |
| Free tier | Free trial, then one subscription | Yes — free tier, with subscription-gated premium |
| Financial-aid option | Yes — email hello@niyatapp.com to request financial aid | Yes — "Can't Afford It" flow lets users request a free access code in-app |
| Price model | Free trial, then one subscription (~$5/mo or ~$30/yr) | Free tier + premium subscription (price not publicly listed — check the app) |
Best for: Muslims whose real struggle is praying at all — and who want an app that admits that's the problem.
Just Pray's tagline is "Build a prayer habit that actually lasts," and it targets three groups deliberately: people who never learned how to pray, people rebuilding after a break, and people deepening an existing commitment. The feature reviewers love most is the Fajr alarm: to dismiss it, you have to physically scan a real object, which is repeatedly credited as the thing that actually gets people out of bed. Around it sit a gamified "Garden of Deeds" tracker for good deeds beyond prayer and a recently added Learn to Pray section for absolute beginners. The app supports Arabic, English, French, and German.
One more thing deserves respect: the "Can't Afford It" flow. If you can't pay for premium, you can request a free access code instead — reviewers praise it by name, and it drives genuine word of mouth. Niyat offers financial aid too, though not (yet) as a self-serve in-app flow — email hello@niyatapp.com and ask.
Where it falls short: It stops at the habit. There's no full Quran reader, no khatm tracking, no dua library, no AI Q&A — by design, since it explicitly chose not to be an all-in-one app. The rest of your deen still needs a second (and third) app.
Best for: Muslims who want the habit and the destination — plus the rest of their worship — in one calm, ad-free app.
Niyat's pitch starts where Just Pray's ends. Once you're building the habit, Niyat adds the destination: a full Quran reader with built-in khatm tracking so you always see progress toward completing the whole Quran, a growing dua library with sources, and AI Q&A with receipts — answers link back to the Quran, the six canonical hadith collections, and classical scholarship rather than a generic chatbot. Prayer times and qibla cover the daily rhythm, in English, Bengali, Urdu, French, and Indonesian, with no ads anywhere.
The feature closest to Just Pray's spirit is Prayer Lock, shipped in v1.9.2: a shortcut row in the home tab lets you block chosen apps during your prayer windows, using Apple's Screen Time technology, until you log the prayer or the window ends. Just Pray wakes you up; Prayer Lock helps you stay in the prayer once the adhan sounds.
Where it falls short: Niyat is a paid app — free trial first, then a subscription — so if cost is the constraint, Just Pray's free tier (or a free prayer-lock app like FivePrayer) is the honest answer. We also don't have a scan-to-dismiss alarm; our notifications are standard adhan alerts. And Niyat's Android version trails iOS.
See also our Muslim Pro alternatives roundup, Niyat vs Pillars, and Niyat vs Quranly if reading is your focus.
Just Pray (Ihsan Studios, launched August 2025) is a prayer habit-builder and accountability app — not an all-in-one Islamic app. Its site says it was built "in response to the need for a dedicated prayer habit-builder rather than an all-in-one Islamic application," and it targets three groups: people who never learned how to pray, people rebuilding after a break, and people deepening an existing commitment.
Just Pray has a free tier, with a subscription-gated premium on top. The exact premium price is not publicly listed — check the app for current pricing. Notably, it also offers a "Can't Afford It" flow: if you cannot pay, you can request a free access code, a policy reviewers repeatedly praise by name.
No. Just Pray is deliberately focused on prayer habit-building and accountability — tracking, reminders, a "Garden of Deeds" good-deeds tracker, a Learn to Pray section, and its signature Fajr alarm. A full Quran reader with khatm tracking, a dua library, and AI Q&A are not part of its positioning, so those needs would require a companion app such as Niyat.
Niyat has prayer times with adhan notifications for every prayer, and since v1.9.2 a Prayer Lock feature that can block chosen apps during your prayer windows until you log the prayer or the window ends. The scan-to-dismiss alarm — where you must physically scan an object to turn off the Fajr alarm — is Just Pray's signature idea, and we do not claim it.
If your struggle is building the prayer habit at all — you never learned, you're rebuilding after a break, or a normal alarm never gets you up for Fajr — Just Pray is built exactly for that job, and its free tier plus "Can't Afford It" flow means cost need not block you. If you already pray (or are building the habit) and want the destination too — a full Quran with khatm tracking, cited-source AI answers, a dua library, and Prayer Lock in one app instead of four — Niyat is the paid option that bundles it all.
Khatm tracking, cited AI answers, duas, prayer times, qibla, and Prayer Lock — ad-free, in English, Bengali, Urdu, French, and Indonesian.
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