For Arabic speakers the strongest apps are Khatmah for completing the Qur'an, Athkar for daily adhkar, and Ayah for reading, all of them free, with Niyat as the paid option if you want answers that cite the text they came from.
Short answer: Khatmah for finishing the Qur'an, Athkar for daily adhkar, Ayah or Golden Quran for reading, AlMosaly if you want one app for everything. All four cost nothing. Add Niyat only if you want answers that show you the text behind them. All figures come from the Saudi App Store on 14 September 2026.
We build Niyat, and we have put it last on purpose. The Arabic-language app market is better served, and more generously priced, than the English one, and pretending otherwise would be dishonest.
Three things, and they all cut against paid apps.
No translation layer. An Arabic speaker reads the mushaf directly. Most of what English-language Islamic apps sell, which is translation, transliteration and tafsir in your language, is simply not the need here. The mushaf itself has to be beautiful and fast, and that is most of the product.
The best apps are old and free. Khatmah has been on the store since 2012, Athkar since 2010, AlMosaly since 2011, Ayah since 2013. They accumulated hundreds of thousands of ratings each and mostly never put the core behind a paywall.
The gap is question-answering. The Arabic-first apps are excellent at mushaf, adhkar, khatm and prayer times. Cited Q&A with a proper Arabic interface is thinner, and that is the one place a newer app has something to add.
| App | Best for | Saudi App Store rating | On the store since | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Khatmah | Completing the Qur'an | 4.6 from 108,001 | 2012 | Free; only optional developer tips |
| Athkar | Morning and evening adhkar | 4.7 from 398,612 | 2010 | Free; subscription $0.99/mo or $7.49/yr |
| Ayah | Clean mushaf reading | 4.7 from 539,813 | 2013 | Free core; Ayah Membership $1.99 or $12.99 |
| Golden Quran | Mushaf with recitation download | 4.6 from 652,920 | 2014 | Free |
| AlMosaly | One app for everything | 4.6 from 572,097 | 2011 | Free; paid tiers from $7.99/mo or $12.99/yr |
| Niyat | Cited answers with an Arabic interface | Only 4 Saudi ratings, too few to score | 2026 | $4.99–$5.99/mo or $34.99/yr after a trial |
Khatmah does one thing and has done it since July 2012: you choose how long you want to take to finish the Qur'an, it gives you a daily wird for that period, and it reminds you. Its listing also covers prayer times, adhkar and qibla, and claims more than 30 million users. It holds 4.6 stars from 108,001 Saudi ratings and 4.7 from 25,653 US ratings.
Its App Store page lists in-app purchases, and every one of them is a developer tip, from $19.99 to $299.99. Nothing is locked. Fourteen years of a single job done properly and never paywalled.
Athkar by Fares Fares has been on the store since May 2010 and holds 4.7 stars from 398,612 Saudi ratings. Its listing covers morning and evening athkar, ruqyah, travel duas, the names of Allah, prayer times with adhan, and qibla, in Arabic and English plus four European languages. It is free to install, with a subscription listed at $0.99 a month or $7.49 a year, among the cheapest prices in any market we checked.
Ayah holds 4.7 stars from 539,813 Saudi ratings. Its listing leads with the thing that actually matters in a mushaf app: a clean, uncluttered interface that gets you back to reading quickly, with verse-by-verse highlighting during recitation and customisable repeat. One caveat worth stating: its last update was in March 2025, so it is stable rather than actively developed.
Golden Quran holds 4.6 stars from 652,920 Saudi ratings, the largest count in this article. Its listing emphasises preserving the visual qualities of the printed mushaf, the script and the surah markings, with interactive display and download of recitation.
Ayah and Golden Quran are the same decision made two ways. Install both, read a juz in each, delete one.
AlMosaly holds 4.6 stars from 572,097 Saudi ratings and lists 12 languages. Its listing covers prayer times including iftar and suhoor, reminders and notifications across your worship, with a heavy Ramadan focus. If you want one icon on the home screen rather than four, this is the one.
Niyat ships an Arabic interface with a right-to-left layout. Its Q&A draws on more than 11,786 texts including the Qur'an, Sahih Bukhari, Sahih Muslim and classical fiqh, covers the Hanafi, Shafi'i, Maliki and Hanbali schools, and cites what each answer drew on. Around it sit a full Qur'an reader with khatm goal tracking, a Listen mode that highlights each word as it is recited, a dua library, prayer times, qibla, a tasbih counter and Prayer Lock.
The honest trade-off, and it is a real one: Niyat launched in March 2026 and has four Saudi App Store ratings, against apps here with hundreds of thousands. Its 4.8 average comes from 473 US ratings, which tells you nothing about how it reads to an Arabic speaker. Its Arabic is a localisation of an English-origin app, not an Arabic-first product. And it costs $5.99 a month on iPhone, $4.99 on Android, or $34.99 a year on either, against four apps above that cost nothing. The single reason to consider it is cited Q&A with a proper right-to-left interface, which the Arabic-first apps in this article do not offer. If that is not a gap you feel, do not pay for it.
For khatm apps across languages see Best Qur'an Khatm Tracker Apps. For the AI category see Best Islamic AI Apps in 2026. For the South Asian equivalent of this article see Best Islamic Apps for Urdu Speakers.
It depends on the job. Khatmah is the best khatm app, with 4.6 stars from 108,001 Saudi App Store ratings and a daily wird for whatever period you pick. Athkar by Fares Fares is the best adhkar app, at 4.7 from 398,612 Saudi ratings. Ayah and Golden Quran are the two best-rated mushaf readers. AlMosaly is the broadest all-rounder.
The major ones are. Khatmah's only in-app purchases are optional developer tips. Athkar, AlMosaly, Ayah and Golden Quran all have usable free tiers, most with an optional subscription for extras. Niyat is the paid exception, listed at $5.99 monthly on iPhone, $4.99 on Android, or $34.99 annually on either after a free trial. Arabic-language Islamic apps are unusually generous compared with the English-language market.
Ayah and Golden Quran are the two most-rated Arabic mushaf apps, at 4.7 from 539,813 and 4.6 from 652,920 Saudi ratings. Ayah's listing emphasises a clean uncluttered reading interface with verse-by-verse highlighting during recitation. Golden Quran emphasises the visual qualities of the printed mushaf. Both are free. Try each for a week and keep the one you read in.
Niyat ships an Arabic interface with a right-to-left layout and answers that cite the ayah, hadith or fiqh position they came from, covering the four Sunni schools. Qaf lists Arabic among 14 languages. Most of the better-known Islamic AI apps, including MuslimGPT, SheikhGPT, Deen Buddy and Ilmverse, list English only.
Only for something the Arabic apps do not do. The Arabic market is well served for mushaf, adhkar, khatm and prayer times, and mostly at no cost. The gap is cited question-answering, where the Arabic-language options are thinner. Use the Arabic apps for reading and worship, and add a second app only for the gap.
A right-to-left Arabic interface, cited answers across the four schools, a full Qur'an with khatm tracking, duas and prayer times.
Download Niyat Get it on Google Play