Same job · Sutrah is the free one
Fajr Calendar and Sutrah: two calendar tools, one of them paid
Last updated
Fajr Calendar writes the five daily prayers into Google Calendar or Outlook, with a free one-month sync and a Premium plan listed at $1.99 a month that unlocks custom durations, busy status, smart scheduling and a three-month horizon. Sutrah does the same job for free, and on Google and Outlook it also reads your meetings so each block lands in a real gap. They are substitutes, not companions.
How this was checked
Everything below about Fajr Calendar comes from material Blink22 / Jetai Labs publishes, read on . Where this page says a capability is not listed, that means it does not appear in that material — not that the app cannot do it. Feature sets move; if something here is out of date, tell us at hello@sutrah.app and it gets corrected.
What Fajr Calendar does that Sutrah does not
Fajr Calendar ships a mobile app with Arabic and right-to-left layout, a Discord community, and a Product Hunt launch behind it. Sutrah has none of those. If you want the times on your phone as an app rather than inside the calendar you already open, Fajr Calendar is built for that, and Sutrah is not going to grow a companion app to match it.
This one is actually the same category
Most of the comparisons on this site are between a phone companion and a calendar tool, which is a category error people search for anyway. Fajr Calendar is not that. It is a product that writes Fajr, Dhuhr, Asr, Maghrib and Isha into Google Calendar or Outlook so the rest of the day can be planned around them. That is Sutrah's job. The honest comparison is therefore about how each one does it, what it costs, and who it is built for.
Blink22 publishes Fajr Calendar. The privacy policy names Jetai Labs. The public site lists a Product Hunt launch, a Discord, Slack reminders and status, a Chrome extension, clock rounding, Friday prayer customisation, and a Premium wall. The iOS App Store listing adds Arabic with right-to-left support and an offline-ready claim. All of that was read on 2026-09-17.
Where they overlap, in detail
Both write salah as real calendar events. Both let you set duration, mark a prayer busy, and fire a reminder before the block. Both talk to Slack. Both have a browser extension. Both will put Islamic observances on the calendar. Both will round a ragged astronomical time onto a meeting-like clock — Fajr Calendar's published example is Dhuhr at 11:41 becoming 11:45, which is now a Sutrah setting as well, because it is the right idea for a work calendar.
On Google and Outlook, both products need calendar access. Sutrah asks for calendar.events.owned on Google, which can only modify events it created; the IT brief lists the scopes. Fajr Calendar's privacy policy states that information received from Google APIs is used under Google's Limited Use requirements. Read both policies if that is the decision.
The differences that actually matter
Price. Fajr Calendar's free tier, as published, is a one-month sync without the customisation, busy, notification, extension and smart-scheduling items that sit under Premium at $1.99 a month. Sutrah is free. There is no card, no trial, and the horizon goes to 92 days. If the only reason you opened this page is “I do not want to pay for prayer times on my calendar,” that is the whole argument.
Meetings. Fajr Calendar lists smart scheduling as a Premium feature for appointments that fall at prayer time. Sutrah, on Google Calendar and Outlook, reads the busy times already on the calendar and places each block in a real gap inside that prayer's window. A prayer has hours of validity; the block does not have to sit at the adhan. That is the feature the rest of this site exists to explain.
A mobile app, and Arabic. Fajr Calendar has both. Sutrah has neither, and is not planning either. If those are requirements, stay. If the calendar you already open at work is the surface that matters, they are not.
Apple Calendar. Sutrah publishes a pull-only WebCal feed for Apple, with the honest limitation that it cannot see meetings. Fajr Calendar's public homepage and pricing page centre Google and Outlook. If Apple is the calendar, read the Apple page rather than assuming either product treated it as a first-class two-way connection.
Who should pay for Fajr Calendar
People who want the iOS app, the Arabic layout, the Discord, or the Premium bundle of habits and daily planning listed on their pricing page. People who already set it up and are not hitting a meeting-conflict problem. A product you are happy with is not improved by switching.
Switch if the $1.99 is the thing you noticed, or if the block keeps landing on a meeting and you want it to move. Disconnect Fajr Calendar first. Two writers on one calendar is how duplicate Dhuhrs happen.
At a glance
Read the rows about Fajr Calendar as a summary of what its makers publish, not as a verdict on the app.
| Dimension | Fajr Calendar | Sutrah |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A calendar-sync product: prayers as events in Google Calendar or Outlook, plus a web app, a Chrome extension, Slack, and an iOS app. | A calendar-sync product. Same job, no mobile app, no paid tier. |
| Writing events into Google Calendar or Outlook | The published core feature. Free Basic covers up to one month of sync; Premium lists up to three months. | The same core feature. Horizon is seven to 92 days, chosen in settings, included on the free product. |
| Awareness of your meetings | Premium lists 'Smart scheduling' for the case where an appointment falls at the same time as a prayer. | On Google and Outlook it reads busy times and places each prayer in a real gap inside that prayer's window. |
| Clock rounding | Published as 'Rounding': convert Dhuhr at 11:41 into Dhuhr at 11:45, so the block sits on a meeting-like time. | The same idea, as an optional setting: round up to the next 5, 10 or 15 minutes. Maghrib, Jumu'ah and masjid iqamah stay exact. |
| Busy, duration, reminders, Slack | Customise event time and duration, mark as busy, calendar notifications, Slack reminders and auto status — all listed under Premium. | Per-prayer duration, offset, reminder and busy status, plus Slack status during a block. Included, no upgrade. |
| Price | A free Basic plan that syncs up to one month. Premium listed at $1.99 per month, with quarterly (−16%) and annual (−37%) options. Team accounts listed as coming soon. | Free, no card, no ads, no paid tier. |
| Where it runs | Web, iOS, and a Chrome/Firefox extension listed under Premium. | The web, Google, Outlook and Apple Calendar, plus a Chrome/Firefox Meeting Guard. No mobile app. |
Which one is for you
Use Fajr Calendar if
- You want a mobile app, Arabic with right-to-left layout, or the Discord they run.
- You already pay for Premium and the current setup is working.
- A Product Hunt-style companion with habits, tasks and daily planning listed on the paid tier is what you came for.
Use Sutrah if
- You want the calendar job without a subscription.
- The failure you keep hitting is a meeting landing on the prayer, and you want the block to move into the next real gap.
- You need Apple Calendar as a subscription feed, or a printable month, or Jumu'ah from a real masjid timetable.
These two do the same job. Running both would put two sets of prayer events on the same calendar, which is a mess rather than a backup.
What Sutrah does not do
- There is no Sutrah mobile app. It is a web app plus the calendar you already use, and a browser extension for Chrome and Firefox.
- It does not play the adhan, and has no Quran, no dhikr counter and no lessons.
- Conflict-aware placement needs a Google or Microsoft account. Apple Calendar is a read-only subscription feed, so on Apple the blocks cannot move around your meetings.
- Public city pages cover 212 cities. The printable timetable works for any coordinates, but there is no 6-million-location database behind it.
Frequently asked questions
- Is Sutrah an alternative to Fajr Calendar?
- Yes, if the job you hired Fajr Calendar for is putting salah on Google Calendar or Outlook. That is the same job. Sutrah does it without a paid tier, and on those two calendars it also reads busy times so a block can slide into a real gap instead of sitting on a meeting. It is not an alternative if what you wanted was their iOS app, Arabic layout, or Discord.
- Does Fajr Calendar cost money?
- There is a free Basic plan that, on the pricing page read in September 2026, syncs prayer times for up to one month. Almost everything else they list — custom duration, busy status, notifications, the browser extension, smart scheduling, Islamic events, habits, tasks — sits under Premium, listed at $1.99 a month with cheaper quarterly and annual options. Sutrah is free with no paid tier.
- Does Fajr Calendar move blocks around my meetings?
- Premium lists a feature called smart scheduling for the case where an appointment falls at the same time as a prayer. That is their published description. Sutrah's version of this, on Google and Outlook, is to read existing busy times and place each prayer in a genuine gap inside that prayer's valid window — so Dhuhr can sit at 1:40 because the 1:1 ran long, still inside the window.
- Can I switch from Fajr Calendar to Sutrah?
- Yes. Disconnect or unsubscribe Fajr Calendar first so you do not end up with two sets of prayer events, then connect Google or Outlook in Sutrah — or paste the WebCal feed into Apple Calendar. The times will not be identical unless both tools are set to the same calculation method and Asr madhab; that is a settings difference, not a reason to stay.
Other comparisons
Or start from the whole comparison index, which includes the option most people should try first: doing nothing new at all.