Yes. The site publishes it as free to use forever. You generate a WebCal subscription from your location and preferences and add it to any calendar that accepts ICS. Sutrah is also free. The difference is not price; it is whether the times sit on a separate calendar you can hide, or as busy blocks on the calendar other people book against.

Does PrayerCal need access to my Google or Outlook account?

Not in the way an OAuth calendar app does. PrayerCal is a WebCal feed: your calendar pulls times from their servers. That is a smaller grant than Sutrah's Google or Outlook connection, which is why it is the better fit when IT will not allowlist a third-party app, or when you do not want anyone writing events onto the calendar colleagues see.

Will PrayerCal move a block when someone books over it?

A subscription feed publishes times; the calendar app displays them. Sliding a block into a different gap inside the prayer's window is not in the material PrayerCal publishes. That behaviour is Sutrah's Google and Outlook path, and it is the reason those paths ask to read busy times.

Which calculation method does PrayerCal use?

The FAQ on prayercal.com, read in September 2026, says it currently uses the moonsighting.com method managed by the Moonsighting Committee Worldwide, and that more options are hoped for. Sutrah's public pages default to the same committee. Signed-in users can pick any supported convention. Method differences are schools and conventions, not a score.

Same times · different visibility

PrayerCal and Sutrah: a hideable feed versus a block colleagues can see

Last updated 17 September 2026

PrayerCal is a free WebCal subscription that adds prayer times as a separate, hideable calendar on Google, Apple, Outlook and anything that takes ICS. Sutrah's Apple path is the same kind of feed; on Google and Outlook it is a different tool, because it reads busy times and moves each block into a gap. Choose PrayerCal if you want a calendar nobody else has to see.

How this was checked

Everything below about PrayerCal comes from material Verge Labs Ltd (Huzaifah Jeewa), Bradford publishes, read on 17 September 2026. 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 Feature sets move; if something here is out of date, tell us at hello@sutrah.app and it gets corrected.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 PrayerCal does that Sutrah does not

PrayerCal never asks to read or write your existing events. It is a subscription you add as its own calendar, which you can hide in one click, and it is free with no account required beyond generating the feed. That is a smaller grant than Sutrah's Google or Outlook connection, and for anyone whose workplace will not allowlist a third-party calendar app, it is the path that actually works.

Two free calendar tools, two visibilities

PrayerCal is a UK product from Verge Labs Ltd, published by Huzaifah Jeewa in Bradford. You generate a personal WebCal feed in a couple of minutes, add it to Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, Outlook or anything else that speaks ICS, and the times refresh when the calendar polls. It is free. It adds as its own calendar, which you can hide in one click. The workplace copy on the homepage is close to Sutrah's: salah as an inclusive right at work, not something to squeeze between meetings.

That last sentence is where the products diverge. A separate, hideable calendar is a discretion feature. A busy block on the calendar other people book against is an availability feature. Both are legitimate. They solve opposite fears: being seen, versus being booked over.

What PrayerCal does better

It never asks to read or write your existing events. The privacy policy describes location used to generate times, anonymised to 100 metres, with an email so they can tell you if the feed breaks. That is a smaller grant than connecting Google or Outlook. If your workplace blocks third-party OAuth — the usual reason a Sutrah connection fails — a subscription URL is often the only thing that will get through. Sutrah offers the same kind of feed as a fallback, documented on the Apple Calendar page and in settings, but PrayerCal is built around that model rather than treating it as the lesser path.

It is also further along on the public-facing workplace story: a quote from Iqbal Nasim MBE on the homepage, and email templates for a manager listed as coming soon. Sutrahalready ships those templates at /templates, which is worth knowing if that is the feature you were waiting on.

What you give up

A feed cannot see your meetings. The blocks sit at their calculated times. When the standup is at 1pm and Dhuhr's window runs until Asr, the feed will still put Dhuhr at 1:12, because 1:12 is when the sun said so. Sutrah, on Google and Outlook, reads the busy times and puts Dhuhr in the gap the standup left, still inside the window. That is the entire reason to grant the larger permission.

Calculation methods: PrayerCal currently publishes the moonsighting.com / MCW method, with more options described as hoped-for. Sutrah defaults to the same committee on public pages and lets a signed-in user pick the other published conventions. If the two ever disagree, set both to whatever your masjid follows; see calculation methods.

Travel, local masjid congregation times, and manager email templates are listed on PrayerCal's homepage as coming soon. Sutrah has travel mode, Jumu'ah from a real masjid timetable, and the templates already. “Coming soon” is not a defect in a small product; it is just not a reason to wait if you need those this week.

Who should stay with PrayerCal

Anyone who wants the times on a calendar they can hide, who does not want OAuth, or whose IT team will not allowlist an app. That is a coherent position, and Sutrah will not pretend otherwise. The Apple path here is the same kind of tool; if that is all you need, PrayerCal is a peer, not a thing to switch from.

Switch if the problem is that people book the afternoon, and a hidden calendar would not have stopped them. In that case the feed is doing its job and the job is the wrong one.

At a glance

Read the rows about PrayerCal as a summary of what its makers publish, not as a verdict on the app.

Dimension	PrayerCal	Sutrah
What it is	A free WebCal micro-app: generate a subscription, add it to any calendar, hide it in one click.	A calendar integration. On Google and Outlook it writes events onto the calendar others book against; Apple is a pull-only feed.
How the times reach your calendar	A WebCal subscription that currently publishes three months at a time and refreshes when the calendar polls.	OAuth write on Google and Outlook, with a WebCal feed as the Apple path and as a fallback when IT blocks the connection.
Awareness of your meetings	Not described in its published material. PrayerCal is a feed you subscribe to; the calendar app displays whatever the feed contains.	On Google and Outlook it reads busy times and places each prayer in a real gap inside that prayer's window.
Discretion	Adds as a separate calendar. Published as one-click to hide, and quick to unsubscribe. Workplace copy frames salah as an inclusive right.	Writes onto the connected calendar so colleagues see busy time. You can rename a block to something neutral like 'Focus time'.
Calculation methods	Currently the moonsighting.com / Moonsighting Committee Worldwide method, with more options described as hoped-for.	The same MCW default on public pages, plus the other published conventions, both Asr positions, and three high-latitude rules.
Price	Free to use forever, as published. Email for product updates is optional.	Free, no card, no ads, no paid tier.

Which one is for you

Use PrayerCal if

You want a separate calendar you can hide, and you do not want to grant write access to anything.
Your workplace blocks third-party OAuth and a subscription URL is the only thing that will get through.
A feed of the times is enough; nobody else books your afternoon.

Use Sutrah if

Colleagues book over your afternoon, and a hidden calendar would not stop them.
You want the block to move when a meeting lands on it.
You need Jumu'ah from a real masjid, travel mode, or a printable month with the method printed on it.

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 PrayerCal free?: Yes. The site publishes it as free to use forever. You generate a WebCal subscription from your location and preferences and add it to any calendar that accepts ICS. Sutrah is also free. The difference is not price; it is whether the times sit on a separate calendar you can hide, or as busy blocks on the calendar other people book against.
Does PrayerCal need access to my Google or Outlook account?: Not in the way an OAuth calendar app does. PrayerCal is a WebCal feed: your calendar pulls times from their servers. That is a smaller grant than Sutrah's Google or Outlook connection, which is why it is the better fit when IT will not allowlist a third-party app, or when you do not want anyone writing events onto the calendar colleagues see.
Will PrayerCal move a block when someone books over it?: A subscription feed publishes times; the calendar app displays them. Sliding a block into a different gap inside the prayer's window is not in the material PrayerCal publishes. That behaviour is Sutrah's Google and Outlook path, and it is the reason those paths ask to read busy times.
Which calculation method does PrayerCal use?: The FAQ on prayercal.com, read in September 2026, says it currently uses the moonsighting.com method managed by the Moonsighting Committee Worldwide, and that more options are hoped for. Sutrah's public pages default to the same committee. Signed-in users can pick any supported convention. Method differences are schools and conventions, not a score.

Other comparisons

Or start from the whole comparison index, which includes the option most people should try first: doing nothing new at all.