TL;DR:Shabbat Shalom wins utility through a lightweight, offline-capable Zmanim calculation engine, but its reliance on manual location search and persistent location-saving bugs creates a friction-heavy user experience that risks churn to more polished religious utilities. Users feel Mixed, praising accurate prayer and candle lighting times provide essential utility for weekly religious observance but frustrated by inaccurate location-based scheduling times cause confusion and potential religious observance errors for users. The app provides essential offline utility, but persistent location-saving bugs threaten its core value proposition, so the team must prioritize technical stability over new features to prevent churn to MyZmanim..|TL;DR:Shabbat Shalom wins utility through a lightweight, offline-capable Zmanim calculation engine, but its reliance on manual location search and persistent location-saving bugs creates a friction-heavy user experience that risks churn to more polished religious utilities. Users feel Mixed, praising accurate prayer and candle lighting times provide essential utility for weekly religious observance but frustrated by inaccurate location-based scheduling times cause confusion and potential religious observance errors for users. The app provides essential offline utility, but persistent location-saving bugs threaten its core value proposition, so the team must prioritize technical stability over new features to prevent churn to MyZmanim..

Shabbat Shalom - שבת שלום is an established utilities app that is completely free. With a 4.6/5 rating from 1.1K reviews, it shows polarized user reception. Users particularly appreciate accurate prayer and candle lighting times provide essential utility for weekly religious observance, though inaccurate location-based scheduling times cause confusion and potential religious observance errors for users remains a common concern.

What is Shabbat Shalom - שבת שלום?

Shabbat Shalom is a utility app for tracking global Shabbat candle lighting and havdalah times on iOS and Android.

Users hire this app to manage weekly religious scheduling without needing constant internet access, serving the need for reliable, offline-accessible timekeeping.

Current Momentum

v4.2 · 26mo ago

Zombie
  • Fixed location search bug.
  • Fixed location saving bug.
AI-powered deep analysis surfacing high-signal insights. Still in beta, accuracy improves daily. For informational purposes only.

Active Nemesis

MyZmanim

MyZmanim

By MyZmanim

Other Rivals

Zmanim™
TorahAnytime
Sefaria: Jewish Texts Library
Chabad.org
Kosher Near Me

7-Day Rank Pulse 🇺🇸

Utilities

No ranking data

Rating Pulse 🇺🇸

Recent User MoodAI-powered deep analysis surfacing high-signal insights. Still in beta, accuracy improves daily. For informational purposes only.

What makes this app unique?

What Does It Look Like?

How Is The App's Momentum Right Now?

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What Are The Key Features?

Global Zmanim CalculationStandard

Calculates candle lighting and havdalah times for any global location

Offline ModeDifferentiator

Functions without an internet connection after initial location search

Parsha LookupStandard

Displays the weekly Torah portion for any selected location

How much does it cost?

Free
  • Free with ad support

The app is entirely free and monetized through ad inventory.

Who Built It?

RustyBrick, Inc. app icon 1
RustyBrick, Inc. app icon 2
RustyBrick, Inc. app icon 3
RustyBrick, Inc. app icon 4

RustyBrick

(2.5K)

Providing digital utilities and religious reference tools for the observant Jewish community to facilitate daily prayer and ritual observance.

Portfolio

11

Apps

Free 3Paid 7
Reference50%
Book10%
Navigation10%

Who is RustyBrick?

RustyBrick occupies a specialized niche as a developer of high-utility religious software, prioritizing functional depth over broad consumer appeal. Their moat lies in the integration of complex religious requirements—such as GPS-based prayer times and Shabbat-compliant logic—into mobile interfaces, creating high switching costs for a specific demographic. The publisher demonstrates a successful transition from simple utilities to professional-grade reference tools that command premium pricing in a category often dominated by free alternatives.

Who is RustyBrick for?

  • Observant Jewish individuals
  • Students
  • Travelers
  • Requiring precise religious tools for prayer
Maintenance

Portfolio momentum

Released 1 update in the last 6 months with 2 active apps out of 5 total — currently in a maintenance phase for its core titles.

Last release · 172d agoActive apps · 2Abandoned · 3

What do users think recently?

Low confidence · Latest 66 of 118 total reviews analyzed · Based on 118 reviews. Signal may be noisy.

How did the latest release land?

Overall
4.6/ 5
(1.1K)
Current version
4.1/ 5
-0.5 vs overall
(23)
Main signal post-update: inaccurate location-based scheduling times cause confusion and potential religious observance errors for users.

What is the recent mood?

Mixed

Recent user voice shows a mixed sentiment. Users appreciate accurate prayer and candle lighting times provide essential utility for weekly religious observance, but report inaccurate location-based scheduling times cause confusion and potential religious observance errors for users.

What Users Love

Accurate prayer and candle lighting times provide essential utility for weekly religious observance

What Frustrates Users

Inaccurate location-based scheduling times cause confusion and potential religious observance errors for users

What Users Want

Future date lookup functionality requested to assist travelers with long-term religious planning

What is the competitive landscape for Shabbat Shalom - שבת שלום?

How's The Utilities Market?

How does it evolve in the Utilities market?

The app maintains a 4.09 rating across 1,066 total ratings, but the lack of recent feature expansion relative to MyZmanim suggests a maintenance-mode posture.

ChartRankChange
AndroidFree#6968

The rivals identified

The Nemesis

Head to Head

To compete, the target app must either lean into its simplicity as a 'lite' alternative or integrate more advanced, user-requested calculation features to match the utility of MyZmanim.

What sets Shabbat Shalom - שבת שלום apart

  • Provides a more streamlined, lightweight interface for users who only require basic candle lighting and parsha data.

  • Offers a simpler, less intimidating user experience for those who do not require complex halachic customization.

What's MyZmanim's Edge

  • Delivers superior precision in halachic timekeeping, which is the primary value proposition for the core user base.

  • Maintains a more robust and frequently updated codebase, reducing the risk of technical debt and abandonment.

Contenders

Focuses exclusively on the Zmanim utility, providing a clean, distraction-free environment for time-sensitive religious tasks.

Maintains a high user satisfaction rating by prioritizing core functionality over secondary content or social features.

Peers

TorahAnytime

TorahAnytime

4.9 (10.6K)

TorahAnytime com Inc.

🚀

Captures the same religious audience through a video-first educational model rather than a utility-first model.

Dominates the educational niche with a massive library of on-demand video content that drives high retention.

Utilizes a content-heavy engagement strategy that keeps users returning daily for new lectures and classes.

Sefaria: Jewish Texts Library

Sefaria: Jewish Texts Library

4.5 (4.1K)

Sefaria

🚀

Adjacent utility that captures the same audience through deep integration of Jewish texts and study tools.

Provides an unparalleled, open-source digital library of Jewish texts that anchors the user within their ecosystem.

Maintains a high-velocity development cycle with frequent feature updates that keep the user base highly engaged.

Chabad.org

Chabad.org

4.7 (576)

Chabad.org Jewish Apps

While broader in scope, it serves the same audience and includes Zmanim as a core feature within a larger ecosystem.

Leverages a massive content library and brand authority that creates a high barrier to entry for utility-only apps.

Integrates Zmanim into a comprehensive lifestyle platform, increasing daily active usage through diverse religious content offerings.

New Kids on the Block

Focuses on location-based discovery, which provides a clear path for expanding into broader 'Jewish life' utility services.

Maintains active development cycles, suggesting a pivot toward more comprehensive community-focused features in the near future.

The outtake for Shabbat Shalom - שבת שלום

Strengths to defend, gaps to attack

Core Strengths

  • Offline-first architecture ensures consistent utility during Shabbat observance

Critical Frictions

  • Persistent location-saving bugs post-update prevent users from setting current city correctly

Growth Levers

  • Future date lookup functionality would assist travelers with long-term religious planning

Market Threats

  • MyZmanim's superior halachic precision siphons core users who prioritize accuracy for religious obligations

What are the next best moves?

highPivot

Rebuild location-saving logic because current bugs prevent users from setting their city → restore basic utility

Top complaint theme in user sentiment analysis.

Trade-off: Pause the future-date lookup feature sprint — core functionality must precede new feature development.

highMaintain

Audit halachic calculation accuracy because users report discrepancies → reduce religious observance errors

High-frequency complaint regarding scheduling accuracy.

Trade-off: Same-quarter capacity available — no major lever displaced.

A counter-intuitive read

The app's simplicity is its primary moat, as feature-bloated competitors like MyZmanim alienate users who only need basic candle lighting times.

Feature Gaps vs Competitors

  • Granular halachic customization (available in MyZmanim but absent here)
  • Automated reminder notifications (available in competitors but absent here)

Key Takeaways

The app provides essential offline utility, but persistent location-saving bugs threaten its core value proposition, so the team must prioritize technical stability over new features to prevent churn to MyZmanim.

Where Is It Heading?

Mixed Signals

The religious utility market is consolidating around high-precision, frequently updated tools, leaving this app exposed to churn. The team must address technical debt immediately to maintain relevance against competitors.

Persistent location-saving bugs post-update prevent users from setting their city, which erodes trust in the app's core scheduling utility.

Recent updates focused on bug fixes rather than feature expansion, indicating a maintenance-mode posture in a competitive utility market.

Disclosure

Independent intel to help builders create better apps.

AI-powered analysis with editorial review, built from publicly available sources. See methodology.

Marlvel.ai is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Shabbat Shalom - שבת שלום, its developer, the app publisher, Apple, or Google Play. All trademarks, logos, and screenshots referenced remain the property of their respective owners.

Hope this helps & keep building! · Found an error?

What's new in this report

The app's competitive position has weakened due to a drop in user ratings and the emergence of calculation accuracy complaints, prompting a shift in development priorities toward technical auditing.

declined

Rating Decrease

shifted

Complaint Focus

added

Parsha Lookup Feature

added

Calculation Accuracy Threat

Cite this report

Marlvel.ai. “Shabbat Shalom - שבת שלום Intelligence Report.” Updated May 15, 2026. https://marlvel.ai/intel-report/utilities/shabbat-shalom

Agent Markdown (.md)·

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