Why I stopped looking for an "Islamic super app" and built the simplest Quran app I could open every single day
(formerly known as FastiQuran)
I didn't build Quran Today because I thought the existing Quran apps were bad.
Quite the opposite. Many of them are genuinely excellent.
I built it because I was looking for a different kind of Quran reading experience — a free Quran app, with no ads, and no extra steps standing between me and actually reading.
It Started With Something Simple
I only had two Quran apps on my phone. Both are among the most popular on the Play Store, and honestly, they deserve to be.
They're packed with features. Prayer times, qibla direction, daily duas, dzikir, tafsir, translations, recitations from dozens of qaris, worship reminders, and a long list of other supporting tools.
I never saw that as a flaw.
The problem was on my end.
I realized that almost every time I opened one of those apps, I was only trying to do one thing.
I wanted to keep reading the Quran. Nothing more.
I never opened the qibla compass. I rarely checked prayer times. I almost never touched the extra features — features that were, honestly, very well made.
All I wanted was one simple experience.
Open the app. Return to the last verse. Read. Done.
Over time, it started to feel like Quran apps were quietly turning into Islamic super apps — while all I wanted was a quiet, digital mushaf.
I Wasn't Looking for More Features
So I started asking myself a question. If my needs were this simple, why did the apps I used keep getting more complex?
More menus. More screens. More things to click through before I could actually start reading.
Even the app size kept growing, carrying capabilities that might be useful to someone, somewhere — but that I almost never used.
I began to think that maybe I didn't need a more complete app.
What I actually needed was an app that was more honest about its one real purpose: helping someone read the Quran.
About Gamification
There's one more thing I kept coming back to.
Lately, more and more apps lean on gamification. Reading streaks. Badges. Stats. Daily targets. Notifications reminding you not to lose your progress.
I understand the reasoning. As someone who builds apps myself, I know these mechanics genuinely increase engagement.
But the more I sat with it, the more I felt that the Quran occupies a different kind of place in someone's life.
A person's relationship with the Quran isn't a relationship between a user and an app. It's a relationship between a servant and the word of their Lord.
I personally don't think that relationship needs to be propped up by numbers. It doesn't need to be protected by the fear of breaking a streak. It doesn't need to feel like a game you're supposed to win.
If today I read one page with real presence of heart, that's already enough. If tomorrow I read less, my relationship with the Quran still isn't something a graph can measure.
Plenty of people genuinely like gamification, and there's nothing wrong with that. I just know I'm not one of them.
So I Decided to Build It Myself
That's where Quran Today was born.
Not out of a desire to build something more impressive. Not because I thought I could build the "best" Quran app out there.
I just wanted to build the app I myself would want to open every day.
The principle was simple:
- When you open the app, it takes you straight back to your last read verse.
- No friction before you start reading.
- No feature that exists just because "every other app has it."
- No ads.
- No tracking of reading habits.
- No streaks.
- No virtual rewards.
I wanted an app that, once opened, barely feels like it's there at all. Because the focus was never meant to be the app.
It was always meant to be the Quran.
Building It Turned Out to Be Harder Than It Sounded
The first version of Quran Today was built in Flutter. It shipped. It launched successfully.
But the results were unremarkable. About five hundred people installed it.
At first, I was disappointed. I wondered if I'd just built yet another version of something that already existed hundreds of times over.
After sitting with that for a while, though, I realized the idea wasn't the problem. How I built it was.
The user experience wasn't mature enough. A lot of the design decisions hadn't actually solved the problem I originally set out to solve.
That's when I made a fairly drastic call. I rebuilt everything from scratch.
Not just a new tech stack — I restructured almost the entire foundation of the app. The codebase was simplified to be easier to maintain and extend. The interface was redesigned over and over until it finally felt natural to use.
I spent a surprising amount of time on questions that seemed small.
What's the most comfortable way to switch between surahs? Does the app even need a home screen? Should the surah list fill the whole screen, appear as a panel, or just be a simple dialog? How should verses be displayed — as cards, like modern apps do, or flowing continuously, like a mushaf?
Questions like these ended up taking far more time than writing the code itself.
There Were Moments I Wanted to Quit
Not every day felt good.
Some nights I closed my laptop not because the work was done, but because my head was simply too full.
Sometimes I'd think, "Is any of this actually worth it?"
I think almost anyone who's ever built something alone has had that moment.
But every time that question came up, I kept coming back to the same answer.
If an app like this didn't exist yet, then I'd build it. And if it turned out that I was the only one who ever used it, that would be fine too — because I built it for myself in the first place.
I've Made Peace With That Possibility
Quran Today may never become the number one Quran app.
It may never have millions of users. It may never go viral.
And I'm genuinely at peace with that.
I'd rather have an app I actually open every single day than one that's wildly popular but has lost the reason it was built in the first place.
If it turns out other people are also looking for a calm, simple, distraction-free way to read the Quran, I'll be genuinely grateful. It would mean I'm not alone in wanting this.
Why the Name Changed
The app was originally called FastiQuran.
That name came from an idea about speed. Fast to open. Fast to use. Fast to get back to reading.
But the longer I worked on it, the more I realized that name only explained how the app worked. Not why it existed.
Eventually I landed on two words that felt much closer to the real purpose.
Quran Today.
Because in the end, this app was never really about speed. Never about technology. Never about how many features it had.
It just wants to be ready, whenever someone wants to come back to the Quran — today.
Today. At the exact verse they left off. Without friction. Without pressure. Without needing to be anything more than someone who reads the Quran.
I don't know if Quran Today will ever become a big app.
But I know one thing.
Tomorrow morning, when I want to read the Quran again, this is the app I'll open.
And maybe that's the best reason Quran Today exists at all.
If you're also looking for a calm Quran app — no ads, no account, no streaks making you feel guilty for missing a day — Quran Today is free to download on Google Play. No hidden costs, no premium tier. Install it once, and every time you open it, you're right back at the last verse you read.
About the Author
Cahyanudien Aziz Saputra — Founder of FlagoDNA, building software for Muslim life with a focus on privacy, simplicity, and long-term digital independence. Developer. Writer. Independent.
Personal Website · LinkedIn · Get Quran Today on Google Play
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