AzanCast vs Mawaqit: Which Prayer Time Display is Right for Your Mosque?

If you are looking at digital prayer time displays for your masjid in 2026, you have probably come across two names that keep showing up: Mawaqit and AzanCast. Both are designed for mosques. Both show prayer times on a TV screen. Both offer free plans. But they take very different approaches, and the right choice depends on what your mosque actually needs.

This post is an honest comparison, written by the team behind AzanCast. We will be straightforward about where Mawaqit is genuinely strong and where it falls short, and the same for our own product. Our goal is not to trash the competition. It is to help you pick the right tool for your community.

Quick summary

If you want the short version:

• Pick Mawaqit if you want a free, open source, community built solution and you do not mind installing software on a dedicated Android box or PC.
• Pick AzanCast if you want a modern, hardware free setup that runs in any TV browser, with built in donation support, mobile app integration, and an option to send the adhan to your community's Amazon Alexa devices at home.

Both are valid choices for different mosques. Read on for the full breakdown.

What is Mawaqit?

Mawaqit is a French built mosque prayer time display platform that has been around since the late 2010s. It is open source and free for mosques to use. It became especially popular in Europe (France, Belgium, the UK), North Africa (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia), and any masjid with French speaking volunteers who could navigate the setup.

Mawaqit's main offering is a wall display application that you install on a dedicated device (typically an Android TV box or Mini PC) connected to a TV in your prayer hall. The display shows prayer times, iqama countdowns, Jumuah times, and announcements. It pulls calculated prayer times for your location and lets the imam adjust iqama times through an admin panel.

It also has a companion mobile app for the wider community, where Muslims can check their local masjid's prayer schedule from their phone.

Mawaqit's biggest strength is its community: thousands of mosques across Europe and North Africa use it, and there is a long history of volunteer contributions.

What is AzanCast?

AzanCast is a newer mosque platform built from the ground up for modern hardware: any device with a web browser. There is no app to install, no Android box to configure, no firmware to flash. You open a URL on your smart TV (or a 30 dollar Fire Stick, or even an old laptop) and the display loads.

AzanCast was designed around a few core ideas:

• Zero hardware lock in. It runs in any browser, on any device, in any country.
• Donations built in. Mosques can accept online donations through Stripe Connect with a QR code that appears directly on the prayer display.
• Alexa integration. The masjid's adhan can play on the Amazon Echo devices of any community member who chooses to link their account, automatically at every prayer time.
• Modern admin experience. Everything is managed from a clean web dashboard, no command line, no installer, no troubleshooting.

It is used by mosques in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Germany, Japan, and several other countries, with new masjids joining regularly.

Side by side comparison

Here is how the two compare across the dimensions that matter most for a mosque admin:

Hardware requirements

Mawaqit: Requires a dedicated device, usually an Android TV box, Raspberry Pi, or Mini PC, that you install the Mawaqit app on. The device sits behind your TV permanently. If the device crashes, you have to reboot it physically. If it needs updating, someone has to handle that.

AzanCast: Runs in any web browser. You can use your existing smart TV's built in browser, an Amazon Fire Stick (about 30 dollars), a Chromecast, or an old laptop. There is no installation. You just open a URL.

Winner for ease of setup: AzanCast. No hardware to buy, configure, or maintain.

Setup time

Mawaqit: Typically 30 minutes to 2 hours, depending on whether you need to flash a device, install the application, configure the network, and link it to your admin account.

AzanCast: Typically 5 minutes from creating an account to seeing prayer times on your TV. Sign up, enter your mosque info, pair your TV with a code, done.

Customization and themes

Mawaqit: Offers a fixed set of display layouts with limited customization. You can change some colors and text, but the visual style is uniform across all installations.

AzanCast: Offers 10 different display layouts (Islamic, classic, media, split, spotlight, minbar, horizon, arch, jumbo, ottoman, orbit, starlight) and 16 color themes. Pro plans also support media slides, slideshow rotation, and per-display independent settings. If you have multiple TVs in different rooms, each can have its own look.

Iqama times management

Both platforms allow your imam to set iqama times that are different from the calculated prayer times. Both update in real time. Both support timetable mode (uploading a full year of times in advance) and offset mode (calculated automatically with a fixed offset).

This is roughly even.

Languages

Mawaqit: Supports multiple languages including French, English, Arabic, Turkish, and others.

AzanCast: Supports six display languages (English, Arabic, Urdu, French, Turkish, Malay, Japanese) with right to left layout for Arabic and Urdu. The admin dashboard is currently English only, with translations coming.

Even, with slight advantages depending on what languages your community needs.

Donations

Mawaqit: Does not have built in donation processing. You can add an external donation link or QR code manually, but the platform itself is not designed around fundraising.

AzanCast: Donations are a core feature. Mosques can connect Stripe Connect in 5 minutes and immediately start accepting donations through a custom donation page (myazancast.com/donate/your-masjid). The donation QR code can be displayed on your prayer time TV, and donors can give in seconds during Jummah. Recurring donations, tax receipts, donor management, and CSV export are all built in.

Winner for fundraising: AzanCast, by a wide margin.

Mobile app

Mawaqit: Has a community mobile app where Muslims can find their local masjid's prayer times.

AzanCast: Has a mobile app (iOS, Android coming) where the community can view prayer times, get notifications, and stay connected to your mosque.

Even.

Alexa integration

Mawaqit: Does not currently offer an Alexa integration.

AzanCast: Brothers and sisters in your community can link their personal Amazon Echo devices to your masjid. At every prayer time, their Echo automatically announces the prayer and plays the adhan in their home, using your masjid's iqama times. This is a popular feature for elderly community members and parents who want to model prayer at home.

Winner for community engagement: AzanCast, this feature does not have a real equivalent in Mawaqit.

Cost

Mawaqit: Free, open source.

AzanCast: Free forever for the basics (1 paired TV, 3 layouts, 6 themes, all prayer time features, donations with a 5% platform fee). Pro is 20 dollars per month or 169 per year and unlocks unlimited displays, all 10 layouts, all 16 themes, media slides, slideshow rotation, logo upload, 2% donation fee instead of 5, and more.

Both are very affordable. Mawaqit is fully free, AzanCast has a free tier and an optional paid upgrade.

Reliability and updates

Mawaqit: Updates are manual and depend on whether your local volunteer is keeping the device up to date. If something breaks at 2am, you usually wait until morning for someone to look at it.

AzanCast: Updates are pushed automatically because it is a web application. Bug fixes and new features go live for everyone simultaneously. If something breaks, the team fixes it and your display gets the fix on the next page refresh.

Support

Mawaqit: Community based support through forums and volunteer maintainers.

AzanCast: Direct support from the team. Mosque admins can email us and get a response within a day, often the same day.

Where Mawaqit is genuinely better

Let us be honest. Mawaqit has some real strengths that AzanCast does not match:

• It is fully open source. If you have technical volunteers in your community who want to inspect or modify the code, Mawaqit gives you that freedom. AzanCast is closed source.
• It has a long history. Thousands of mosques have used it for years. There is a large community of volunteers and users to ask for help.
• It can run fully offline. Once installed, the Mawaqit application can show prayer times even if your internet goes down (the data is cached locally). AzanCast requires an internet connection because it is a web application. For mosques in areas with unreliable internet, this is a real advantage for Mawaqit.
• It has a strong reputation in French speaking communities. If your masjid is in France, Belgium, Quebec, Morocco, Algeria, or Tunisia, your community probably already knows the Mawaqit name.

If any of these matter more to you than the modern features AzanCast offers, Mawaqit may be the right choice.

Where AzanCast is genuinely better

And where we are confident we are stronger:

• No hardware required. You do not have to buy, install, configure, or maintain any physical device beyond a TV that has a web browser. This is a huge difference for less technical mosque admins.
• Donations are core. If your masjid wants to accept online donations and have a QR code on the TV, AzanCast does this out of the box with full Stripe integration, recurring giving, tax receipts, and donor management.
• Alexa at home integration. Your community can hear the adhan from your masjid in their own homes through their Amazon Echo, automatically. No other major mosque platform offers this.
• Modern, polished design. The display layouts and admin dashboard are designed for 2026 hardware and 2026 user expectations. Everything works on phones, tablets, and TVs without any configuration.
• Set up in 5 minutes. Most mosque admins go from "never heard of AzanCast" to "live on a TV in our prayer hall" in under 10 minutes total.
• Direct, responsive support. You email us, you get an answer.

Which one should your mosque pick?

Here is our honest recommendation:

Pick Mawaqit if:

• You have technical volunteers who can install and maintain a dedicated device
• Your mosque has frequent internet outages and needs offline operation
• You strongly prefer open source software
• You are in a French speaking community where Mawaqit is the established standard

Pick AzanCast if:

• You want zero hardware setup and no installation
• You want to accept online donations with a QR code on your prayer display
• You want to offer Alexa at home adhan to your community
• You want a modern, polished design that looks great on any TV
• You want direct support from the team building the product
• You want to be set up and live in 5 minutes

For most masjids in 2026, especially those without dedicated technical volunteers, AzanCast is the better fit. For technically self-sufficient mosques with strong open source preferences, Mawaqit remains a respectable choice.

Try AzanCast free

If AzanCast sounds like the right fit, you can sign up for free in under 5 minutes. No credit card required, no commitment, and you can remove your account anytime if it is not for you.

Get started at myazancast.com/mosques.

If you have questions about how AzanCast compares to your current setup (whether that is Mawaqit, MyMasjid, a paper printout, or anything else), email us at azancast@gmail.com and we will give you an honest answer.