A note before we start: We make Sunday, one of the apps in this list, so we're not a neutral referee. We've tried to keep this useful anyway, and we'll point you to a better fit when there is one.
Features and pricing change. Check the current App Store listing before paying for anything. And before you record at church, it's worth reading our short guide on recording a sermon at church.
Recording a sermon takes the pressure off.
You don't have to catch every sentence in the moment. You can listen, jot down what matters, and know the details are waiting for you if you want them later.
The trick is choosing an app that records reliably and gives you something usable afterward - not a two-hour audio file you never open again.
What matters in a sermon recording app?
It has to be reliable. The one recording you wanted is the one you can't afford to lose. Start it, confirm it's running, and trust it to keep going with the screen off.
A transcript makes long audio easier to use. Few people want to scrub through a 40-minute recording just to find one line. A transcript lets you skim, search, and get back to the part you actually wanted.
You need to find it again. A recording buried in a list of "New Recording 47" is almost as good as lost. Names, dates, or notes attached to it help.
Sharing should be easy. If you want to send a clip or a quote to a friend, that should take seconds.
Storage and battery should behave. Long recordings add up. It helps if the app is efficient and syncs somewhere safe.
At a glance
| App | Best for | Transcribes the audio | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sunday | Recording tied to your sermon notes | Built in | See App Store |
| Voice Memos | The simplest built-in recorder | Yes, on supported iPhones | Free |
| Apple Notes | A note and a recording together | Yes, on supported iPhones | Free |
| Otter | A searchable transcript above all | Yes | Free tier + paid |
Sunday - best when the recording belongs with your notes
Sunday records and transcribes the sermon as part of taking notes, not as a separate task.
You open a note, start the recording, and write as much or as little as you want while the message is captured. Afterward, your notes, the audio, and the transcript live together, organized around the sermon instead of scattered across different apps.
That's the whole idea: you should not have to choose between listening, writing, and recording. You do a little of each, and nothing gets lost.
The tradeoff is focus. Sunday is a sermon app for iPhone, not a general-purpose recorder for lectures, meetings, and interviews. If you want one recorder for everything, something more generic may suit you better.
Choose Sunday if: you want your recording, transcript, and notes kept together and organized around church.
Skip it if: you want a single recorder for every kind of audio, or you're on Android.
Voice Memos - best for the simplest possible recording
Voice Memos is already on your iPhone, and it could not be simpler: open it, tap record, done.
For a lot of people that's genuinely enough. It captures audio, syncs through iCloud, lets you trim and share recordings, and on supported iPhones it can show a live or post-recording transcript that you can search.
Where it falls short for sermons is the context around the recording. Your sermon notes still live somewhere else, and the recording isn't organized around a passage, speaker, series, or application.
Choose Voice Memos if: you want the simplest built-in recorder and don't mind keeping your sermon notes somewhere else.
Skip it if: you want the recording, transcript, and your own sermon notes kept together as one Sunday-morning workflow.
Apple Notes - best if you want the note and the audio in one place
Apple Notes is more capable than most people realize. On supported iPhones and languages, it can record audio and generate a transcript right inside a note - so you can type a few lines and capture the message at the same time, then search the transcript later.
If you already live in Apple Notes, that's a lot of value for free.
The catch is that a sermon becomes just another note next to your grocery list and screenshots. There is no church-specific structure, and the recording tools are general-purpose rather than built for a service.
Choose Apple Notes if: you want a free, familiar app that can hold a note and a recording together.
Skip it if: you want your sermons organized as their own thing rather than mixed in with everything else.
Otter - best when the transcript is the point
Otter is built around turning speech into a searchable, shareable transcript, and it's good at it. It records, transcribes as it goes, and works across iPhone, Android, and the web, with a free tier and paid plans for longer recordings.
If your main goal is an accurate text version of the message you can search and quote, Otter is worth a look.
The tradeoff is that it's built for meetings and business, not church. It has no sense of a sermon, a passage, or a series, and the free tier has limits you'll eventually hit.
Choose Otter if: a clean, searchable transcript matters more to you than anything church-specific.
Skip it if: you want something simpler, free, or designed around Sunday morning.
So, which should you use?
If you just want the audio and nothing else, Voice Memos is already on your phone.
If you want a note and a recording together for free, Apple Notes is a strong default.
If the transcript is what you're really after, Otter does that one job well.
And if you want the recording, transcript, and notes to live together, organized around the sermon itself - that's what Sunday is for.
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Record the sermon, keep the notes
Sunday records and transcribes the message while you take notes, then keeps it all together so you can come back to it later.
Download Sunday for iPhoneFrequently asked questions
What is the best app to record a sermon on iPhone?
It depends on what you want afterward. If you want the recording tied to your notes and a transcript, Sunday is built for that. If you just want raw audio, Voice Memos is free and already on your phone.
Apple Notes can record and transcribe on supported iPhones, and Otter is a good option if you mainly care about a searchable transcript.
Can I record a sermon with my screen off?
Yes. iPhone recording apps generally keep recording when the screen locks, so you can start the recording, set your phone down, and keep listening.
It's still worth doing a short test recording first, so you know it works on your device and that the microphone isn't covered.
Is it OK to record a sermon at church?
For personal use it's usually fine, but it's courteous to check your church's policy first, and important not to republish a recording without permission.
We wrote a short guide on recording a sermon at church that covers etiquette and practical tips.