The same Quran app, republished under a new package name: Pakistani indie dev Sahal Apps hit 650k installs in three months

Ali Tahir, a developer from Layyah district in Punjab, Pakistan, took his already-working Quran reading app, gave it a new package name and new keywords under his account Sahal Apps, and relaunched it at the end of July as Al Quran Kareem. Three months later it has 655k installs on Google Play, +7k in the last 168 days, and reached the top ten of the free Books charts in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Nigeria. The product is nearly identical to the previous package. The volume was driven by store search and (most likely) paid acquisition, with money coming back from ads.

A 272-upvote review: "too many ads"

In 2026 Aug 24, a user named Syed Rehman gave Al Quran Kareem 5 stars with one line: "excellent. but too many ads." Over two months later, the review has 272 "helpful" votes and is the top review on the app's page (Google Play store page, 11-06).

Most reviews below it sound the same: "Masha'Allah", "very good app", mixed with some Urdu in Roman script ("App bahot achi hai. Quran pak prhany ka maza ata hai", the app is great, reading the Quran is a pleasure), plus Bengali and Persian. There are angry ones too: in Oct 13 a user gave 1 stars: "No bookmark feature. You made it a money tool. I've uninstalled it." In Oct 5 another 1-star review was just four letters and an emoji: "too much ads 😡".

These reviews are pretty much the whole story of the app: users genuinely need it, and the developer earns from ads off that need.

What it is

An app for reading the Quran on your phone, with recitation audio and translations, that works offline. The store page leads with "13-line, 15-line, 16-line Quran" layouts: the Mushaf formats common in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, which differ from the 15-line Uthmani edition used in most Arab countries. It also offers color, black-and-white and Tajweed (recitation-rule color coding) layouts, plus bookmarks and resume-where-you-left-off (though some reviews say they can't find the bookmarks).

There's nothing in the features that the top apps don't already have. What sets it apart is on the store page: the description repeats bolded terms like Al Quran, Quran Majeed, Holy Quran, Quran Kareem, Quran Sharif, Quran Tilawat and Offline Quran dozens of times. Titles were rewritten by country in more than a dozen versions: in Saudi Arabia it's "القرآن المجيد: القرآن الكريم", in Indonesia "Al Quran: Baca & Terjemahan", in Turkey "Quran Majeed: Kuran-ı Kerim", in Italy "Corano: Lettura e Audio", and in Japan "コーラン：アル・クルアーン" (Google Play regional charts, 11-06). Several regions use "Quran Majeed" in the title, the name of Pakdata's long-running Quran app in Pakistan, which has 4,000+ million installs.

How big it is now and how it grew

The shape of the curve is the most telling part. Daily additions were a few hundred in August, two to three thousand in September, and ten to thirty thousand in October, with a few sudden jumps up a level (10-07 about 30k a day, 10-20 about 51k a day). Organic content hits usually form a spike and then fall off. This stepped climb looks more like someone raising ad budgets level by level (inferred). The ratio of installs to ratings is roughly 400:1: lots of installs, few people speaking up, which also looks bought.

A three-month-old new app has added roughly as many users in 7 days as the 70M-install incumbent Al QURAN from 9D Muslim Apps did over the same period (+188k). In this category, growth like that has to be bought.

Where users come from

• Store search: this one can be confirmed. Muslims worldwide search for "Quran" using a dozen different names, so it wrote each one into the description, translated titles into local naming per country, and borrowed an established brand's name.
• Paid acquisition: not directly verified. The developer doesn't show up in Google's or Meta's public ad libraries, but that doesn't mean it isn't spending. The stepped curve, low engagement, and users concentrated in cheap-install countries like Nigeria, India and Bangladesh, combined with ad monetization, most plausibly mean it is buying Google app ads (inferred).
• South Asians in the Gulf: it ranks highest in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, yet most reviews are in Urdu and Bengali. The Gulf has a large South Asian workforce, and 16-line layouts are what they grew up reading (inferred).
• In-house portfolio: the "More by Sahal Apps" section at the bottom of the store page lists 4 other Muslim apps from the same developer. Whether they cross-promote inside the app wasn't checked.
• Social and media: none. No TikTok videos about Sahal Apps turned up in search, nobody on X mentioned it in 90 days, and there is no press coverage.

One account, several doors opened with the same code

Sahal Apps has 5 apps, about 6.15M installs combined, all Muslim tools (Google Play, 11-06):

There is also an earlier one, "Tazkiah: Al Quran, Learn Quran", now delisted. The pattern is clear: the same Quran engine is repeatedly republished under new package names, budget gets added to whichever one works, and small tools like Qibla direction and prayer times fill out the portfolio. Al Quran Kareem and 16-lines have almost identical feature descriptions, so it's effectively the same product opening a second door in the store, taking another set of keywords and chart slots.

Where the money comes from

Mainly ads. The store page is labeled "Contains ads", and the developer's "website" is a page hosting an app-ads.txt file authorizing three ad networks: Google AdMob, Meta Audience Network and Tappx. There are also in-app purchases priced $14.99–$99.99, but a third-party estimate puts this app's October in-app revenue under $5,000, and the developer's 5 apps combined at a few thousand to fifty thousand dollars a month (AppGazers, in-app purchases only). No public figures exist for ad revenue.

The logic is an arbitrage: buy installs cheaply in Nigeria, India, and Bangladesh; users open it every day to read and listen, and each open shows ads. As long as the ad revenue from a user who stays exceeds the cost of acquiring them, keep raising the budget. The curve climbs in steps, which suggests the math works out (inferred).

Who it's competing with

The Quran is one of the most crowded religious categories on Google Play.

A cluster of similar-playbook launches this year: Azan Quran (2.88M), AyahDeck (870k), and Switch Studio's Al QURAN (700k). On Oct 22, Ayahfy and SmartPocket's "Holy Quran: Quran Majeed" appeared on the same day (even the name collides), one at 60k installs a week, the other already at #9 in the Nigeria Books chart. Nobody is clearly copying anyone; this category is simply full of clones competing on store pages and budgets.

If it were you

Bottom line: you can learn a practical distribution playbook here, but copying it for the Quran isn't a great bet. The product has no barrier, clones launch every month, and the game is who runs the more detailed acquisition math with more budget.

Who it fits: small teams already running Google App ads, comfortable with AdMob and mediation price tuning, with a budget they can afford to lose on tests. Ideally based in South Asia, the Middle East, or Africa, so they know how locals search for and name these things.

Who it doesn't fit: anyone who hasn't run paid ads and is counting on organic installs; anyone trying to win on features (that path belongs to something like Tarteel, which needs real craft); anyone uncomfortable with the reputational risk of "too many ads" complaints and religious content.

How to do it:

• Copy the playbook, change the audience: demand that is "opened daily, huge population, cheap installs", such as Bible apps for Africa and South Asia, Hindu scripture and daily prayers, Sikh Gurbani, Buddhist sutra reading, and lunar and almanac apps by country. Use the same template: one reading-and-audio engine, titles and terms localized per country, ad monetization. First check the top apps in each category and pick ones still using the generic English version where local names aren't saturated.
• If you do build a Quran app, go after what it does badly: fewer ads or a one-time purchase to remove them, solid bookmarks and reading progress, word-by-word translation in Urdu and Bengali for Gulf and South Asian workers. Those are the complaints that come up most in its reviews.
• Copy its "one codebase, many doors" approach: once one package works, ship another with a different package name and keyword set, and fill the matrix with small utilities (qibla, prayer times, reminders) cross-linked through "More by".

How to acquire users: start with store search: write a dozen-plus local terms for the Quran into the description, and translate the title for each country. Then use Google App ads, starting with cheap markets like Nigeria, Bangladesh, and India. Run a small budget for two weeks, and calculate whether a user's ad revenue within 7 days exceeds what you paid to acquire them. If the math works, raise budgets step by step.

When to move: this demand has no seasonality and you can build anytime. But one to two months before the next Ramadan (around 2027 February) is when search and ad prices peak all year. To catch that wave, get your store page and ad accounts running before December.

What would mean you read it wrong:

• Al Quran Kareem's weekly installs fell below tens of thousands by late November, and it hasn't shipped a new version. That suggests the budget stopped, and the margin math may not hold up.
• The app or its developer's other packages get delisted or throttled by Google Play. Running clones under one account and stacking keywords already sits close to the store's policy limits.
• If you run a small budget for two weeks and per-user ad revenue never covers install cost, this path doesn't work in your category. Don't keep adding money.

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Data and sources: Google Play store pages, reviews, and regional Books charts (10-29 to 11-06); install curves since launch are third-party estimates from AppstoreSpy; in-app purchase revenue is a third-party estimate from AppGazers (October); the developer's app-ads.txt page; TikTok and X search (11-06). Anything marked "inferred" or "estimated" is an inference or estimate.