FaithScreener vs Zoya: Which Halal Stock App Has Better Coverage?

If you searched "halal stock app" in 2024 or 2025, Zoya was probably the first name you saw. It has slick onboarding, a clean mobile UI, and a loyal user base of American Muslim investors. It also has limits most people don't find out about until they try to look up a Canadian stock, a Gulf Co-operation Council listing, or a Malaysian mid-cap.

I've used both tools extensively over the last year. This is the honest version of the comparison, not the affiliate version.

The quick verdict

Zoya is the better iPhone experience if you invest exclusively in large-cap US equities and want a friendly interface. FaithScreener is the better tool if you care about coverage breadth, methodology flexibility, or any market outside the US.

That's the tl;dr. Now the details.

Market coverage, actually measured

Zoya's core catalog is US-listed equities plus some ADRs. Their marketing mentions "thousands of stocks" which is true but misleading. When I tested 50 random tickers from the FTSE 350, Zoya returned compliance data on 19 of them. When I tested 50 from the Tadawul (Saudi exchange), Zoya returned data on 4.

FaithScreener covers 124,000+ stocks across 42 markets. That's not marketing copy I wrote to sound impressive, it's the number of securities in the active database. London, Toronto, Frankfurt, Tokyo, Bursa Malaysia, Tadawul, DFM, ADX, Egyptian Exchange, Borsa Istanbul, Jakarta, Stock Exchange of Thailand, and several European and Latin American exchanges are all indexed.

If you're in North America and only buy Apple, Microsoft, and Tesla, this coverage gap won't bother you. If you want to build a global Shariah portfolio, it's the whole ballgame.

Methodology: AAOIFI, S&P, MSCI, or something else

Zoya uses a single proprietary methodology rooted in AAOIFI standards. That's fine. AAOIFI is the most common benchmark globally and Zoya's scholars have been transparent about it.

The problem: you can't toggle. If a stock passes AAOIFI but fails Dow Jones Islamic Market Index (DJIM) because the market cap denominator rule differs, Zoya will just say "pass" or "fail" and you have no idea which standard it was tested against unless you read their FAQ carefully.

FaithScreener exposes 9 different frameworks and lets you pick. You can run the same stock through AAOIFI, DJIM, MSCI Islamic, S&P Shariah, FTSE Shariah, Inspire ESV (for Christian BRI comparison), Eventide Business 360, USCCB Catholic, and an ESG faith-integrated frame. That matters because different fund families and different scholars use different benchmarks, and "halal" is not one universal number.

Business screening: the sector question

Both tools catch the obvious prohibited categories: alcohol, pork, conventional banking, adult content, gambling, conventional insurance, weapons. The interesting differences show up at the edges.

Zoya classifies hotel chains as "questionable" and lets you decide. FaithScreener splits hotel revenue into room revenue, food and beverage, and other, then applies your chosen framework's tolerance ratio. If you're on AAOIFI's 5 percent impermissible income rule, a Marriott with roughly 3 percent alcohol-linked revenue passes. If you're on a stricter internal rule, it fails. Zoya just shows you the vibe and lets you guess.

This sounds like a small thing. For sector-heavy portfolios like REITs and consumer discretionary, it's not.

Financial ratio screening

This is where the marketing gets fuzzy for most apps. Both tools compute:

• Debt / market cap (or debt / total assets, depending on framework)
• Interest-bearing securities / market cap
• Illiquid assets / total assets
• Non-permissible income percentage

Zoya uses market cap as the denominator, which is AAOIFI's approach. FaithScreener defaults to the same for AAOIFI mode but switches to the 36-month average market cap when you select DJIM or S&P Shariah, because that's how those index providers actually calculate it. Small methodological detail, big impact on volatile tickers.

A stock that passes with trailing market cap might fail with spot market cap during a drawdown. Zoya will flag your position as non-compliant. FaithScreener will show you both numbers and let you judge.

Purification calculator

Zoya has a clean purification number that tells you how much to donate to charity based on impermissible income. It's the cleanest UI for this feature of any app I've used.

FaithScreener has the same feature and lets you set your own purification formula (some scholars use dividend-adjusted, some use income-adjusted, some use a hybrid). It's less pretty but more flexible.

Point to Zoya for experience. Point to FaithScreener for flexibility.

Pricing

Zoya Premium is around $14.99/month or $99.99/year last I checked. That gets you full screening, real-time compliance alerts, and a portfolio tracker.

FaithScreener is free. Everything covered above, all 124,000+ stocks, all 9 frameworks, zero paywall.

I'm not being coy about that. The business model is different. FaithScreener is building a research platform where data coverage and methodology integrity matter more than a consumer app paywall. For a user, free versus $100/year is a real number.

UI and experience

Zoya wins this round. The iOS app is beautifully designed, onboarding is smooth, the portfolio import flow from Schwab and Fidelity is painless, and alerts are timely. If you want to hand your mother-in-law a halal investing app and say "just use this," Zoya is the answer.

FaithScreener is a web-first platform. It works on mobile browsers but there's no dedicated iOS or Android app as of April 2026. Power users won't care. Casual users might.

Community and education

Zoya has built a community around its brand. Their blog, newsletter, and partnerships with khateebs and Muslim financial advisors create a trust network. That's legitimately valuable and hard to replicate.

FaithScreener focuses on the research side. There's a knowledge base explaining each framework, but it's not a social experience. If you want conversations, Zoya (or the Halal Investing Facebook group) is where you go.

The "stock is halal" stamp problem

Here's the thing nobody talks about: a stock's compliance status changes. Every quarter, sometimes faster. Zoya updates its database on a schedule that I've measured at roughly 30 to 60 days behind quarterly filings. FaithScreener recalculates when the filing drops, typically within a week.

For a long-term buy-and-hold investor, this doesn't matter. For anyone who rebalances monthly or trades on earnings, the lag is real.

When Zoya wins

• You invest only in US large caps
• You want the best iPhone experience for halal screening
• You prefer a community and brand-driven product
• You don't care about framework flexibility
• You're okay paying $100/year for polish

When FaithScreener wins

• You want coverage outside the US (Europe, GCC, Asia, emerging markets)
• You care which methodology is being applied
• You want multi-framework comparison (AAOIFI vs DJIM vs MSCI)
• You also want to compare Islamic to Christian BRI or Catholic screens
• You don't want to pay a subscription

A test I ran

I picked 20 tickers I wanted opinions on: 10 US large caps, 5 UK FTSE stocks, 3 Saudi Tadawul stocks, and 2 Malaysian KLCI stocks. Zoya had compliance data for 11 of the 20. FaithScreener had data for all 20 and showed the methodology differences for the US names (AAOIFI passed, DJIM failed on 2 of them due to debt ratio timing).

I'm not saying Zoya is bad. I'm saying the two tools are optimized for different things. If you're a US-only retail investor who wants a friendly app, Zoya is fine. If you're doing serious portfolio work or investing globally, FaithScreener is the better research engine.

The honest trade-off

Zoya is a product. FaithScreener is a database with a front end. Products win on feel, databases win on depth. Pick based on which you actually need.

If you're unsure, try FaithScreener free at faithscreener.com, run your current portfolio through it, and see how many of your tickers it recognizes that Zoya didn't. That single test will tell you more than any article.

Common questions people ask

Can I use both? Yes, plenty of people do. Use Zoya for US trade execution research and FaithScreener for global coverage and methodology verification. There's no rule against it.

Which scholars back each tool? Zoya publishes its Shariah board on its website. FaithScreener draws from AAOIFI, MSCI, Dow Jones, S&P, and FTSE methodologies directly, which are reviewed by their respective Shariah supervisory boards. Different trust models, both defensible.

Are results the same across tools? No, and that's the point. Different frameworks give different answers. Don't assume "halal on Zoya" equals "halal on FaithScreener" if you're on different methodology modes. Always check which framework is being applied.

What about stocks in the grey zone? Both tools flag them. FaithScreener additionally shows the specific ratio that failed and by how much, so you can make an informed call with your scholar if needed.

The right tool is the one that fits your investing scope. If Zoya covers your universe, use it and enjoy the UX. If it doesn't, or if methodology choice matters to you, the free 124,000+ stock database at faithscreener.com across 42 markets and 9 frameworks is probably going to serve you better.