SUMMARY
1Ramadan is a Ramadan countdown app that DuaLab built, shipped to Google Play, and still operates. It counts down to the start of the blessed month in real time for Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei, offers an opt-in reminder before the first fast, and puts the day count on the Android home screen as a widget. It is the studio's own product: DuaLab carries the store listing, the reviews, and the maintenance itself.
What problem does 1Ramadan solve?
Muslims prepare for Ramadan, and preparation needs a date. The start depends on each authority's own announcement, and the month begins at Maghrib on the eve rather than at midnight, so a countdown that ignores both shows the wrong moment. 1Ramadan answers one question well, which is how long until Ramadan begins where you are, and layers an opt-in reminder and a home-screen widget on top of that single answer.
What is 1Ramadan built with?
1Ramadan is built with React Native on Expo: one codebase for the app, a native widget for the home screen. Reminders are local notifications scheduled on the device, so they fire without a server, and the Ramadan dates ship bundled so the app works offline. Corrections go out over the air with EAS Update rather than waiting on a store review. It ships no analytics and no advertising SDK, which is what lets its privacy policy say plainly that it collects nothing. The same stack is what DuaLab quotes for client builds, because operating it in production is the test a stack either survives or fails.
What did operating it teach?
Three lessons from operating it, listed below:
- Seasonal apps live and die by the spike. Interest multiplies in the weeks before Ramadan and falls after Eid. Store listings, review prompts, and content pipelines have to be ready before Rejab, not during Syaaban.
- Being right about the date is the product. The countdown arithmetic is trivial; knowing that the month turns at Maghrib on the eve, and that Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and Bandar Seri Begawan each have their own sunset and their own authority, is the actual work.
- Restraint keeps reviews kind. Every feature request declined kept the app fast and focused. Small by design is a strategy, not a limitation.
What would this build cost?
A single-purpose app of this shape (countdown, notifications, location logic, widget) is DuaLab's RM 15,000 tier, delivered in 4–6 weeks. An agency quotes the same scope at USD 7,000–11,000. The difference between the quotes is overhead, not features: the Islamic app cost guide breaks the factors down.
Want an app in this category? Start at Prayer & Ramadan apps.