Zoya vs Islamicly: Which Shariah Stock Screener Fits a Canadian DIY Investor?

Two apps answer the same question — "is this stock halal?" — in very different ways. Zoya is the focused compliance engine we run every stock on this site through: type a ticker, read the ratio breakdown, purify the dividends. Islamicly is the broader platform: scholar-pedigree screening across most major markets, 7,000+ pre-built Shariah-compliant "Moons" portfolios tracking popular funds and ETFs, portfolio scorecards, and purification alerts. We compared them feature by feature, checked the claims against their official pages, and scored each for a Canadian investor who buys through Questrade or Wealthsimple Trade.

By the Canadian Halal Investor Editorial Team · Updated October 2, 2026

Updated October 2026 · 10-minute read · Reviewed by the Canadian Halal Investor team

Zoya vs Islamicly at a glance

For the screening concepts behind both apps — business-activity screens, financial-ratio screens, and why purification exists — see our Shariah screening methodology page. For the full picture of how we use screeners across the site, browse our stock screener library.

Zoya in detail

Zoya's strength is focus. Type a ticker and you get a compliance rating — compliant, questionable, or non-compliant — plus the in-depth report behind it: the business-activity and financial-ratio breakdown, so you can see why a stock passed or failed instead of taking a badge on faith. That transparency is why it is the screening engine behind every DIY recommendation on this site; see our full Zoya review for the walkthrough.

Two features do the heavy lifting for ETF investors. First, ETF look-through: Zoya filters the underlying holdings of thousands of ETFs and mutual funds by compliance status, so you can see what percentage of a fund is actually compliant before buying it in your brokerage — essential for funds like WSHR that we cover in our halal ETF comparison. Second, purification: every holding shows a purification ratio, the portion of dividends treated as impermissible income to donate. Connect your brokerage and Zoya imports your holdings, tracks portfolio-level compliance, emails you when a company's status changes, and automates the zakat calculation on your stocks. It also publishes a free zakat calculator for stocks on the web.

Zoya's core screening is free. Paid tiers unlock deeper portfolio analytics and expanded zakat features; pricing is shown only inside the app, so check there before subscribing. There is no affiliate program — we recommend it as the screening methodology used throughout this site, not as a commission play.

Islamicly in detail

Islamicly's headline feature is breadth. It publishes the Shariah compliance status of stocks in most major global markets, updated daily, and for each stock it shows the reason for its status plus the dividend purification ratio — green tabs for compliant, red for non-compliant, searchable by name, ticker, market, or sector. Link your stock portfolio and the free Shariah Compliance Score Card screens it in about 60 seconds, with detailed compliance reports at no cost.

The differentiator is Islamicly Moons: more than 7,000 pre-built Shariah-compliant model portfolios that track the investing styles of existing ETFs and mutual funds. Instead of asking "what percent of this fund is compliant?" (Zoya's look-through question), Moons asks "give me the Shariah-compliant subset of this fund's strategy." For an investor who likes a popular fund's approach but needs it screened, that is a genuinely different — and useful — answer. Islamicly says it adds more Moons regularly.

On the maintenance side, Islamicly monitors your holdings and sends app notifications when a stock turns non-compliant — including what it calls cut-off dates, the deadline by which you should clear the position. It calculates the purification amount in-app, connects with 30+ brokers globally so holdings import automatically, and runs a discussion forum for Shariah-compliant stocks. Two features are explicitly India-only and irrelevant to Canadians: 24K (999 purity) Shariah-compliant gold savings and 999-purity silver savings with vault storage and doorstep delivery. Islamicly's own FAQ says you cannot currently invest through the app itself — check a stock's status in Islamicly, then invest through your preferred broker. (A newer section of its site describes investing through connected brokers; either way, Canadian users should treat it as a screener-plus-tracker and execute trades in their Canadian brokerage.)

Pricing mirrors Zoya's shape: the core screening and the portfolio scorecard are free, and a premium "Best Saver Plan" (yearly, quarterly, monthly) unlocks more. Prices are not published on Islamicly's site — the plan page renders price placeholders — so check inside the app before paying. We found no public affiliate program for Islamicly, so this page carries no affiliate links.

Pricing: what is free, what is paid

Both apps follow the same freemium shape, and both keep their actual prices inside the app rather than on their websites — so treat any dollar figure you see quoted elsewhere with suspicion, and verify in the app before subscribing.

• Zoya: core screening — compliance ratings for thousands of stocks, ETF look-through, basic reports — is free. Premium tiers add deeper portfolio analytics, advanced alerts, and expanded zakat features.
• Islamicly: the stock screener, the free Shariah Compliance Score Card for a linked portfolio, and detailed compliance reports are free. The "Best Saver Plan" premium tiers (yearly, quarterly, monthly billing) unlock more.

Head to head: what matters for Canadians

Screening methodology. Both apply AAOIFI-style two-gate screening — business-activity screens plus financial-ratio screens — so they usually agree on clearly compliant or clearly non-compliant companies. The difference is pedigree and presentation. Islamicly leans on institutional credibility: research from a firm with 20+ years in Shariah equity screening, scholars on the AAOIFI Shariah Board, and a claim of 200+ institutional clients and 300,000+ users over two decades. Zoya's edge is transparency in the interface: the ratio breakdown is front and center on every stock page, so you see the 4.8%-impermissible-revenue stock for what it is rather than as a green badge. When the two disagree on a borderline name, read both breakdowns — the footnotes, not the badge, tell you why.

ETFs and funds: look-through vs Moons. This is the sharpest functional difference. Zoya answers "how compliant is this ETF?" by screening its holdings and showing the breakdown — ideal if you already hold or are considering a specific fund. Islamicly Moons answers "build me the compliant version of this fund's strategy" with 7,000+ pre-built model portfolios tracking benchmark ETFs and mutual funds. If you buy ETFs, Zoya's look-through is the more direct tool; if you want stock-picking ideas in the style of a fund you admire, Moons is the more interesting one. We previously compared Zoya against a third screener, Musaffa, in Zoya vs Musaffa — worth reading if you want a second data point on how screening apps differ.

Purification. Both show a per-stock dividend purification ratio, and both calculate the purification amount for you. Islamicly adds an operational nudge Zoya does not: when a holding turns non-compliant it notifies you with a cut-off date to clear the position. Zoya's purification data feeds directly into the workflow on this site — screen, buy, then cleanse dividends annually with our purification calculator.

Zakat. Zoya automates zakat from imported brokerage holdings and publishes a free web zakat calculator for stocks — the deeper tool. Islamicly includes zakat and purification tooling in-app; we covered its calculator in our zakat calculators tested roundup. Either way, run the numbers yourself once a year with our zakat calculator rather than trusting any single app blindly.

Monitoring and alerts. Both watch your holdings and flag status changes — Zoya by email after a brokerage connect, Islamicly by app notification. Both update screening data daily, not in real time; a company's status can lag its latest filing by a day or more on either app.

Canada usability. Neither app is Canadian and neither offers TFSA/RRSP-specific features — both are screeners you bolt onto a Canadian brokerage. Islamicly's gold and silver savings are India-only, so ignore that entire tab as a Canadian. Zoya lets you trade through your existing broker with fractional shares from $1, but we do our actual buying in the brokerage apps where the registered accounts live. Bottom line for a Canadian workflow: screen in the app, buy in Questrade or Wealthsimple, purify and pay zakat annually. The full workflow is laid out in our halal investing in Canada guide.

Shared limitations (read this)

• Screening data is not a fatwa. Both apps publish factual outputs of their screening standards. Neither issues religious rulings — and neither do we. Borderline cases and personal circumstances belong with a qualified scholar; our ask-a-scholar page explains how we handle that boundary.
• The badge is the beginning, not the end. A "compliant" rating with 4.8% impermissible revenue is a different proposition than one with 0.2%. Read the ratio breakdown on both apps, and re-screen periodically — companies drift.
• Daily updates, not real-time. Both apps refresh screening data daily. A status can lag a fresh earnings report or a corporate action.
• Premium pricing is opaque. Neither publishes prices on its website; both show them only in-app. Verify before paying, and remember the free tiers cover the core screening job.
• Marketing claims are the companies' own. Figures like "200+ institutions" or "300,000+ users" come from Islamicly's site and are presented as the company's claims, not our verified findings.

Which should you use?

• Use Zoya if you invest mainly in stocks and ETFs, want the deepest ETF look-through and per-holding purification data, want zakat automated from imported holdings, and like a focused tool that does one job well. The free tier covers the essentials; the workflow pairs naturally with a Canadian brokerage — screen in Zoya, trade in Questrade or Wealthsimple Trade.
• Use Islamicly if you want a second opinion from a scholar-pedigree research engine, screen across most major global markets, prefer the free 60-second portfolio scorecard, or want the Moons model portfolios — pre-built compliant subsets tracking popular funds and ETFs.
• Use both if you want a second opinion: run the same ticker through each app and compare the ratio breakdowns. When they disagree, the footnotes and reports — not the badge — tell you why. Screening disagreements are normal; both apps are AAOIFI-style, but each uses its own data pipeline, analyst judgment, and update timing.

No affiliate links appear on this page: neither app has a public affiliate program we could find, and our Zoya review explains our own workflow in full.