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Bible Software
With noble hopes, my Bible Software landing page didn’t exactly go as I planned. So instead, Im rounding up all the posts about various Bible software and apps here. If you’ve got some Bible software you want me to take a look at and it’s not listed here, please contact me and I’ll take a look. I always give it a fare look but I only recommend the software that I consider worthwhile. Definition of worthwhile = software I’d like to use regularly if I didn’t already use what I’m using now.
PC Bible Software
Bibleworks – a tool focused mostly on doing Bible searches and original language study, although they partnered with WORDsearch to offer additional resources.
e-Sword – a free tool created by one person but with a strong support community. It’s a great package considering the price and they now offer some paid content so you can get more recent and commercial translations and reference tools.
Logos – one of the more advanced and complete packages available. They offer a ton of content and the package includes more tools and interesting ways of studying the Bible than any other package.
Olive Tree Bible Reader – new to the computer world, this mobile Bible app company did a nice job of capturing for PC what makes them a nice app on your phone or tablet.
PC Study Bible – one of my earliest favorites with a lot of tools and maybe the best self-publishing tool in Bible software.
QuickVerse - owned by LifeWay now and really falling on hard times now since it was my first and favorite application from the early nineties till around 2000.
WORDsearch - also now owned by LifeWay and possibly the biggest competitor to Logos in terms of content available. Simple to use with some advanced features for in depth Bible study.
Mac Bible Software
Accordance - some call this the Bibleworks of the Mac world, but it really does sit by itself in terms of features and user interface. It offers a lot of great content and makes it really possible to do some complex searches and in depth Bible study.
BibleWorks - not really a native Mac app, Bibleworks runs on WINE, the emulator that’s not an emulator. It’s great for people who love Bibleworks but also prefer Mac now for some reason.
Logos - they finally got the Mac version right with their latest release. Same holds true for the Mac version as stated above for the Windows version.
Olive Tree Bible Reader - as I stated above, “new to the computer world, this mobile Bible app company did a nice job of capturing for PC what makes them a nice app on your phone or tablet.”
WORDsearch - like Bibleworks, they ported their Windows program to Mac using WINE, so the same said above holds true for the Mac version.
Mobile Bible Apps
There are a bunch of Bible apps for the Apple iPhone and iPad. But which one should you get for your device? I hope to give you some information about them. If you know of one that I didn’t mention here, please feel free to contact me or send me a message on Twitter.
There are two categories of mobile Bible apps. The first group includes simple Bible Reader Apps. It has one or more translations and maybe some reading plans to help you read the Bible in a systematic way. They are simple and offer just a few features. Those might include the following:
- Bible reading
- Reading plan tracking
- Adding notes
- Highlighting
- Bookmarking
- Posting to social networks
- Copying of text for pasting in other apps
The developers are not making an app that you can use to do in depth and/or inductive Bible study. They just help you read and maybe share the Bible with your friends or other contacts.
My second category of apps includes Bible Study Apps. These do the above but offer more than reading tools. They allow the user to add other kinds of books, like lexicons, Bible dictionaries, commentaries and more. They help the user do serious Bible exegesis while going mobile on a phone or tablet.
There are fewer of these. They are usually free but have content that you add for a cost, sometimes a very significant cost. As far as I know the only apps in this category are OliveTree Bible Reader, Logos Bible, Laridian’s PocketBible, and MantisBible. They are designed to help you read the Bible, with many of the above features. But they also add reference works like commentaries, dictionaries, and language study tools. You could do very advanced Bible study and sermon prep using these apps. They are intended for basic Bible students but scale up to the more advanced student who might also teach or preach the Bible to others.
Below are links to my reviews of each of the Bible apps that have been willing to participate. Unless otherwise noted, I did not buy any of these apps. For full disclosure, I was given Promo Codes to download and review each of these.
Bible Study Apps
Olive Tree Bible Reader
Laridian PocketBible
Logos Bible
The Logos Bible app is universal and works with both the iPhone/iPod Touch and the iPad. It is a complex and powerful app. Here is a link to my Video Reviews of the software on the iPad. While the program is slightly different on the iPhone/iPod Touch the video reviews will be good enough to help you see how the program works on the iPhone/iPod Touch. Also I do show the iPhone version and the desktop version in the first video.
MantisBible
Bible Reader Apps
I haven’t reviewed all of these apps, but at least you can check them out for your self. Let me know what you think. Developers who want me to include a description of your app, feel free to contact me.
