With the upcoming release of a new version of Logos Bible Software, many Bible software users might want to switch from Accordance to Logos. Why would someone go through the hassle of making the switch from Accordance to Logos Bible Software even though it means buying much of the same content you already own in the other program? Switching also involves learning a new user interface and finding new sources of learning or support for the new Logos.
Here are 6 reasons to switch from Accordance to Logos Bible Software.
Get Logos 10 With Biggest Discounts Ever Offered
In August, Logos will offer the most significant discounts on Logos 10. They called it their “Farewell Tour 2024 because Logos 11 will hit their store soon.
Click the image above, which will take you to my affiliate link to get…
- Full Feature Upgrades at up to 65% Off if you own Logos 10.
- Get a new Logos 10 base package and save up to 50% off for those upgrading from an earlier version.
- For first time buyers of Logos 10, get 5 free books.
Learn about the new era of Logos that will come with Logos 11.
Robust Sync Elements in Logos Bible Software Way Ahead of Accordance
This might seem like a strange place to begin, but it’s one of the features promised when Accordance 14 came out a long time ago, and they still don’t have it.
Syncing does more than keep your content, settings, and user-created content in more places. Change settings on your desktop, and it will sync to your laptop. Add notes on a verse with your phone while listening to your pastor, and they’ll end up on your desktop. If you’re studying on a friend’s or family’s computer, you can hit the Logos Web App, and your work will sync to other devices.
Syncing makes Logos great, but it also helps back up your work. If your computer dies, you can work on an iPad or a Samsung Android tablet. Then, once you get a new computer, install Logos, and your work will be ready to use after it finishes downloading and indexing your library.
Great Features that Make Logos Easier to Use for Bible Study
I could write a post on this topic alone. We may discuss it later, but here’s a bullet list of why these features make Logos Bible Software a superior option.
- Advanced Search Features—Logos struggled with basic search, so many of us searched Google instead. That’s changed with versions 10 and 11, which promised to improve it with built-in AI features. You won’t get these in Accordance. See the link to learn more about how Advanced Search in Logos simplifies your research.
- Use of Louw-Nida Numbers—Louw-Nida Numbers offers access to the lexicon that many students love. The book description on Logos.com says, “This lexicon differs from other lexicons in that it does not arrange words alphabetically and does not give one listing of a word with all of that word’s meanings after it. Instead, it breaks words down by their various shades of meaning.” (See Above)
- Unicode Fonts – Biblical languages work better when they use Unicode fonts. You can type in Greek or Hebrew; they will look more readable.
- Print Library ISBN Scanner—Logos will let you scan your physical library books and show you search results from those books in your library if they offer them as Logos books. You can see where the search hit shows up in your book. You can take it off the shelf and read it or buy it from Logos. We learned about this new feature in our article on what’s new in Logos Mobile 10. (See Below)
- Search books you don’t even own – When you search your library, Logos also offers links to books you don’t own. Some might not like this, calling it spam. But, if you need some information in a book you don’t own, you can quickly buy it, download it, and incorporate it into your research.
Switch from Accordance to Logos Because of the Logos Mobile App’s Full Set of Features
For years, I complained about Accordance’s weaknesses on Android and iOS. Sadly, it never got better. Now, you can’t even download the Android app from the Google Play Store. You must get it from the Amazon App Store for Android or Accordance’s website. Even that link tells you it’s on the Google Play Store, but if you click their link, you’ll get an error saying the link isn’t available.
Many Accordance users report issues with syncing content directly via their terrible sync feature or Dropbox. To sync with your computer installation of Accordance, you have to set both the app and the desktop program to sync over local Wi-Fi.
You can also connect both apps to your Dropbox, requiring you to rely on a third party. People complain that Dropbox sync often corrupts notes files.
Compare that to the iOS and Android versions of Logos. They include a large percentage of the desktop features. Syncing works quickly and automatically in the background soon after you open any version of Logos while connected to the Internet.
Accordance includes less than a third of the desktop program’s features. That’s a generous percentage.
iOS includes a little more than Android, but not much. Both are essentially book reader apps with unreliable note-taking and highlighting features. You can do some Bible study.
Logos includes many great language study tools, commentary searching, and much more.
Quick and Useful Updates
Logos updates their app often and usually with more stability than less. Accordance updates slowly, and the mobile seldom gets updates. Logos mobile on iOS went from version 30 to version to version 35 (all minor updates) in 8 months. That’s a massive benefit if you use a feature that doesn’t work. Logos will take your bug report and create a ticket, and their developers will work on it quickly. If they can fix it easily, it often gets fixed in a week or a month. Occasionally, it takes a little longer.
Accordance received only four updates on iOS in the last two years. All of them were minor bug fixes. As we said, you can’t even get it on Google Play Store. The latest version (2.2.3) came out in Summer 2021. Not even one minor bug fix has come out since.
Significant updates on Logos for Desktop come out about once every two years. Accordance went from 13 to 14 two years ago. However, Logos aggressively updates their Desktop app with minor releases that add new features. They come out often monthly. Accordance for desktop doesn’t update nearly as quickly.
The update to version 14 promised many great features. Two years later, we still do not see many of these, like an online version and syncing over the internet without needing Dropbox.
Best Online Bible App Bar None
We’ve looked at online Bible study apps in the past. We posted that here in 2020, and it needs an update. However, the best still comes from Logos.
The Logos Web App includes many features available in the Logos Bible Study App for your desktop or laptop. It’s as good as or better than the mobile version.
The user-interface looks different on the web, but once you open your books and get to work it behaves much like the desktop. You have word study tools like the Exegetical Guide, reverse interlinear features, great searching features, and other guides (Bible Word Study, Sermon Starter, Passage Guide).
The Factbook offers a lot of the features from the Desktop as well.
Sadly, Accordance users don’t have an online version. There’s a promise that it will come soon, but I doubt it will. When it does, it won’t likely offer more than basic book reading and searching tools. I hope I’m wrong, but I don’t think so.
New AI Features in Logos Bible Software
I’m working on an article for ChurchTechToday.com regarding their new AI tools, and I’ll link to it here.
The new features include Insights. Open a book, and you’ll see a button on the book’s toolbar labeled Insights. This button gives you cards showing information from Related books, Related passages, and Cross References.
A nice addition to the Search tool lets users search with natural language. Open Search and set it to Smart using the drop-down list button at the top right. Then, enter a natural language search. I entered “Where did Jesus first talk about discipleship?” and it returned hits from several spots in multiple translations since I had it set to search my Top Bibles.
The Synopsis tool in the resulting search will give you an overview of your search results.
I then switched my search to Downloaded Books, which yielded results for many book types. Again, the Synopsis tools summarized the results. You will see a number referencing the sources of the synopsis summary.
Those are just a few of the new AI-empowered features in Logos. I don’t think Accordance has AI tools on its radar since it’s still working to release the promised features from version 14. The company has a tiny programming team, so I understand why it’s taking a long time, but I fear it will get left behind.
