Bible reading plans on iOS

A journey of 365 days starts with a single step

For many people, the task of reading through the entire Bible in a year (or even reading the Bible every day) is an inconceivable journey–an insurmountable mountain to climb. Having accomplished the task, I can attest to the fact that attempting it without a good, clear-cut plan, with which you can track your progress, can indeed be difficult. Several years ago, I discovered an application for my Palm handheld that allowed me to create my own reading plan, set up reminders to read, and also allowed me to track my progress. It wasn’t the most flexible, but it started me on a systematic plan that allowed me, for the first time in a dozen years to read through the entire Bible in a year. I used this reading plan for a few years, until one year, I decided to try something different, and “fell off the wagon”. The next year, I tried on my Treo cell phone, but discovered the app no longer worked. Again, despite trying, I failed to read through the Bible in a year. In 2009, I bought an iPhone. Some of the first apps I sought out were Bible apps. For myself, the most important feature was a good system for daily Bible reading. Sadly, it seemed that most Bible apps tacked on this feature with little or no thought as to how to make it truly useful. The iPhone Bible app category has grown since then, and improved at the same time. At the end of 2010, I did a review on FaceBook of the then-current crop of Bible apps that could be used for daily Bible reading. I’m revisiting that review, revising it to take into account some of the maturing that has taken place in the market, and to introduce what, to me, at least, is a new app.  

Why use an iPhone or iPad?

First of all, for those who may own an iPhone but who are skeptical about using it for daily Bible reading, or for the curious and unconvinced, an explanation for why I find using a tool like an iPhone to be excellently suited to this purpose:   1. My phone is always with me, even if I’m standing in line at a government office, or riding a bus, or wherever I am forced to wait or have down time. 2. Using good software, you can keep track of what you have already read, and what you have yet to read. Some apps even show a progress bar and statistics. The best apps remind you to read, and help you keep up with your reading. This is useful on days where you weren’t able to finish the daily reading, or worse, weren’t even able to start, of which I had a few. For myself, there have also been days when I knew that I wanted to read multiple chapters together (like the lives of some kings in the OT, for instance), so I would either wait, or read ahead. A good Bible reading app will allow you this flexibility. 3. The fact that you probably carry your phone with you everywhere, and your Bible software is there can, in itself, serve as a reminder to read, but you can also set alarms to remind you, even if your preferred Bible reading app doesn’t provide that facility. 4. Backlit display! Now, you can read your Bible in bed, and not disturb your spouse. (or outside in the evening, or in your car at night, etc.)  

What we are looking for in a Bible reader:

These are just a few of the bonuses of using your mobile. So, what are some specific things we are looking for in a Bible reading app?   1. Reading plans: We are looking for flexibility–multiple reading plans to choose from, and flexible starting dates. The better apps have multiple through-the-Bible plans in a year or multiple years. They also offer plans for reading portions of the Bible in one year for those who don’t wish to read through the entire Bible. 2. Progress tracking: This can be as simple as check marks to show what you have and haven’t read, to progress reports, showing how far you’ve read, to even showing the days you have missed, compared to where you should be. Some apps also include the ability to reset your reading so, if you miss a week, for instance, you can reset the last read date to the current day, and pick up there. Yes, this means you won’t be able to accomplish your reading in one 365-day year, but if you are a month behind, you are not likely to catch up. My old Palm app had the ability to re-calculate a reading plan by adding chapters to daily readings to keep the same end date. I haven’t yet discovered this capability in an iPhone app, but I’m looking for it, and will note it if I find it. 3. Note taking and other annotations: When reading large portions of Scripture at a time, it is wise to take quick notes that you can refer back to later. This is important because when you are reading, you really don’t want to become too distracted from your reading. The ability to quickly jot down a note, regarding a question you may have, or an observation you make, or a cross-reference you may have made, or wish to seek out, allows you to quickly return to your reading, while also allowing you to go back and do further delving later. I include within this point the ability to highlight text, bookmark text, and other annotating features. 4. Usability/accessibility: This aspect covers how easy to use the features mentioned above are.     The specific iPhone apps I’ll be covering are as follows: BlueLetterBible, Laridian PocketBible, Logos, Accordance, PocketSword, Mantis, YouVersion Bible, and OliveTree, as well as an app called ReadingPlan, which is not a typical Bible app, but an app dedicated to reading plans, as its name states. My main goal is to compare all of the apps according to how they meet the goals mentioned above.

The Runners-Up

The runner-up apps are ones that do not meet all of the criteria for various reasons. Some don’t have all the features, or have most of them, but the implementation is lacking in usability. At the end, we will introduce an app that can help you overcome some of their shortcomings. Before we discuss them in detail, I want to say that these apps are excellent Bible programs in their own right. In fact, I use a couple of them as primary Bible study tools for sermon preparation and personal Bible study. They just happen to be lacking some of the above-mentioned features for daily Bible reading. I mention them, because you may wish to use them even though they lack some features. For instance, if you are very committed to an app like Logos, or Accordance, then you might want to consider using them for your daily Bible reading as well (keeping all your notes in one application, for instance), so they are covered here in this article. I should also add a disclaimer that my assessment of their usability is subjective, according to my own tastes and experience. Your experience and tastes will differ.  

First, let’s discuss Logos and Accordance:

 Logos

 Accordance

These two apps have several characteristics in common, so will be discussed together. Both are free and offer a fair amount of free modules, which can make either one a great bargain. However, they are also primarily intended to be handheld counterparts to their commercial, desktop apps. Logos is cross-platform, offering both Windows and Macintosh products, and Accordance is Macintosh-only. Since users of these desktop applications understand what is going on there, and because they are desktop applications, we shan’t discuss their strengths, etc. Suffice to say that the free versions of their iOS apps are rather limited in the reading plans they offer. And the Logos app even limits, as far as I can tell, what version you can read to the ESV. Logos does, however at least offer a rudimentary system of checking off what you’ve read, which Accordance does not do, so you would have to keep track yourself. Accordance, it seems, only offers two free reading plans. Accordance has one nice feature, namely that the day’s reading is on the same screen as the list, so it’s all in one spot. In Logos, the daily reading is accessed from the Home screen. In Accordance, it is reached by tapping on the bookshelf icon, and choosing “Devotionals” from the main Library page, and then tapping on the plan you want to read. It automatically opens to the current calendar day’s reading, but you can navigate backward to catch up. Since Accordance does nothing to help you keep track, you are on your own. However, there is hope for both these apps in this department, but more on that at the end of this article. Both apps offer plenty of options for expanding on your study, with commentaries, dictionaries, etc. but I can’t find any note-taking capability in Logos, just the ability to mark favorites. Accordance has flexible note-taking capabilities (including syncing to the latest desktop version), as well as highlighting of both verses and words. I should also note that the free version of Logos is an online tool, which means that you have to have an active data connection in order to use it as intended.  

PocketSword:

 PocketSword

Pocketsword is Open-Source, based on the Sword Project, and uses its modules. Using the Sword repositories in the App (Under “More” and “Daily Devotionals”), you can download several reading plans (I found seven across four repositories). Like Accordance and Logos, the options are rather limited, but PocketSword does have at least the McCheyne and Chronological reading plans, which are two popular Bible-in-a-year plans. There are others as well, so while there is a paucity of options, it’s not so bad as with the previous two programs. PocketSword has adequate verse highlighting features, and can take full advantage of all the commentaries that Project Sword has to offer, so it is not lacking in the Bible study department either. However, as of now, it still lacks any sort of note-taking ability. Like Accordance, it also has no progress tracking ability, but again, there is a third-party solution that shall be mentioned at the end of this article that can fill in this gap.  

BlueLetter Bible:

 BlueLetterBible-day view Ironically, the online version of BLB has many reading plans available once you sign up on the site, but in the app, there are only six, and no way I could find to log in to BLB. The reading plans are accessed in the app by tapping the “Bible Selection and Navigation” button in the top-left corner, and then down below, on the “Daily Bible Reading” button. Once you’ve selected one, you can start reading. Like the other apps discussed so far, there isn’t any provision for changing starting dates, or catching up a reading plan, etc. However, it does offer a means of keeping track of your reading, by tapping on the “Date” button on the main daily reading page brings up the progress screen. Tapping on an item in the progress screen, sadly, illustrates the clumsiness of the BLB interface. When you tap on an item, you are presented the choice of either marking the passage as “read” or loading the passage in the Daily Reading screen. There is no way to back out by tapping "Cancel." You must choose one of the two presented options. The app also doesn’t automatically check off what you’ve read as you read it. The end result is a lot more tapping and navigating around than there ought to be, as well as confusion as to what to do. It is not at all clear that tapping on the “Date” button will open up the progress screen where you need to manually check off daily readings as you accomplish them. And what you should do after tapping the "Date" button also isn’t clear.

On the positive side, BLB does have a note-taking facility, which I consider essential, as well as bookmarking. BLB also has one more seemingly-unique feature. Under Preferences, there is the option to backup, restore and share your backup files. This is done locally via the Bonjour web server feature that Apple has built into the iOS system. This means that BLB becomes a web server, accessed like any web site in your web browser--but local, right on your iPhone. So, you turn on web serving, and navigate to the file/web server via your web browser. Safari has a “Bonjour” item in the bookmark bar, which makes this feature very accessible. Once you’ve turned on the server, open up Safari, click on the Bonjour item, and find the BLB server, from which you can download and upload backup files. So, if you are diligent, you can save periodic backups of your BLB data, including notes, bookmarks and reading plan progress right on your computer. If you ever have to restore BLB to its factory settings, using your backup files, you can easily restore your progress. Because it’s local, you don’t need to be online to access your data, unlike with some other apps. Since the BLB web site has many useful features, though, it’s kind of sad that you can’t log on and access these features via the iOS app. If it offered both online and local backups, it would lead the pack in flexible backing up. As it is, it is on par with the rest, though I find its novel approach rather refreshing.  

ReadingPlan:

 ReadingPlan-overview This last app is not a Bible reading app per se. It has one function, creating and tracking your Bible reading plans in the most flexible way possible. It does have the ability to open up various web-based Bible resources from within a built-in web browser, so can be a complete Bible-reading solution, but its real flexibility lies in its ability to open up several iOS Bible apps to display your Bible passage. These apps include Crossway (ESV Bible), Just1Word, Tecarta, as well as Logos, Mantis and PocketSword. With this combination, you can turn Logos or PocketSword into a powerful, and flexible daily Bible reading app. (The only app I see missing here that could stand to be integrated with RP is Accordance.) Secondly, it offers a plethora of online plans that can be downloaded and added to the built-in six that it comes with. This increases its flexibility way beyond most of the competition. From what I have been able to ascertain, only YouVersion  has more plans to choose from, with Mantis a far-off third place, with 8 free reading plans. ReadingPlan also allows for you to pick your starting date, and also has the facility to mark everything unread (to start over, if you wish) or to mark read up until today. While There is no facility to “catch up” your reading, it clearly marks what has and hasn’t been read, which can help, even if you can no longer keep “current” between what you are actually reading and the date. One feature that RP has that helps with that, though, is the ability to change the daily title to “reading XXX” (with XXX being a number between 1 and 365), which removes the date from the daily reading. RP has other display and functional preferences. For instance, you can sync your reading plan between iOS devices, so if you have an iPhone, iPodTouch and/or iPad, you can sync between the devices to keep them all on the same page. RP also offers the ability to display alerts and badges to remind you about your daily reading. As to tracking progress, RP also has a feature I’ve not seen elsewhere. Since some reading plans have you reading in multiple portions of Scripture at the same time, the Progress screen shows the progress for each book of the Bible individually. One last feature adds a nice touch to complete the picture. At the bottom of the Settings screen is a dimmer slider, so you can dim the screen before you start reading, without opening the Apple Settings app. For those who like to read in bed, this is a real bonus feature, especially for those Bible apps that don’t have a nighttime setting. Lastly, there is extensive help built into the app. It can amply explain the features I have left unexplained here.

The Finalists

Now we are getting into the real contenders for daily Bible reading. All of these offer numerous and flexible reading plans plans, the means to mark off what has been read in order to track your progress (or lack thereof), and the ability to mark or highlight text and write notes, as well as save and preserve your progress and your work. Interestingly enough, all of these apps save your data via an online service, to which you can back up and sync your data in one way or another. Another interesting fact is that, with the exception of MantisBible, these apps are also available on a multitude of other platforms, and can sync your data between platforms. Laridian has a desktop Windows application, and OliveTree offers a Mac version, so depending on what desktop operating system you use, you can have your modules on your desktop as well. I should note that OliveTree is also working on a Windows version of its app.  

Laridian PocketBible:

Laridian Pocket Bible daily reading view This app is a long-standing Palm app that has been re-written for the iOS.  It has a quite a few reading plans. I count seven free plans, and in the store, there is a whole category devoted to devotionals that vary in price from around $8 to $15. However, the seven free plans cover a broad variety, so you are likely to find what you need there. You access your reading plans from the main screen by tapping the little calendar icon at the bottom, named “Today.” If you haven’t yet selected a plan, you will be given the opportunity to select a plan. Once a reading plan has been set up, tapping the icon defaults to opening the current day's reading. If you tap the Today icon while in today’s reading, a new screen pops up, allowing you to change reading plan preferences, go to the first unread reading, or modify your reading plan. You can also view your reading progress by tapping "View Reading Progress". Tapping a day on this screen opens that day’s reading plan. If, instead, you want to mark something read or unread, tap the Edit button. Once tapped, you can tap on days to toggle their read status, tapping once again on Done when finished. This is very robust, but I can’t find a way to automatically mark a day’s reading as “done,” so when you finish, you will have to return to this menu to mark your day’s reading as “done.” There is yet other way of navigating your daily reading. When the reading plan is displayed, tapping on the “Go To” icon pops up a navigation screen that allows you to go to the first unread, today’s, previous unread, previous, next unread or next reading, as well as having a wheel date picker. This is useful. If all this sounds a little complex, well, in my opinion, it seems to be a bit more “fussy” than it could be, and certainly compared to the other apps of this calibre. In fact, to be honest, I find the Laridian app in general to be confusing and obtuse to use. But it does have a good selection of free modules, despite being a commercial app. Also, if you have migrated to PocketBible from Palm or use it on other platforms (specifically if you own a Windows computer, and would like to use your modules there as well), it is an excellent way to keep everything in one app. Lastly, I know people who love how Laridian’s PocketBible works, and who are very happy with its interface. So it is worthy of being in this group.

Like all top-tier Bible apps, it has note-taking and bookmarking capabilities. All of this can sync to their servers for safekeeping and syncing with other devices. It truly belongs among the heavy-hitters in this category.  

Mantis Bible Study:

 Daily reading view for Mantis Honestly, this app was probably the most complex one to set up and use. I had to go online, find the free modules I wanted, “purchase” them, and then download them into the app. Since it’s a commercial app, this is how they’ve chosen to do it. But once set up, it is amazing in action. It has the integrated Bible reading plans, and a fair number of them, to boot (I count eight of them). It tracks your progress with check marks, and is accessible as a popup from its Tools menu (the calendar icon). Each day’s reading shows each contiguous block of reading on one line, with a box next to it. If you tap the box, the reading will be marked as read, without opening the passage to read. If you tap the text, which is a hot link, it will open the passage for reading, simultaneously marking the passage as read. Some days contain multiple non-contiguous readings. To read them, you simply repeat the process, and it will mark them read as you read them. Mantis has no overview or progress tracking of daily readings like others, but you can choose to either open the daily reading view to the current day’s reading, or to the first unread day. The latter should be the default, but, unfortunately, it is not. Other than the lack of any overview of your daily reading progress, Mantis is quite capable, and I have used it for nearly two years’ worth of daily, through-the-Bible reading. It also has built-in notes that sync online for backup, and you can use Mantis’ own web page to view and edit them.

Mantis’ approach to Bible study seems to be more integrated than in other apps. While you can open all the various modules separately, they are also quickly accessible inline by tapping the verse number. This opens up a mini study Bible, showing all modules that relate to that verse. Plus, you can mark a verse, analyze it, or make a note right inline with the text. You can even mark a verse for memorization later. Also available, are commentaries and other Bible translations, all without disturbing your place in your reading. Since it is all raw text, it all operates very quickly.  All this is done without a need to switch views or tap through multiple screens etc. It is probably the most streamlined system for serious work. Yes, there was a bit of a learning curve with this program, but not significantly worse than the others. It’s just a bit different, and to be honest, it fits with my way of thinking better than Laridian’s PocketBible. But again, that’s just my personal perspective.

If I have to say anything negative about Mantis, it is this. Mantis, for some reason, has decided to lock your data to one device. In other words, you can only use your modules and sync your data to one iOS device at a time. If you upgrade, you have to ask them to move your account info to your new device. Worse, if you own an iPhone and an iPad (or iPod Touch), you cannot sync your data and modules between them. The worst aspect of this is that if you have purchased modules one one device, you would have to repurchase to use them on another. Mantis is the only company to be so stringent in their terms. I have heard that they are looking into changing this, and I hope they hurry. In this day, with people owning multiple iOS devices that they move between, this way of doing things is not acceptable. I bring this issue up, not to bash Mantis, but so you can be aware of what you are buying into, and know in advance so you aren’t surprised after the fact.  

YouVersion.com’s Bible:

YouVersion daily reading view This app is probably the absolutely best Bible app for daily reading. This should be no surprise, since its primary purpose is to encourage and promote daily reading of the Bible. It has the absolute most reading plans I’ve seen, from devotional plans, (38 of them), to partial Bible plans (56 of them!!!), to topical plans (too many to number!), to whole Bible plans (19) and even a Youth category (24) for teens. There is some overlap, but honestly, there is a Bible reading plan for literally everybody, from plans lasting a few days, to multiple years! Add the benefit of being able to track your progress, sync everything with their web site and other platforms (just about every smart phone platform is supported), online notes, and more, as a daily reading app, it is just about the best one out there–except I’m not keen on keeping everything in the cloud. Thankfully, you can download some Bibles, but it seems that only Bibles are kept offline. You need a connection to access your daily reading, and to update your progress, which are stored solely in the cloud. In fact, if you lose internet access with the app open, you can find yourself locked out, and may find you have to quit the app to get it working again (a bug they seem to be attempting to squash as of this writing). You will also want to consider how comfortable you are keeping your private notes on someone else’s server, especially, since the service is free. Despite this small caveat, the app is worthy serious consideration.

When you are reading a passage from your daily reading, there is a little tab in the top-right corner of the text window. Tapping that opens up a summary of the day’s reading, from which you can tap on a passage and open it. YouVersion keeps track what you’ve read for you, and as you complete a chapter, it marks it off automatically. When you read the last chapter, tapping the “next” arrow at the bottom re-opens the day’s reading, and shows you everything checked off. Very convenient. You access the notes and bookmarks by tapping a verse, and then tapping the little arrow icon that pops up. There are several options on what to do with the selected verse or verses (tapping multiple verses selects them) besides creating a note. YouVersion also has a monthly calendar overview, with little dots on days that have unread passages. YouVersion allows you to “catch up” on your daily reading, by resetting the earliest unread to the current day, and together with the calendar overview, and the progress bar, it is sufficient for the task at hand. One unique feature is the ability to set up daily reminders to remind you to do your reading at the same time every day. In iOS 5, the alerts also show up in the Notification Center.    

OliveTree Bible Reader:

 OliveTree daily reading view While it is a commercial app, it has a large number of free modules, including the KJV and OliveTree’s free reading plans. It takes the unique approach of actually walking you through your daily reading. When you get to the end of the current passage (like in the McCheyne plan, you read from four different places in the Bible each day), there is a button you tap to take you to the next passage, and when you get to the end, there is a big “Done” button to tap. At same time, the day's reading is checked off as read. This is very, very convenient. Massive kudos to OliveTree for this innovation. But they didn’t stop there. OliveTree has a built-in notes function which can back up to and sync with EverNote, as well as to their own servers, so your notes are always available to you, either within the Bible app, or the EverNote app on your phone (regardless of platform), on the web or on your desktop. In fact, with their recent release of the Macintosh BibleReader app, you can access all your notes and bookmarks on the desktop together with all your BibleReader-purchased modules.

But the innovation doesn’t stop there. OliveTree has incorporated tags into their system. For some reason, tags seem to be something that people either really love, or entirely do not understand. I shall try to explain them. When you highlight a verse, you can essentially only highlight it with one color. If you categorize a note, you can essentially only categorize it into one category. There are built-in limitations with these ways of categorizing things. Tags, on the other hand, are more flexible, and can work across all types of Bible text and annotations, including verses, notes, bookmarks, commentaries, dictionaries, etc. Here is an illustration. Suppose you have a bookmark category “Promises”. You could create sub-categories for various kinds of promises, or you could use tags. One advantage of tags is that you can apply multiple tags to one verse, passage or even a word. Plus, if you write a note on a passage, you can tag it with the same tag. As you read a commentary, you may find a particularly good description of a promise. Tag that description as well. Now, you can view all of these items that have this tag. Furthermore, as you add multiple tags to items, you can even narrow down what you are looking for, but specifying multiple tags. Thoughtful application of tags to items can create a powerful cross-referencing and organizational structure that goes way beyond what you can foresee. It is worth implementing, and is yet one more innovation of the OliveTree BibleReader.

All of this may sound confusing, but OliveTree has gone a long way to make all of these potentially complex features as simple and as accessible as possible. For instance, to access your daily reading, tap on the little suitcase item (for all your “stuff”), and tap on “Reading plans”. If you haven’t yet created a plan, you will be able to here. Once you have a plan, you can simply tap on the “Continue Reading” button to start reading, and use the inline buttons to navigate through the entire day’s reading, and tap “Done” when complete. Everything will be checked off for you. If you have missed some days, on the Daily Reading screen, tap the “View List of Days” button to see which ones need to be read, and then tap on the day you want in the list to start reading. You can also view the current day’s assignment by tapping its button. Also on the Daily reading screen, there is an overview of your progress. All in all, it is a thorough system, though it does seem to lack the ability to modify the plan once begun. However, it does offer a quick way to mark off read passages via the overview, and since it automatically marks passages read as you read, this feature is less important than in some other apps.  

So, which do I recommend?

Well, honestly, it is a personal choice. All of the above apps can be downloaded for free, and have enough free resources for you to at least try them out. But definitely, IMO, the most well thought-out apps, with the best interfaces would be OliveTree, YouVersion’s Bible reader, and Mantis Bible Study. For flexibility of reading plans and executing the plans, YouVersion wins, particularly if all you will use it for is daily Bible reading, executing a plan from start to finish. For overall integration as a complete solution to Bible Study, with many resources, OliveTree stands out. For serious Bible study with a Scripture-centric focus, Mantis is probably the best. For the most flexible control over your reading plan, especially for those who may not be the most faithful, Laridian leads the pack. Of course, the whole point of all of this is to encourage you to read God’s Word! And the goal of reading His Word is to conform us into His image, that we will grow and mature, so it doesn’t matter which app, if any you use. The best app to help you accomplish that goal is the one you use. Now. January 1 is just around the corner. Time to get ready, and Lord willing, in a year’s time, your Bible app will look something like this: