I have been a fan of Bible software for many years. The right software can enhance
your study, improve your teaching, and give you access to a library that would cost more
than most of us could afford if we had to purchase the printed equivalents.
I thought it would be fun, and hopefully useful, to review all the available Bible
software packages on the market, and provide information and opinion on which ones
I thought were the best. While it was fun, it definitely was more work than I expected.
So, at the very least I hope it is useful to someone. Below are the results.
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Click on the product name for detailed review.
Go to my related blog entry to leave comments on the reviews.
Scores are on a 1-5 scale: 1=Awful, 2=Bad, 3=Average, 4=Good, 5=Awesome
1 Software and enough books for effective study are free. Optional books are available for purchase.
2 Software engine is free, but payment required for any books. Therefore prices listed are for boxed sets.
3 Technically BiblePro is free, but you can't even download it without paying $8.95 shipping. To me this constitutes a hard cost.
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Explanation of categories:
Interface - Does the user interface allow you to study unhindered, or does it get in your way?
Searcing - How fast can it search? How many options? Search multiple books at once?
How are the results shown?
Resources - What library resources are available to the program? What comes with the basic package,
and what can be purchased later? Are the prices reasonable?
Extensibility - To what extent can you put your own mark on the program? Can you add your own notes
and commentaries to Bible verses? Create your own books? Modify the program itself?
Support - How good is the support, both from the program's authors and from the user community? The
latter is just as important, and often more so, in making your software all that it can be.
Value - Based on the price paid, do you get your money's worth. Why or why not?
Some things to note about my reviews:
First, I have a specific user in mind when I write my reviews: Me. A lay person who is interested in Bible
software for personal study and teaching, yet does not have extra time or money.
That's not to say that a full-time pastor or seminary student wouldn't benefit from these reviews, or wouldn't
agree with my conclusions, only that I did not have them in mind when I tested each product.
For instance, I did not test a product's Greek and Hebrew tools. All of the products reviewed provide basic
Greek and Hebrew texts and word lookups. Some of them offer much deeper Greek and Hebrew studies, but I
did not explore those options.
It also means I didn't test every feature of each product. I just wanted to give a solid overview of basic functionality
and usefulness, concentrating on the features that are useful and interesting to me.
Second, I did my best to provide accurate reviews; but in the end these are just my opinions.
If you enjoy one of the packages that I rated low, then more power to you.
Use what you like and be proud of it. I welcome dialog and disagreement, provided the discourse is civil. A location
for comments on these reviews is provided at this blog entry.
I hope this review guide benefits you and helps you choose the best Bible software for you. God bless.
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Not Reviewed
PC Study Bible: I was going to purchase the base product for this review, but after
perusing their forums it is obvious that the new version 5 is having terrible difficulties. It would appear that BibleSoft
will soon start losing long-time customers in droves if the situation is not resolved soon. From BibleSoft staff posted in
forums, Jan 9, 2008:
We (at Biblesoft) are not satisfied with where the product is at this point in time. We are fully
aware of customer frustrations. We are working on improvements. They will not all appear instantly. We realize that the
process of making improvements is taking much longer than we ever anticipated.
As of April 11, the fixes still had not been delivered and the users were in an uproar. The situation is not pretty.
Bible Works 7: Geared for the most serious Bible study, BW has long been
acknowledged as having the best original language tools in the industry (though Logos is gaining ground). This product is
really intended for a different audience than I am trying to reach in my reviews.
GRAMCORD for Windows: Another software product designed specifically
for the Hebrew/Greek scholar.
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