Faithlife (Logos, Verbum, Vyrso, Biblia, Noet)
The Faithlife apps are the flagship among all Bible apps. They offer more features, and of course, therefore handling is a bit more complex than most other Bible apps. The target audience includes pastors and Bible school teachers, and the availability of advanced functions and resources reflects that.
The Faithlife apps come in six different "flavours". Each app grants access to a different set of free resources (Bibles, Christian writings, and a few secular writings). When you create a Faithlife user account, you get access to more resources than without Logos account. The preinstalled resources differ depending which app(s) you choose to install. They are usually only available when the device is online. For offline use, resources need to be purchased, however, a good number of them is available for "free purchase" (Logos Wiki). We also run a mailing list that sends out notifications whenever free resources become available.
We especially recommend adding the free "Basic" packages from Logos and Verbum, which come with a bunch of good resources and features.
Special tip: if you complete your user profile 100%, and sign up for "personal offers", you receive a $20 gift voucher for your birthday every year, which gets you two Bible versions on average, or some other nice resources from the Logos, Vyrso or Noet ebook stores.
Purchased resources are shared between all the apps, and in the Logos web reader; you can also install the powerful local Logos Bible study suite on a PC or Mac that gives you access to all your purchased resources as well as advanced Bible study tools. The full potential becomes available when you choose to invest some money, but even the freemium versions are more advanced than what you get from other apps that are completely free (in terms of functionality, not in terms of included resources). However, even without paying, you can collect an impressive library over time, as your collection of free material grows constantly.
The works in the library in most cases are not merely the plain text, but contain lots of cross-references and hyperlinks, and each chapter or sometimes even every word is tagged with labels for the word and topic guides. Many Bible versions for example have every word tagged and linked with lemmas, Strong numbers and other information.
The major downside of this set of apps is that the popular NIV is not included for free, not even for online use, and the process to grab the free ESV is somewhat painful. But then, you only need to be patient for your next birthday, and apply the birthday credit you receive - or just invest $10 to download your favourite translation.
Download Logos
Download Vyrso
Download Faithlife Study Bible
Download Verbum
Download Biblia
Download Noet
| Summary | |
| App Title | Bible, Verbum, Vyrso, Biblia, Noet, Faithlife Study Bible |
| Cost | Freemium |
| Functions | Devotionals, Reading Plans, Search, Notes, Bookmarks, Highlighting, Split Screen |
| Offline Bible Versions | English (DR, ESV, KJV, LEB), Original Languages (GNSBL), Chinese simpl. (CUV), Chinese trad. (CUV), Czech (ČSP), Finnish (Raamattu 1938), French (LGS), German (Luther 1912, Elberfelder), Russian (RST) |
| Online Bible Versions | none |
| Audio Versions | ESV (online), LEB (offline) |
| Paid Bible Versions | Countless (English, Original Languages, Afrikaans, Albanian, Arabic, Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Korean, Maori, Norwegian, Portuguese, Russian, Serbian, Spanish, Thai, Ukrainian) |
| Other works and writings | Countless free and paid |
| Version | 5.4.4 |
| Size | 60-71.3 MB |
| App-to-SD | No |
| Android Version required | 4.0 |
Now for the differences between the six "flavours" of the app.
Bible
The "Bible" app is the default choice without denominational bias, and geared towards professional theologians and seriously interested lay people who seek to study the Bible deeply. It comes with a number of theological resources for free online use, including a broad variety of Bible versions.
| App Title | Bible |
| Functions | Additional to above: Passage Guide, Exegetical Guide, Bible Word Study, Topic Guice, Atlas, Text Comparison, Prayer Lists |
| Offline Bible Versions | Additional to above: English (ASB), Spanish (NBLH) |
| Online Bible Versions | Additional to above: English (ASV, Darby, GW, GNB, HCSB, NASB, NCV, YLT), Original Languages (Textus Receptus, Tischendorf, Vulgate, Westcott-Hort), Arabic, Czech, German, Hungarian, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish |
Vyrso
Vyrso is the easy-to-use, easy-to-read version of the software that has less functionality and is made for users who mainly want to read the Bible and popular Christian books, and only occasionally do some deeper research studies. The app comes with a range of fiction and non-fiction books by popular Christian authors - stuff that you would expect to find at any Christian book shop.
| App Title | Vyrso |
| Functions | additional to above: none |
| Offline Bible Versions | Additional to above: none |
| Online Bible Versions | Additional to above: none |
Faithlife Study Bible
The Faithlife Study Bible as a resource (with Bible dictionary, maps, photos etc.) is included in all Faithlife apps. What makes this Study Bible app unique is the integration of that material directly into the user interface of the app. You don't need to open the individual resources, but go to the table of contents instead, and look for the passages you want to read. All the photos, videos and infographics are integrated and easily accessible as you read the Bible. This app has more functionality than the other Faithlife apps, however, severely lacks additional free resources.
| App Title | Faithlife Study Bible |
| Functions | additional to above: Passage Guide, Exegetical Guide, Bible Word Study, Topic Guice, Atlas, Text Comparison, Prayer Lists, Infographics, Maps, Photos, Videos, Bible Dictionary |
| Offline Bible Versions | Additional to above: none |
| Online Bible Versions | Additional to above: none |
Verbum
Verbum is the Roman-Catholic flavour of the Faithlife apps. It features the same functions as the Bible app, and comes with a slightly smaller number of Bibles and other resources. However, it has a very strong emphasis on Roman Catholic works, for example, it greets you with the current lectionary readings.
| App Title | Verbum |
| Functions | additional to above: Passage Guide, Exegetical Guide, Bible Word Study, Topic Guice, Atlas, Text Comparison, Prayer Lists |
| Offline Bible Versions | Additional to above: DR |
| Online Bible Versions | Additional to above: RSV, Original Languages (Tischendorf, Vulgate, Westcott-Hort) |
Biblia
Biblia is not simply a Spanish translation of the Bible app (in fact the Bible app has its own Spanish translation). Biblia comes with a large number of Spanish language Bibles and other works. Apart from that, it's identical to the normal Bible app, though it lacks the original language versions.
| App Title | Biblia |
| Functions | additional to above: Passage Guide, Exegetical Guide, Bible Word Study, Topic Guice, Atlas, Text Comparison, Prayer Lists |
| Offline Bible Versions | Additional to above: Spanish (NBLH) |
| Online Bible Versions | Additional to above: Spanish (LBLA, RVA 2015, RVR 1960) |
Noet
Noet is the Faithlife flavour for scholars of ancient languages, and Christian as well as secular classics. It does not include additional Bible versions, but a range of free classic works both in their original language as well as their English translations, starting from Homer up to the Victorian era. Some of these works are also available for offline use.
| App Title | Noet |
| Functions | additional to above: Word Study |
| Offline Bible Versions | Additional to above: none |
| Online Bible Versions | Additional to above: none |
Screenshots
