In this article, I want to talk about the top ten audio Bible apps I have used or tested—and why one particular app has won first place on my iPhone screen and in my daily schedule. This article is sponsored by that app, my absolute favorite audio Bible app, the app whose lifetime subscription I bought with my own money six years ago, the app that is now offering all my readers a special lifetime deal that is, like, actually special and not just something they say is special for marketing purposes. Stick around till the end to get a link to that deal. I’ll reveal the top app before that, though.
For me, it all comes down to three major factors. I’ll weave discussion of the other top audio Bible apps into my explanations of those two factors. The top ten won’t really be in an order, then, though some are clearly better than others.
1. Frictionlessness
The first major factor of the three is frictionlessness. I need my audio Bible to be part of a dedicated app, because I need as few taps as possible between me and God’s Word when I stumble out of bed in the mornings. Bible listening is so important to me that I want an app dedicated solely to it.
Audible/Google Books
That’s why Audible and Google Books, which clearly belong in the top ten audio Bible apps list, don’t quite meet my needs. I have a Bible in Audible that I have gone all the way through, and I have one I’ve gone through in the old Google Books app. I love both of those. One is my all-time favorite, The Bible Experience, a dramatized recording of the TNIV. The other is a similar dramatized recording of the NKJV. But when I tried to have audio Bibles in Audible and Google Books I would get a little frustrated fiddling around going from book to book. Because I used those apps to listen to more than just the Bible. Again, I need a dedicated audio Bible app.
Logos
The other audio Bible app I have tried, is an excellent app that I love and feel loyal to: it’s Logos. The mobile app literally just got some usability enhancements that I appreciated, including making it easier to get to audiobooks (or to anything you want to put on your shortcut screen, a nice addition I appreciate). But the Logos mobile app is still more a tool for serious work on the go and less, for me, a dedicated Bible listening app. My beloved Logos is phenomenal at so many things, but precisely because it’s so powerful, I can’t just whip it open and hit play, picking up where I left off yesterday or, sometimes, yesterweek. If I open Logos on my phone, who knows what will be filling the screen? It will be whatever I was looking at last. Maybe it will be the Greek New Testament, maybe the BDAG lexicon, maybe some random 19th century book in which I was looking up some citation on the go. So sue me, but it’s too much friction for me to go find audio Bibles in Logos. First-world problems, I know. The Bible is just that important to me; I want frictionlessness.
Overcast
Maybe this shouldn’t count as an audio Bible app, but when I have occasionally used my favorite podcast app, Overcast, to try to listen to Scripture, I have had a similar problem. Too much friction. It does so much; it does too much. It’s just not made for audio Bible listening.
It’s now time for me to reveal that my top app, the one sponsoring this article, is Dwell. I bought Dwell in large part for frictionlessness. I want to open up a dedicated audio Bible app and hit play within less than a second. I want this app to never forget my place. I want it to always pick up right where I left off Bible reading. And I do count listening as reading because I totally am able to keep my mind engaged. Bible reading is so important to me that I really want a dedicated app. For me, for the last six years, that’s been Dwell.
2. Multiple-Bible-Versions-Я-Us
The second major factor for why Dwell is my strong preference is that it helps me practice what I preach on this channel. That is, I want to enjoy in my Bible reading the embarrassment of riches we possess in our multiple evangelical English Bible translations. The more the merrier. Up to a point. I’ll talk about that point when I get to the second place app.
My purpose in listening through the Bible every year or so is just to keep getting exposed to all of it. I’m not using this time for deep Bible study; I’m not following along in my paper Bible; I’m often doing other things like getting ready. I like Dwell the most because it helps me just get through one Bible translation every yearish. And it makes it dead simple for me to choose a different Bible translation next year.
I just finished 2nd Samuel in The Message in Dwell. I’ve read bits and pieces of The Message over the years. I’ve done videos on The Message. I’ve been asked if reading The Message counts for Bible reading (I actually said no, but I’ve changed my mind; I’ll do a video on this someday, Lord willing). But I’ve never made it all the way through or even tried until now.
The ESV app
Needless to say the ESV app does not give me the option to listen to The Message. If the ESV app had more Bibles, which of course it cannot be blamed for not doing, it would be high on my top-ten list. I really do like its simplicity and beauty. Even though it was not originally made to be an audio Bible app but to be just a text Bible app, it incorporates audio in a helpful and elegant way. I actually worked on suggestions for improving the app while I was working at Crossway. It’s a great app with room to grow. Having multiple great voices go through the ESV is cool. And I have to mention that just before press, Crossway announced a really cool audio Bible project they’ve taken years to produce, with 100 hours of custom orchestrations for different parts of the Bible. I was very impressed.
But that isn’t out yet, and it doesn’t change the reason I dropped the ESV app. The main reason is that I’m a one-woman man but not a one-version man. After many years having the ESV app on my home screen I finally dropped it a while back.
Dwell lets me pick what Bible translation I want, and it gives me some different reader options for popular Bible translations.
- There are three voices for the Christian Standard Bible, including an American woman, an American man, and a British man.
- There are four voices for the ESV, including a South African Man, a British woman, and two different American men.
- There’s a recording of the International Children’s Bible.
- There are three different recordings of the King James,
- One of the Legacy Standard Bible,
- One of the New American Standard Bible,
- Two of the NIV (one of which is dramatized),
- One of the Anglicized NIV,
- Three of the New King James,
- One of the New Living Translation, and
- One of the New Revised Standard Version.
There are also a couple different Spanish translations, a Portuguese translation, and: The Message. This is pretty much exactly what I want, including the fact that I like to have some dramatized versions to listen to every few years. Dwell does have a dramatized NIV that is very good, and a dramatized NKJV, which is also good.
I am Mr. Multiple Bible Translations. Even I draw the line at one option Dwell offers to “find the voice and version that’s right for you, or go random to experience them all.”
But Dwell has basically all the evangelical English Bibles I really care to listen to. This is a major factor for me in choosing Dwell as my audio Bible app. It’s probably the biggest reason why I chose it.
3. Beauty
The other, though, means a lot to me, and I think it should mean more to more people. It’s beauty. I’ve listed some beautiful apps. I like the design of the Logos app and the ESV app. But some of the top ten apps by function are so aesthetically deficient that I’m embarrassed for them.
Bible Audio
Bible Audio, from Bible Gateway, is actually a pretty cool app. But, how can I say this—it is not a looker. The aesthetics were given zero attention, maybe negative three attention. The app includes some great Bible translations—though there aren’t nearly as many as Dwell: just KJV, NKJV, NIV, and NIrV. But I think truth, goodness, and beauty need to go together and stay together. This matters to me in paper Bibles, and I think the world has woken up to its importance there. I’m so, so glad. Ugliness is a distraction in Bibles. I just wonder if the world has woken up to the importance of good design in Bible apps. Because quite a few of them are ugly.
Dwell is a genuinely beautiful app. Its design is classy. I love the typography and the color and design scheme. It doesn’t feel like a grab-bag, like YouVersion does, but like a walled garden. (Also, they got my good friend Tim Wildsmith working with them, so you know it’s good. He’s classy, too.) Dwell doesn’t call attention to itself with its design; it’s not gaudy or on the very cutting edge. It’s just contemporary in a serious and beautiful way. I love it.
Dwell’s top competitors
This article is sponsored, but I think you can tell by what I’ve said about other apps that the script was not reviewed by Dwell beforehand. Truth is, I think Dwell can withstand the comparison with other apps, or I wouldn’t advertise it. It is my genuine favorite.
Bible.is / Hosanna
However, I do need to mention that Bible.is is a credible competitor to Dwell. This app, a bit confusingly, is also the Hosanna app, which I gather (I’m not sure) is going to replace Bible.is? Neither one of these is nearly as beautiful as Dwell, and they don’t have as many translations or audio Bibles that I want, but these two apps that are sort of one probably deserve spots 3 and 4 on the top ten list for audio Bibles, if frictionlessness and multi-version availability and beauty are what you value, like I do.
YouVersion
And the top competitor to Dwell, second place in my list of Top Ten Audio Bible apps, just has to be YouVersion. I wrote a devotional for YouVersion years ago when I worked at Logos. I like the basic idea of a listener-supported app that includes tons of different Bible translations. Like tons. And quite a few audio Bibles. But I get a bit overwhelmed by all the options—and the branded options from outside ministries. It is also an unwalled garden: not a few of the audio Bible options are not mainstream. That’s not necessarily bad, but the major evangelical translations are major because they’re done responsibly. If I’m going to just hand out a recommendation to people in my church, I prefer to send them to a walled garden. And for me, personally: I just want to listen through the Bible, and I feel YouVersion gives me just a little too much friction.
If I were you, I’d probably just weigh the low cost of Dwell’s best competitors versus the quality and number of Bibles and the quality of the experience in Dwell.
I’d also weigh the sheer number of years that you are likely to use Dwell. I’m six years in, which means I haven’t really looked at competitors in any detail till I sat down to write this article. All my recent research has led me back to the same place I was when I started: Dwell was worth the money I paid.
You may value different things in an app than I do; that’s okay. But if you follow my channel, you’re probably going to find yourself leaning the same direction.
Straight through the Bible
Before I tell you about the deal Dwell is offering Ward on Words viewers and readers, I want to mention how I use Dwell. There are various simple playlists you can use; or you can build your own. But if you want my recommendation: I would just use their “Straight through the Bible” plan which, as you might have guessed, will take you straight through the Bible. And I’d do this in a different Bible translation each year. For me personally, though I want a daily rhythm, what I’ve ended up with is something more like a fourteen- to eighteen-month rhythm. That’s how long it takes me to get through audio Bibles.
Now, for Bible study, do something else. Dig into Hebrews in a paper Bible or in Logos. Break down some Psalms. Analyze the narratives of Genesis. Read some commentaries and theologies. I’m slowly reading through the Bibliotheca New Testament concurrently to my journey through the audio version of The Message.
But for daily exposure, and steady progress, Dwell is the best tool I know of. When it comes right down to it, and, you know, it that is pretty much where it always does come to, all I want is to go through a different Bible translation each year or so with as few finger taps as possible each day in an app that looks like it respects God’s creation of beauty. Dwell wins.
A genuinely special deal
I said this article is sponsored by Dwell. Those of you who watch this channel know that I am very jealous to preserve my independence and authenticity. So I want to make it clear that I myself bought the Dwell lifetime subscription six years ago, with no intention of any partnership. And now my viewers/readers get a special price on that same subscription. I asked my contact at Dwell if the special deal they’re offering you is really a special deal, or if they’re just telling me it’s a special deal because that’s what you say. They told me it’s really a special deal. Some people really do pay around $400 for this lifetime subscription, apparently. I confess I probably woudn’t pay that. Dwell’s standard promotional offer is 50% off that at around 200 bucks, and I think I would pay that and be happy. But I could pay less, and I’d be proportionally happier. They only go below that number once a year, I was told. And sure enough: if you’ll go to dwellapp.io/wardonwords, you’ll get a deal for $149 for a lifetime membership giving you access to all the audio Bibles you’re ever likely to need. This is a genuinely good deal in my estimation. If you only ever want to read one Bible translation, there are alternatives out there for you. I’ve listed some of them. Maybe you already own one of them and don’t mind the extra taps. But for 1) frictionless and 2) multi-version Bible listening in a 3) beautiful app, I don’t know of a better app than Dwell. It’s elegantly simple, it’s reliable, it’s beautiful.
Click the link in the description or go to dwellapp.io/wardonwords to get lifetime access. I invite your comments about apps I’ve missed, and I’m not claiming to have looked at every last one on the planet. But I gave some dedicated time to looking at Bible apps when I worked for Crossway. I have good reason to believe I’m not missing anything major, though please do let me know in the comments if you think I did. I really do love and use Dwell, and I have for years.
Extras
After the video I shot from this script went live, someone mentioned Manna. It’s also worth a look. I think it’s pretty similar to YouVersion and Bible.is/Hosanna.