PARALLEL PLUS Bible vs Read Scripture
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
PARALLEL PLUS Bible
Explore biblical texts with multiple translations side-by-side. Deepen your understanding with integrated Greek and Hebrew word studies, grammatical analysis, and translation tips. Search for verses using keywords across all versions.
- Parallel Bible versions (up to 8 columns)
- Greek and Hebrew word studies
- Lexical entries and word families
- Verse-by-verse exegetical helps
- Search for verses by keywords
- Multiple language support
Read full descriptionHide full description
The PARALLEL PLUS® Bible-study app is for pastors, lay leaders, and others actively seeking a deeper understanding of the Scriptures. PARALLEL: up to 8 columns, 200+ versions. PLUS Greek and Hebrew word studies (verse lists, unabridged Thayer/BDB/Schleusner, word families). PLUS exegetic helps (parsings, translation tips). Free, install now. EXPERIENCE IT: As you read down the column in one version, when you encounter a verse you'd like to better understand, just move your eyes left-and-right to see how other versions express that verse in its context, and then continue reading the chapter. The idea is to introduce as little eye movement as possible, so you can get into the Scriptures and stay there for a while. BIBLICAL LANGUAGES: See Hebrew and Greek in parallel with other versions. Plus tap any word to lookup the corresponding Hebrew or Greek word and its occurrences. Plus tap any verse to lookup Hebrew or Greek details in a verse: phonetics, parsings, parts of speech, translation tips. GO DEEPER: Tap any word, then tap “word study” to see: verse lists, lexical entries, and word families. Tap any verse, then tap “verse study” to see verse-at-a-time helps: color-coded parts-of-speech, word forms, phonetics, syllables, and translation tips. It also helps you find familiar Bible verses, even when you only remember a few words; enter "God so loved" in the search box and see where that phrase occurs in every Bible version in your parallel Bible. PROTESTANT, CATHOLIC: This app automatically aligns verses—by verse content—and displays corresponding verse numbers when different. COMMENTARY FREE: The act of reading versions in parallel helps readers to understand more deeply. Even without commentary. We feel this is so important that we do not include commentary in our app. LANGUAGES: Biblical Hebrew and Greek plus English, French, German, Hindi, Russian, Spanish, Tagalog, and about 50 others. ABOUT: TheBible.org is a US charitable organization (official name: The Bible Works). Its mission is helping ministers make known Christ; in support of that mission, it develops apps to help people experience more effective Scripture reading. Peter Coad leads his small team in this work. The organization's content partners include Biblica (NIV), Crossway (ESV), Lockman (NASB), and Bible League International. Parallel Plus® is a registered trademark of TheBible.org ©2026 TheBible.org. All rights reserved.
Read Scripture
This app guides users through a year-long Bible reading plan, enhanced by explanatory videos. It aims to help individuals discover the truth and beauty of God's Word through a curated experience.
- Year-long Bible reading plan
- Creative explanatory videos
- Book of the Bible explanations
- Gospel theological themes
- Tips for Bible reading
- Community or solo experience
Read full descriptionHide full description
The goal of Read Scripture is that everyone would read the Bible for themselves and discover the truth and beauty of God’s Word. To this end, we are curating a year-long Bible reading plan and supplementing the reading with amazingly creative videos (produced by our friends at the Bible Project) that explain every book of the Bible, major theological themes of the gospel, and tips on how to read the Bible. We house all of this content in a beautifully designed app that is available to download in the App Store. We encourage you to experience Read Scripture in community but it is set up so that you can go through it on your own. Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is chart position: PARALLEL PLUS Bible at #190 against Read Scripture's unranked. PARALLEL PLUS Bible also leads on ratings volume (14K vs 1.8K) and review sentiment (98% vs 87%). On price, rating, update cadence and ads there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.9 for PARALLEL PLUS Bible against 4.8 for Read Scripture. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: PARALLEL PLUS Bible has 14K ratings behind it against 1.8K, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 98% of PARALLEL PLUS Bible's written reviews are positive against 87% of Read Scripture's.
PARALLEL PLUS Bible ships an update monthly, Read Scripture every 5 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 24, 2026 and September 17, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | PARALLEL PLUS Bible | Read Scripture |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.9 (14K ratings) — better | 4.8 (1.8K ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 98.1% of reviews — better | 87.3% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 14K — better | 1.8K |
| Update frequency | Monthly — better | Every 5 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Best chart rank | #190 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 16.2 | 15.1 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 381 MB | 103 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Scripture Network | Crazy Love Ministries |
Customer experience
PARALLEL PLUS Bible
Read Scripture
User reviews
PARALLEL PLUS Bible
From 14K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Convenient and powerful
- 🚀 Excellent way to see what gets added/deleted from KJV
- 👍 Well done
- 👍 This Bible App Exceeded My Expectations
- 👍 Wonderful and easy-to-use app
Room to improve
- 🐛 Frustrated with issues when trying to change Bible versions
Read Scripture
From 1.8K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 💡 Helpful videos provide context and overview of each book
- 👍 Organized reading plan with Psalms
- 🚀 Streamlined and intuitive interface
- 👍 Visually appealing design and animations
- 💡 Ability to set your own start date
Room to improve
- 🐛 Progress and reading position sometimes gets reset after updates
- 🔋 Videos can't be downloaded for offline viewing
- 🔍 Lack of verse numbers makes it harder to reference specific passages
- 🔍 Limited translation options (only ESV)
Bugs and requests
PARALLEL PLUS Bible
Reported bugs
1 issue- Tried to change from NASB20 to NASB 95 and everything has gone haywire
Requested features
3 requests- Add the Passion translation as another choice
- Allow highlighting individual words or sections of verses
- Change the font color to black for better readability
Read Scripture
Reported bugs
3 issues- Videos sometimes fail to load or play
- App crashes or freezes on certain devices
- Reading position not always saved correctly
Requested features
6 requests- Add ability to highlight, take notes, and bookmark passages
- Incorporate audio narration of the Bible text
- Provide a dark mode option for easier reading
- Allow syncing of reading progress across devices
- Integrate more Bible Project theme videos
Show 1 moreShow fewer
- Add option to select different Bible translations
In-app purchases
PARALLEL PLUS Bible
No in-app purchases
Read Scripture
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is PARALLEL PLUS Bible free?
Is Read Scripture free?
Which has better reviews, PARALLEL PLUS Bible or Read Scripture?
Do PARALLEL PLUS Bible or Read Scripture have ads?
Which is updated more often, PARALLEL PLUS Bible or Read Scripture?
Other comparisons















