Orthodox Study Bible vs Orthodox Hours
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Orthodox Study Bible
Explore the Bible from an ancient Christian perspective with commentary from early Church fathers. Features daily readings, full lectionary, and search functionality. Access all content with a one-time purchase.
- Commentary from early Church Christians
- Old Testament from Septuagint
- New Testament from NKJV
- Daily readings
- Full year's Lectionary
- Bookmarking and highlighting
- Text search
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The Orthodox Study Bible presents the Bible of the early church and the church of the early Bible. This one-of-a-kind study Bible is presented with commentary from the ancient Christian perspective that speaks to those Christians who seek a deeper experience of the roots of their faith. - Old Testament translated from the Greek text of the Septuagint, including the Deuterocanon ("St. Athanasius Academy Septuagint") - New Testament from the New King James Version - Commentary drawn from the early Church Christians - Book Introductions and Outlines - Topical articles - Glossary This app licenses and uses the text and notes of the Bible published by Thomas Nelson. SPECIAL TO THE OSB APP: - Daily readings per Holy Trinity Russian Orthodox Church in Baltimore (Old Calendar), the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America (New Calendar) and the Orthodox Church in America (New Calendar) - Full year's Lectionary, Kathisma, 1- and 2-year reading plans, and more - Bookmarking and highlighting - Text search One can access all of the Orthodox Study Bible content with a single in-app purchase. No subscription is necessary. The "Today" screen is available for free: - Daily readings with accompanying footnotes and occasional topical articles - Morning & Evening prayers with appropriate day's Psalm inserted
Orthodox Hours
This app provides a comprehensive prayer book for the Eastern Orthodox Byzantine tradition. It includes the daily cycle of prayer, the Church's calendar, and the full Psalter, accessible offline. Features include daily readings, saint commemorations, and customizable prayer reminders.
- Daily prayer cycle (Horologion)
- Orthodox Church calendar
- Full Psalter with multiple numbering systems
- Daily scripture readings and saint lives
- Customizable prayer reminders
- Offline access
- Themed app colors based on Church calendar
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Hours is a prayer book for the Eastern Orthodox Byzantine tradition: the daily cycle of prayer, the calendar of the Church, and the whole Psalter, in one place and always to hand, with or without a signal. THE HOURS The Horologion, the cycle that sanctifies the day. Orthros at dawn, the First, Third, Sixth and Ninth Hours, Vespers at sunset, and Compline before sleep. The hour you are presently in is marked when you open the app, so you always know where the day stands. The Little Hours are given in full, and change with the Church's calendar: the hymns of the Resurrection in the week's tone, the hymns of each weekday, the Great Feasts, the Lenten Hours and the Paschal Hours of Bright Week. TODAY The Orthodox calendar for the day: - The commemorations and feasts, and the rank of the celebration - The tone of the week - The fasting rule, and what is abstained from - The scripture readings, in full - The lives of the saints commemorated Follow the New Calendar or the Old in Slavic usage, as kept by the OCA, ROCOR and the Russian and Serbian Churches, or the usage of the Antiochian and Greek Archdioceses. On the memorial Saturdays and through Great Lent, Today points to the prayers the day calls for. THE PSALTER All 150 Psalms, in both Masoretic and Septuagint numbering, so the psalm you are looking for is the psalm you find. And the twenty Kathismata, stasis by stasis, with those appointed for the day at Matins, at Vespers, and at the Hours of Lent. THE LITANY Write in the names of those you pray for, the living and the departed, and they are read into the commemorations of the Prayer Book. Pin each name's saint, and keep your own patrons, your family's and your parish's; Today remembers them on their day. Check names off as you pray. The names never leave your phone. THE PRAYER BOOK Prayers for adoration, confession, thanksgiving, supplication, intercession, lamentation and consecration, and the prayers before Holy Communion. PRAYERS FOR A NEED Sickness, grief, a sick child, the departed, fear, repentance, travel, marriage, peace and more: for each, the psalms and the prayers of the Church. SEARCH Find a saint and the day they are kept, a verse of the Psalms or the readings, a life, or a prayer. REMINDERS Set any of the seven hours to call you to prayer. Each repeats daily and carries a line from that hour's own prayers rather than a generic alert. Orthros begins at four in the morning, so it is left off until you ask for it. CHANT Orthodox chant that keeps playing while you pray, with the screen locked or another app open, and with controls on the lock screen. VESTED IN THE DAY The app takes the colour of the day as the Church keeps it: gold through ordinary days, purple through Great Lent, red for the feasts of martyrs and of the Cross, dark on Great and Holy Friday, Paschal red through Bright Week. The cycle follows the moving date of Pascha by itself, year after year, on either calendar. A widget brings the day to your home and lock screens. EASY TO READ Text set for reading on a screen, that follows your iPhone's Text Size, in light or dark. WITHOUT A SIGNAL Everything is in the app itself: the prayers, the Psalter, the chant, and the calendar with its readings and lives through 2050. Hours never needs a connection, which matters most where prayer is wanted and there is no signal. PRIVACY Hours collects nothing. There is no account, no analytics, no advertising and no tracking of any kind, and the app makes no network requests. The calendar is compiled from orthocal.info; the lives of the saints are from Abbamoses.com, by permission.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Orthodox Hours at none against Orthodox Study Bible's 8. Orthodox Hours also leads on update cadence (every 2 days vs every 10 days) and rating (5.0 vs 4.8). Orthodox Study Bible's advantage is ratings volume (53 vs 2) and iOS requirement (15.0 vs 17.0). On price, ads and device support 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. Orthodox Study Bible sells 8 one-off in-app purchases. Orthodox Hours asks for nothing beyond the download.
Orthodox Hours holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Orthodox Study Bible has 53 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two.
Orthodox Study Bible ships an update every 10 days, Orthodox Hours every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on November 8, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Orthodox Study Bible | Orthodox Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.8 (53 ratings) | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 89.3% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 53 — better | 2 |
| Update frequency | Every 10 days | Every 2 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 47 MB | 11 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | VDUB Software, LLC | Bruce Willke |
Customer experience
Orthodox Study Bible
Orthodox Hours
In-app purchases
Orthodox Study Bible
- OSB contentFree
- Contribute$5.00
- OSB content + contribution$5.00
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- Contribute$10.00
- OSB content$10.00
- OSB content + contribution$10.00
- Contribute$20.00
- OSB content + contribution$20.00
Orthodox Hours
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Orthodox Study Bible free?
Is Orthodox Hours free?
Which has better reviews, Orthodox Study Bible or Orthodox Hours?
Do Orthodox Study Bible or Orthodox Hours have ads?
Which is updated more often, Orthodox Study Bible or Orthodox Hours?
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