Comparison

SourceView Together Bible vs Ballast

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

SourceView Together Bible

Engage with scripture through an interactive speech bubble format, perfect for group discussions and personal reflection. Features include study questions, notes with emoji reactions, and multiple reading plans. Available in English and French.

Highlights
  • Speech bubble Bible format
  • 400+ study questions
  • Personal notes with emoji reactions
  • Group reading sessions
  • Multiple reading plans
  • Progress tracking & achievements
  • Offline access
Features
Read full description

SourceView Together turns Scripture into a thread you can actually follow. Every line is colored by who is speaking - narrator, divine speech, named principals, and everyone else - the same way you already read a group text. At a glance, you know who's talking and how the conversation moves, across 774 distinct voices and 365 stories. The Bible is laid out as 365 complete narrative stories, not chapter-and-verse fragments. Each story is a whole arc - Creation read start to finish in one sitting, about fifteen to twenty minutes, with nothing lost to an artificial chapter break. Follow the year on a visual thread, open a division, pick a story, and keep going. Meet the cast of voices as you go - Cast tracks who you've heard, how often, and where. Read alone, or gather a few people and read it like a script: each person takes a source color and reads that voice aloud, so the story plays out as a conversation. After the story, Talk about it offers discussion questions for family, a class, or a small group. Keep a daily streak, react and leave notes on the words that land, and see your reading history as a heatmap on the You tab. Search by verse when you need a specific place in Scripture. Follow a catalog plan or a shorter challenge, or open Your Plans and build your own reading plan as a playlist of stories. English. New Living Translation. Reading progress, notes, and reactions stay on your device. Optional daily reminders are scheduled on this device only. French returns in a later update.

About

Ballast

Read full description

A daily program of scripture for men. Ten readings free, and complete. No ads, no account, nothing to sign into. Ballast is a program, not a feed. You open it and today's passage is there, with one factual line in front of it: the book, who wrote it, who it was written to. You read it, or you listen to it read aloud. It closes with a short prayer that is itself scripture, a psalm or a benediction, not something written for you. You mark it complete and see where you are. ONE READING EACH WEEKDAY The plan suggests one reading each weekday, Monday to Friday, and the weekend is there for catching up. Every day of your plan is open: read ahead, listen again or go back, in any order. The streak counts weekdays, and you can turn it off. Each plan has an end, and the program shows how far you are. THE PLANS These Words. Ten readings, two weeks. Free, and it stays free. A complete plan, not a sample of a longer one. Mark. Fifteen readings, three weeks. The shortest Gospel, read in order. Joseph. Ten readings, two weeks. The last fourteen chapters of Genesis. Romans. Ten readings, two weeks. Paul's letter to the church in Rome, read in order. Proverbs. Fifteen readings, three weeks. All thirty-one chapters, in order. The Songs of Ascent is being built. It sits on the shelf marked Coming soon until it is ready. READ OR LISTEN Every reading is narrated. Play it with the screen off, from the lock screen, in the truck before work. Finishing the audio marks the day complete. HIGHLIGHTS AND NOTES Highlight a verse, write a note, find it again in the Ledger. Export the whole ledger as plain text whenever you like. Share a verse as a card that shows the book, chapter and verse. WHAT IT IS NOT No account. Your progress, highlights and notes stay on your device, and sync privately through your own iCloud if you use it. No ads. None in the app, none planned. No commentary. The passage, a line of context, a prayer. No free trial. These Words is free outright; nothing turns into a charge. THE SUBSCRIPTION These Words is free for everyone. Every other program comes with one subscription, monthly or yearly. A subscriber has every program while it runs, including the ones added after he joins. Payment is charged to your Apple Account at confirmation. The subscription renews automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period, and it can be managed or cancelled in your Apple Account settings at any time. Terms: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy: https://ironsidelabs.io/ballast/privacy/ Ballast is made by Ironside Labs.

Screenshots

SourceView Together Bible4 screens
Ballast4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: SourceView Together Bible at none against Ballast's 2. SourceView Together Bible also leads on iOS requirement (16.4 vs 26.1). Ballast's advantage is update cadence (every 5 days vs every 4 months). 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Ballast sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. SourceView Together Bible asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

SourceView Together Bible ships an update every 4 months, Ballast every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on October 7, 2026 and October 14, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 6 level
SourceView Together Bible versus Ballast: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSourceView Together BibleBallast
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (2 ratings) — better—
Number of ratings2 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 4 monthsEvery 5 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS16.4 — better26.1
Further details — not scored
Size84 MB241 MB
Age rating+44+
DeveloperSourceView Publishing LLCIronside Labs LLC.

In-app purchases

None

SourceView Together Bible

No in-app purchases

2 purchases

Ballast

Subscriptions2
  • Ballast — Monthly$4.991 Month
  • Ballast — Yearly$39.991 Year

Questions

Is SourceView Together Bible free?
SourceView Together Bible is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Ballast free?
Ballast is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do SourceView Together Bible or Ballast have ads?
Neither SourceView Together Bible nor Ballast shows ads.
Which is updated more often, SourceView Together Bible or Ballast?
SourceView Together Bible ships an update every 4 months, and Ballast every 5 days. Most recently, SourceView Together Bible was updated on October 7, 2026 and Ballast on October 14, 2026.

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