Comparison

Bible vs The Pillar Bible Study

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

Head to head
About

Bible

Deeply engage with scripture through a clean reader, verse search, and personalized notes. Build guided studies with reflections and discussion prompts, and get AI-powered answers to your biblical questions.

Highlights
  • Clean scripture reader
  • Verse search and bookmarking
  • Highlighting and topic organization
  • Encrypted personal notes
  • Guided study builder
  • AI-powered scripture chat
  • Optional verse insights
Features
Read full description

Biblical is a Bible study app built for reading Scripture deeply and keeping your work on your device. Read the Bible with a clean reader, search verses across the text, and bookmark chapters and passages. Highlight verses, organize highlights by topic, and write personal notes that stay encrypted on your device. Terms of Use: https://ariyafaith.tech/terms Privacy Policy: https://ariyafaith.tech/privacy Build and follow guided studies with multiple sessions, reflections, discussion prompts, and rich study cards—including cross-references, word studies, timelines, and biblical places. Ask questions in chat and get answers grounded in Scripture, with citations from our biblical text corpus—not random web results. Optional verse insights help you explore context without leaving the passage. Sign in with Apple or email to sync account features and subscriptions. Most reading and study data stays local-first on your phone unless you choose to share a study file with someone else. Biblical Premium (optional subscription) unlocks premium features. Payment is handled by Apple. You can manage or cancel your subscription in your Apple ID settings. Questions or help: ariya.faith@ariyafaith.com

About

The Pillar Bible Study

This app offers in-depth Bible study with original language tools, commentaries, and cross-references. It allows for handwritten notes on iPad and provides offline access to translations and study materials.

Highlights
  • Original language lexicon and interlinear view
  • Side-by-side translation comparison
  • Handwritten notes with Apple Pencil on iPad
  • Integrated commentaries and dictionaries
  • Offline access to KJV and other translations
  • Audio narration of Bible chapters
  • Customizable reading plans and notes
Features
Read full description

The Pillar is a Bible study app for those longing to understand the Word more clearly, and to read it with more confidence — the original languages, commentary and reference material gathered around the text instead of scattered across a shelf. Free to read. Premium to study. The Bible is free in every public-domain translation, with notes, highlights, plans and the audio Bible, and your first week has every study tool open. Pillar Premium keeps them: $4.99/month or $39.99/year, with a 7-day free trial. TRANSLATIONS Read the New King James Version, King James Version, New Living Translation, NASB 2020, Christian Standard Bible and The Message — alongside the American Standard Version, Berean Standard Bible, World English Bible, Geneva 1599, Douay-Rheims, Darby and Young's Literal. In Spanish, the Reina-Valera 1909, Palabra de Dios para Ti and Nueva Biblia Viva; in Arabic, the Van Dyck. Compare any two in Parallel View. THE ORIGINAL LANGUAGES Tap a word to see the Greek or Hebrew behind it, its Strong's number, a full lexicon entry from Abbott-Smith or Brown-Driver-Briggs, and every other place that word appears in Scripture. Interlinear reading shows the original word by word, parsed in plain English. WRITE IN IT — iPad AND APPLE PENCIL Bring back the margins. On iPad, an Apple Pencil writes anywhere on the page — beside a verse, across a phrase, down the edge of the column — and every stroke stays anchored to the verse it belongs to rather than to a spot on the screen. Change the type size, come back a year later: your notes are still beside the verse. Your finger still scrolls and selects; there is no mode to enter. Notes in the margin travel with the verse into every translation; notes written over the words stay in the translation and orientation you wrote them in, the way they would on a printed page. A STUDY LIBRARY AROUND THE VERSE Eight classic commentaries, five Bible dictionaries, Nave's and Torrey's topical indexes, and cross-references — every one reachable from the verse you are reading. The dictionaries and topical indexes need no connection. MAPS Tap a place name in the text and the map opens on it. Every chapter has one — the places named there, numbered in the order Scripture names them. The Atlas lists more than 1,200 places alphabetically. Where a location is uncertain, the map says so. Maps work with no connection at all. AUDIO Any chapter of the Berean Standard Bible read aloud by a human narrator, with lock-screen controls and three readers to choose from. YOUR OWN WORK Notes typed or handwritten with Apple Pencil, anchored to their verse and linkable to each other. Highlights in colors you name yourself. Reading plans with daily reminders and a streak that tracks your reading. Sermon notes with tap-to-replay timestamps and camera text capture. Everything exports as Markdown and stays yours, on your device and in your own iCloud. OFFLINE The complete King James Version ships inside the app, and every chapter you read is saved as you go — so Pillar keeps working with no connection at all. A note on what needs a connection: the New King James Version, NASB 2020, New Living Translation, Christian Standard Bible and The Message are shown live, as their licenses require, except chapters you write in. Commentaries and cross-references are fetched as you read. Audio is the Berean Standard Bible only. SUBSCRIPTION DETAILS Pillar Premium — monthly ($4.99) or annual ($39.99), each with a 7-day free trial. Payment is charged to your Apple Account at confirmation of purchase. The subscription renews automatically unless it is cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period, and your account is charged for renewal within 24 hours before the period ends. You can manage or cancel your subscription in your Apple Account settings after purchase. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://www.thepillarapp.com/privacy

Screenshots

Bible4 screens
The Pillar Bible Study4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: The Pillar Bible Study at every 3 days against Bible's every 3 weeks. The Pillar Bible Study also leads on ratings volume (5 vs 1). On price, rating, review sentiment 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Bible sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $7.99 per month and The Pillar Bible Study sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Bible against 5.0 for The Pillar Bible Study. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: The Pillar Bible Study has 5 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 100% and 100% positive.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Bible ships an update every 3 weeks, The Pillar Bible Study every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on October 20, 2026 and October 29, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
Bible versus The Pillar Bible Study: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBibleThe Pillar Bible Study
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (1 ratings)5.0 (5 ratings)
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings15 — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeksEvery 3 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFreemiumFreemium
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPad — better
Requires iOS17.0 — better18.0
Further details — not scored
Size142 MB291 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperCristian Hernandezthefrenchpressedone LLC

Customer experience

Bible

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

The Pillar Bible Study

All ratings5 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews2 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

2 purchases

Bible

Subscriptions2
  • Biblical Premium Monthly$7.991 Month
  • Biblical Premium Yearly$96.001 Year
2 purchases

The Pillar Bible Study

Subscriptions2
  • Premium Monthly7 Days trial$4.991 Month
  • Premium Annual7 Days trial$39.991 Year

Questions

Is Bible free?
Bible is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is The Pillar Bible Study free?
The Pillar Bible Study is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Bible or The Pillar Bible Study?
Bible and The Pillar Bible Study are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 1 and 5 ratings respectively.
Do Bible or The Pillar Bible Study have ads?
Neither Bible nor The Pillar Bible Study shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Bible or The Pillar Bible Study?
Bible ships an update every 3 weeks, and The Pillar Bible Study every 3 days. Most recently, Bible was updated on October 20, 2026 and The Pillar Bible Study on October 29, 2026.

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