Examine vs Colophon
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Examine
A scripture-focused Bible reader designed for in-depth study and careful thought. It provides multiple translations, tools for analyzing text, and a Greek interlinear, all without AI paraphrasing or ads.
- Multiple Bible translations (NIV, NLT, Message, ESV)
- Contextual chapter view
- Verse highlighting in four colors
- AI-powered question answering with source passages
- Teaching analysis against scripture
- Phrase tracing across the entire Bible
- Greek New Testament interlinear
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Examine is a quiet, scripture-first Bible reader for people who want to read closely and think carefully. Named for the Bereans of Acts 17:11 who "examined the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so", Examine is built for that kind of reading, and it holds one firm line: the AI never writes or paraphrases Scripture. Every verse comes straight from a published translation, shown exactly as published. READ • NIV, NLT, The Message, and ESV • A calm, typographic reader that opens any verse in its full chapter, never stripped of context • Highlight verses in four colors; highlights follow the verse across translations • Everything saved on your device with no account required STUDY • Ask: pose a question and get a grounded answer that points to the passages it rests on • Weigh: test any teaching, lyric, sermon, or quote against Scripture; Examine surfaces the passages for and against, and lets you judge • Trace: follow a phrase across the whole canon, Genesis to Revelation, verified verse by verse • Greek interlinear: read the New Testament word by word, with lemmas, parsing, and every place a word appears PRINCIPLES • Scripture is never generated, paraphrased, or summarized by AI • No ads, no tracking, no account • The reading, and the conclusions, are yours Examine points you to the Word. The rest is between you and it.
Colophon
Explore the original Greek and Hebrew words behind English Bible translations offline. Study word meanings, cross-references, and save your notes and highlights locally. Enhance your understanding with advanced tools available through a one-time purchase.
- Offline Bible translations (KJV, BSB, WEB)
- Interlinear word study (Greek/Hebrew)
- Scripture search and notes
- Cross-references
- Lexicon search
- Offline audio narration
- Study Desk for verse comparison
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Colophon is an offline study Bible built on one idea: there are older words under your English. Read the King James Version (KJV), Berean Standard Bible (BSB) and World English Bible (WEB) offline. No account, no feed, no ads. Keep your notes and highlights on your device. INCLUDED WITHOUT A PURCHASE • All three Bible translations, fully offline • Scripture search, notes, highlights, bookmarks, tags and Markdown note export • The plain reading page, with your device's text size • Word of the Day widget: an English headword and verse reference COLOPHON PRO — ONE-TIME IN-APP PURCHASE, NO SUBSCRIPTION The following featured tools require Colophon Pro: • Word Study: tap tagged words in KJV or BSB for the Greek or Hebrew behind them — Strong's entries, Abbott-Smith (Greek) and Brown–Driver–Briggs (Hebrew) entries where available, roots and word families, translation renderings and occurrences. Resize the study sheet while keeping the text above it. WEB has no word tagging; open the same verse in KJV or BSB to study its words. • Lexicon search: English, Strong's number, transliteration, Greek or Hebrew • Cross references: ranked connections between Bible passages • Your Words: a local history of the words you have studied • Listen: BSB narration by Barry Hays, downloaded per book from GitHub and kept for offline playback. KJV and WEB use your device's speech voice. The page follows the reading. • Word of the Day widget: Greek or Hebrew, transliteration and a link into Word Study; verse text on supported larger widgets • Study Desk: compare two translations, verse by verse; side by side on wider screens • Notebooks and backlinks, print-ready PDF Study Sheets, and note import from Markdown or CSV • Backup & Restore: your study in a portable file you control • Additional reading backgrounds and the in-app text-size control. Previously retained background and text-size choices remain available to eligible existing readers; word study has no such exception. YOUR STUDY, ON YOUR DEVICE Notes, highlights and word history stay on your device unless you export them. Colophon runs no servers and includes no analytics or advertising SDK. Optional BSB audio downloads contact GitHub, which can see your IP address and requested files. During continuous listening, the next book can download automatically. Installed speech voices work on your device. Purchases are handled by the App Store. The texts and study sources are public-domain or openly licensed, with credits in the app. The words under the words.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Examine at none against Colophon's 4. Examine also leads on review sentiment (100% vs 67%) and update cadence (every 10 days vs every 3 weeks). On price, rating, 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. Colophon sells 4 one-off in-app purchases. Examine asks for nothing beyond the download.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Examine against 5.0 for Colophon. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 3 and 1 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 100% of Examine's written reviews are positive against 67% of Colophon's.
Examine ships an update every 10 days, Colophon every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 5, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Examine | Colophon |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (3 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better | 66.7% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 3 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 10 days — better | Every 3 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 | 15.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 3 MB | 204 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Will Nelson | Mustafa Salim Erek |
Customer experience
Examine
Colophon
In-app purchases
Examine
No in-app purchases
Colophon
- Tip: Ink$1.99
- Tip: Quill$4.99
- Colophon Pro$9.99
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- Tip: Patron$9.99









