Bible Explorer by OCC vs Scripture Alone Bible
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side β with what reviewers say about each.
Bible Explorer by OCC
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The whole Bible, with the tools to study it, on your phone. No signal needed. Bible Explorer is built by Ontario Community Church, a congregation of about sixty-five in Ontario, Oregon. Everything in it is public domain, and the Bible and its study tools ship inside the app, so it works on a plane, in a canyon, or in the back row β what a small church can do with a little, given back. READ β’ Twelve translations: King James, American Standard, World English, Young's Literal, Darby, Webster, Douay-Rheims, Geneva (1599), Revised Version, Tyndale New Testament, JPS Tanakh, and Brenton's Septuagint β’ The church's own serif type, gold verse numbers, four reading themes (OCC, Parchment, Slate, Midnight), your text size and spacing β’ Tap any verse for commentary in a split-view pane, cross references, Strong's, and the verse in every translation at once β’ Tap any reference inside a commentary and it opens right there in a half sheet, with translation chips to compare it on the spot β’ Type a reference like John 3:16 and jump straight there, or search a phrase across the whole Bible β’ Focus mode, a verse of the day, top verses, your own reading streak, and picking up right where you left off STUDY β’ Nine commentaries, all built in: Matthew Henry, Jamieson-Fausset-Brown, Adam Clarke, Keil & Delitzsch, John Wesley, Barnes' Notes, the 1599 Geneva Bible's own marginal notes, John Calvin, and John Gill β’ Strong's Hebrew and Greek under every word, with that word's occurrences across every translation β’ Nearly a million cross references and more than 32,000 topics β’ Six Bible dictionaries: Easton, Smith, Hitchcock, ISBE, Nave's, and Torrey's β’ More than 3,000 people and 1,300 places, each with a map, its dictionary entries, and every verse that mentions them β’ Gustave DorΓ©'s 1866 Bible engravings, a downloadable illustrations pack linked right to the people, places, and chapters they depict β’ 718 hymns tied to the verses that inspired them β’ 24 reading plans, each with a preview before you start SAVE β’ Bookmarks, highlights, and your own notes and study notes, sorted by reference β’ Share cards for any verse, in four scenes to match the app's own themes β’ Everything syncs across your devices through your own iCloud account ALSO β’ An Apple Watch app: verse of the day, today's plan reading, bookmarks, and a full KJV reader on your wrist β’ A Messages app: send a verse card in iMessage straight from Verse of the Day, Bookmarks, or a KJV search OFFLINE β’ No account, no ads, no tracking, no subscription, no AI. Every translation, the nine commentaries, and the six dictionaries are built in. More books and art, and the Greek and Hebrew originals, are free optional downloads β’ Every translation, every commentary, and every dictionary in Bible Explorer is public domain WHAT MAKES IT DIFFERENT No account. No ads. No tracking. No subscription. No AI. Just the Bible and the tools to study it, built by a small church and given away.
Scripture Alone Bible
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Scripture Alone is a Bible for iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Watch, built for one thing: studying God's word without anything in the way. No ads. No trackers. No accounts. The Bible lives on your device, so it works anywhere, with or without a connection. Read the whole Bible, offline The New American Standard Bible β NASB 2020 is on your device from the moment it installs. The NASB 1995, American Standard Version, Berean Standard Bible and King James Version download once, when you first choose one. Full-text search, the words of Christ in red, poetry set as poetry, and footnotes a tap away. What the Bible says about what you're going through Topics gathers passages for 72 themes β anxiety, grief, loneliness, fear, marriage, waiting and more β in the translation you read. Type a feeling like "anxious" in Go To and its topic comes up. In English, Nave's Topical Bible is there too, A to Z. Bring your own Bibles Import a DRM-free ePub, a Bible PDF with a text layer or a USFM file you own, or browse the openly licensed translations on eBible.org. A study Bible brings its notes, introductions, essays and maps; the words of Christ carry over in red; and your imports reach your other devices through your own iCloud. The ESV, CSB and NKJV can be read with your own publisher key, or from a copy you've imported. In your language Also in Chinese, Japanese, German, French, Spanish, Korean, Portuguese and Italian, each with a whole Bible of its own. Make it comfortable Seven typefaces, adjustable size and spacing, five themes, paragraphs or verse by verse, full Dynamic Type, two columns on a wide screen, and auto-scroll into the next chapter. Go straight there Type "jn 3 16" or "rom 8:28-39" to jump to a passage, or search any word or phrase. Highlight, note and favorite Highlight in five colors, favorite the verses you return to, and attach notes to one or more passages β a Sunday sermon on Romans 8:1β17, say. The Highlights list gathers every marked verse in Bible order, and Notes, Highlights and Favorites narrow to one book or chapter. Export notes as PDF, Markdown or text, or bring years of them in from Life Bible (formerly Tecarta) or a CSV. Snap the sermon slide Photograph the slide at church and Scripture Alone starts your note: titled, linked to every passage on the slide, its points ready to fill in. The photo is read on your device, never uploaded. Listen Hear any chapter read aloud with your device's voices, the spoken verse marked as it goes β or in Studio voices with a Mi Speaks Premium subscription (a separate app). Study mode, a toggle away Ranked cross-references, commentary from Calvin, Gill and Jamieson-Fausset-Brown, the Hebrew and Greek word by word with parsing, Strong's numbers and a lexicon in every translation, and Context for every chapter: an overview, a map of the places it names, its era on a timeline, and charts of the kings, Paul's journeys, the tribes and the feasts. Share beautifully Design a verse image from eight templates, or share a link that rebuilds it in any browser β nothing is stored on a server. On your wrist and Home Screen Verse of the Day and Favorites widgets, and an Apple Watch app with the NASB 2020 built in and a complication. It reads offline, follows your iPhone's translation and carries your highlights, favorites and notes, in the accent color you chose on your iPhone. A Bible to hand down Make a Keepsake Bible: a file of your highlights and notes, with a dedication, that your family can open and read as you marked it β a digital "Dad's Bible". Private by design Your highlights, notes and favorites sync across your devices through your own private iCloud. No server, no account, and the developer never sees your data. Scripture Alone is open source under the AGPL, so anyone can read exactly what it does. Built to help people study God's word and grow closer to Christ. NASB 2020 and NASB 1995 Β© The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. www.Lockman.org
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Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Scripture Alone Bible at every 2 days against Bible Explorer by OCC's weekly. Bible Explorer by OCC's advantage is device support (6 vs 3) and iOS requirement (16.0 vs 26.0). On price, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price Β· Rating Β· Positive reviews Β· Number of ratings Β· Update frequency Β· Ads Β· In-app purchases Β· Monetization Β· Best chart rank Β· Devices Β· Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Bible Explorer by OCC ships an update weekly, Scripture Alone Bible every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on October 16, 2026 and October 4, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Bible Explorer by OCC | Scripture Alone Bible |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Update frequency | Weekly | Every 2 days β better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, Apple Watch, Vision Pro β better | iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 β better | 26.0 |
| Further details β not scored | ||
| Size | 219 MB | 70 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Patrick Dailey | Blaine Miller |
In-app purchases
Bible Explorer by OCC
No in-app purchases
Scripture Alone Bible
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Bible Explorer by OCC free?
Is Scripture Alone Bible free?
Do Bible Explorer by OCC or Scripture Alone Bible have ads?
Which is updated more often, Bible Explorer by OCC or Scripture Alone Bible?
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