Apple’s iOS continues to mature as a platform. It has now spawned hundreds of thousands of apps, many of which are very useful to Christians. Along with my friend Travis Carden, I’ve gathered a pretty good list of some of the best of the best. Unless otherwise noted, all of these apps are free.
- Accordance – You can get several of the most essential reference tools here for free: Easton’s Bible Dictionary, Nave’s Topical Bible, some Greek and Hebrew helps, and Matthew Henry’s complete commentary.
- Christian Creeds and Reformed Confessions – Handy for catechesis or reference.
- ESV Bible (free) and ESV Study Bible + ($14.99) – This is my favorite app for Bible reading. You can listen to the ESV audio, too, if you’re online.
- YouVersion – An app version of the popular web site. It offers all kinds of translations and other resources.
- Fighter Verses ($2.99) – From Desiring God.
- Free Bible Study Tools – The BibleStudyTools.com app has an impressive array of resources, including dictionaries, commentaries, and encyclopedias, and the longest list of available Bible translations I’ve seen.
- Grace to You – A nice enough interface to the audio and video on gty.org.
- Ligonier Ministries – An interface to ligonier.org with plenty of audio, video and other resources.
- Husting Pocket Hymnal (formerly Popular Christian Classic Hymns) – This is a decent little app, for all its simplicity. Maybe a little niche, but if it’s a free Christian hymnal you want, this is the best I have for you.
- Logos Bible Software – It tends to be slow, quirky, and unstable, but it syncs with the desktop software—which can also be slow, quirky, and unstable at times! If you just want to read books in your Libronix library, I recommend Vyrso (below) instead, which is basically the same thing without the Bible reader and study tools.
- Olive Tree BibleReader – You can read the Bible on this app, but I use it for the many good free books you can download through it, from such authors as Spurgeon, E. M. Bounds, and John Piper.
- OnePlace.com – A podcast buffet, serving some delicacies and some garbage. (At least they don’t host Joel Osteen anymore!)
- PocketSword – I’m impressed with this little gem! The interface isn’t pretty, but it gives simple access to lots of great free resources—most of all commentaries!
- PrayerMate – Quiet Time Organiser ($2.99) – I use this to organize my prayers. Very useful.
- Reformation Study Bible ($9.99) – Just what the name says. Note that this is licensed to a third-party and is not created by Ligonier.
- Vyrso – This is pretty much the Logos app (above) without the Bible reader and study tools.
- Reeder – The best way to access your Google Reader account and digest all those blogs ($2.99).
- Kindle – Keep an eye on my blog and others to find great deals on Kindle books that are of interest to Christians. It’s not unusual to find great books selling for just a few dollars each.
