Which Bible app for iPhone is the best?

There are a lot of Apple apps of the Bible, with many versions of translation and extra functions. Which one is the best?

A simple Google search may reveal at least the following:

• Bible by LiveChurch.tv (free, but no offline versions for many translations), with 41 translations in 22 languages
• Olive Tree, excellent features, but expensive (NIV costs US$21.99)
• Mantis, with features similar to those of Olive Tree (NIV costs US$19.99)
• Kammyland (US$1.99, no offline version), with some copyrighted version, including NIV
• Logos Bible software (free), without copyrighted versions
• Touch Bible (free), featuring NET, without copyrighted versions
• BibleScope (US$3.99, offline), with many free versions, but expectedly NIV costs US$19.99 as standard
• Bible.is (free), audio Bible
• The Bible Scholar (US$1.99) a collection of reference books
• Holy Sword (US$0.99, offline) for Chinese Union Version and Japanese version only, no other language available

Some commentaries on Bible study apps are listed below:

• 25 iPhone apps for Bible study
• Wikipedia on "Biblical software"

There is no free lunch. If you need good features with popular versions (e.g. NIV and NASB), references and hyperlinks, a good search engine and a tool to write your own study notes, you must pay about the same price as a printed version for each e-version. The most comprehensive free app is the one by LiveChurch.tv, but its functions are limited as compared with Olive Tree or Mantis. Each of the others has its own strength, but nowhere can they compare with the two big brothers. In comparison, The Bible Scholar is not expensive, although the reference books are a bit dated, and many of them are available free of charge on the internet.