Mere Bible Reviews

MereBible used to be great. It didn’t need to do a lot, and the few things it did, it did brilliantly. It was simple, elegant, and always worked great. Starting with the most recent updates in late fall of 2023, there’s suddenly a rash of new bugs and problems that in my years of use had never been there. For the few dollars I paid for MereBible when I first downloaded it years ago, it was everything I wanted it to be. Now, though, it looks like it’s time to find a replacement. Thanks for the great years!

First, let me state the design, layout, and user experience of MereBible is by far the best of any Bible app I have used. For that, MereBible is definitely worth the money. However, in an age where the Bible is free online it’s kind of ridiculous to charge an extra $5 to $10 for all of the most common versions of the Bible after we’ve already paid for MereBible (which doesn’t offer any study notes or plans). Would easily give 5 stars if each version of the Bible was free and they still charged for MereBible . But for now, it’s difficult to recommend.

This provides the best reading experience for scripture on any iOS device, and it’s not even close. With all of the attention to detail, you can find yourself reading more than what you initially planned to which is a great thing. The only thing that’s missing, and for me it’s a huge miss, is the lack of support for multitasking. It’s been available since iOS 9, and with an app that’s cleverly designed such as this, it sticks out like a sore thumb. Unfortunately, my number one use case for a Bible app is to take notes in church with scripture open on my iPad, and that’s not possible with MereBible. It’s for full screen or nothing. Nevertheless, the developers should be proud for making a great app.

Beautifully designed app. No question about it. Finally what Christians have been waiting for. It’s sad that out of the billions of apps out there we had to wait this long to get an elegant app just to read the Bible. Thank you guys. Downgraded 1 star because we have to pay again for the popular versions and the font sizes could be made bigger. The ones they have are small, even the largest font size. Otherwise it’s beautifully designed. Even the option to switch between chapters or books.

I have several Bible apps, and for me, this is tied with Crossways ESV for the best. But my biggest wish/complaint is that MereBible would allow scrolling without the pause/stops between chapters and books. Smooth continuous scrolling. Also, an option to just start where I last left off without asking every time would be nice. There might be a couple other minor bugs or things here and there they could optimize, and lately MereBible has been frequently crashing, but otherwise a good effort.

MereBible is gorgeous. The design is very well-crafted, and it's a very simple and minimal reading experience. The navigation and features are well thought out. The only thing it lacks is a landscape mode.

Although the typography is optimized, it still isn't ideal on such a small screen in portrait mode. The character per line count is on the low side. If there was a landscape mode this would be more ideal.

In any case, it is still possibly the nicest looking, fastest loading, most enjoyable read of the Bible on the iPhone in portrait mode.

While I think the developers deserve their pay, there are other apps that offer the ESV translation for free, even if only available used online. I realize there are licensing and royalties to account for, but something like two or three dollars would be more reasonable for additional translations. I'd buy a few, whereas I'm reluctant to buy one for the price i paid for my compact ESV physical book, new in store.

If there was a landscape mode that read just as nicely I might not be so reluctant.

This is a great app and it’s completely worth the money. I give it four stars because the search function is very frustrating. For instance if you barely remember a verse and want to find it you need to know the full exact word in it. For instance, if you are trying to find Mt 19:12 but don’t remember the book/chapter of it but you do remember Jesus mentioning the word eunuch in that verse, the search function won’t return that verse if you search “eunuch.” He says “eunuchs” (going off KJV) so you have to search that to find it. The search feature also deletes your search term after you select a verse to look at. If you realize it’s not the verse you were thinking of, you have to go back and type it again. This makes it really frustrating to do any kind of serious study in MereBible other than simple reading. With a really simple fix to the search bar, MereBible could work great as a concordance. I’d pay double for it if it actually did that.

Another note - I saw a typo when reading the ESV in Jeremiah (possibly it was in Job). I forget where exactly but it was obviously wrong as in there was a space missing between two words. I checked my paper ESV and it had it right. This severely undermined my faith in MereBible - I want to know that what I’m reading is really accurate and not cross check everything that looks strange! I have not seen anything wrong in the KJV however.

It is tragic how neglected MereBible is despite being (easily) the best Bible reading experience out there. It’s so clean, the text legible and a delight to the eyes, the browsing experience between books and chapters feel like a real physical Bible by having you finger through them. Really, it’s undefeated in the reading experience and I’ve tried all the popular apps from youversion to olive tree to catena to dwell. Neu Bible is the peak (for reading). Unfortunately, last update was 10 months ago as of writing this and to this day after years, we still don’t have access to the deuterocanon/apocrypha (despite Dwell adding them in even with audio), and the default translation is not even used anymore in the real world (HCSB became the now better CSB). We don’t need constant updates, but at least offer some feature parity with Dwell, please.

I love using MereBible. I find it has the most intuitive, gorgeous, and fast interface of all the Bible apps I’ve used—I’ve tried quite a few of them, most I dislike. I quite like that you can toggle red letters and verse numbers (especially useful in reading and understanding the flow of Old Testament passages).

My one complaint is that MereBible does not allow split screen mode for the iPad. Often I want to read an entire book through once, and then go back and make notes about what I’m reading, and its useful to have the biblical text to the left or right of the notes I’m taking. If this feature was added to MereBible it would be the ultimate bible app, in my opinion.

They weren’t kidding when they said MereBible was “thoughtfully” designed. I love every feature about it! The text is elegant and draws me in. I want to read my Bible digitally the same way I do with my print Bible and MereBible makes it possible. This beats the ESV Bible app because this offers more than one translation which I appreciate. I love being able to read God’s word without all the clutter of most Bible apps. I mean, I’m thankful that YouVersion makes it so easy to share God’s word, it is just too busy. MereBible is simple, elegant, and efficient. My new favorite next to Logos!

I have been using the Nuebible app for about 4 years and it is intuitive, easy to use, and there is not a whole lot of extras that get in the way of reading. Some other bible apps add a lot of extra features that slow down their app or cause their app to crash from time to time but not Nuebible. I love the interface of MereBible the way it works so smoothly and it has always worked for me perfectly. I would recommend Nuebible to anyone who wants to enjoy reading the Bible on their iPhone. It is the best reading experience is the best I’ve found on any reading app. Well worth the purchase and it is one that will last for years to come!

NeuBible is the bomb. Best bible reading experience anywhere. Actually, best pure READING experience anywhere (focused, uncluttered, AMAZING typography), killer intuitive navigation, not bloated with “features," etc. When I say “best reading experience”, I mean of *any* app, not just Bible apps. Kindle, iBooks, e-readers should take notes.

My two main suggestions: it would be basically perfect (for me) if it had a way to take notes (supposedly they have ideas for this...) and had a way to track reading plans (like He Reads Truth, which has a great reading plan feature, but an otherwise awful reading experience).

I have this general dislike for most “Christian” products, because they’re so often crappy rip-offs or very poorly executed, but NeuBible is what a “Christian” app *should* be: best in class to reflect the creativity & inspiration God gives us.

It's time to fix the search! I enter a part of a verse that I'm looking for, and all the matches pop up with a small section of the verse. I click on one to see it, but it's not what I'm looking for. So then I have to start my search all over again! Kind of frustrating!

I also feel like the night mode needs a lot of refinement. The background needs to be MUCH darker. It looks pretty weird and hard to read when I read it at night before falling asleep. I’m sure this would be even more of an issue on the iPhone X.

This is worth every penny to me. The Bible is so powerful, and these folks display that without getting a bunch of menus and fluff in the way. I removed my 600$ Logos library for the simplicity of MereBible. (I’m a BA In Theo, but this is where I am at now- the simplicity of the word- no verse markers, just one unified story). For being such a “proprietary app guy”, this is one “aftermarket” app from an indie developer team that I have the pleasure to support and be blessed by. I wholeheartedly recommended all to download if you share sentiments similar to mine, because I read the Bible more because of MereBible.

My criticism of many printed Bibles is that they are designed to be study guides rather being designed for reading and absorbing the text.

When it comes to Bible apps, some of them have gotten close to what I wanted by letting me disable much of the cruft, but none of them let me just focus on the text like this one does.

I’ve found my new preferred app for reading the most important writing there is. Thanks for the good work. And thanks for making it paid so I can help support your efforts.

This is an absolutely incredible bible reading app. I especially like the formatting after pasting an item that you've copied, which includes the translation name in a very clean way. However, after the most recent update I have completely stopped using it. Initially I loved the speed; I was able to highlight, copy and paste with no delay, but now after the update it takes about 7-10 seconds for the highlight feature to work, therefore much of what I loved about it has been rendered impractical. I pray your team will get MereBible back up to speed; I'll be using it again immediately once the issues are taken care of. Thank you for your work, God bless.

Found this through the Dwell app (well, upon looking up recent news about the Dwell bible app). I love that you can hide the verse numbers and just how beautiful everything is. I hope the partnership/acquisition from Dwell will be fruitful for MereBible (and the Dwell app) however that pairing will work. Thanks for a great app.

Might I suggest putting a “tip” button on the menu so we can send some extra money to the creators - $1.99 feels like a steal for such an app.

10/10

This application is by far my most used, and my favorite for my iPad Pro. If I'm at church, in bed, or just taking a slow moment throughout the work day, this is my go to.

My only request is to enable multitasking. I'd love to have this open next to a commentary I have on kindle, or multitask with GoodNotes and my Apple Pencil to do a more intense study.

Please consider this! Thank you for your faithfulness in creating this!

I remember when I found out about new NeuBible on Twitter, former Twitter employee leading a team of developers focused on bringing a beautiful smooth Bible reading experience to iOS. Not that the Bible needed anything on top of what it was, but that it deserved the respect of a great and thoughtful design in the modern smart phone era. I bought MereBible the day that it came out (this was back when it was a paid app), and I beta tested the iPad app as well. It is my absolute favorite Bible app, and I recommend it to everyone who asks me what Bible app I use. I'm thrilled to support the team of developers who wants to provide a great experience to the Christian community, and sees the value in creating a great Bible reading experience for my iPad and iPhone. Thank you guys so much for the hard work!

I found this after growing weary of bugs and bloat in MereBible I previously used as it has increasingly focused on becoming a social media platform. The interface is lovely and intuitive and I appreciate a distraction free alternative. My only concern would be sustainability and updates going forward. I would be willing to pay for upgrades as this certainly feels like a premium option. Thanks for an excellent app. Wish list item would be an ESV audio reading option…