Seraph vs Olive Tree
A study library that keeps tools beside the verse, with a download price of zero and paid resources after that, and a quieter flame that never asks for an account. This page is written by the maker of Seraph — read it knowing that — and it will be generous to Olive Tree, because the library is real and the free translations they name are real.
Our bias, declared: we make Seraph. The linked Olive Tree sources support the specific download price, in-app purchase list, Play subscription sentences, homepage platform sentence, account wording, and privacy wording identified below; this is not an independent review of either app. Our product details describe Seraph’s current published offering. If we've got something wrong, tell us and we'll fix it.
The main difference
Consider Olive Tree if you want Scripture with commentaries, original-language tools, and more than one translation beside the verse, including on Android. The US listing (id332615624) on this check is titled “Bible App - Read & Study Daily,” subtitle “Holy Bible App by Olive Tree,” seller Gospel Technologies LLC, category Reference, age 4+, copyright © Olive Tree Bible Software, Inc, bundle id com.olivetree.BR-Free. JSON-LD Offer on that page is price 0, currency USD. Offer data sets isFree to true, hasInAppPurchases to true, and hasExternalPurchases to false. The offer title is “Get.” The offer subtitle is “In‑App Purchases.” The Information section’s In-App Purchases list on this check shows ten lines. We quote those ten. We do not invent prices past that list. Listing copy names a Resource Guide, parallel translations, cross-references, Greek and Hebrew tools, reading plans, offline downloads, notes, and audio Bibles, and “5 free major Bible translations including ESV, NIV, KJV, NKJV, CSB and more.” We do not have Android, Hebrew and Greek tools, or a multi-translation study library.
Choose Seraph if you want something quieter: one flame kept daily, the whole King James Bible readable free, guided prayer paced by breath — and a hard privacy line: no account to create, no ads, and a public vow of no prayer analytics. Your prayer life stays on your device. Seraph+ is $6.99/mo or $59.99/yr on our US App Store listing and on our pricing page. The daily office is free. Sacred Seasons, including Advent, are not. There is no Seraph+ trial. Olive Tree sells study packs and individual books on the pages cited here. We are a silent daily office with a paid season. That is the fork.
Side by side
| Feature | Seraph | Olive Tree |
|---|---|---|
| Annual price | $59.99/yr | The Play description on this check: “Yearly, $59.99 USD per year,” as one of three auto-renewing study-pack options. The same sentence also names “Semi-Annually, $29.99 USD per six-months,” which is not a year. That $59.99 numeral matches the year in the other column. It is not the same product, and it is not a price on the US listing’s visible In-App Purchases list. That list has no yearly dollar amount on this check. The US description says a subscription “automatically renews unless it is canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the free trial or current period,” and it does not print a yearly dollar. We do not invent an App Store yearly price from the Play sentence. |
| Monthly price | $6.99/mo | The US listing’s visible list: ESV Study Pack Monthly $5.99, NIV Study Pack Monthly $5.99, NKJV Study Pack Monthly $5.99, and Starter Pack Monthly $2.99. The Play description: “Monthly: $5.99 USD per month.” We do not collapse $2.99 and $5.99 into one month. We do not invent a $6.99 Olive Tree month. This check did not read a help-center subscription article, so we do not quote a website monthly range from it. |
| Family plan | — | None published on the pages cited here. We do not invent a family SKU. |
| Free trial | None — the free tier is the trial | The Play description: “you have a 14 Day Free trial to try them!” about those three study-pack options. The US description mentions “a free trial” and “the free trial” and does not print a number of days. We do not copy the Play 14 Day Free trial onto the US listing. |
| Free, forever | Daily verse · 2 guided sessions · the whole KJV Bible (1,189 chapters) · every reading plan · streak flame · reminders | The download they price at 0. The US listing: “5 free major Bible translations including ESV, NIV, KJV, NKJV, CSB and more.” The same page’s visible list prices NIV Bible at $0.00, a free in-app line, not a second app price. The Play description: “Our app comes with NIV, ESV, KJV, NKJV and more,” and “Not only is this a free Bible app, but we also have 100s of free resources.” Play also lists CSB among “popular translations available for in-app purchase.” The US listing names CSB inside the free-translation sentence. We quote each page. We do not invent that CSB is free on Android. |
| Subscription opens | Full guided-prayer library (12 sessions) · Sacred Seasons (Advent & Lent) | Bible Study Pack subscriptions. The US listing: “Get one of our Bible Study Pack subscriptions with hand-picked tools and step-by-step training.” The Play description: “hand-picked study tools PLUS guided training,” then the three prices above. The US visible list also prices one-time books: The Message Bible $11.99, New Living Translation - NLT $9.99, NASB 1995 $11.99, ESV Study Bible $47.99, Olive Tree Bible Maps $17.99. Play names The Message (MSG), New Living Translation (NLT), New Revised Standard Version (NRSV), Christian Standard Bible (CSB), and New American Standard Bible (NASB) as in-app purchases and does not print those dollar amounts. We do not copy the US book prices onto Play. The homepage on this check also shows resource tiles with prices. We do not treat those tiles as the study-pack subscription, and we do not copy them into this table. |
| Account required | No — no sign-up exists | Their privacy notice: “Username and password when you register through our Services,” and “Create and manage online accounts.” The same site offers “Create your Olive Tree Account.” The Play description says you can “sign up to receive a daily Bible verse,” and that highlights, notes, and resources “sync between all your devices.” The US description says “Pick up where you left off on any device” and “Syncs seamlessly across iPhone, iPad, Mac, and more.” This check did not find a sentence that the named free translations require an account. We do not invent that requirement, and we do not invent that notes and sync work with no account. |
| Spoken Scripture | None as a spoken Bible product. Breath-paced guided prayer. Full KJV readable, not narrated as a catalogue of voices. | Named on the US listing: “Listen to Audio Bibles in popular translations — narrated or dramatized,” and “Follow along in the text while you listen.” The Play description names “NIV Listener’s Audio Bible” and “KJV Audio, Read by Alexander Scourby.” We quote the titles this check could read in full. We do not invent a voice catalogue. |
| Prayer analytics | None — a public vow. Prayer data never leaves your device | They are a study library, and the labels disagree with each other. Apple’s privacy header on the US listing: “The developer, Gospel Technologies LLC, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below.” Data Linked to You: Purchases, Contact Info, User Content, Identifiers, Usage Data, Diagnostics. Under See Details, purposes: Developer’s Advertising or Marketing — Purchases, Contact Info, Identifiers; Analytics — Identifiers, Usage Data, Diagnostics; Product Personalization — Purchases, Contact Info, Identifiers, Usage Data; App Functionality — Purchases, Contact Info, User Content, Identifiers, Usage Data. Data Not Linked to You: Identifiers, Other Data. Under See Details: Analytics — Identifiers; App Functionality — Other Data. This check did not find a Data Used to Track You shelf. The Play Data safety block, which says the developer provided it and may update it: “No data shared with third parties.” “This app may collect these data types Personal info, App activity and 2 others.” “Data is encrypted in transit.” “You can request that data be deleted.” This check did not find a “No data collected” line. Their privacy notice, effective September 12, 2020, describes cookies, web beacons, and “mobile device advertising ID,” and says “Please note Olive Tree does not at this time sell any personal information.” The same notice says they may share personal information with service providers and with “third party clients or business partners, such as publishers and social media networks, for marketing purposes.” We print those three pages. We do not invent that they describe the same collection. We do not restate rating or ranking marketing from the store listings. |
| Scripture | Full KJV bundled; offline on iPhone | Many translations, and the lists are not one list. The US listing names five free majors including ESV, NIV, KJV, NKJV, and CSB, and the paid lines above. Information languages on that page: English, German, Portuguese, Spanish. What’s New on this check is Version 8.1.2 (Wed Sep 09 2026): “Ever wonder how a verse reads across your different Bible translations? Now you can find out in one tap.” The same note says to “select Compare to see it side-by-side across every translation you’ve installed.” The Play description names NIV, ESV, KJV, and NKJV as included, plus Bibles in Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, and French, and the paid examples MSG, NLT, NRSV, CSB, and NASB. We quote each page for its own list. We do not invent that those language lists are the same library. |
| Platforms | iPhone and web | The US listing Information section names iPhone (iOS 17.0 or later), iPad (iPadOS 17.0 or later), and Apple Vision (visionOS 1.0 or later). JSON-LD availableOnDevice on that page is “iPhone, iPad.” JSON-LD operatingSystem is “Requires iOS 17.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.” The lockup sets isIOSBinaryMacOSCompatible to false. The description says “Syncs seamlessly across iPhone, iPad, Mac, and more.” The homepage says “Olive Tree Bible App works seamlessly across your Mac, PC, iPad, iPhone, and Android phone.” We print all of those. We do not invent that the Information section confirms Mac, PC, or iPod. The Play listing is Android, package biblereader.olivetree, developer Gospel Technologies, content rating Everyone, category Books & Reference, “Updated on Sep 4, 2026,” an Install button, and an In-app purchases chip. |
| Tradition | Broadly Christian, KJV | Seller on the US listing is Gospel Technologies LLC. Copyright on that page is © Olive Tree Bible Software, Inc. The privacy notice is from Olive Tree Bible Software. Not Bible Gateway, not YouVersion, not Dwell, not Blue Letter Bible. We do not restate chart position or review marketing from that page. |
| If you cannot pay | No scholarship or sponsorship path published. Advent and most guided sessions require Seraph+. | The app download is price 0, and both store pages name free translations. Study packs and many books are paid. We found no scholarship sentence. We do not invent one. |
Olive Tree’s download on the US listing is price 0, with hasInAppPurchases true. The Play study-pack year is $59.99 USD per year. Seraph+ is $59.99/yr or $6.99/mo, auto-renews, cancel anytime. The shared $59.99 numeral is not a matched product. This check did not find a Contains Advertising line on the US listing, and did not find a Contains ads chip on the Play listing. The privacy notice describes advertising and a mobile device advertising ID. We do not turn the missing chip into a claim that the apps are ad-free, and we do not turn the privacy notice into a claim that the store listings say the apps contain ads.
What Olive Tree does better
Study depth, more than one translation, Android, audio, offline resources, and a download price of zero. If “read the passage with a commentary, a Hebrew or Greek tool, and a second translation on the same screen” is the requirement, their US listing and Play listing are built for it. The iOS page names five free majors and a store of paid books. The Play page names a 14 Day Free trial of the study packs and a year at $59.99 USD. They ship Android. Both pages name audio. We charge for Sacred Seasons and for the rest of the guided library. There is no Seraph+ trial: you never try a paid session before buying it. If you want a study Bible with a library you can buy, Olive Tree is the honest recommendation, and we are not in that contest.
They are also not Bible Gateway (HarperCollins, with ads on the free reader and a Plus subscription on the pages we cite there), not YouVersion, not Dwell, and not Blue Letter Bible (a separate essay). Those are different products. This page is Olive Tree, sold on the US listing by Gospel Technologies LLC.
What Seraph does differently
Restraint as a feature, and a Bible you can finish with your eyes. No account between you and prayer — their privacy notice registers an account with a username and password, and an account still exists on the site for sync and a daily verse. Ours has no sign-up screen. Prayer data never leaves the device. Their US listing reports purchases, contact info, user content, identifiers, usage data, and diagnostics linked to you, and their Play page says the app may collect personal info and app activity. Two prices, written in plain numbers: $59.99 a year or $6.99 a month, auto-renew, cancel anytime. The entire KJV free — readable, bundled offline on iPhone, every chapter — rather than a menu of translations with a different free list on each store. A public web office you can open without installing an app. A streak that forgives a missed day instead of shaming it. No ads on free or paid. Guided prayer paced by breath. Compare the plan and features that fit your use. Their year on Play is a study pack. Ours is a season of guided prayer.
Three disclosures that belong here. The web subscription and the iPhone subscription are separate purchases and do not unlock each other. The complete offline Bible is the iPhone app; on the web, chapters you have already opened stay readable. And restoring a web subscription in a new browser emails a magic link, so we will not claim “no email ever.” There is no Seraph+ trial.
When each app wins
Olive Tree — if you want study tools on the verse, more than one translation, or Android
Start from the US listing, the Play listing, or olivetree.com. Read the translations they name as included without paying for a study pack. Buy a pack or a book only if you want that library. Use Android if that is your phone, and do not assume the US Information section and the homepage name the same devices. Do not come here first for a silent one-flame office with no account and a public vow that prayer never leaves the device. The US listing names Gospel Technologies LLC as the seller, and Olive Tree Bible Software, Inc as the copyright holder.
Seraph — if you want a quiet office with no account, a full readable KJV, and a price you can read before you install
Ours, last on purpose. A flame, the KJV, two free guided sessions, reading plans, no sign-up. Paid for the remaining sessions and Sacred Seasons, free for the office. Small, new, iPhone-and-web only. If none of those sentences is what you came for, Olive Tree is the better fit, and we would rather you found it here than felt sold to.
Sources and scope
Checked against the following official Olive Tree pages on . These references do not establish an independent review or endorsement of Seraph. Subjective product fit remains our assessment. We did not quote a rating, a review count, or an install total. This check did not read a help-center price page, and we did not invent a website subscription range from that absence.
- US App Store listing (id332615624)
Supports the title “Bible App - Read & Study Daily,” subtitle “Holy Bible App by Olive Tree,” seller Gospel Technologies LLC, category Reference, age 4+, copyright © Olive Tree Bible Software, Inc, bundle id com.olivetree.BR-Free, JSON-LD Offer price 0 / USD, isFree true, hasInAppPurchases true, hasExternalPurchases false, offer title “Get,” offer subtitle “In‑App Purchases,” and the ten visible In-App Purchases: ESV Study Pack Monthly $5.99, NIV Study Pack Monthly $5.99, NIV Bible $0.00, NKJV Study Pack Monthly $5.99, The Message Bible $11.99, New Living Translation - NLT $9.99, NASB 1995 $11.99, Starter Pack Monthly $2.99, ESV Study Bible $47.99, Olive Tree Bible Maps $17.99. Also “5 free major Bible translations including ESV, NIV, KJV, NKJV, CSB and more,” Resource Guide, parallel reading, Greek and Hebrew tools, audio Bibles “narrated or dramatized,” a free-trial sentence with no day count, auto-renew “at least 24 hours before the end of the free trial or current period,” Information devices (iPhone iOS 17.0+, iPad iPadOS 17.0+, Apple Vision visionOS 1.0+), languages English, German, Portuguese, and Spanish, JSON-LD availableOnDevice “iPhone, iPad,” JSON-LD operatingSystem for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, isIOSBinaryMacOSCompatible false, description “Syncs seamlessly across iPhone, iPad, Mac, and more,” What’s New Version 8.1.2 (Wed Sep 09 2026): “Ever wonder how a verse reads across your different Bible translations? Now you can find out in one tap,” and “select Compare to see it side-by-side across every translation you’ve installed,” privacy header naming Gospel Technologies LLC, Data Linked to You (Purchases, Contact Info, User Content, Identifiers, Usage Data, Diagnostics) with the purpose split above, Data Not Linked to You (Identifiers, Other Data), and no Data Used to Track You shelf. The linked privacy policy is the URL below. We do not restate rating, review count, or chart rank.
- Olive Tree on Google Play
Supports an Android listing, package biblereader.olivetree, developer Gospel Technologies, an Install button, an In-app purchases chip, content rating Everyone, category Books & Reference, and “Updated on Sep 4, 2026.” Description supports “Our app comes with NIV, ESV, KJV, NKJV and more,” Bibles in Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, and French, paid examples The Message (MSG), New Living Translation (NLT), New Revised Standard Version (NRSV), Christian Standard Bible (CSB), and New American Standard Bible (NASB), “100s of free resources,” “NIV Listener’s Audio Bible,” “KJV Audio, Read by Alexander Scourby,” and the study-pack sentence “Monthly: $5.99 USD per month; Semi-Annually, $29.99 USD per six-months; Yearly, $59.99 USD per year” with a “14 Day Free trial.” Data safety, attributed to the developer: “No data shared with third parties,” “This app may collect these data types Personal info, App activity and 2 others,” “Data is encrypted in transit,” “You can request that data be deleted.” This check did not find a Contains ads chip or a “No data collected” line. We do not restate review counts or install totals from that page.
- Olive Tree — Privacy Policy
Supports “Effective Date: September 12, 2020,” “Username and password when you register through our Services,” “Create and manage online accounts,” cookies, web beacons, “mobile device advertising ID,” sharing with service providers and with “third party clients or business partners, such as publishers and social media networks, for marketing purposes,” and “Please note Olive Tree does not at this time sell any personal information.” The page also offers “Create your Olive Tree Account.” We do not invent a later effective date.
- Olive Tree homepage
Supports “Olive Tree Bible App works seamlessly across your Mac, PC, iPad, iPhone, and Android phone.” Resource tiles on that page show prices. We do not treat those tiles as the study-pack subscription, and we do not copy those dollar amounts into this essay.
Daily office free, with no account · Seraph+ $6.99/mo or $59.99/yr · auto-renews · cancel anytime
Web and iPhone subscriptions are separate purchases and do not unlock each other