30 reviewed · updated 2026
The best daily devotional apps and books
All 17 devotional apps we reviewed have a free tier - so the real question is what each one puts behind the paywall.
Every product here has its own full review on this site. How we review →
Our picks
Best overall
Bible in One Year
Free, gets you through the whole Bible in a year, and Nicky Gumbel's commentary actually explains what you just read. Scripture-first, not reflection-first.
Best free app
First15
Free, and honest about the format: fifteen focused minutes with Scripture, audio and a written guide. Available as an app, on the web and by email.
Best book
New Morning Mercies
The best modern daily devotional in print - gospel-centred, unsentimental, and it does not flatter the reader. $17.99.
Best for depth
My Utmost for His Highest
Still the most demanding devotional in wide use, nearly a century on. Free online, around $9.99 in paperback.
Best produced experience
Glorify
The most polished daily audio devotional here, if a produced experience is what keeps you consistent. Around $59.99/yr.
How to choose
The most useful distinction in this category is not app versus book but Scripture-first versus reflection-first. Scripture-first devotionals (Bible in One Year, First15, For the Love of God) put you in the text and then comment on it. Reflection-first devotionals (Jesus Calling, and much of the app category) lead with a thought and use a verse to support it. Both have their place, but they are different products, and a lot of dissatisfaction with devotionals comes from wanting the first and being sold the second.
Bible in One Year is our overall pick and it is free: Nicky Gumbel's commentary alongside a daily Old Testament, New Testament and Psalms or Proverbs reading, which gets you through the whole Bible while explaining it. First15 is also free and is the better choice if fifteen focused minutes is a more honest description of your morning than a full reading plan.
On the paid apps: Glorify (around $59.99/yr) and Blessed are the most polished and lean toward reflection-first with strong audio production. They are good at what they do; just be clear that you are buying a produced daily experience rather than a Bible reading plan. Our Daily Bread is free and has been running since 1956, which is its own kind of recommendation.
Books remain the stronger option in this category and it is worth saying plainly. New Morning Mercies ($17.99) by Paul Tripp is the best modern daily devotional in print - gospel-centred, unsentimental, and it does not flatter you. My Utmost for His Highest is free online and around $9.99 in paperback, and is still the most demanding devotional in wide use. For the Love of God by D.A. Carson pairs a reading plan with genuine commentary and is the best choice if you want a book that teaches rather than soothes.
A word on Jesus Calling, because it is the bestselling devotional of the modern era and people ask: it is written in the first person as though Jesus is speaking directly to the reader. Many people find it deeply comforting; others, including a number of pastors, are uneasy about putting invented words in Christ's mouth. We flag it rather than rank it - read a few entries and decide whether that device sits well with you before committing to a year of it.
Whatever you choose, the practical determinant of success is the same as with Bible memorisation: a devotional you will actually open beats a better one you will not. A free app on your phone and a book by the kettle both work; a beautifully produced subscription you resent paying for does not.
Everything we reviewed, compared
| Name | Type | Rating | Starting price | Free tier | Platforms |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spoken Gospel | App | 5.0 | Free | Yes | iOS · Android · Web |
| Glorify | App | 4.9 | Free, then around $59.99/yr (Glorify+) | Yes | iOS · Android |
| My Daily Bread | App | 4.9 | Free with ads, or ~$1.99 one-time | Yes | iOS · Android |
| Bible in One Year | App | 4.9 | Free | Yes | iOS · Android · Web |
| Blessed | App | 4.9 | Free, premium subscription | Yes | iOS · Android |
| Today in the Word | App | 4.9 | Free | Yes | iOS · Android |
| Word Alert | App | 4.9 | Free | Yes | iOS · Apple Watch |
| Daily Devotional For Women | App | 4.9 | Free, in-app purchases | Yes | iOS |
| Joel Osteen | App | 4.7 | Free | Yes | iOS · Android |
| First15 | App | 4.7 | Free | Yes | iOS · Android · Web · Email |
| Lasting | App | 4.7 | Free, then ~$11.99/mo | Yes | iOS · Android |
| Celebrate Recovery | App | 4.6 | Free (app); paid curriculum and step study materials | Yes | iOS · Android · Web |
| First 5 | App | 4.5 | Free | Yes | iOS · Android |
| MacArthur Daily Bible | App | 4.3 | Free | Yes | iOS · Android |
| Our Daily Bread | App | 3.9 | Free | Yes | iOS · Android · Web |
| She Reads Truth | App | 3.2 | Free, then around $7.99/mo or $59.99/yr | Yes | iOS · Android · Web |
| He Reads Truth | App | 3.2 | Free, then $9.99/mo or $69.99/yr | Yes | iOS · Android · Web |
| My Utmost for His Highest | Book | 4.7 | Free online; $9.99 paperback | Yes | — |
| Morning and Evening | Book | 4.7 | Free (public domain); $15 print | Yes | — |
| For the Love of God | Book | 4.7 | Free (PDF / daily email) | Yes | — |
| The Songs of Jesus | Book | 4.7 | ~$22 hardcover | No | — |
| Streams in the Desert | Book | 4.6 | Free original; $9.99 print | Yes | — |
| New Morning Mercies | Book | 4.6 | $17.99 hardcover | No | — |
| Daily Light on the Daily Path | Book | 4.6 | Free (public domain); $12 print | Yes | — |
| Charles Stanley Life Principles Daily Devotional | Book | 4.6 | ~$20 hardcover | No | — |
| A Year with C.S. Lewis | Book | 4.6 | ~$22 hardcover | No | — |
| Strength for Today | Book | 4.5 | ~$17 hardcover | No | — |
| Common Prayer | Book | 4.5 | ~$25 hardcover | No | — |
| God Calling | Book | 4.3 | Free (public domain) | Yes | — |
| Jesus Calling | Book | 3.9 | $12.99 hardcover | No | — |
Apps
Spoken Gospel
A reading plan that gives you a 3-minute spoken-word video on every chapter of the Bible - the rare Bible companion that actually changes how the page reads.
Devotional Apps
Glorify
The Christian app that feels like Calm - five-minute devotionals, ambient worship, sleep stories, and a guided journal in one beautifully designed package.
Devotional Apps
My Daily Bread
A 70-year-old Catholic devotional classic, rebuilt as a quiet little phone app - and the dialogue format is what keeps people coming back.
Devotional Apps
Bible in One Year
The free 365-day reading plan that walks you through the whole Bible with a warm daily commentary in your ear - the one that has actually gotten millions of people to finish.
Devotional Apps
Blessed
A polished, all-in-one daily companion - morning and evening verses, guided prayer, an AI Bible chat, and a multi-translation reader, wrapped in one of the slickest free Christian apps around.
Devotional Apps
Today in the Word
Moody Bible Institute’s long-running daily devotional, now a clean, completely free app - fresh Scripture-based studies each day, organized into monthly journeys through books of the Bible and biblical topics.
Devotional Apps
Word Alert
A deliberately simple daily-verse app - it pushes one Scripture to your iPhone or Apple Watch at the time you set, ready to read or share, without the clutter of a full Bible platform.
Devotional Apps
Daily Devotional For Women
A warm, design-forward devotional and Bible-study app built for women - personalized daily verses and devotions, topical reading plans, a faith journal, and reminders, in KJV and a modern translation.
Devotional Apps
Joel Osteen
The mobile front door to the largest Protestant church in the United States - and to the most-broadcast, most-debated mainstream preacher in America.
Devotional Apps
First15
A free daily devotional built around a structured 15-minute quiet time - and the rare devotional app that actually tells you how to spend the time.
Devotional Apps
Lasting
Lasting is the marriage app Christian counselors quietly recommend without quite calling it Christian - built on the Gottmans’ four decades of marriage research and now folded into Talkspace’s therapy platform.
Devotional Apps
Celebrate Recovery
A 35-year-old church-based recovery program in app form - built for the person who wants the rooms, the steps, and the language of faith in one place.
Devotional Apps
First 5
A five-minute, Scripture-first morning devotional from Proverbs 31 Ministries - built around the idea that the first five minutes of your day belong to God, not your phone.
Devotional Apps
MacArthur Daily Bible
The MacArthur Daily Bible app pairs a year-long four-track reading plan with John MacArthur’s notes and audio narration - built for readers who already trust his voice in their daily Bible time.
Devotional Apps
Our Daily Bread
The free daily devotional that has quietly sat on more kitchen tables, hospital nightstands, and dashboard cupholders than any other in the English-speaking world - now an app that does not ask for a dime.
Devotional Apps
She Reads Truth
The premium women's reading-plan app that turned daily Bible reading into something you actually want to pick up - beautiful typography, theologically careful plans, and a community that keeps showing up.
Devotional Apps
He Reads Truth
The men’s-edition companion to She Reads Truth - same beautiful typography, same theology, same daily-plan engine, framed for men who want a real reading habit rather than a feed of motivational quotes.
Devotional Apps
Books
My Utmost for His Highest
The 90-year-old daily devotional that still outsells most new releases - short, dense, and famously unwilling to let a reader off the hook.
Devotional Books
Morning and Evening
The 1865 twice-daily devotional from the Prince of Preachers - still in print, still in the morning routine of millions, and still doing something almost no other devotional even tries.
Devotional Books
For the Love of God
A two-volume daily devotional that does something almost no other devotional attempts: it walks you through the whole Bible in a year and teaches you to read it as one connected story - and Crossway gives the entire text away for free.
Devotional Books
The Songs of Jesus
Tim and Kathy Keller’s 365-day walk through every Psalm has quietly become the daily-practice companion to Keller’s Prayer - a short passage, a brief reflection, and a written prayer for each morning of the year.
Devotional Books
Streams in the Desert
The hundred-year-old daily devotional that gets handed to people in the hospital, at the funeral, after the diagnosis - and the one question worth answering before you buy it.
Devotional Books
New Morning Mercies
A 365-day devotional built on one stubborn idea: the gospel is not just the door you walked through, it’s the air you keep breathing - and Paul David Tripp will not let you forget it.
Devotional Books
Daily Light on the Daily Path
The 1794 family devotional made of nothing but arranged Scripture - morning and evening, every day of the year, with no human commentary at all, and almost no one else has tried to do what it does.
Devotional Books
Charles Stanley Life Principles Daily Devotional
The daily devotional built on Charles Stanley’s "30 Life Principles" - short, plainspoken, application-first, and aimed squarely at the reader trying to live the next 24 hours faithfully rather than win an argument about theology.
Devotional Books
A Year with C.S. Lewis
A 365-day anthology that pairs a short, dated excerpt from across Lewis’s books into a full year of daily reading - the easiest on-ramp to his thought, one paragraph at a time.
Devotional Books
Strength for Today
A 365-day devotional that reads less like a quiet meditation and more like a year of short, pointed Bible lessons - John MacArthur teaching one verse at a time, every morning.
Devotional Books
Common Prayer
A year of daily fixed-hour prayer drawn from the historic Christian tradition, the church calendar, and the lives of saints and activists - assembled with a distinct new-monastic emphasis on justice, peacemaking, and community.
Devotional Books
God Calling
The 1935 daily devotional written in the first-person voice of Jesus - a long-running bestseller, the acknowledged inspiration for Jesus Calling, and the subject of the same gentle disagreement.
Devotional Books
Jesus Calling
A one-page-a-day devotional written in the first-person voice of Jesus - beloved by millions and questioned by many, all at once.
Devotional Books
Frequently asked questions
What is the best daily devotional?
Bible in One Year if you want Scripture with real explanation, and it is free. New Morning Mercies by Paul Tripp if you would rather hold a book - it is the best modern devotional in print. Choose First15 if fifteen minutes is the realistic size of your morning, and Glorify if a produced audio experience is what keeps you consistent.
What is the best free devotional app?
Bible in One Year, First15, Our Daily Bread, Today in the Word and Spoken Gospel are all free. Bible in One Year is the most substantial of them because it walks you through the whole Bible with commentary rather than offering a standalone daily thought.
Is Jesus Calling biblically sound?
It is the bestselling modern devotional and many readers find it a genuine comfort, but it is written in the first person as though Jesus is speaking directly to the reader. That device troubles a number of pastors and readers who are uneasy about attributing invented words to Christ. Read several entries before committing to a year, and if that framing sits badly with you, New Morning Mercies or For the Love of God cover similar ground without it.
What is the difference between a devotional and a Bible reading plan?
A reading plan schedules Scripture; a devotional adds commentary or reflection. Some products do both - Bible in One Year and For the Love of God pair a full reading plan with daily commentary, which is why we rate them highly. Many app devotionals are reflection-first: a thought with a supporting verse, and much less actual Bible.
Are paid devotional apps worth it?
They buy production quality - narration, music, a considered daily experience - not better content. If that is what keeps you consistent, it is money well spent. If you are looking for Scripture with solid teaching, the free options (Bible in One Year, First15, Our Daily Bread) are as good or better, and a $17.99 book will outlast a $59.99 annual subscription.
What is the best devotional for men?
New Morning Mercies and For the Love of God are both excellent and neither is gendered. He Reads Truth is built specifically for men with a Scripture-first daily format. Disciplines of a Godly Man is the standard recommendation if you want something more directive about habits than a daily reading.
What is the best devotional for women?
She Reads Truth is the best-known Scripture-first option and pairs an app with print studies. Love God Greatly and Daily Devotional For Women are both widely used free apps. For a book, New Morning Mercies is as fitting here as anywhere - the strongest modern devotional in print is not written for a demographic.
How long should a daily devotional take?
Ten to twenty minutes is where most people sustain a habit, which is exactly why First15 names the number. Bible in One Year runs longer because it includes three Scripture readings. Be honest about the time you actually have before choosing; the most common failure here is picking a plan sized for a morning you do not have.