Bible Reader Review (2026): Plans, Privacy & Project Status

Starting price: Free
Free tier: Yes
Platforms: Web browser · PWA-style web experience
Developer: Gadisa Teklu
Launched: 2024
Updated: Aug 9, 2026

FreeCurrent public price

66Books tracked

Email, Google, GitHubSign-in methods

NoIntegrated Bible text

SupabaseCloud data/auth

Umami CloudWeb analytics

Unavailable as of reviewFormer public repository

The verdict

Bible Reader’s core idea is useful: choose or customize a plan, mark chapters complete, see all 66 books and keep progress across devices. It remains free and the public service is online. The trust layer has deteriorated. The linked public repository and APK are no longer available, privacy and terms routes redirect to login, registration presents no policy links, the author portfolio is down, and the PWA manifest points at `bible-reader.com`, which now serves a materially different Bible product. Existing users should export or manually record their plan if possible; new users should prefer a maintained tracker with public privacy and deletion terms.

Try Bible Reader ↗

Opens thebiblereader.vercel.app

Bible Reader is a web-based Bible reading-plan and chapter-progress tracker created by Ethiopian developer Gadisa Teklu. Despite the generic name, the current app does not contain Bible text. Its own FAQ tells users to read from a printed Bible or favorite Bible app. Bible Reader’s job is scheduling and completion: select a popular plan or make a custom one, adapt the schedule to personal goals, check off chapters, see progress across all 66 books and sign in from another internet-connected device to continue.

An account is required before entering the tracker. Registration accepts email and password and also offers Google or GitHub OAuth. The landing FAQ says a plan already begun elsewhere can be represented by choosing a start date in the past so the schedule calculates accordingly. It says some supplied plans can be customized while others should not be changed because alteration would undermine their purpose. Daily completion updates overall progress; password reset is sent by email; bugs and feedback go through a public contact form that collects full name, email and message.

The live application is built on an older Next.js deployment on Vercel and uses Supabase for authentication and synchronized data. Every public page also preloads Umami Cloud analytics with a persistent site identifier. The marketing page calls cross-device access a benefit and says an internet connection is required. A web app manifest supplies install icons and shortcuts, but we found no publicly accessible service-worker route at the expected paths, and the manifest itself contains several errors: `dir` is set to right-to-left while language is English, color values include invalid trailing commas, and the start URL and shortcuts point to `bible-reader.com` rather than the Vercel app.

That domain no longer presents this chapter tracker. At review time, `bible-reader.com` served a different Lovable-built product titled “Bible-Reader — Read Scripture and compare translations,” with a complete reader, 79 editions, audio and study tools; its `/login` and `/register` routes returned 404. The old tracker manifest still opens its shortcuts there. Browsers should reject or normalize a cross-origin PWA start URL, but the stale metadata shows that ownership and release maintenance have split. We are reviewing the exact faith.tools product at `thebiblereader.vercel.app`, not the different site now occupying the former project domain.

The project’s earlier public GitHub page was described as an MIT-licensed repository with 107 commits, nine stars, one fork, two releases and an Android APK, latest v0.2 from October 31, 2024. As of August 9, 2026, the repository URL returned GitHub 404 and its raw files and release downloads were unavailable. The author link embedded in the site pointed to `gadisa.onrender.com`, which returned 503 during review. We therefore do not describe the current product as open source or the APK as available. Our 3.5 rating is researched from public pages, compiled client behavior and current endpoints; we did not create an account, access private plan data, inspect the unavailable source, install the old APK or test Supabase authorization.

✓ The good

Focused purpose - it tracks plans and completed chapters without crowding the workflow with commentary, social feeds or AI
Custom scheduling - users can build a plan around their pace and preferences rather than accepting only a fixed year
Existing progress can be represented - a past start date lets someone bring an already-begun schedule into the tracker
Whole-canon overview - the built-in tracker shows progress across all 66 books rather than only the current day
Cross-device account sync - Supabase-backed state can follow the same user between internet-connected browsers
Three sign-in routes - email/password, Google and GitHub give users a practical choice of authentication method
No paid tier - the current FAQ says there is nothing to pay and the public pages show no checkout or upgrade
Honest text boundary - the FAQ clearly says Bible text is not integrated and tells users to bring a printed or digital Bible

✗ Watch out

No public privacy or terms page - likely policy routes redirect to login rather than explaining data before registration
The former GitHub repository is unavailable - source, MIT license history, issues and Android APK can no longer be verified or downloaded
PWA metadata points to a different product - the current `bible-reader.com` is not the Vercel chapter tracker
Account required for the core feature - email, OAuth identity, plans and religious reading progress enter a cloud backend
Umami Cloud loads without disclosure - the site provides no public product notice naming its analytics fields, purpose or retention
No integrated Bible - every scheduled reading requires a second physical or digital resource
Maintenance signals are weak - old build assets, stale manifest, unavailable author portfolio and disappeared repository suggest limited upkeep
No public export or deletion promise - users cannot evaluate how to retrieve progress, remove an account or reach backups before joining

Best for

Existing users who already have a functioning account and want a simple chapter checklist
Readers who prefer a separate printed Bible and need only schedule and completion tracking
People creating a custom chapter plan that should sync across ordinary web browsers
Users willing to give a small independent service account and reading-progress data
Anyone prepared to maintain a second copy of important plan dates and completion history

Avoid if

You need a current public privacy policy, data deletion terms, security contact or organizational agreement
You specifically want open-source code or the Android APK promoted in older descriptions
You need offline reading, embedded Scripture, audio, reminders, groups or teacher administration
A stale manifest that links into a different domain is unacceptable for your security or deployment policy
You do not want an account storing religious reading plans and completion history in Supabase

What Bible Reader is

Bible Reader separates scheduling from Scripture delivery. Plans define books or chapters and dates; the user reads elsewhere, returns to check completed chapters and watches percentages or book-level coverage grow. Supplied plan templates provide starting shapes, while custom plans adapt to the user’s schedule. A past start date can acknowledge work already completed instead of forcing a restart.

It is also an account-backed personal data service, however modest the interface. Email or OAuth establishes identity; Supabase maintains authentication and synchronized state; Vercel serves the application; Umami Cloud receives web analytics; contact submissions include identifying information. A person’s selected books, pace and completion dates can reveal religious practice. Those flows deserve a public explanation even when the app is free and the developer’s intentions are good.

Why a Bible tracker without a Bible can be calmer—and more inconvenient

A plan app can easily become a content marketplace full of devotionals, badges, video and prompts. Bible Reader keeps the unit of work simple: here are today’s chapters; mark them complete; see the larger canon. Using a printed Bible also removes notifications and lets the reader choose any lawful translation or study edition. The tracker does not silently substitute commentary for reading.

Separation creates friction every day. The reference does not open a passage, completion cannot be verified, offline availability depends on the other Bible, and switching between apps can interrupt focus. A bookmark or paper checklist can provide the same separation with no account. Bible Reader earns its data footprint only when custom schedule calculation and cross-device progress are valuable enough to outweigh that simpler option.

Popular and custom plans: flexible schedules with limited public documentation

The landing page advertises popular plans, personal plan creation and customization around pace, goals and schedule. Its FAQ distinguishes templates that can be edited from some whose purpose could be damaged by changes. It also says users can enter a past start date when importing an already-started effort so the remaining schedule calculates from that history. That is a practical accommodation many plan catalogs lack.

Public material does not list the current templates, calculation rules, missed-day behavior, time zone, rescheduling logic, maximum duration or what happens when chapter loads are uneven. Because the actual pages require an account and source is no longer public, prospective users cannot evaluate those rules first. A clear plan gallery with sample calendars and algorithms would make “customizable” measurable and prevent an unexpected redistribution after a missed day.

Chapter and 66-book tracking: useful momentum that should remain portable

Users mark chapters read, see daily schedule completion and track coverage across all 66 books. That transforms a large goal into small visible units and lets someone distinguish finishing a plan date from eventually reading each book. Cross-device access is a genuine improvement over browser-local checkboxes when a person reads on a phone in the morning and a laptop later.

Completion is self-reported and should never be treated as comprehension, spiritual growth or institutional compliance. More importantly, years of checkmarks become valuable personal data. The public site does not document CSV or JSON export, print view, account deletion, retention after inactivity or restore from backup. Users should be able to download plan definitions and chapter state in an open format before the service’s domain or repository changes again.

Accounts, sync and analytics: functional infrastructure without public governance

Email/password accounts include forgotten-password email. Google and GitHub OAuth provide alternatives. Supabase supplies backend authentication and synchronized records, and the app’s layout loads Umami Cloud’s script with a fixed website ID. Vercel delivers the app. A public contact form collects name, email and message and sends it through an application action. These are conventional components for a small web product.

Conventional does not mean self-explanatory. Registration shows no terms or privacy link, and `/privacy`, `/terms`, `/privacy-policy` and `/terms-of-service` all ended at login rather than a notice. Users cannot learn which plan fields are stored, whether OAuth profile data is copied, what Umami records, who receives contact mail, where data resides, how long backups persist or how deletion propagates. Publish the data map before asking for an account.

Pricing

Best value

Bible Reader web account

Free

The public FAQ says the app is free and “there is nothing you need to pay.” Registration offers email/password, Google or GitHub, and no card, premium plan, advertisement tier or usage allowance is shown. Because no terms are public, free access is a current product condition rather than a contractual promise of continuing storage or availability.

PWA-style installation

Free, but metadata is defective

The Vercel app publishes install icons, screenshots and shortcuts. Its manifest points the start and plan shortcuts to a separate `bible-reader.com` origin that now serves a materially different product, and expected service-worker paths redirected to login. Use the tracker in a normal bookmarked browser tab instead of trusting installation behavior until the publisher repairs and tests the manifest.

Former Android APK

Not currently available from the cited repository

Older project records referenced a signed APK and GitHub release v0.2. The repository now returns 404, so that binary’s source, signature, update channel and download are unavailable for current verification. Do not install a copy from an unofficial mirror. The present supported surface we can confirm is the Vercel web application.

Bible Reader remains completely free according to its own FAQ. No in-app purchase, subscription, donation request or advertisement was visible. That lowers the immediate barrier but leaves funding and maintenance unexplained. Vercel, Supabase and Umami all have free or low-cost paths for small projects, and usage growth can eventually change those economics.

An account is the real price. The service receives an email identity or OAuth relationship and stores plan and progress state. Religious reading behavior is not a password or bank number, but it can be sensitive. A free product should still tell users what the exchange is and provide deletion and export controls.

Do not pay a third party for an old APK. The original GitHub release route is gone, so no current official binary can be verified from the cited source. Sideloading an unsigned or mirrored build adds malware and stale-dependency risk while losing automatic updates. The browser version is the only surface confirmed from the operator’s live domain.

The PWA cannot be treated as an alternative paid app until metadata is repaired. Its manifest declares a start URL and shortcuts on another origin now hosting a different product, uses an English language tag with right-to-left direction and malformed color values, and we did not confirm a public service worker. A bookmark is safer and functionally clearer.

Continuity is the budget concern for a church or long plan. There is no published support promise, storage guarantee, uptime history, backup commitment or export. A free tracker that disappears halfway through a three-year schedule imposes reconstruction cost. Keep the plan and completed chapters in a second location or choose a service with durable governance.

Where Bible Reader falls behind

Privacy must be available before registration. Publish a plain public notice naming the operator, contact, Supabase, Vercel, Umami and email or OAuth providers; list fields and purposes; explain legal basis, retention, transfers, cookies or local storage, security, children, access, correction, export, deletion and complaint rights. Link it beside the Register button.

Terms are also absent. Users need age eligibility, acceptable use, account suspension, ownership of contact submissions, warranty, governing law, service changes and what happens to plans if the product closes. Redirecting legal-looking routes to login is especially poor because it suggests governance may exist behind the account when none is visible to a prospective user.

The open-source claim is no longer supportable from the current link. The former `Sukkoth/bible-reader` repository, raw files and releases returned 404. The developer may have made it private, renamed it or removed it; the public product does not explain. Restore the repository or remove open-source and APK claims from official listings and add a dated project-status note.

The PWA manifest is materially stale. Its cross-origin `start_url` and shortcuts point to a domain now serving a different Bible reader. It declares `dir: rtl` for `lang: en`, has trailing commas inside hex color strings and uses absolute shortcut URLs outside the app origin. Rebuild it with same-origin paths and verify installation in Chrome, Edge, Safari and Android before marketing PWA access.

Offline capability is not established. The landing page explicitly says access works on any device “with an internet connection,” and common service-worker URLs were caught by authentication middleware rather than serving a worker. A manifest alone makes an app installable-looking, not offline. Document the actual cache, update and failure behavior.

The public app has weak maintenance signals. Compiled assets correspond to an older Next.js generation, repository release history ended in 2024 before disappearing, the author portfolio returned 503, and the domain split has not been repaired. None proves unsafe operation, but together they demand a current maintainer note and dependency/security update schedule.

Account security is undocumented. Supabase provides capable primitives, but the site says nothing about email verification, password requirements, MFA, session duration, OAuth scope, row-level security, administrative access, encryption, backups, breach notification or vulnerability reporting. A public architecture and security page should describe controls without revealing secrets.

Accessibility has no evidence. Checklists, progress charts, date selection, plan configuration, dialogs and dark styling need keyboard navigation, screen-reader names, contrast, zoom, error summaries and reduced-motion support. Publish the tested browsers and known limitations, particularly if churches recommend the app to older readers.

Bible Reader vs. Bible Reading Plan Generator vs. YouVersion

Bible Reading Plan Generator by John Dyer creates extraordinarily flexible schedules without an account. It supports chosen books, date range, weekdays, several canonical orders, day sizing, many languages, print, CSV and iCal. Progress is local and basic, but the plan itself is portable. It is the better generator and privacy choice; Bible Reader’s principal advantage is cross-device chapter completion.

BiblePlan.org creates a customized schedule and can email daily readings. It provides reminder delivery without making a user return to a dashboard, though its generator is less flexible. Bible Reader offers visible all-book progress and an app-like interface. Either requires evaluating email or account data, and Bible Reader currently explains much less publicly.

YouVersion integrates complete Bible text, audio, reminders, thousands of plans, streaks, friends and synchronized progress under a large established nonprofit. It creates a much broader data and feature ecosystem, but its policies, account controls and ongoing mobile releases are visible. Bible Reader is calmer and simpler; YouVersion is far more maintained and eliminates the second-app handoff.

A printable plan plus pencil is the strongest competitor. It works offline, cannot lose a domain, asks for no identity and makes the schedule easy to archive. Bible Reader should be chosen only when automatic custom calculation, chapter statistics and cross-device cloud state solve a real problem—and only after its policy and project-status gaps are acceptable.

The bottom line

Bible Reader was a promising small open-source tracker: a focused plan tool, clear no-Bible boundary, free accounts, custom schedules, chapter checklists and Supabase sync. The live service still presents that product and can plausibly remain useful for existing users. Its surrounding evidence has broken down. The source and APK link now return 404. The author portfolio is unavailable. Legal pages are not public. Umami analytics loads without a product privacy notice. The manifest’s install paths lead to a different product at a former domain and include invalid metadata. Those are not cosmetic SEO flaws; they affect identity, trust, portability and safe installation. We would not recommend starting a multi-year record here until the maintainer publishes a status update, restores or formally retires the repository, corrects the PWA, adds public privacy and terms, documents account deletion and export, and names current security and support practices. If you already use it, keep a manual record of plan dates and completed books, avoid unofficial APK copies, and use the exact Vercel address rather than manifest shortcuts. The core idea deserves preservation. Right now, a no-account generator or a maintained Bible app is the safer home for a new plan.

Alternatives to Bible Reader

Bible Reading Plan Generator 4.2A highly flexible no-account generator with custom dates, books, weekdays, orders, print, CSV and iCal.BiblePlan.org 4.4A simple custom plan service that can send each day’s reading by email.

YouVersion 4.9A maintained full Bible platform with text, audio, plans, reminders and synchronized progress.

Read Scripture 4.8A polished whole-Bible plan with BibleProject videos and integrated reading support.

Sola Bible Reading Plans 4.8A focused mobile plan app with multiple schedules and a stronger current app distribution channel.

Frequently asked questions

What is Bible Reader?

Bible Reader at `thebiblereader.vercel.app` is a free account-based Bible reading-plan and chapter tracker created by Gadisa Teklu. Users choose or customize a plan, mark chapters complete and see progress across 66 books. It is not the different complete-reader product currently served at `bible-reader.com`.

Does Bible Reader include Bible text?

No. Its own FAQ says it is only for plans and tracking and directs users to a printed Bible or favorite Bible app. The separation can reduce distraction and permit any translation, but every day requires switching to another reading source.

Is Bible Reader free?

Yes. The public FAQ says there is nothing to pay, and registration shows no checkout or premium tier. Free does not come with published storage, uptime or continuity terms. Keep a second copy of important plan dates and completion state.

Do I need an account?

Yes for the tracker. Registration supports email/password plus Google and GitHub OAuth. The app uses Supabase for authentication and synchronized progress. Public pages do not explain what account and plan fields are stored, how long they remain, or how deletion reaches backups.

Is Bible Reader private?

The product does not publish a public privacy policy before signup. It loads Umami Cloud analytics, runs on Vercel, uses Supabase and collects full name, email and message through its contact form. Those vendors can be used responsibly, but the operator needs to document data fields, purpose, retention, regions, deletion and user rights.

Is Bible Reader still open source, and can I download the Android APK?

Older project material described an MIT-licensed GitHub repository with 107 commits and a signed APK. The cited repository, raw files and releases returned 404 during this review. We therefore cannot currently verify an open-source distribution or official APK. Do not use unofficial mirror downloads.

Can I install Bible Reader as a PWA?

The site publishes a manifest and install graphics, but the metadata is defective: its start URL and shortcuts point at `bible-reader.com`, which now hosts a materially different product; language direction and color fields are also wrong; and expected service-worker paths did not expose a worker. Bookmark and use the exact Vercel site until the manifest is repaired.

Bible Reader