- Starting price
- Free; Oil A$5/month; Flame A$10/month
- Free tier
- Yes
- Platforms
- Web · installable PWA · desktop, tablet, and mobile browsers
- Developer
- tinkerSoft Pty Ltd
- Launched
- 2026
- Updated
- Aug 16, 2026
The verdict
Lamplight is one of the most capable new browser-based Bible workspaces we have reviewed. The free reader is real, Oil is inexpensive, and Flame reaches from close reading into journals, argument maps, publication, and polished document export. The same breadth raises the stakes: feature boundaries are complicated, public-domain translations skew older, AI may process selected study material through unnamed providers, and a cloud notebook is valuable only if its owner can recover years of work. Start on Wick, trial one complete study workflow, test every export you would need after cancellation, and treat public-library publishing as an editorial act rather than another save button.
Try Lamplight ↗Opens lamplight.studytheholybible.net
Lamplight is a browser-based Bible reading, research, writing, and publishing workspace from tinkerSoft Pty Ltd in Victoria, Australia. It begins like a familiar Bible app: choose a book and chapter, compare translations, search, highlight, bookmark, take notes, and track reading. It then keeps expanding. Historical dictionaries and commentaries sit beside cross-references and Strong’s data. Study Journals collect dated reflections. Reading Plans and Study Paths organize a sequence. Focus Mode supports memorization. A document editor turns notes into longer work. Reasoning Paths map theses, claims, objections, support, responses, and conclusions. Finished material can be exported or, with the right settings and rights, published to a shared library.
Nine editions were returned by the live public Bible API when checked: ASV, Bible in Basic English, Berean Standard Bible, Geneva 1560, KJV, World English Bible, Young’s Literal Translation, KJV with Strong’s numbers, and an English interlinear view. That is a useful no-license starting library and explains why guests can read before creating an account. It also defines the ceiling. Readers looking for NIV, NRSVue, ESV, NASB, CSB, Catholic editions, Orthodox canons, or a broad modern-language catalog will need another service. “Nine translations” is not the same as nine equally current editorial choices.
The product is an installable progressive web app rather than a native App Store or Google Play program. Its manifest supports a standalone home-screen experience on compatible browsers, while the same account and application run on desktop, tablet, and phone. Installation improves launch convenience but does not prove that every Bible, note, search, document, or media workflow works offline. Test the exact routes you need with the network disabled before relying on Lamplight in a classroom, pulpit, flight, or low-connectivity setting.
Our assessment is research-based. We read the live marketing, pricing, feature, legal, manifest, application-help, and public API material; inspected the visible plan gates and export descriptions; and verified that the reader and public endpoints responded. We did not create a paid subscription, enter private pastoral material, publish a document, test collaboration, measure search quality, validate every historical reference, exercise cancellation or refund rights, or perform a security audit. The score reflects documented capability and unusually transparent first-party detail, not a claim that we completed a long-term study inside the service.
✓ The good
- Substantial free foundation - Wick includes real Bible reading and personal study rather than a time-limited demo
- Transparent live pricing - the public API states plan, interval, currency, trial, and tax mode in machine-readable form
- Nine no-cost Bible editions - public-domain texts make immediate anonymous reading possible without licensing friction
- Connected study workflow - notes, journals, plans, paths, documents, sources, and publishing can build on one another
- Serious writing tools - print-oriented pages, citations, bibliography, front matter, PDF, DOCX, and Markdown go beyond lightweight journaling
- Visual reasoning is distinctive - claims, objections, support, synthesis, and conclusions can be mapped rather than buried in prose
- Detailed privacy policy - the operator, Australian context, content types, billing processor, overseas processing, AI caveat, and rights are addressed
- Responsive web delivery - one application covers desktop research and mobile reading without separate store releases
✗ Watch out
- Young-product risk - an enormous feature surface has less independent history than established Bible-study platforms
- Translation catalog is narrow - all nine options are public-domain or freely distributable editions, with major modern licenses absent
- Plan boundaries take study - Wick, Oil, and Flame distribute related search, plan, journal, document, and reasoning features across tiers
- AI providers are not named publicly - the policy allows selected prompts, excerpts, notes, metadata, and outputs to reach third parties
- Cloud concentration matters - years of annotations, documents, journals, and reasoning maps need tested, complete export and restore paths
- PWA does not guarantee offline parity - installation and standalone display are documented more clearly than feature-by-feature offline behavior
- Public publishing creates rights work - quotations, images, source excerpts, licenses, reviews, takedowns, and corrections remain the author’s responsibility
- No public independent assurance - we did not find a current SOC 2, ISO 27001, penetration-test report, status history, or formal uptime SLA
Best for
- Readers who want a free browser Bible with notes, highlights, bookmarks, and parallel comparison
- Teachers and preachers who want to carry passage study into outlines, sources, and exportable documents
- Writers who value argument mapping, structured citations, page setup, and publication workflows
- Students comfortable beginning with public-domain translations and classic reference works
- People willing to test a newer product and keep independent exports of important work
Avoid if
- You need a large licensed modern-translation library or original-language scholarly datasets today
- Your institution requires independently audited controls, a negotiated DPA, or an uptime SLA before use
- You need verified full offline operation across reading, search, notes, documents, and media
- You want a very simple devotional app without writing, publication, billing, and workspace complexity
- You cannot maintain an external archive of notes and documents that would be costly to recreate
What Lamplight is
Lamplight is best understood as three connected layers. The reader layer provides Scripture, search, parallel views, annotations, bookmarks, reference works, cross-references, memorization, and progress. The study layer adds dated journals, reading plans, guided Study Paths, sources, and analytics. The authoring layer adds folders, long-form documents, argument maps, comments, sharing, export, and a moderated public library. A user can stop at the first layer; the product does not require everyone to become a publisher.
It is not a substitute for a licensed Bible library, a complete academic research database, a seminary supervisor, a church’s doctrinal review, or a durable personal backup. Classic dictionaries and commentaries carry historical insight and historical limitations. Natural-language search can help construct a search plan but does not decide what a passage means. Reasoning diagrams reveal structure but do not make an argument sound. The application is a container for study decisions, not an authority over them.
Why serious note-takers may choose Lamplight: the path from verse to publishable work stays visible
Most Bible apps separate reading from writing. A highlight becomes a note, but turning a month of notes into a lesson or essay requires exporting fragments into another system. Lamplight is designed around continuity. A passage can be compared, annotated, linked to a journal, placed inside a Study Path, cited in a document, arranged in a Reasoning Path, reviewed, exported, and published. That continuity reduces duplicate entry and lets a writer preserve why a conclusion followed from particular observations and sources.
Continuity can also create false confidence. A polished PDF and a well-shaped graph may make an interpretation appear more settled than the evidence warrants. Build a review practice into the same workflow: quote enough context, label inference, distinguish source from paraphrase, record objections, check modern scholarship, invite qualified readers, and preserve revision history. Publication is where a private study claim becomes a responsibility to other people.
Bible reader and research: broad mechanics on a deliberately modest text catalog
The reader supports chapter navigation, reference and keyword search, Strong’s lookup, parallel translations, interlinear display, dictionaries, historical commentary, cross-references, highlights, notes, bookmarks, history, and reading progress. Settings cover typography, verse layout, remembered location, split-view behavior, scroll synchronization, and whether annotations mirror across versions. Oil-level discovery adds a natural-language search planner and visual cross-reference exploration rather than asking a general chatbot to improvise an answer.
Use the strongest source for each question. Public-domain English translations are excellent for access and comparison but should not be treated as nine independent modern witnesses. Strong’s numbers are an index, not a language course. Nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century reference works need historical context and correction. Natural-language retrieval should return a reproducible set of passages and filters; inspect those passages directly and note what the search omitted before teaching from the result.
Study Journals, Reading Plans, and Study Paths: rhythm without reducing formation to a streak
Study Journals collect entries with Scripture links, labels, tags, dates, collections, and relationships to notes, plans, and paths. Reading Plans track scheduled passages and completion. Study Paths organize a guided sequence of observation, interpretation, comparison, reflection, application, summary, note, or word-study steps. Focus Mode adds a memorization practice, while dashboards summarize reading, notes, documents, paths, history, and activity over chosen date windows.
The benefit is recoverability: a reader can find what was studied, how it developed, and where work stalled. The danger is proxy worship. Chapters viewed, steps completed, notes created, and active days describe application use, not understanding, love, repentance, wisdom, or service. Use metrics to find a sustainable rhythm, not to manufacture spiritual rank. A missed plan should invite adjustment rather than guilt, and a private journal should not become a source of pastoral surveillance.
Documents, Reasoning Paths, and Library publishing: unusually capable—and where governance begins
The document system includes structured editing, folders, sources and citations, comments, front pages, page size and margins, headers and footers, tables of contents, figure and table lists, bibliography, print preview, and PDF, DOCX, or Markdown export. Reasoning Paths arrange thesis, claim, support, objection, response, synthesis, and conclusion nodes and can feed a document. Sharing controls and a public library add review, licensing, distribution confirmation, artifact generation, and moderation to the workflow.
Before publishing, verify rights for every translation excerpt, commentary quotation, image, chart, and imported source. Choose a license you understand; confirm whether it can be changed after publication; distinguish private sharing from public distribution; and keep the original plus exported copies. Churches should define who can approve official teaching, respond to corrections, handle abuse reports, and retract material. Lamplight supplies useful controls, but it cannot decide whose voice represents a congregation or whether a theological claim is pastorally responsible.
Pricing
Wick
Free
The baseline account centers on Bible reading, parallel comparison, classic dictionaries and commentaries, the document library, saved highlights and notes, bookmarks, history, and an entry study rhythm. Feature details can change, so use the live plan comparison to confirm the exact limits attached to notes, journals, plans, exports, storage, sharing, and public material before moving an archive.
Oil
A$5/month or A$50/year
Oil adds the deeper discovery layer. Public plan material highlights canon-aware natural-language search, visual cross-references, user-created reading plans, curated Study Paths, and Focus Mode. The annual rate saves A$10 against twelve monthly payments. The API advertises a one-month trial that requires a payment method; check renewal timing, included AI use, cancellation, tax, and post-trial access before starting.
Flame
A$10/month or A$100/year
Flame is the full study, document, and reasoning tier. It is the relevant plan for users whose main interest is advanced journals, long-form documents, source management, collaboration, Reasoning Paths, publishing, and richer exports. The annual rate saves A$20 against monthly billing. Confirm file, image, collaborator, library, AI, and export limits in the checkout view rather than assuming “full” means unlimited.
Payment and refunds
Paddle · AUD · external tax
Paddle handles checkout and subscription records. The live API reports Australian-dollar prices and external tax treatment, so the amount charged can differ by location. Read Lamplight’s refund policy and Paddle’s buyer terms before payment, record the trial end date, and download critical work before changing or ending a plan in case paid creation or management tools become read-only.
Wick is enough to determine whether the core reader and note model fit. Use it for at least several complete study sessions before evaluating a paid tier. Importing habits into a workspace is more consequential than comparing a feature checklist.
Oil is priced like a small consumer subscription and is the clearest value for readers who want search, cross-reference visualization, plans, paths, and memorization without turning Lamplight into their writing suite. Its one-month trial is generous, but a payment method means the user must understand renewal.
Flame’s price is modest relative to dedicated academic packages, yet the comparison is not equal: Lamplight supplies a broad workflow around a small public-domain library, while established platforms sell large licensed libraries and mature research datasets. Pay for the workflow you will actually use, not the number of menu items.
Annual billing saves two monthly payments at both paid levels. That saving is worthwhile only after a successful export and cancellation test. The most important subscription question is what remains readable, downloadable, editable, and shareable after a downgrade.
Because prices are in AUD and tax is calculated externally, international buyers should rely on the final Paddle checkout total. Save invoices, note the renewal date, and confirm whether local consumer protections or the published refund rules apply to the transaction.
Where Lamplight falls behind
Publish a versioned feature matrix generated from the same entitlement catalog that controls the application, including every creation, reading, editing, collaboration, export, storage, publication, and AI limit.
Add a public security center with architecture, hosting regions, encryption scope, tenant isolation, access logging, backup and restore targets, vulnerability reporting, incident notice, dependency management, and independent assurance.
Name every current AI, analytics, hosting, email, media, support, and billing subprocessor; state locations, retention, training restrictions, human access, opt-outs, and which features work with AI disabled.
Provide one-click full-account export for notes, highlights, bookmarks, reading history, plans, journals, documents, comments, sources, images, paths, permissions, publication records, and deletion state in documented formats.
Document offline behavior route by route and add a visible connection indicator, pending-change queue, conflict policy, storage estimate, and recovery path for interrupted synchronization.
Expand licensed Bible options or publish a clear integration plan while preserving the anonymous public-domain reader as a durable free foundation.
Publish a status page, release notes, supported-browser matrix, accessibility conformance report, data portability tests, and deprecation policy proportionate to the size of the product surface.
Give public-library readers transparent moderation rules, review criteria, correction history, takedown process, author identity choices, and a plain explanation of licenses and download permissions.
Lamplight vs. Logos vs. Bible Gateway
Lamplight offers the most integrated browser path from free reading to personal notes, journals, guided paths, argument maps, formatted documents, and community publishing. Logos is far more mature for academic and pastoral research, with enormous licensed libraries, original-language tools, datasets, citations, courses, desktop depth, and corresponding cost and complexity. Bible Gateway is the simplest mainstream reader and audio/search destination with a much wider translation catalog, but it is not trying to become a research notebook and authoring environment.
Choose Lamplight when the connected workflow is the attraction and its public-domain text catalog is sufficient or complementary. Choose Logos when source depth, licensed books, language datasets, and institutional longevity justify the investment. Choose Bible Gateway when you primarily need quick reading and comparison across modern translations. Many users will pair them: licensed text and scholarship elsewhere, with Lamplight as the structured thinking and writing space—provided citations, rights, and backups remain intact.
The bottom line
Lamplight has a coherent idea beneath its remarkable number of tools: Scripture reading should be able to mature into remembered observation, structured study, accountable reasoning, useful writing, and responsible sharing without losing the thread between them. Wick makes that idea easy to sample. Oil is priced low enough for ordinary readers. Flame gives teachers and writers a serious document and publication layer. The product’s next test is stewardship. A workspace that stores years of spiritual, intellectual, and pastoral work needs boring excellence in exports, security, accessibility, uptime, migration, AI disclosure, licensing, and long-term support. Use it now with proportionate trust: read anonymously, create a free account, complete one small project, trial the paid tools, export to every promised format, inspect what survives a downgrade, and keep an external archive. If the workflow keeps helping after the novelty fades, Lamplight is one of the more interesting Bible-study platforms to emerge in 2026.
Alternatives to Lamplight
Logos Bible StudyThe mature research heavyweight for licensed books, original languages, datasets, preaching, citations, and large personal libraries.
Bible GatewayA simpler web reader with a much broader translation catalog, audio, search, reading plans, and an optional subscription.
STEP BibleA free scholarly web tool with strong original-language, lexical, grammatical, and cross-reference depth but less personal authoring.
BiblearcA specialized subscription workspace for discourse analysis, phrasing, arcing, bracketing, courses, and careful argument structure.Obsidian with a licensed Bible workflowA local-first writing and linking alternative for users prepared to configure plugins, source permissions, backups, and publication themselves.Frequently asked questions
Is Lamplight free?
Yes. Wick is the permanent free plan. The live pricing API lists Oil at A$5 monthly or A$50 annually and Flame at A$10 monthly or A$100 annually, with a one-month paid-plan trial that requires a payment method. Tax may be added through Paddle.
Which Bible versions does Lamplight include?
The public API returned ASV, BBE, BSB, Geneva 1560, KJV, WEB, YLT, KJV with Strong’s numbers, and an English interlinear view when checked. The catalog does not currently match the licensed modern breadth of large Bible platforms.
Is Lamplight a mobile app?
It is a responsive progressive web app. Compatible browsers can install it to a home screen and launch it in a standalone window, but we did not verify current native Apple App Store or Google Play listings.
What is the difference between Oil and Flame?
Oil is the enhanced study level, emphasizing natural-language search, visual cross-references, personal reading plans, curated Study Paths, and Focus Mode. Flame is the fuller authoring and reasoning level for advanced journals, documents, sources, collaboration, publishing, and Reasoning Paths. Confirm the live matrix because individual gates can change.
Does Lamplight use AI?
Yes, in selected assistance and natural-language workflows. Its May 2026 privacy policy says relevant prompts, selected text, document excerpts, notes, study material, metadata, feedback, and outputs may be processed by third-party AI providers. The public policy does not name every provider, so avoid sensitive material until the exact data path is acceptable.
Can I export my work?
The document workflow describes print preview plus PDF, DOCX, and Markdown exports, and paths or journals can feed documents. Before depending on the service, test whether a complete account export includes every note, highlight, journal, plan, source, image, comment, permission, and reasoning structure you need.
Who operates Lamplight?
The legal pages identify tinkerSoft Pty Ltd, an Australian company based in Victoria, as the operator. The privacy policy says Australian privacy law and the Australian Privacy Principles apply where relevant, while overseas providers may process or store data.
Sources & further reading
More Bible Study Software
VerseLink BibleVerseLink Bible keeps Scripture, sermon notes, highlights and original-language helps entirely on your device with no account, tracking, ads or subscription—but local-first privacy makes manual backup your responsibility.
Ezra Bible AppA serious free, open-source study workspace built around topical verse collections, notes and the SWORD module ecosystem, now spanning desktop and mobile—but resource licensing varies, sync depends on Dropbox, and its 2022 privacy template contradicts the current App Store disclosure.
Rava: Discover God’s StoryA free, multilingual facilitator that lets almost anyone press play and guide a Discovery Bible Study with little preparation—excellent for reproducible group participation, but not a replacement for wise leadership, contextual interpretation or a modern privacy policy.
ARMA CoursesARMA makes serious Bible and theology teaching approachable through short, energetic courses—valuable for guided learners, but narrower and less transparent than a seminary library.
Storyverse InstituteStoryverse makes Bible, theology, soul care and ministry training approachable through 200+ videos, community and cohorts—but its age, collection and deletion disclosures conflict too sharply for informed enrollment.
The Word One to OneA polished, completely free guide for reading John and Acts with a friend—excellent for a trusted conversation, but narrow in scope and incomplete on app privacy and safeguarding.