You've been in a Bible study, a sermon hits different, or you're reading through Romans and something clicks — and then a week later, it's gone. Harvous exists for that exact problem: it's a notes app built specifically to help you remember your Bible study.^1
Unlike general-purpose note apps or Bible readers with a notes feature bolted on, Harvous is notes-first. Create a note, type a scripture reference like John 3:16, and the full text (NET Bible) appears automatically. Organize everything into "threads" — flexible collections grouped by topic, theme, or study — and notes can live in multiple threads because Bible study naturally connects across books and ideas. In Derek's own walkthrough, he shows how typing "Romans 8:1" instantly generates a scripture note, and every note gets a permanent ID (like N047) you can reference in the margins of your physical Bible.^2 Highlight text to link related passages together, and a cross-referencing system shows you every note that contains a given scripture. Spaces let you separate different contexts (Bible Study, Prayer Journal, Sermon Notes), and with the recent launch of shared spaces, you can now invite others, join via link, and study together — everything private and encrypted by default, but easily shareable when you want.^3
Built by Derek Castelli, a design engineer and Webflow developer whose journey with God started in 2016 when a friend invited him to church. After getting saved, he received a calling centered on Proverbs 25:2 — "It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of kings" — to build a tool with his creativity. What started in 2022 as a "Duolingo for Bible study" concept evolved through many iterations into its current form: a thoughtfully designed, open-source Bible notes app that officially launched version 1.0 on January 8, 2026. 2026 also marks 10 years of Derek's faith journey — a milestone he reflected on in the app's first video walkthrough, showing how personal this project is to him.^4
In Derek's own words: "I made Harvous because I need to remember the Bible, better. Maybe you do too. Maybe you're tired of scattered notes that disappear. Maybe you've had those moments where scripture clicks, but by next week, it's gone. Harvous is my attempt to solve this. Not perfectly. Not revolutionarily. Just... thoughtfully."^1
Why Christians Love Harvous: "As someone who has 'freshly' found Jesus, getting into the Word has become such a large part of my life. Harvous makes it so easy for me to be able to get all my thoughts into one space, in a way that helps me to better understand scripture." — Kamara (Jan 2026)^1 Another user described the design itself as part of the appeal: "This is one of the most beautiful pieces of software I've used recently. The friendly, quirky design makes it fun to use and the big buttons make everything very easy to navigate on mobile." — Joschua (Dec 2025)^1 Theo shared, "Looking forward to continuing to use it to help in my study. It's really coming at a great time as I've recently been inspired to study God's Word more purposefully and deeply." (Nov 2025)^1
Used by people from churches including Keystone, Life.Church, New Hope of Urbandale, and Upperroom, Harvous is actively developed with over 3,200 commits on GitHub, shared spaces now live, and native iOS and Android apps actively in development via Capacitor.^3
Platforms: Web (PWA with offline support — add to home screen on mobile), iOS and Android native apps in development Pricing: Freemium (free tier with subscription options: monthly, annually)
