Bible APIs and Tools for Christian Developers
Every Christian app starts with the same question: where do I get the Bible text, and am I allowed to use it? Licensing is the wall most projects hit first, and it is the thing nobody warns you about.
This page is the stack for building on Scripture. Free and open Bible APIs, licensed platforms that handle the copyright for you, MCP servers so an AI agent quotes Scripture instead of guessing at it, semantic search, translation tooling, icon sets, Git hosting, job boards, and the communities where Christians in tech actually find each other. Each one is reviewed against the selection criteria. If you want the projects you can read the source of, see open source.
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Christian Tech Jobs
The go-to job board connecting 40,800+ monthly Christian tech visitors with roles at 364+ faith-driven organizations, trusted by YouVersion, BibleProject, Hallow, and more — with salary insights ($94k–$117k avg), a 1,800+ candidate talent network, 574+ premium curated listings from 445+ orgs, a career coaching directory, and a weekly newsletter to 3,175+ subscribers.
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American Cloud
A cancel-proof, Big Tech-independent cloud provider offering compute, managed Kubernetes, managed databases, storage, auto-scaling, managed WordPress, and colocation — all with zero egress fees, SOC 2 Type II certification, PCI DSS compliance, HIPAA BAAs, and a fully open-source stack. Founded by U.S. Army veteran Aron Wagner. In mid-2026 the platform launched official SDKs (TypeScript, Python, Go), an open-source MCP server for AI-assisted cloud management, and a Terraform provider.
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Scripture App Builder
Scripture App Builder is a free desktop tool from SIL Global that lets Bible translators create customized Android, iOS, and Progressive Web Apps with synchronized text and audio — no programming required. Over 2,500 apps in 1,960 languages with 65 million installs worldwide. Actively maintained with four major releases between April and July 2026 (v14.0–v14.3), including YouVersion Platform integration on both Android and iOS, direct Paratext and Scripture Burrito imports, devotional notes in reading plans, and Gloo AI as an optional faith-aligned guardrails provider for the AI Assistant.
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Parabible
A free, open-source, browser-based Bible study tool that lets you read and search the original Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic texts with morphological parsing — built by James Cuénod, a PhD biblical scholar from South Africa who now serves as Senior AI Translation Technologist at Seed Company.
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Bible Vector Search
A free, open-source semantic Bible search tool that uses AI embeddings to find Scripture passages by meaning rather than keywords. Built on the BBE translation with a live public REST API for developers; part of the Antioch Tech project family by the creator of the Obsidian Bible Reference plugin. Web and API remain fully functional; core code is in stable/maintenance mode (no new commits since Sep 2024).
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For All Things Bible
A curated directory of 708 Bible websites and apps across 21 categories, operated by the American Bible Society through Bibles.com and the .BIBLE Registry. Community-driven with submissions and upvotes, with new resources added regularly.
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Bible MCP
An open-source MCP server that gives AI chatbots direct access to accurate, freely licensed Bible text — so Scripture is quoted, not hallucinated. Three tools (verse lookup, chapter fetch, translation browsing), strong uptime, and steady adoption across Claude Code, Claude.ai, and Cursor via Smithery.
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Bolls Bible API
A free, open-source Bible API and reading platform offering 148 translations in 31 languages with endpoints for chapters, verses, search, version comparison, Hebrew/Greek dictionary definitions, and a Reference Tagging Tool — built by a Ukrainian developer with a Sola Scriptura conviction, actively maintained as of July 2026, available on web, Android, Windows, and Linux.
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Great Commission Benchmark
A free web platform that benchmarks 79 AI models from 25 providers on their ability to support evangelism, discipleship, and outreach — revealing which popular AI tools help or hinder Great Commission work.
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BibleLink
BibleLink is a free, multilingual website plugin by GlobalRize that converts Bible references into hoverable links showing the verse text. Now supports 47 languages and 87+ active Bible translations, available as a WordPress plugin or lightweight JavaScript snippet, with v1.0.20 compatible with the latest WordPress releases.
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API.Bible
The largest Bible API available — access nearly 2,500 text and audio Bible versions in 1,600+ languages through clean REST endpoints, built by American Bible Society's Digital Bible Lab. Fully redesigned platform with free Starter and Pro plans, per-translation commercial licensing, and Custom Enterprise plans on the roadmap.
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Keep in Touch (kit)
An open-source platform for Christian creators to share project updates, capture email leads, and build in public — with shared faith.tools authentication, built-in blogging, RSS feeds, and AI content moderation. Still in beta; no new releases since March 2026.
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Free Use Bible API
A free, open-source JSON API by AO Lab serving 1,256 Bible translations across 1,004 languages with no API keys, no usage limits, and no copyright restrictions — now with an official JavaScript/TypeScript SDK, commentary datasets, and a growing ecosystem of community integrations including MCP servers, an iOS Bible Atlas (Sacra Tabula), a Minecraft plugin, and a Roblox wrapper. 150 stars on GitHub, with API traffic nearly doubling to ~14 million hits/month as of July 2026.
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The Bible Plugin
A free, open-source WordPress plugin that embeds a customizable Bible reader into any site, supporting 2,000+ translations via the Bible Brain API with Paratext file support in v2.0 (now available May 2026). Built by missionaries for global digital engagement — localized, strategic, and designed to keep seekers on your site.
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FaithTech
The largest global community for Christians in tech, now active in 50+ cities across 20 countries on six continents. FaithTech gathers developers, designers, and entrepreneurs to build redemptive technology together — hosting Awaken 2026 (its first global gathering in 10 years, registration now open), the annual BUILD hackathon, Story Nights in 20+ cities, and the Glocal Hackathon, while producing the Missional Tech Trends research series and a podcast exploring faith, AI ethics, and culture.
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YouVersion Platform Services
Free developer platform from the YouVersion/Life.Church team offering REST APIs and SDKs (Swift, Kotlin, JavaScript, React, React Native Expo, TypeScript), fast-track Bible licensing for 1,475 versions in 1,244 languages, AI Skills for coding agents, and an embeddable Bible Reader (now with server-backed highlights as of SDK 2.4.0). Currently running the Gloo "Scripture in New Frontiers" Summer Challenge (live July 2026) leading into the October 2026 Gloo AI Hackathon ($250K prize pool); launch partners include The Chosen and BibleProject. All at no cost to developers.
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Prayer for Designers
A prayer ministry and Slack community of ~225 Christian designers offering confidential prayer support, Bible verse art for social media, virtual Bible studies (5+ years on Zoom), and fellowship across design disciplines. Founded by award-winning brand/UI designer Brian White in Lawrence, KS.
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Rock RMS
Rock RMS is a free, open-source church management platform by Spark Development Network that handles people management, check-in, giving, communications, digital publishing, and engagement tracking — trusted by 10 of the 12 largest US churches, managing 35.6M+ people records, with AI Agents in preview (AI Summit completed July 2026 with 670+ registrations, MCP and voice agents now documented), an active 5,000+ member community, Rock Cast at 219+ episodes, and the v19 generation actively shipping (v19.3 released July 2026).
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LightNet - Media Library Kit
Open-source developer tool from OM (Operation Mobilisation) for building fast, static digital media libraries — now with CMS and analytics integrations — that help ministries share gospel-centered media in any language.
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Bible Brain API
Bible Brain is the free developer API from Faith Comes By Hearing, offering REST endpoints for Bible text, audio, and video in 2,713 languages. Actively maintained with 17 GitHub repos (commits through August 2026) and comprehensive developer documentation. Free for non-commercial use. Ideal for building multilingual Scripture apps and websites.
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Literal Word BibleTagger
A free, lightweight JavaScript widget from the Literal Word team that automatically turns Bible references on any website into clickable links with hover-pop-up verse previews — supporting NASB, LSB, ESV, NKJV, and KJV. Now also available as an official WordPress plugin for one-click installation on WordPress sites.
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The Odin Project
A free, open-source full-stack web development curriculum with over 1.86 million learners. Covers HTML, CSS, JavaScript, React, Node.js, and Ruby on Rails through project-based learning and a 60,000+ member Discord community. Self-funded by donations via Open Collective since 2023. Curriculum GitHub repo has 12,700+ stars and was last updated July 2026.
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tools.bible - Bible Translation Tools
A centralized, searchable library of 118 Bible translation tools — a collaborative effort by Biblica and Wycliffe, built on the Gloo platform — helping translators find the right software for every phase of the translation process, from language assessment through publishing, with an AI-powered discovery assistant for personalized recommendations.
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route.bible
A free, open-spec tool that turns Bible references into app-agnostic links and QR codes — letting anyone open a passage in their preferred Bible app or browser. Ships with a live Chrome extension that linkifies references across the web, and a Skills.sh agent skill (Bible Links) that teaches AI agents to emit portable route.bible Markdown links automatically.
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GitHaven
Free, open-source Git hosting for Christian developers, running on a Gitea fork and hosted by Shiloh — a confessionally orthodox Christian tech company also behind Last Hour Hosting, Remnant Chat, the Touch Grass Show, and the annual Shiloh Echo family retreat in North Idaho. NOTE: the platform's own Gitea fork has not received a new commit since Aug 2024 (4 minor versions behind upstream); the service itself remains operational.
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Disciple.Tools
A free, open-source WordPress CRM designed for disciple-making movements — track contacts, groups, baptisms, and church health with generational mapping, saturation heat maps, and unlimited users. Built by Gospel Ambition and deployed by IMB, 24:14, and missions teams worldwide, with an active monthly release cadence through July 2026 (latest v1.82.2).
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Immersed VR
VR workspace app that streams up to 5 virtual monitors from Mac, PC, or Linux into immersive environments. Founded by faith-driven entrepreneur Renji Bijoy (Forbes 30 Under 30), with 1.5M+ users across Meta Quest, Apple Vision Pro, and more. Became the leading VR productivity tool after Meta shut down Horizon Workrooms in Feb 2026. Also developing Visor (4K-per-eye headset, still in pre-order) and Curator AI assistant, with a pre-IPO round underway.
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fetch(bible)
A free, open-source Bible translations platform by Gracious Tech providing unrestricted access to 1,404 translations across 1,116 languages via CDN, with a TypeScript client (now v2.2.0), web enhancer (v1.1.0), and embeddable reader. MIT-0 licensed. Now powers five apps including Manna (gathermanna.com). Founder Jon Walsh maintains it part-time at 40% funding.
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Last Hour Hosting
Christian-owned managed hosting, VPS, email, and cloud services by Shiloh LLC (CEO Tony Marsella) — open-source, privacy-focused, no-KYC with crypto and barter payment options, data centers in Iceland and Netherlands, ADF partnership, and real human support rooted in faith.
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Christicons
Free library of 61 hand-crafted Christian SVG icons with npm packages for React, Vue, and JS/TS — created by Dimitri Conejo Sanz, the Catholic designer behind Cathopic, Holydemia, Mater Coeli, Tolkian, and Dimconex Media. Licensed free for personal and commercial use (no attribution required), but not open source and not permitted for AI training.
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Bible APIs and Christian Dev Tools: Frequently Asked Questions
Is there a free Bible API?
Several, and they differ in the ways that decide a project rather than in raw translation counts. Free Use Bible API from AO Lab is the least friction of any of them: over a thousand translations, no API key, no usage limits, no copyright restrictions, and an official JavaScript/TypeScript SDK. fetch(bible) by Gracious Tech is MIT-0 licensed and serves a similar breadth over a CDN, with a TypeScript client and an embeddable reader. If you need audio and video rather than text, Bible Brain from Faith Comes By Hearing reaches thousands of languages and is free for non-commercial use. API.Bible, from the American Bible Society's Digital Bible Lab, carries the widest catalogue of text and audio versions, with free Starter and Pro tiers and commercial licensing negotiated per translation. And YouVersion Platform Services deserves a serious look now that Life.Church has been investing hard in developers: REST APIs, SDKs for Swift, Kotlin, JS, React, React Native, and TypeScript, and an embeddable reader, free to build on as long as you keep to the license terms, non-commercial use included.
Can I use the ESV or NIV in my app?
Not by simply calling an API and shipping. Modern translations like the ESV, NIV, and NLT are copyrighted, and the publisher decides the terms — which is why the no-restriction APIs above mostly serve public domain and openly licensed texts instead. You have two honest routes. Build on an openly licensed translation and say which one you're using. Or go through a platform that handles the licensing for you: YouVersion Platform Services fast-tracks Bible licensing across more than a thousand versions and is free to build on within its license, non-commercial use included, and API.Bible licenses commercially per translation. Read the actual terms in either case, because "free API" and "free to ship what you build with it" are different claims. Sort this out before you design the UI, not after.
How do I stop an AI app from making up Bible verses?
Retrieve the text; never let the model recall it. A language model asked to "quote John 3:16" is predicting tokens, and prediction is where fabricated and subtly reworded verses come from. Fetch the passage from a licensed source and pass it into the context instead. Bible MCP does exactly this as an open-source MCP server, giving Claude, Cursor, and other agents verse lookup, chapter fetch, and translation browsing against freely licensed text — it's built by faith.tools, so weigh that recommendation accordingly. route.bible is the other half of the problem: it turns a reference into an app-agnostic link so your output opens in whatever Bible app the reader already uses.
Where do Christian developers find work, tools, and community?
Christian Tech Jobs is the job board, listing roles at hundreds of faith-driven organizations with salary data and a candidate network. FaithTech is the community, active in dozens of cities across twenty-odd countries, and runs the annual BUILD hackathon. For the rest of the stack: GitHaven offers free Git hosting on a Gitea fork, Christicons ships a hand-crafted Christian SVG icon set via npm for React, Vue, and JS/TS — free for commercial use, though not open source and not licensed for AI training — and The Odin Project is the free, open-source full-stack curriculum a couple of million self-taught developers have worked through. If your work is Scripture translation rather than app development, Scripture App Builder, Scripture Forge, and Codex Translation Editor are built for that.