Accordance is a great Bible software to study the Word of God with a number of Bible study tools. You can use these tools to dig into the Bible and expose the gems of Scripture with a keen eye.
Accordance uses search and analytic tools you can use to study the Bible in English, Greek, and Hebrew, as well as other languages. It has a user interface some people find very helpful. You can access commentaries, dictionaries, and original language study tools with it. You can do anything I do on my website with it including Bible studies and sermon preparation
Type of Software: Freemium
Disclaimer: I am basing this review off the free version of Accordance 14.
Any links in this review may be affiliate links. This means that when you click on them, anything you purchase may give me a small percentage of money. This will not change the amount of money you pay. Any proceeds I received from affiliate links help to pay for this website and its services.
Availability
You can download Accordance and use the free version to get started in your Bible study. You can also view and shop the products of Accordance to add functionality and resources.
User Interface
The user interface for Accordance Bible Software has a menu at the top, a toolbar right under it for the most common uses of the program, and its main panes hosting the biblical text and a list of helps on the right side. Based on whatever searches, word studies, or other features you are using like dictionaries or books, there will be more panes open.
I like the list of resources and helps on the right-hand side. It’s nice to notice at a moments plants what resources applied to the passage you are studying or reading. This pane includes available commentaries for the passage, cross-references, topics, a word list, and my toolset.
I also like that the individual Bibles are on a tab system. You can add more Bibles and they show up as tabs. Inside the tabs, you can have a Bible comparison set up for original languages or other English translations.
There’s also a “live clique” function that allows you to click on a word and immediately search it in English, Greek, or Hebrew. You can compare Bible translations by adding a parallel. These are probably the basic features most people will use.
One thing I noticed that is a negative for me as that you can fill up the screen very quickly with lots of windows depending on how many books you have open, translations you are looking at, and what kinds of other analytics and word studies you have going I was pleasantly surprised to realize you can have multiple windows with different emphases on each window.
It’s a good user interface that will help you to go in depth as much as you want and use as many windows as you need to analyze the text and do whatever preparation for Bible studies or sermons, small groups, or anything else related to the Bible. Copying and pasting is easy with this software as well.
Tools and Features
You can search all resources by verse, word, topic, search operators for more specific searches, and other possibilities. There are many display options for how you display the text of your resources.
Accordance has a cool feature called Amplify. You can select a word in any resource and amplify it for research. You can send it to a certain kind of resource like a dictionary. Then you can study with all your dictionaries at your fingertips. It works for original languages too.
Workspaces are popular feature of the Bible software. You can set up a screen the way you want it to be and say that as a workspace. Then it’s easy to load a workspace if you are focused on a certain field or part of your study.
Resources (Books)
After you run out of the 90-day free trial for Accordance, you will have to pay for resources and books. They have packages, or you can buy resources individually. There resources are comparable to Logos Bible Study
As with any software, one will have certain resources the others will not have. You can get all the resources you want but they cost money like with Logos Bible Study. Each resource you get integrates fully with your software and other resources.
Accessibility
Accordance has several accessibility features I like. Every panel of the program allows you to increase or decrease the font size. It also has a dark mode that’s very helpful for anyone who has trouble with the light mode and their eyesight.
You can also use multiple display features which are listed mainly in the main menu bar to enhance your text the way that you can best view it.
I did not find any options for audio. But if you can magnify the text, that is better than what some Bible softwares offer. They will probably improve in the future with more accessibility options and features.
Support
Accordance has a YouTube channel offering a big library of support, resource spotlights, and even some podcast episodes of interviews with scholars. On their Support page, they offer tech support, forums, documentation, training seminars, live webinars, downloads, a blog, and a help page.
Strengths and Weaknesses
Accordance is another popular Bible software for good reason. Many people find it easier to use than Logos. The workspaces are a strength for the software so you can use different workspaces for different types of study. I also like using Accordance for the resource pane to the right of the Bible. It’s nice to see things all lined up in a single place.
The user interface is not as intuitive as it could be. I had a hard time learning where everything was and how to use the features of the program. I consider myself pretty good at quickly learning programs and software systems. But if you like Accordance the best, you will take the time to learn how to use it and its features to the max.
Final Thoughts
Overall, I think Accordance Bible Software is a great program for anyone studying the Bible in-depth with technology. As I said in the introduction, I am mainly a Logos Bible Study user. But I always like finding programs that do something better than Logos. I offer reviews of Bible software on my website
Since Accordance and Logos are both pretty much Bible softwares that require a lot of money to make them extremely useful, it would be prudent to choose one of the Bible softwares and invest your money and resources, as well as your time and efforts into the one that fits you best.
There are many options out there for Bible software and Bible study. This is another great Bible software that will help you in your efforts to understand and go deeper in God’s Word. I recommend you try both, as well as the other software I have already reviewed on my website and choose the one that fits you.
There’s nothing stopping you from using multiple Bible software programs. You can compare what you can do in each and what resources are available in each.
Check out my review of other Bible software
