Why Look for a Bible Gateway Alternative?
Bible Gateway is a free site from HarperCollins Christian Publishing with more than 200 translations. Its Catholic editions include the New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE), the RSV Catholic Edition, the NRSV Catholic Edition, the New Catholic Bible and the Douay-Rheims. The free site shows ads, and Bible Gateway Plus removes them and adds a library of commentaries and study Bibles.
Catholic readers look elsewhere for three reasons: they want the official text the Church in the United States uses with its own notes, they want an ad-free site at no cost, or they want stronger Greek and Hebrew tools. Each need has a good free answer.
Bible Gateway Alternatives Compared
The table compares each site's published translations, features and prices, as of November 2026. Scroll sideways on a phone to see every column.
| Site | Price | Catholic translations | Run by | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bible Gateway (for reference) | Free with ads; Plus: $6.99/month or $69.99/year, 7-day free trial | NABRE, RSVCE, NRSVCE, NCB, Douay-Rheims | HarperCollins Christian Publishing | Comparing translations |
| USCCB Online Bible | Free | NABRE with notes | US Conference of Catholic Bishops | The official NABRE, daily readings |
| Bible.com | Free | NABRE, NRSV-CI, CPDV, Douay-Rheims | Life.Church (evangelical) | Plans, many languages |
| Ascension | Free tier; paid $59.99/year or $8.99/month (US App Store) | RSV-2CE | Ascension (Catholic) | Bible with the Catechism |
| Bible Hub | Free with ads | Douay-Rheims, CPDV, New American Bible | Online Parallel Bible Project | Parallel verses, concordance |
| STEPBible | Free | Douay-Rheims, Latin Vulgate | Began at Tyndale House, Cambridge | Greek and Hebrew study, offline |
| Blue Letter Bible | Free, donation-supported | None (has the Latin Vulgate) | Blue Letter Bible (evangelical) | Lexicons, commentaries |
Prices and translation lists from each site, as of November 2026. This is a comparison of published features and prices; check the site before you rely on a feature.
The Best Catholic Choices
1. USCCB Online Bible
Catholic, free
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops publishes the full NABRE online with its introductions, footnotes and cross-references, and the full Catholic canon of 73 books. The same site carries the daily Mass readings, Spanish readings, audio podcasts of the readings and a daily email. The readings at Mass in the United States come from the Lectionary for Mass, which uses a form of the New American Bible.
We found no official USCCB Bible app; the site works well in a phone browser.
- Price: Free
- Good for: reading the Church's own NABRE text with its notes, free and without ads.
- Skip it if: you want to compare several translations side by side.
2. Bible.com (YouVersion)
Life.Church, free
Bible.com is the website of the YouVersion Bible App, with more than 3,500 versions in more than 2,300 languages and thousands of reading plans. Its Catholic versions in English include the NABRE, the NRSV Catholic Interconfessional edition, the Catholic Public Domain Version and the Douay-Rheims. A free account syncs highlights and notes with the app.
YouVersion is run by Life.Church, an evangelical church, so check the publisher of any reading plan. Our YouVersion alternatives guide compares the Catholic Bible apps.
- Price: Free
- Good for: reading in another language, or sharing a plan with friends.
- Skip it if: you want Catholic notes and commentary.
3. Ascension web app
Catholic, free tier
Ascension's app also runs in a web browser at app.ascensionpress.com. It carries The Great Adventure Catholic Bible in the RSV-2CE, the Catechism, the daily Mass readings and the Bible in a Year podcast with Fr. Mike Schmitz. You sign in with an email and password.
- Price: Free tier; paid $59.99/year or $8.99/month (US App Store)
- Good for: reading Scripture next to the Catechism, as the Church reads it.
- Skip it if: you want to search Greek and Hebrew words.
Free Sites for Deeper Word Study
These three sites come from Protestant or academic publishers. Their original-language tools are excellent, and each is free.
4. Bible Hub
Online Parallel Bible Project, free with ads
Bible Hub shows one verse in dozens of translations at once, with a section of Catholic translations on each verse page: the Douay-Rheims, the Catholic Public Domain Version and the New American Bible. It also has an interlinear, Strong's numbers, concordances and commentaries. Its privacy policy says the site uses advertising partners.
We could not confirm that Bible Hub's book pages include Tobit or the other deuterocanonical books, so use a Catholic Bible for those.
- Price: Free with ads
- Good for: seeing how a single verse reads across many translations.
- Skip it if: you want an ad-free page or the full Catholic canon in one place.
5. STEPBible
Free, academic
STEPBible is a free tool that began at Tyndale House, a biblical research library in Cambridge. It has more than 700 Bibles, Greek and Hebrew lexicons, an interlinear and morphology tools. Its Catholic texts include the Douay-Rheims, with Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch and 1 and 2 Maccabees, and several editions of the Latin Vulgate. A desktop download for Windows, Mac and Linux works offline.
- Price: Free
- Good for: tracing a Greek or Hebrew word through the whole Bible at no cost.
- Skip it if: you want a modern Catholic translation such as the NABRE.
6. Blue Letter Bible
Evangelical ministry, free
Blue Letter Bible is a donation-supported ministry with a searchable Bible, an interlinear, lexicons, concordances and text and audio commentaries. Its own content statement describes it as conservative and evangelical, and it carries no Catholic edition, though it does include the Latin Vulgate and the Greek Septuagint.
- Price: Free, donation-supported
- Good for: original-language word studies alongside a Catholic Bible you already own.
- Skip it if: you want Catholic translations or Catholic commentary.
Turn your Bible reading into daily study
Free sites give you the text. Pro gives you the plan and the prayer around it: in-depth Bible studies and prayer frameworks, daily audio devotionals, audio-guided prayers, worship playlists and offline access. $49 once, against $69.99 a year for Bible Gateway Plus. How is it so cheap? It is all digital, each study is made once and shared with every member, and we have no office or agency to pay for. We want you reading Scripture every day for years, so the price stays where anyone can say yes.
Get Pro for $49 once One-time payment. No subscription to cancel later. 30-day money-back guarantee.How to Choose an Online Bible as a Catholic
Start with the translation, then the tools.
- Use an approved Catholic edition for reading and prayer. The NABRE, the RSV-2CE, the RSV Catholic Edition, the NRSV Catholic Edition and the Douay-Rheims are all approved editions. Church law requires that Catholic editions of Scripture carry the approval of the Apostolic See or a conference of bishops (canon 825).
- Check for all 73 books. The Catholic canon has 46 Old Testament and 27 New Testament books (CCC 120). Our guide to the deuterocanonical books explains the seven books many Protestant Bibles leave out.
- Use the study sites as tools. A Protestant lexicon is a good help for a Greek or Hebrew word. Read the meaning of a passage with the Church, using the notes in a Catholic Bible and the Catechism.
- Pick the site you will open daily. For most Catholics in the United States that is bible.usccb.org, because the readings of the day sit on the same site.
For the history of the translations themselves, our guide to the Bible and which translation a Catholic should use covers the main Catholic editions. Need heavier software for study? See our Logos Bible Software alternatives.