bible-api.com

What It Is

bible-api.com is a JSON API for Bible verses aimed at developers, provided by Tim Morgan. Its core value is exposing Bible books, chapters, verses, and translation data through a simple HTTP interface, making it easy to add verse lookup to websites, apps, widgets, or scripts. The site states that both the application source code and the open database are available on GitHub.

Core Features and Developer Experience

It offers two main ways to use the API. The User Input API is designed for natural-language-style input such as john 3:16, jn 3:16, or queries with ranges and commas, making it suitable for search boxes and user-input scenarios. The Parameterized API uses a /data/translation/book/chapter format and requires more precise translation, book, and chapter parameters, which is better suited to programmatic navigation and structured display. There is also a random verse endpoint, which can return random content from a specified book, the Old Testament, or the New Testament.

Supported translations include Chinese and multiple English versions, as well as Cherokee, Czech, Latin, Portuguese, Romanian, and others. The default translation is World English Bible, while Chinese Union Version is supported with the identifier cuv. The service returns JSON and supports CORS, so frontend JavaScript can call it directly. The documentation does not mention official SDKs or bindings for specific programming languages, but the HTTP/JSON format is broadly compatible by nature.

Pricing, Self-Hosting, and Limits

The public service is free, but it has clear limits: 15 requests per 30 seconds per IP, and the API must not be used to download an entire Bible. The author also explicitly states that there is no guarantee of service availability, quality, or correctness, and that the server may go down from time to time because it is a personal hobby project. The upside is that the source code and data are open, so you can deploy it yourself if you need a more reliable service.

Pros, Cons, and Best-Fit Users

Its advantages are a simple API, clear examples, no complex authentication, support for multiple translations and CORS, and the option to self-host as open source. The downsides are the relatively low rate limit on the public instance, no SLA, status page, documented error-code system, or enterprise support, and it is not suitable as the sole dependency for a high-concurrency production system.

It is best suited to lightweight use cases such as individual developers, churches or religious content websites, learning tools, and daily verse widgets. For commercial products or highly reliable services, it is better to self-host directly from its code and open data, while adding your own caching, monitoring, and disaster recovery.

Access from China

The documentation does not provide information about availability from mainland China, payment methods, or mirrors; since the service is free, payment is not relevant. Before integrating it in practice, you should test connectivity and latency from your target deployment environment. As for alternatives, the documentation does not list specific competitors, but one option is to use its GitHub source code and open data to build a self-hosted service.