Which live translation app should a church use on a Sunday morning?
All four put the service on a QR code: each person reads or listens in their own language on the phone in their pocket, with no receivers, no app and no sign-up. The differences are price and what is left on Monday. Glossa charges USD 5 per language-hour against Koine's USD 10 and can speak the translation in a voice modelled on your own preacher. Hope Translator has a free tier that does not expire. Sunflower AI publishes the fullest account of where its data sits. Koine shows a spoken Bible reference in each listener's own published Bible, keeps a translated transcript per language, and publishes EU hosting with one stated exception.
What each one publishes.
Every figure below is what the vendor states on its own site, checked on 17 September 2026. A dash means we could not find it advertised, not that it does not exist. Prices change; the sources are linked under the table.
| What | Glossa | Sunflower AI | Hope Translator | Koine |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | "Real-time AI Translation for Churches and Events" from INDX Ltd. in Limassol, Cyprus. "No equipment needed — works on any device." | "AI live captions & translation for churches" from Sunflower AI Pty Ltd in Sydney: "One QR code, every language in the room." | "Broadcast Real-time Captions and Translations" from Hope Harbor, LLC in the United States. "Trusted by 300+ organizations every month." | One audio feed — microphone, soundboard line or livestream — becomes translated voice and live captions on every phone in the room and at home. |
| How the congregation receives it | QR code, any modern browser on a phone or tablet: "No app download required!" Glossa also publishes iOS and Android apps. "Bring your own headphones or earbuds." | "Members scan with any phone — no app install, no setup." A web app, plus captions on the room's slides and a TV view. | QR code or link; attendees "never need to sign up or create an account", only the organizer does. Free iOS and Android apps, "recommended for the best experience". | QR code or link, in the browser, no app and no account. The listener app is optional, for notes and replay. Remote listeners use the same link. |
| Languages: voice and captions | "100+ languages" simultaneously; listeners "hear or read". Separate voice and caption counts are not published. Some entries are marked "Only available as a target language". | 83 target languages, 64 input languages, live audio on the phone in 74 of them. Plans cap how many run at once: 5 on Basic, 10 on Pro. | 44 output languages, 40 with audio and 4 text-only; the speaker can be transcribed in over 30. Plans cap simultaneous languages at 2, 5, 10 or 20. | 70 languages: 57 as translated voice and captions, seven more as captions only while their voices are tuned. Up to 3 languages a session on most plans, 8 on Pro. |
| Delay, as published | Captions reach the streaming dashboard "and a second later, visitors can hear or read translations on their phones". | Captions "begin appearing on the in-room display within ~1.5 seconds". | —. No delay figure on the home, solutions, pricing or FAQ pages. | Translated voice typically about 1.5 seconds behind the speaker. |
| Price, 17 September 2026 | All USD. Pay as you go USD 5 an hour per language — half Koine's rate. Standard USD 99/month (25 translation hours, +USD 4 each), Advanced USD 299 (100 hours, +USD 3, adds voice cloning), Premium USD 499 (250 hours, +USD 2). Yearly −18%. Hours count per language; "Silence, songs & music don't count". Unlimited listeners. | Currency not stated on the pricing page; the vendor is Australian. Basic 90/month: 1 room, 7.5 hours a month, 5 of the 83 languages, 40 per extra hour. Pro 200/month: 2 rooms, 30 hours, 10 languages. Enterprise "from $500 per room, per day". Annual saves 17%. Unlimited audience. | All USD, with a cap on listening phones. Free USD 0 (30 min a month, 5 phones), Starter USD 19.99/month or USD 167/year — USD 13.92 a month — (5 h, 2 languages, 10 phones), Growth USD 39.99–129.99 (10–40 h, 5 languages, 50), Scale USD 99.99 (20 h, 10 languages, 100), Enterprise USD 499.99 (50 h, 20 languages, 500). Yearly −30%. | USD 10 per language-hour for a one-off event. Lite USD 96/month (12 language-hours, 3 languages, 75 listeners), Standard USD 169 (24 hours, 400 listeners, overlays and recordings), Pro USD 399 (70 hours, 8 languages, unlimited listeners). Also in NOK, SEK and EUR; annual billing saves two months. |
| Free trial | "Get 4 Hours Free" on every plan. | "All plans include a one-month free trial of the Basic tier — no credit card required." | A free tier rather than a trial: 30 minutes a month to 5 phones, "no credit card required to start", every month. | A Free plan: 10 free minutes, up to 3 languages, up to 25 listeners. |
| Recordings and transcripts | —. Not advertised. What is advertised after a service is a usage report: how long you streamed, how many listened, in which languages and what it cost. | "Sunflower AI archives the transcript for review" when the session ends. Audience downloads are on by default; they and transcript storage can both be switched off. | Transcriptions saved automatically, searchable, exportable "in multiple formats", with AI summaries and action items. | A translated transcript per language, listeners' highlights and notes, a permanent organization page with followers, and questions answered from the transcript. Recording is a separate switch, off by default. |
| Captions on the room screen | "A browser source or embed page drops translated text into ProPresenter, OBS, vMix and more." Also RTMP restreaming to your own site, YouTube or Facebook, plus a REST API and webhooks. | Overlay "on your ProPresenter, Proclaim, or PowerPoint slides, sent to the same projector as your slide content", with tutorials; Proclaim goes via NDI into OBS. One-click start from a Stream Deck. | "On the Big Screen — show live captions for everyone to follow along (e.g. OBS, ProPresenter)", plus a browser display page with font and dark-mode controls, and guides for Zoom and Teams. | ProPresenter, EasyWorship, OBS and vMix as a browser source, or the desktop overlay over PowerPoint and Keynote. |
| Scripture | "Biblically-trained AI — Scripture references, book names and theological terms are handled the way your church means them." No feature is advertised that displays a published Bible translation. | —. No Bible-text feature advertised. You can upload sermons, prayers and run sheets ahead so it learns pastor names and theological terms. | —. No Bible-text feature advertised. The FAQ says the technology handles theological terminology and complex sentence structures. | BibleSense: a spoken Bible reference appears in each listener's own published Bible translation, approved at the booth before it shows. |
| Where the data sits | —. Not advertised. The terms name INDX Ltd. under the law of Cyprus; the privacy policy names Deepgram, Azure and Google as transcription and translation providers and says audio is not kept after the session, but not where it is processed. | Azure in Sydney, session history in Supabase on AWS Sydney. "Your data is saved in Australia and never used to train AI models"; translation runs in Zero Data Retention mode; a full sub-processor table is published. Other regions on request. | Servers "located in the United States". "We will never sell your data"; deleted data is "permanently removed… no backups or copies are retained". EU hosting is not advertised. | Live audio relayed through Amsterdam; accounts, session data and join pages in Stockholm. OpenAI's speech and translation runs outside the EU today, with EU processing scheduled. With retention set to temporary, no transcript line is written to the database. |
| Where it wins | Price, at half Koine's per-language-hour rate and down to USD 2 an extra hour. Voice cloning of the speaker. 100+ languages. Four free hours. RTMP restreaming, API and webhooks. | A month of free use with no card. 83 target languages. A published caption figure. Proclaim on the overlay list. The most complete data page of the four, down to named sub-processors. | A free tier that does not expire, and a paid floor of USD 13.92 a month billed annually. "No maximum duration limitation." Searchable, exportable transcripts with summaries. | Voice and captions off one feed in 70 languages, BibleSense in the listener's own Bible, translated transcripts and recordings, remote listeners on the same link at no extra cost, and EU hosting. |
Sources: Glossa's site and pricing, privacy policy and terms; Sunflower AI's home page, church page, pricing page, how-to guide and data security page; Hope Translator's home page, pricing page, solutions page, supported languages, transcripts and summaries and data privacy page, all checked 17 September 2026. Koine figures are from our pricing page, BibleSense, captions and overlays and the privacy policy. If a figure is out of date, tell us and we will correct it.
When Glossa is the better choice
On money, Glossa's published numbers beat ours and we will not pretend otherwise. Pay as you go is USD 5 an hour per language against Koine's USD 10, and the Premium plan brings extra hours down to USD 2. Glossa also says silence, songs and music do not count, so twenty minutes of singing is not billed. Four hours are free with no plan at all.
The second reason is the voice. From the USD 299 Advanced plan, Glossa advertises voice cloning: the translation is spoken in a voice modelled on your own preacher. Nobody else in this table advertises that, Koine included. If you need five or six languages every Sunday and the pastor's own voice matters, Glossa's published offer is the strongest of the four, and it adds 100+ languages, unlimited listeners, RTMP restreaming and an API with webhooks.
When Sunflower AI is
Two things stand out. The first is that you can try it properly: one month of the Basic tier, free, no credit card — four Sundays before anyone signs anything.
The second is the data page, the most complete of the four. It names the hosting regions, publishes a sub-processor table with the country each one processes in, states that translation runs in Zero Data Retention mode and is never used to train models, and offers switches to stop transcripts being stored or downloaded. If your board wants that in writing before it signs, Sunflower has already written it down. The catch is location: everything sits in Australia by default, other regions only on request.
Sunflower is also the only one here that advertises a caption overlay onto Proclaim. On Basic you get 7.5 hours a month and 5 of the 83 languages, so check the hours against your calendar first.
When Hope Translator is
Hope Translator is the one a small church can start on a Sunday without a budget meeting. The free tier is not a trial: 30 minutes every month to five phones, permanently, with no card. The first paid step is USD 19.99 a month, or USD 167 a year — they state it as USD 13.92 a month — for five hours and two languages. For a congregation with one other language and a forty-minute sermon, that is a working budget.
It keeps things too: transcriptions saved automatically, searchable, exportable, with AI summaries. There is no maximum stream duration, free apps for listeners, and ProPresenter and OBS for the screen. The limit to watch is the listener cap, which counts phones: 10 on Starter, 50 on Growth, 100 on Scale at USD 99.99 a month.
When Koine is
Three things are ours in this table. The first is Scripture. When the preacher says a reference, BibleSense puts that passage on the listener's screen in the Bible translation their own church uses, approved at the booth before anyone sees it. The other three advertise that their systems handle theological vocabulary carefully, which is a different thing: it means the words are translated well, not that the verse appears as your church publishes it.
The second is what exists on Monday. A translated transcript for every language, listeners' highlights and notes, a permanent organization page people can follow, and questions answered from what was said. Recording is a separate switch, off until you turn it on, so a church can keep the words and no audio.
The third is where it runs: the live relay in Amsterdam, accounts and join pages in Stockholm, and one exception we state plainly, that OpenAI's speech and translation runs outside the EU today with EU processing scheduled. For a European church that is often the deciding row. Alongside it: voice as well as captions in 70 languages, remote listeners on the same link at no extra cost, and an operator who can correct a line while the service runs.
What the table cannot show
All four are machine translation, and we make no claim that any of them translates better than the others. Ten minutes of your own preacher, in your own room, tells you more than any of our pages.
Hours are counted per language almost everywhere, which surprises people. Glossa spells it out: "1 hr streaming × 3 languages = 3 translation hours", and a Koine language-hour works the same way. The number to budget is languages multiplied by hours, not hours.
Some gaps are worth chasing before you sign. Glossa publishes no data location: its privacy policy names Deepgram, Azure and Google as providers but not where the audio is processed, so if that matters, ask them directly. Sunflower states no currency on its pricing page. Hope Translator's own pages disagree on language count, a "50+" headline against 44 on the itemised list, so we have used 44.
None of the four replaces a qualified interpreter where the law or the stakes require one. This is for the service, the seminar and the members' meeting, not for a conversation with legal, medical or contractual consequences.
Common questions.
Which of these shows the actual Bible verse on the listener's phone?
Koine, through BibleSense: the spoken reference is shown in each listener's own published Bible translation, and the booth approves it before it appears. Glossa advertises "Biblically-trained AI" that handles references, book names and theological terms as terminology, with no published Bible text. Sunflower AI and Hope Translator advertise no Bible-text feature; Sunflower lets you upload sermons and run sheets ahead so names come out right.
What does one Sunday cost at each?
Take one hour of preaching into three languages. Glossa, pay as you go: three translation hours at USD 5, so USD 15, and the singing does not count. Koine, one-off: three language-hours at USD 10, so USD 30, or USD 96 a month on Lite, whose 12 language-hours cover four such Sundays. Hope Translator sells stream hours, not language-hours: Starter is USD 19.99 a month for five hours but only two languages, so three means Growth at USD 39.99. Sunflower AI sells months too: Basic is 90 a month for 7.5 hours and up to five languages, in a currency its pricing page does not state. Checked 17 September 2026.
Does the congregation need an app or any equipment?
No, for all four. Each shows a QR code that the listener opens in the phone browser, with nothing to install and, at Hope Translator and Koine, no account to create. Glossa, Hope Translator and Koine also publish iOS and Android apps: Hope Translator recommends its own, Koine treats its listener app as an optional extra for notes and replay. Everyone should bring earbuds; Glossa says so outright.
Which ones keep a recording or a transcript afterwards?
Hope Translator saves transcriptions automatically, searchable and exportable, with AI summaries. Sunflower AI archives the transcript when the session ends, with audience downloads on by default. Koine keeps a translated transcript per language, plus listeners' highlights and notes, and records audio only if you switch it on. Glossa advertises no recordings, transcripts or archive; what it publishes after a service is a usage and cost report.
Where does each one store what it hears?
Sunflower AI: Australia — Azure in Sydney and Supabase on AWS Sydney, with a published sub-processor table; other regions on request. Hope Translator: servers "located in the United States". Glossa: not advertised; its privacy policy names Deepgram, Azure and Google as providers without a location. Koine: the live relay in Amsterdam, accounts and join pages in Stockholm, with OpenAI's speech and translation outside the EU today and EU processing scheduled.
Can the captions go on the screen we already use?
Yes, in all four. Glossa drops translated text into ProPresenter, OBS and vMix through a browser source or embed page. Sunflower AI overlays ProPresenter, Proclaim and PowerPoint onto the same projector as your slides. Hope Translator publishes a browser display page and guides for ProPresenter and OBS. Koine works with ProPresenter, EasyWorship, OBS and vMix as a browser source, and has a desktop overlay for PowerPoint and Keynote.