NaveLight is built for Linux alongside macOS and Windows, with the same features on all three. Lyrics, scripture, media, multi-screen output, live captions and on-device AI scripture detection — no reduced Linux edition, and no cloud dependency to make up the difference.
Most of this category simply doesn't ship for Linux, so churches running it either settle for less or buy a Windows machine for the booth. That is a strange tax to pay for projecting song words.
NaveLight is in private beta and there is no public installer yet, for Linux or for anything else. Linux is a proper target in the codebase rather than a promise — the app renders through WebKitGTK and the build is set up for it — and it will be there in the first public release. We would rather tell you that than have you hunt for a download button that isn't there.
The current options
Fairly, because there aren't many and you deserve the real picture rather than a sales one.
Free, open source, genuinely cross-platform and the honest default for a Linux church today. It is also showing its age: basic stage display, limited multi-screen handling, and no AI of any kind. If your needs are simple and your budget is zero, it is a reasonable answer and we would not talk you out of it.
None of them run on Linux. macOS and Windows only. Churches wanting these end up buying a Windows machine specifically for the booth, which is exactly the tax this page exists to talk about.
People try it. It is not a plan for something that has to work on a Sunday morning in front of a congregation, and no vendor will help you when it breaks.
Built for all three platforms from the same codebase, with offline AI scripture detection, a layer-based screen designer, live captions and a free tier. Newer and smaller than everything above, with a smaller community to ask when something goes odd — which is the honest trade you are making.
NaveLight is a Tauri v2 application: a Rust core with a web frontend, rendering through the platform's own engine — WebKitGTK on Linux, WebView2 on Windows, WKWebView on macOS. The output compositor runs on the GPU through the same path on every platform.
The AI matters here too. Because speech recognition and passage search run locally rather than through a cloud API, there is no server-side component that might only support two platforms. If your machine can run the model, Linux gets the same features as everyone else.
Straight answers
Yes — OpenLP, which is free and open source, and NaveLight, which is built for Linux alongside macOS and Windows. ProPresenter, EasyWorship and PewBeam are macOS and Windows only, so Linux churches have historically had one realistic choice.
No. ProPresenter is macOS and Windows only, and there is no official Linux version. Churches running Linux typically either use OpenLP or keep a separate Windows machine for the booth.
NaveLight is a Tauri v2 application rendering through WebKitGTK, so it targets mainstream desktop distributions — Ubuntu and its derivatives, Debian, Fedora and similar. It is not currently packaged for immutable or niche distributions.
Not yet. NaveLight is in private beta and no public installer has been released for any platform. Linux is a first-class build target rather than something to be added later, and it will be in the first public release. Join the waitlist and we will tell you when.
Yes. Speech recognition and passage search run locally on all three platforms, with no cloud service involved, so Linux gets the same capability rather than a reduced version. Performance depends on the machine rather than the operating system.
Ask us anything, including the awkward ones. A real person answers, and if NaveLight isn't right for your church we'll say so.
Get on the list for early access. Or bring your media team along and we'll walk you through it properly.
No card, no account, no follow-up sequence. One email, when it's ready.