Mike Holt what Ask BONBON does better (review 5)

Two Different Tools for Two Different Jobs

Mike Holt built an empire teaching the NEC. His videos, books, and seminars have trained thousands of electricians, and his exam prep materials are the gold standard for journeyman and master tests. Nothing replaces that depth of instruction when you are learning how the code works.

Ask BONBON is not trying to replace Mike Holt. It is built for a different moment: the one where you are standing in an attic at 4:30pm, the inspector wants an answer about 334.15(B), and you do not have time to watch a 40 minute video. Both tools belong in your kit. They just solve different problems.

Speed on the Job Site

Mike Holt's content is structured for learning. You sit down, you read the illustrated guide, you watch the explainer, you work the practice questions. That is how you build real code knowledge, and it works. But it assumes you have time and a quiet spot.

Ask BONBON is structured for answers. Type a plain English question, get the article citation and the rule in three seconds. If you are debating whether a bathroom receptacle needs GFCI protection, you do not want a lesson on 210.8(A)(1) through (A)(11), you want the yes or no for the outlet in front of you.

Tip: When an inspector is on site, lead with the citation, not the explanation. "210.8(A)(8) covers this" lands better than "I think it needs GFCI."

Where Mike Holt Wins

For continuing education, exam prep, and deep understanding of why the code reads the way it does, Mike Holt is hard to beat. The illustrated books walk you through grounding and bonding, transformers, motor calculations, and service calculations with diagrams that actually make sense. If you are sitting for your master's, buy his material.

His code change seminars every three years are also worth the money. When the 2026 NEC drops and you need to understand what changed in Article 230 or why 406 got reworked again, a human teacher with 40 years of field experience is going to explain it better than any app.

• Exam prep for journeyman and master licenses
• Deep conceptual training on grounding, bonding, and calculations
• Code change analysis between NEC cycles
• Structured continuing education hours

Where Ask BONBON Wins

The app is designed for the questions that come up mid-install. Conduit fill for a run of 10 THHN in 3/4" EMT. Voltage drop on a 200 foot run to a detached garage. Whether a disconnect is required within sight of a rooftop unit per 440.14. These are lookups, not lessons, and they need to happen in under a minute.

Ask BONBON also goes where Mike Holt's printed material cannot. It is on your phone in the truck, in the crawlspace, on the roof. No index to flip through, no tabs to fumble with gloves on, no internet connection needed for the core code lookups.

1. Natural language search, not keyword matching
2. Article citations returned with every answer
3. Voltage drop, conduit fill, and box fill calculators built in
4. Works with dirty hands and cracked screens

The Honest Comparison

Mike Holt's weakness is not his content, it is the format. A 400 page illustrated guide is fantastic at the kitchen table and useless on a ladder. His app exists but it is mostly a delivery mechanism for the same long form content, which does not solve the speed problem.

Ask BONBON's weakness is the flip side. It will tell you that 250.122 sets the equipment grounding conductor size based on the overcurrent device, and it will give you the table value, but it will not teach you why the rule exists or walk you through a full service calculation from scratch. For that, you still need Mike Holt or a good journeyman mentor.

Tip: Use Mike Holt on Sunday night to learn the code. Use Ask BONBON on Wednesday afternoon to apply it. They are not competitors, they are shifts on the same job.

What to Actually Buy

If you are prepping for an exam or you are an apprentice trying to build real code fluency, start with Mike Holt's Understanding the NEC volumes and the practice question sets. There is no shortcut for that foundation, and an app that gives you answers will not help you pass a closed book test.

If you are a licensed electrician running service calls or pulling permits every week, the question is not which one, it is which one first. Keep Mike Holt on the shelf for the slow season and code change years. Keep Ask BONBON in your pocket for everything else. The app pays for itself the first time it saves you a trip back to the truck for the code book.

One last thing worth saying plainly. The goal is not to pick a side. The goal is to get the job done right, pass inspection the first time, and get home at a reasonable hour. Use whatever tool fits the moment.