I used Apologia, far superior to Abeka or BJU.
I used Apologia for a while. It is organized completely differently. I found myself rewriting the text constantly to organize the info. It was very “conversational”, which I guess may be better for parents who don’t enjoy teaching the subject.
I thought the kids had more retention problems with the Apologia. Also, I liked that the BJU began with a review of matter and cellular processes, while the Apologia didn’t get to that until chapters into the text.
A third thing I preferred the BJU for was the fact that they had the Latin and Greek roots for every new word. (For ex. auto+troph = self + food). I’m big on latin roots because I feel it helps them retain the material, and also for vocabulary further on. Apologia did that only minimally, and I found myself on the internet the nights before class doublechecking the meanings of roots like mastigophora. (whip- containing)