Church management software, or ChMS, is essential for every church that wants to grow their church community, increase giving, and run a more efficient organization.
Ahem...that includes every church, right?
Church leaders that don't use a church management application miss out on opportunities for growth, saved time on administrative tasks, and more efficient membership management.
Just as bad: Churches that use the wrong church software to run their organization. While all of the most popular church management software promises to handle tasks like contribution management, attendance tracking, event management, and volunteer management, not all church software tools are created equal.
What is Church Management Software?
ChMS is typically a cloud-based software that helps churches and other faith-based non-profit organizations with things like attendance tracking, volunteer scheduling, financial reporting, and even sending mass emails to church members. In other words, it enables churches and religious organizations to automate common administrative tasks.
The best church management system is an all-in-one solution that allows admin to automate and manage various aspects of church management from a single dashboard. Everything is integrated together so that churches can seamlessly move from one task to another without moving data like contact information.
Why Does Your Church Need Software?
Drawing from our experience, most ChMS applications are designed to help churches manage their administrative tasks and processes in a more efficient manner. Keeping paper records is not only time-consuming; it's inefficient and produces errors. A web-based tool to help churches track attendance, donations, and other types of engagement can save hours of labor a week–and hundreds of hours of labor per year.
Cloud-based solutions for administration allow churches and other religious organizations to spend less time on administration, more time on connecting with community and advancing the gospel. Based on our firsthand experience, a tool that aids churches and similar groups in managing their people and their information creates more space for ministry!
How Does Church Management System Work?
Church management systems typically charge a monthly fee, which can scale up with church size (the best tools charge a flat fee, no matter how your church membership grows). Some ChMS applications will include an entire suite of online tools that helps churches organize their people, which may come priced separately.
A tool that can help churches to run more efficiently typically requires login information for a single admin user, and includes security measures to make sure your church members' information is safe and secure.
Key Features to Consider in a ChMS
Typical ChMS features include tools for events management (including event registration), mass communication (including the ability to send mass emails to your entire church), volunteer scheduling, donation collection, group management, and child check-in.
Through our practical knowledge of software usability and ease of use, we’ve discovered that your best bet is an all-in-on church management software that integrates all these tasks together. A ChMS review can let you know if the tool is easy to use.
Finally, consider cost-effectiveness. Your cloud-based church management system shouldn't cost more than $100 a month.
How We Chose the Best Software for Churches
When considering the best church software, we looked at usability, affordability, and key features. To run a healthy church with a software tool, you don't need a ton of bells and whistles. Simply choose a church software that has all of the key features required for a church organization to be efficient with their resources. Based on our observations, we’ve found that good church software has the functionality you need; great church software has the functionality you need and ease of use.
Top 15 Best Church Management Software Tools
Breeze ChMS is a church management solution that includes check-in and child security management, the ability to schedule volunteers, event planning tools, a contact database with custom fields (including the ability to add details like background checks), a mass communication platform (email and text), group management for members and faith teams (including church directories), the ability to track attendance, reporting, online giving, and more.
Best of all, Breeze pricing & plans are affordable. You can get this web-based church management software with a wide range of features for $72 a month, and the excellent customer service team that's available by email or through scheduled phone calls.
Pros of Breeze ChMS
After using Breeze, we have found that it’s super easy to use–not to mention affordable! They offer built-in online giving and text giving to their church management solution–in other words, you don't pay extra for online giving. With Breeze, you can send emails and text messages directly to people in your church's contact database. Finally, Breeze has an awesome customer support team and they will move over all your data for you for free.
Cons of Breeze ChMS
Breeze tracks contributions really well, but it does not have a built-in accounting system.
Price of Breeze ChMS
You can get this web-based church management software with a wide range of features for $72 a month.
See what makes Breeze ChMS easy to use
Tithe.ly People is a powerful tool that can help church teams and church administrators engage and connect with their people from a single platform. Tithe.ly People includes the ability to:
- Store and search for unlimited contacts with customized church info (i.e. baptism date, family. members, etc.)
- Send texts and emails directly to contacts (when synced with Tithe.ly Messaging)
- Run background checks for volunteers and church leaders
- Create "Relationships" and "Households" that make it easy to see who's connected in your church
- Build Groups to make it simple to contact specific groups of people in your church (such as staff or volunteers)
Pros of Tithely
We have found from using this product that it provides excellent functionality for ministry leaders to connect and engage with their people. It allows you to add a personal touch to your contact database and runs on cloud-based software (so that you don't have to worry about storing data on your own system).
Cons of Tithely
Tithe.ly People doesn't have everything you need to run your daily operations and church events. You'll need to check out Tithe.ly People's additional products for a full range of church management functionality.
Price of Tithely
Tithe.ly People is free to use when combined with Tithe.ly Giving.
Elvanto is a church management solution that offers a comprehensive set of features for faith-based communities (such as churches) to manage their people, finances, services, staff, and more.
Elvanto's combination of tools includes:
- Calendar support
- Event management tools
- Email and text
- Unlimited contact storage
- Custom church forms
- In-depth reporting
- and more...
Pros of Elvanto
There's no lack of powerful features here. In our experimentation and usage with Elvanto, we’ve found that this product offers church administrative teams advanced software for managing everything from pastoral teams, to worship, to volunteers, to members, and more.
Cons of Elvanto
Elvanto may offer more than a small or mid-sized church really needs, which can complicate administration a bit.
Price of Elvanto
Elvanto costs $72 a month for church giving + management, and $119 a month for church giving + management + a custom app.
Pushpay is not traditionally a church management solution, but a platform for accepting online donations. They do have a church management system, however, that includes features for:
- Contact management
- Group management
- Attendance tracking
- First-time guest follow-up
Pushpay also offers online giving on a separate platform.
Pros of Pushpay
Pushpay offers the key features that churches need to engage their people, organize staff, and get insight into church health.
Cons of Pushpay
Pushpay is expensive, making it an impractical choice for ministry. From our firsthand examination of Pushpay use in churches, it’s definitely not ideal for small and mid-sized churches.
Price of Pushpay
Pushpay's monthly pricing is by request only. Considering their pricing for their giving platform is very expensive (starts at $199 a month), we're not hopeful that this is an affordable church management software.
FlockBase is a church management software solution that includes tools for:
- Membership management, including contact storage
- Communication tools, including email and text
- Check-in for children and adults
- Church accounting software
- Online giving
- Payroll tools
- Check printing
- And other features specifically designed for church finances
Pros of Flockbase
As far as church finances go, FlockBase is a super useful tool. It can help you manage payroll for employees, set your budget, and generate in-depth reporting.
Cons of Flockbase
After a comprehensive evaluation of FlockBase, we found that it doesn't have a wide range of tools for other aspects of church management, like a website builder or app builder.
Price of Flockbase
FlockBase's full church management platform is available as a cloud-based system for $59 a month (depending on your church size), or as a downloadable desktop version for $269 per month (including any church accounting feature that they offer).
Churchteams is a church management software solution that includes:
- A check-in system for kids
- Church administrative tools for staff communication
- Online giving
- Event registration
- Volunteer scheduling
- And more
Pros of Churchteams
Churchteams includes a wide range of tools that ministry leaders need to run church activities and daily operations, and manage staff.
Cons of Churchteams
Based on our past experiences with Shelby Systems, their scaled pricing can quickly add up (see below).
Price of Churchteams
Churchteams' pricing is scaled; mid-sized churches will pay less than large churches. For example, it costs $77 a month for a 500-person church, and $107 for a 2,000-person church.
Faith Teams is a church administration tool that helps church ministry teams with tasks like online giving, donation management, attendance management, communication tools, and more.
Faith Teams includes:
- Unlimited contact storage
- Text and email
- Tools for tracking incoming donations and tracking contribution details
- Automated guest follow-up
- Volunteer scheduling
Pros of Faith Teams
Faith Teams is a cloud-based church management solution that can help church administration teams with the basic tasks required for daily operations. It includes all features on a single platform so that you don't have to pick and choose between what you need.
Cons of Faith Teams
Faith Teams doesn't include tools for building a custom church app or website.
Price of Faith Teams
Faith Teams costs $40 per month.
Fellowship One is a church management software solution that offers features for:
- Online giving
- Church accounting and payroll
- Worship planning
- Background checks and safety
- Church website design and hosting
Pros of Fellowship One
Fellowship One has a comprehensive set of features that help church teams handle everyday tasks such as engaging with church community, event management and planning, and using communication tools to connect with staff.
Cons of Fellowship One
Fellowship One is expensive! This makes it an unrealistic option for church plants, small churches, or mid-sized churches.
Price of Fellowship One
Fellowship One costs $169 a month.
Shelby Systems' church management solution includes:
- Volunteer tracking
- Group management
- Communication tools
- Event planning tools
- Calendar features to help you stay organized
- Contact management
Pros of Shelby Systems
Shelby Systems offers some unique features in their church management system, such as a prayer request feature and accessible member profiles.
Cons of Shelby Systems
Shelby Systems' scaled pricing can quickly add up (see below).
Price of Shelby Systems
To use Shelby Systems, a 200-person church will cost $60 a month, and a 500-person church will cost ~$100 a month.
Servant Keeper is a church management solution that provides tools for:
- Online giving
- Child check-in
- Scheduling
- Donation tracking
- Creating member directories and reports
- Sending mass emails
Pros of Servant Keeper
Servant Keeper provides plenty of tools for effective church administration and daily church operations.
Cons of Servant Keeper
Servant Keeper includes high upfront costs (see below).
Price of Servant Keeper
You have two options for Servant Keeper pricing. You can pay $49.99 per month, plus a $550 one-time cost and optional $500 onboarding cost to track up to 100 people in your database. Or you can pay $99.99 per month, plus a $550 one-time cost for unlimited number of people in your database.
Planning Center is a suite of church software programs, which churches can pick and choose from based on their individual needs.
Planning Center includes:
- Unlimited contact storage
- Calendar management
- Child check in
- Giving
- Registration forms
- Service/Worship planning
- Small groups
Pros of Planning Center
Planning Center is known for it's service/worship planning, which is one of it's core features. With Planning Center, churches can select and pay for individual products/features based on the church's needs.
Cons of Planning Center
Planning Center’s à la carte model can get expensive very quickly. As your church grows, or usage of the tools increases, your monthly subscription fee will also rise.
Price of Planning Center
Planning Center’s cost varies based on your church’s individual needs. For very small churches you can expect the price to start around $85 per month and go up from there based on your church’s size and usage.
Elvanto is a church management solution that offers a comprehensive set of features for faith-based communities (such as churches) to manage their people, finances, services, staff, and more.
ACS Technologies (Realm) includes:
- Contact storage
- Event management
- Check in
- Small group management
- Volunteer management
- Giving
- Reporting
Pros of ACS Technologies
ACS Technologies (Realm) has most of the features a typical church would need to manage day-to-day operations. They also offer add-on products like accounting (for an additional cost) for churches needing more functionality.
Cons of ACS Technologies
Common complaints with Realm are that the user interface can be challenging to use and the software can feel sluggish to load at times.
Price of ACS Technologies
ACS Technologies does not publicly list the price for Realm. You have to schedule a call with them, and they will do a custom pricing package based on your church’s size and needs.
ChMeetings has the core features most churches require, but does lack some of the more modern features like text giving. For dioceses looking specifically for parish management software, ChMeetings does offer dioceses options.
ChMeetings tools includes:
- Unlimited contact management
- Volunteer scheduling
- Registration forms
- Reporting
- Online Giving
- Pledges
Pros of ChMeetings
ChMeetings is a cloud-based church management solution with the basic functionality to help church administration teams with daily functions. For churches who don't need some of the more powerful features that come with other ChMS products, ChMeetings can be a good option, at an affordable price.
Cons of ChMeetings
ChMeetings is not as easy-to-use or feature rich as other church management software options available.
Price of ChMeetings
ChMeetings pricing is based on the number of contacts in your church’s database. It’s $45 a month for the ability to store an unlimited number of contacts. ChMeetings does offer custom pricing for churches looking for a dioceses church management software solution.
Elexios offers a basic whole church management platform, but some users express that certain features offer limited functionality.
Elexio tools include:
- Church Communication
- Report Dashboard
- Smart Check-in
- Group Management
- Contributions
- Workflows & Interactions
- Calendar & Volunteer Scheduling
Pros of Elexio
Customers report that the ease-of-use of their system has saved them time.
Cons of Elexio
Though the software is easy-to-use, users report that this simplicity means that the software lacks some of the more advanced features that other church management software offers.
Price of Elexio
Elexio’s pricing is based on your number of church attendees. 300 people? You’ll pay $72 a month. 500 people? You’ll have to pay almost $100 a month.
SimpleChurch CRM is a helpful and affordable church database management system. However, some customers complain that the uses of the database are limited.
SimpleChurch CRM tools include:
- Online Giving
- Event Management
- Background Checks
- Attendance and Check-In
- People Management
- Text and Email Communication
Pros of SimpleChurch CRM
SimpleChurch CRM is simple to use for both admins and for users.
Cons of SimpleChurch CRM
SimpleChurch CRM lacks certain functionality, specifically in their reporting and directory features.
Price of SimpleChurch CRM
SimpleChurch CRM’s pricing is based on the number of people attending your church. If you have 300 people, you’ll pay $72 a month but if you have 500 expect to pay almost $100 a month.
Which Church Management System Should You Choose?
Choosing which church management software to use is no easy task. Church teams need to consider what will work best for their budget and administrative teams. A software that's both affordable and easy to use (such as Breeze) is a great choice for most churches.
Church Management Software FAQs
What Are the Benefits of Church Management Software?
Church management software benefits are that you can run a more efficient church with smoother, faster workflows and processes. You can get more insight with financial reports and reporting on the health of your church. Most importantly, you can increase member engagement.
Other church management software advantages include a decreased budget on administrative work, better communication between staff members, and increased capacity for ministry.
How Much Does Church Management Software Cost?
Church management software costs can range anywhere from $50 a month to $500 a month. Many church software tools that charge less (such as $50 a month) have scaled pricing–in other words, if your church congregation grows, so does your cost. Church management software pricing for mid-sized churches ranges from $75-$150.
What Are the Latest ChMS Trends?
The latest ChMS trends include customizability, ease of use, and unlimited usage (such as a tool that offers an unlimited contact database with no extra fee). Great customer service never hurts, either!