Bundle Breeze ChMS with Breeze Worship Tools, Tithely Church Apps, and Tithely Sites for the low monthly cost of only $119/month. To take advantage of this deal, fill out the form below and we’ll connect you with our Breeze Team to get you set up!
Small churches need church management software just as much as any mega church. In fact, with limited resources and limited staff, there’s an argument to be made that small churches need administrative technology more than large churches do. To choose the best software for small churches, we considered feature set, pricing, and user experience.
Do small churches need tools to help them run their organizations?
You bet they do!
Small churches need church management software just as much as any mega church. In fact, with limited resources and limited staff, there’s an argument to be made that small churches need administrative technology more than large churches do.
Here’s the good news: There are plenty of church management software that can help small churches thrive. They’re affordable, easy to use, and streamlined. And they include what small churches need to connect with their members, grow giving, and stay organized.
Ready to dive in?
Church management software is simply a set of tools that help churches–small and large–to accomplish administrative tasks like donation management, contact database management, volunteer scheduling and check-in, attendance tracking, and more.
As stated above, small churches need software to accomplish administrative tasks. But there are other use cases, as well. They might use church software to connect with their members (via text and email), offer online giving, and even get insight into the growth and development of their congregation.
Church management systems for small churches allow admin users to log in to a system in order to access a contact database, communications platform, donation management system, and more.
A ChMS, or church management system, should include:
You may also want to look for a ChMS that offers free data migration.
To choose the best software for small churches, we considered feature set, pricing, and user experience.
<a href="#list-1" class="toc-link">1. Breeze ChMS</a>
<a href="#list-2" class="toc-link">2. Tithely</a>
<a href="#list-3" class="toc-link">3. Pushpay</a>
<a href="#list-4" class="toc-link">4. Shelby Systems</a>
<a href="#list-5" class="toc-link">5. WildApricot</a>
<a href="#list-6" class="toc-link">6. Fellowship One</a>
<a href="#list-7" class="toc-link">7. FlockBase</a>
<a href="#list-8" class="toc-link">8. Churchteams</a>
<a href="#list-9" class="toc-link">9. Elvanto</a>
<a href="#list-10" class="toc-link">10. Servant Keeper</a>
BreezeChMS is a church management software that’s ideal for small churches.
Breeze has features that include:
Plus, Breeze offers free data migration so that you can easily transition from your old system–and awesome, hands-on customer support to walk you through every step of the way.
If you’re looking for an overly-complicated, old-school church management system, then Breeze isn’t for you!
Breeze costs only $72 a month–perfect for small churches on a budget.
Tithely is a church management system that helps both small and large churches do a better job at administration and task management.
Tithely has features that include:
Tithely also offers a website and app building service that make it easy to create an awesome online presence. Plus, they have a customer support team to help you navigate through any issues that may arise.
Tithely syncs with its giving platform, so you’ll want to make sure that you use Tithely Giving before taking the leap into their ChMS.
Tithely costs $119 a month for their entire range of products.
<a class="listicle-link" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://pushpay.com/">3. Pushpay</a>
Pushpay is one of the oldest online giving platforms for churches on the market. But they also offer a church management solution that can be used by small churches.
Pushpay church management includes:
In short, they offer most of the basic tools needed for church management.
Pushpay is expensive, making it less than ideal for small churches on limited budgets.
Pushpay costs a minimum of $199 a month–far too pricey for most churches under 200 members.
<a class="listicle-link" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://www.shelbysystems.com/">4. Shelby Systems</a>
Shelby Systems is a church management tool that includes many of the tools and features needed for small church management.
Shelby Systems includes:
Shelby Systems also offers an online giving tool with a text-to-give option.
Users of Shelby Systems aren’t crazy about the customer experience. One user calls it “adequate but clumsy.”
Shelby Systems costs $60 for a church of 200 people. Their pricing scales up from there.
<a class="listicle-link" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://www.wildapricot.com/">5. WildApricot</a>
WildApricot is an organizational software that could potentially be used by small churches for church administration.
WildApricot includes some of the tools required for small church management, including:
One additional tool offered by WildApricot is their administrative mobile app, which can be used by administrators to run their basic management tools.
WildApricot isn’t designed for churches. That means that it lacks much of the functionality (and user experience) needed for small churches.
WildApricot costs $60 a month for organizations with 100 members, and $75 a month for organizations with 200 members. They also offer a free trial.
<a class="listicle-link" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://www.fellowshipone.com/">6. Fellowship One</a>
Fellowship One is a church management software that can be used by small churches for admin and management.
Fellowship One includes tools for:
Fellowship One users report that it’s easy to use.
Fellowship One has a pretty high price tag for small churches (see below!)
Fellowship One’s monthly subscription is $169 a month.
<a class="listicle-link" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://www.flockbase.com/">7. FlockBase</a>
FlockBase is church software that can be used to meet some of the needs of small churches.
Because FlockBase is tailored for accounting, it has some pretty robust capabilities for financial management. With Flockbase, you can:
But that’s not all–Flockbase also has a membership management system (including email and text) and an online giving platform that create a fuller suite of church management tools.
Some users of FlockBase have described issues with their reporting feature.
FlockBase costs $39 a month for their standard package.
<a class="listicle-link" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://go.churchteams.com/">8. Churchteams</a>
Churchteams is a church management software tool that’s tailored to large churches, but that can also be used by small churches.
Churchteams includes:
Churchteams also has child check-in and automated workflows.
Churchteams may have more than is needed for a small church, and as a consequence, may be a bit confusing to navigate.
Churchteams is $77 a month for a church with up to 500 people; the pricing scales up as your church grows.
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:
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.
Elvanto may offer more than a small or mid-sized church really needs, which can complicate administration a bit.
Elvanto costs $50 a month for church giving + management, and $99 a month for church giving + management + a custom app.
<a class="listicle-link" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://servantkeeper.com/">10. Servant Keeper</a>
Servant Keeper is a church management software that includes many of the features needed by small churches.
Servant Keeper includes:
Servant Keeper also has a positive user experience, with customers reporting that it’s “user friendly.”
Servant Keeper’s pricing is a bit convoluted–for example, they charge $49.99 a month for their standard package, but that doesn’t include a very hefty $500 price tag for data transfer.
As stated above, Servant Keeper costs $49.99 a month for its standard package, but that includes the ability to track only up to 100 families (plus $500 for onboarding).
To choose a church management system for your small church, you’ll want to consider pricing and functionality.
The key takeaways? While there are many tools out there that offer a similar suite of products, the best choice for a small church is a tool that doesn’t scale up in pricing as your church grows (after all, you don’t want to be penalized as more people join your community!)
You’ll also want to prioritize tools that make the transition easy, and offer a great user experience.
A simple church CRM provides a contact database that makes it easy to store contact information, track members, and engage with community.
You can track church members with a contact database management system.
Church management software makes it possible to expedite common church administrative tasks such as contact management, communication, online giving, and more.
