Communication is important for any organization, be it a corporate office, a non-profit organization, or a church. You can use it to communicate events, solicit donations, check in with new or lapsed members, send words of encouragement or celebration for key events, or help folks navigate virtual sermons. In this article, I compare and review 11 of the best church communication apps on the market right now. I'll go into details about what they do, how they work, and what they cost.
Church Communication Apps Shortlist
Here’s the list of the best tools that I’ll cover in this article.
- TextMagic
- Subsplash
- One Church Software
- Planning Center
- Elexio
- Aplos
- Servant Keeper
- Breeze
- Church Windows
- Neon One
- Trumpia
Comparison Criteria
What do I look for when I select the best church communication tool? Here’s a summary of my evaluation criteria:
- User Interface (UI): Church leaders need to concentrate on tending to their flock, so I look for software with a clean interface to find the features they need quickly.
- Usability: A church communication app is for church leaders, staff, volunteers, and members, so I look for software that is easy to use and master.
- Integrations: Churches use other software for payroll, marketing, presentation, and live streaming, so I look for software that works well with other tools.
- Value for $: Churches has limited resources, so I look for software with many features but reasonable pricing.
Church Communication App Key Features
- Contact management: Feature for creating a membership directory with contact information.
- Push notifications: Allows church leaders to quickly send notifications to the entire congregation when they’re not using the church app.
- Mass messaging: Allows churches to send mass emails and text messages for church-wide announcements.
- Automation: Helps save time by automating simple messaging tasks like sending welcome messages or donation acknowledgment.
- Website builder: Allows the creation of church websites to help a church reach more people.
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Overviews Of The 11 Best Church Communication Apps
Here’s a brief description of each church communication app to showcase each tool’s best use case, some noteworthy features, and screenshots to give a snapshot of the user interface.
1. TextMagic - Best for two-way communications
TextMagic is a versatile online platform that provides business text messaging services, allowing users to send and receive texts, automate communications, and integrate with various applications. Organizations of all sizes, including churches and NGOs, can use their SMS platform. TextMagic can be an invaluable tool for church communications and marketing efforts, offering a range of features tailored to meet the specific needs of religious organizations. Churches can utilize TextMagic to send out important SMS announcements, event reminders, prayer requests, and inspirational messages to their congregation, ensuring timely and direct communication.
With the ability to create custom sender IDs, churches can maintain a consistent branding experience and establish trust with their recipients. TextMagic's automation capabilities enable churches to schedule recurring messages, automate welcome sequences for new members, and set up keyword-based auto-responses for specific inquiries, enhancing efficiency and engagement.
TextMagic provides a robust two-way texting solution by allowing businesses, including churches, to send messages and receive or respond to incoming texts. Verified 10DLC and toll-free numbers are also available with TextMagic, ensuring higher deliverability and better messaging speed for two-way conversations. TextMagic's platform facilitates the management of incoming messages with features like SMS chat, merge fields, and text message templates. It also offers a carrier lookup & validation tool and real-time text cost control.
TextMagic starts at $0.049/text + $10/month for a virtual number or sender ID. They offer a 30-day free trial.
2. Subsplash – Best church communication app for email & SMS blasts
Subsplash is a comprehensive church management platform that offers a wide range of communication features to help churches manage their digital presence and engage with their congregation.
Subsplash provides a range of features that can help churches improve their communications with their members. The platform's branded mobile apps allow churchgoers to stay connected with their community through in-app messaging groups, access sermon videos, and receive push notifications for upcoming events and other important announcements. Subsplash also provides tools for building and managing a church website, including customizable templates, event calendars, and announcement banners.
Subsplash offers a variety of email and SMS capabilities for easy church communication. The platform enables users to create and send emails and text messages to specific groups of people within their church, such as volunteers, small group members, or new visitors. You can also create automated email campaigns, such as welcome series for first-time visitors or event reminders. Additionally, Subsplash offers analytics for tracking email and SMS campaign performance, such as open and click-through rates.
Subsplash One offers pricing upon request.
3. One Church Software – Best for automating communications
One Church Software is a church management software to help you care for your flock, manage your church, and help your volunteers. This app can communicate with members, staff, and volunteers through text messages, emails, or push notifications. It has an event management feature for organizing, promoting, and hosting church events to foster a sense of community.
One Church Software is the best church communication app for automating communication to save time. You can create workflows that automate simple yet repetitive manual processes like sending welcome emails to new members to give them a great first experience. This church communication software lets you automate sending text messages to encourage attendance when you add a church event or a text message when a volunteer receives a new schedule.
One Church Software pricing starts at $28.80/month/account and offers a 14-day free trial.
4. Planning Center – Best for communicating with church volunteers
Planning Center is a church management system with a calendar feature to manage events and schedule facilities. It has an online donation feature for the receiving and accounting of donations from members of your church community. Planning Center has a member management feature for maintaining a database of members with vital information like personal details, contact information, and family history.
Planning Center is the best church communication app with a volunteer scheduling feature for communicating with volunteers. You can communicate a scheduling request to a volunteer via text message, email, or push notification. Volunteers can accept or decline schedule requests to give church leaders enough time to look for replacements. You can use this church management system to publish schedules weeks or months in advance so volunteers can sync their schedules and prevent conflicts.
Planning Center pricing starts at $14/month/account and offers a 30-day free trial.
5. Elexio – Best for communicating around church projects & tasks
Elexio is a church management software for keeping your congregation organized. It has a group management feature for managing, scheduling, and communicating with small group members. Elexio has a custom church app you can get on Google Play Store or Apple’s App Store for communicating with members anywhere. This church communication tool has a live streaming feature for airing worship services or online sermons on your church website, social media page, or church smartphone app.
Elexio is the best communication app with a task management feature to promote accountability. This church communication tool automatically notifies church staff or volunteers when a task gets assigned, even if they are not signed in to the system. Church staff and volunteers can reply to the email notification upon task completion to automatically update the system.
Elexio provides pricing information and a 30-day free trial upon request.
6. Aplos – Best for website communications
Aplos is a management software with fund accounting, online giving, and donor management features for managing your church. It has a reporting and analytics feature to help you gauge the performance of your church and generate reports for church staff and stakeholders. Aplos has an event registration feature for embedding registration forms on your church website to collect attendee information and improve event management capabilities.
Aplos is a church communication app for building a church website to reach more members. This church app has website templates you can use to quickly develop your church website without the help of a web developer. Aplos can help you build a website with a member portal for communicating with volunteers, scheduling meetings with your church staff, or tracking Sunday school attendance. You can also use your church website to share the details of an upcoming event to attract more attendees.
Aplos pricing starts at $39.50/month/account and offers a free trial of unspecified duration.
7. Servant Keeper – Best for church membership management
Servant Keeper is a church management software for managing your church’s daily operations. It has an informative dashboard for assessing the health of your church, its members, and its financial status. Servant Keeper has an online giving feature for giving church members more options to contribute to your church. It has a small groups feature for creating, managing, and communicating with small groups.
Servant Keeper is the best church communication app with a membership management feature for staying in touch with church members and volunteers. Servant Keeper’s member database lets you add unlimited entries, making it ideal for scaling and large churches. You can use this software to add an unlimited number of fields and contact details to member profiles, so you’re sure to reach church members through their home numbers, mobile numbers, and email addresses. This contact management software lets you add tags to member profiles to create groups and send custom messages to church staff, parents, choir members, youth groups, etc.
Servant Keeper pricing starts at $49.99/month/account and offers a 30-day free trial.
8. Breeze – Best for church donor communications
Breeze is a church management software with a member management feature for creating, storing, and organizing member information. It has an event management feature for planning and holding events. This event management feature also lets you take attendance during events and print name tags to help members get to know each other. Breeze has a custom church app available in Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play Store to manage your church on the go.
Breeze is the best church communication app for communicating with donors to help support your church’s operations and causes. You can use Breeze’s email and text messaging feature to remind members about their pledges or invite them to join fundraising activities. You can use Breeze to generate financial reports and share information about the church’s financial health with stakeholders. Breeze also lets you print or email year-end giving statements to show donors your appreciation for their generosity.
Breeze pricing is $67/month/account and offers a free demo.
9. Church Windows – Best for member engagement analytics
Church Windows is a church management system with online and desktop options to manage your church anywhere. It has a membership module for creating membership directories with vital information like personal information, contact details, and personal notes to minister to your flock better. Church Windows has a scheduler feature for managing events and assigning tasks to church staff, group members, and volunteers.
Church Windows is the best church communication app with a reporting feature for communicating to church members, staff, and volunteers the state of your church. You can use this church communication tool to create a list of volunteers and their contact information so group members can communicate with each other. Church Windows enables you to generate reports on rooms and equipment booking to track resources and distribute them to custodians to prevent double booking.
Church Windows pricing starts at $279/year/license and offers a free demo.
10. Neon One – Best for fundraiser communications
Neon One is a church management solution for managing the day-to-day operations of your church. It has an event management feature for planning and executing church events and activities to foster camaraderie among church members. Neon One has a membership management feature for creating a database and communicating with church members using their preferred communication methods. You can use Neon One to create marketing campaigns to promote an upcoming event or ramp up online giving efforts.
Neon One is the best church communication app for managing fundraisers to help support your church and its causes. You can use Neon One to create donation pages for posting details of fundraising events and communicating with sponsors and attendees. Neon One has an autoresponder feature to automate repetitive communication tasks like donation receipts and fundraiser registration confirmations.
Neon One integrates with other church communication tools like MailChimp, Constant Contact, and Giving Docs.
Neon One pricing starts at $99/month/account.
11. Trumpia – Best for church surveys & polls
Trumpia is a church texting software for creating personalized interactions with church members. It has an automation feature to eliminate manual communication tasks like sending welcome text messages to new members or greeting members on their anniversaries. Trumpia lets you send MMS messages to promote events by sending a message with posters or video promotions. This church communication tool has a voice broadcasting feature for sending voice messages to send critical messages that your members can hear immediately.
Trumpia is the best church communication app for SMS communications to help you engage your parishioners. You can use Trumpia to send broadcast text messages for church-wide announcements like to promote events or worship services. Church leaders can use Trumpia to send text polls or SMS surveys to church members to know what else they can do to improve your church. Trumpia has a two-way texting feature for church members to send in questions, sign up for Sunday school, or send in a prayer request.
Trumpia integrates with communication tools like MailChimp, Slack, Google Calendar, and Patreon.
Trumpia pricing starts at $76/month/up to 3,000 text messages and offers a free trial of unspecified duration.
Other Church Communication Apps
Here are a few more that didn’t make the top list.
- Click Nonprofit - Program that helps churches and non-profits reach more people through Google’s $10,000 Ad Grant.
- Church Teams - Church management software with text-to-church feature for text giving, marking attendance, or checking in during events.
- CDM+ - Church software with contact management feature for managing member information.
- Excellerate - Church management solution for automating visitor follow-ups to grow your membership.
- Faithful Steward by Diakonia - Church management software for creating photo directories to know your members.
- Donarius - Church management software for sending personalized letters, emails, and text messages.
- Wild Apricot - Membership management software for creating and maintaining a church contact database.
- Attendance Now - Church app for sending automatic follow-ups to website visitors to help increase church membership.
- Church Software by Grplife - Church management software with a branded mobile app for connecting with members through emails, text messages, and chat messages.
- TouchPoint by Pursuant - Church management system with a marketing feature for staying in touch with donors.
- Together+ by Aware3 - Church mobile app with in-app member directory for getting in touch with members anywhere.
- ChurchTrac - Church management software with built-in mass email feature.
- FellowshipOne - Church management software with a push notification feature for broadcasting mass messages.
- Connection Card Pro - Ministry management solution with volunteer management feature for communicating with volunteers.
- FaithLife - Church management platform for creating announcements and automatically posting them on your website, mobile app, digital signage, and social media accounts.
Other Church Apps Reviews
Church communications apps aren't the only apps that churches are using these days. Make sure you are keeping up with the digital age and check out these other church app reviews that I've compiled here.
What Do You Think About This List?
Constant communication with church members can help promote engagement and grow your church. You can use a communication app to run successful worship services and events. You can also use it to maintain a fantastic relationship with donors to support your church.
To learn more about the best church communication app options for church leaders and other useful tools, subscribe to The Lead Pastor and equip your church with the right software you need.