Church properties often have a variety of facilities to manage, from public meeting spaces, to libraries, community resource hubs, washrooms, and A/C or heating systems. The more people use these assets, the more value they provide to your congregation and community. Managing these resources isn’t easy, but the church facility management software can help.
This article will look at some great platforms churches can use to accomplish basic facility management. Our list contains two types of tools. The first is software designed specifically for church management. These tend to have features built with places of worship in mind. Then there are tools designed for business or NGO properties in general. These often have similar features and can be just as good as church-specific software.
Both types of software have their pros and cons. I’ve done my best to outline how every item on this list can help with church facility management.
The Best Church Facility Management Software List
Here’s a shortlist of the best facility management software for churches:
- One Church
- Church Social
- Church MemberLink
- Church Office Online
- Blackbaud Church Management
- eFacility
- Perfect Mind
- Hello Club
- Mazévo
- ChurchStaq by Pushpay
Facility Management Software Comparison Criteria
The best church computerized maintenance management systems (CMMS) excel at streamlining facilities management. Here’s a summary of the evaluation criteria I used when choosing what to put on this list:
- User Interface (UI): Is it clean and attractive? Church leaders have a ton of duties on their plate and may not have much free time to spend struggling with a complex user interface or cluttered menus.
- Usability: Is it easy to learn and master? Does the company offer good tech support, user support, tutorials, and training? Remember your congregation may use the software. It should be usable for even non-tech-savvy members.
- Integrations: Is it easy to connect with other tools? Are there any pre-built integrations? Website, calendar, communication, and payment software integrations are vital for many churches.
- Value for $: How appropriate is the price for the features, capabilities, and use case? I also look for free trials so you can test the tool before buying.
Church Facility Management Software Key Features
The church management software tools on our list cover a wide range of use cases. Some have simple features suitable for small churches. Others have complex functionality designed for large organizations.
Whichever kind of church facility software you choose, look out for the following features:
- Booking: If you open your facilities to people in your congregation, choose a tool that enables people to book rooms, space, or equipment.
- Calendars: Tools with calendars automatically reflect all bookings made via the software, so everyone can see what is happening and when.
- Payments: You may need to accept, send, or record payment for facility use, facility upgrade, or facility repair. A digital payments system can help keep track of this.
- Maintenance: Some of the tools on this list let you schedule maintenance for facilities.
- Lights and doors: If you manage multiple spaces, consider a tool that lets you manage access to your building and lighting remotely.
Overviews Of The 10 Best Church Facility Management Software
Here’s a brief description of each church facility maintenance management solution. We’ve included best use cases, feature highlights, and screenshots to showcase the look and feel of each tool.
I have included both tools designed for churches and all-purpose (and usually more complex and feature-rich) facility management software.
1. One Church – Best for booking rooms
One Church is an all-inclusive church platform with powerful facilities management features that make organizing your church’s space easy.
Central to this is the powerful booking platform. Use the tool to schedule your rooms and resources. Those in charge can quickly see if the facilities they need are available and then make a request. Simplify the booking process by adding facility managers to each listing who can approve bookings.
One Church is a cloud-based app and is available on all your devices. You can manage your church’s facilities at home, while at your place of worship, or on the go via your smartphone. It also has a user-friendly interface you’ll have no problem getting to grips with.
Pricing depends on the number of profiles you expect to track. The lowest-cost plan is $24/month for 250 profiles. You can grab a 14-day free trial to test the software before committing.
2. Church Social – Best for calendar management
Church Social is management software designed to help your congregation stay connected. It can help schedule regular facility maintenance, book spaces for events, and provide bulletins about the goings-on around the building. Members can contribute to the calendar to ensure community events are visible.
A cool feature is the ability to set up recurring events. This ensures that groups that meet regularly don’t have to reserve their space before every meeting. You can view the calendar within the app, and it’s also easy to display it on your church website using the Church Social WordPress plugin or by connecting to the tool’s API.
Pricing starts at $50/month for up to 200 members. You can get a free 30-day trial to test out the software.
3. Church Member Link – Best church bulletin board
Church Member Link is a web-based church bulletin board with features such as attendance, calendars, and outreach tracking. It also has a facilities management tool. This allows you to set up profiles for each of your facilities and other resources and then schedule each one. The tool summarizes who is scheduled to use assets at different times.
A feature I like is that you can set up conditions that must be met for each resource. This means people know exactly what is expected of them when they rent spaces or equipment.
Church Member Link has a simple pricing plan that costs $50/month or $500/year when bought annually. There are no add ons or extra costs. You can sign up for a 14-day free trial to test the software.
4. Church Office Online – Best for custom form building
Church Office Online is a complete church management solution with custom registration form building for event management, equipment rentals, or facility maintenance. The calendar is where you manage your church’s rooms and equipment. Just create an entry for each facility and provide essential information so people know how to use the asset correctly.
All bookings show up on the calendar for a complete overview of who is using what and when. The calendar also integrates with your website, so events and reservations made on your website are automatically added to your calendar. This saves you from having to enter details manually. You can access all these features via desktop or on the go via the mobile app.
Church Office Online pricing depends on the number of people at your church and starts at $35.13/month for 1 person and goes up incrementally by $0.12+ per additional person. The software offers a generous 2-month free trial.
5. Blackbaud Church Management – Best for engaging your congregation
Blackbaud Church Management is the church solution from team management software Blackbaud, which specializes in fundraising and grant management tools for social causes. You get all the company’s software and team management expertise, plus features built explicitly for churches like fundraising and congregation communication.
It’s easy to add all your spaces to the software. You can add further information to each listing and then price them effectively. All bookings and events are synced with your church’s calendar, so you get a quick overview of when your church’s facilities are being used.
Blackbaud doesn’t publicize pricing, but you can request more information on the website.
6. eFacility – Best for large churches
eFacility is enterprise CMMS software. It has powerful features that go well beyond those offered by church-specific solutions. These give you granular control over all your facilities.
The asset and inventory management toolkit tracks asset usage, helping you avoid unexpected and costly breakdowns. Use the tool to set preventive maintenance schedules, create templates for everyday maintenance tasks, and schedule inspections for each of your church’s assets. When the time comes for repairs, the software has robust work order management features to help.
You also get powerful space management features. This lets you track, manage, and book space in your church. You can see a real-time overview, so you always know what is going on in your buildings. The floorplan feature even lets you rent specific seats within a room.
eFacility pricing depends on the specific software modules you want access to. The company doesn’t publicize its pricing, but you can contact the team via the website for a quote.
7. PerfectMind – Best interactive facility map
PerfectMind is membership management for community-based businesses. It’s not explicitly designed for churches, but many of its features are great for this use case.
The software’s facility management software can handle multiple types of booking, including recurring contracts. You can sell add-ons within the booking process, which is a good way to generate extra revenue while providing the people who book your room with more flexibility.
Another feature I like is the automated lighting software. This lets you set which times you’d like to turn lights on and adjust your prices accordingly. Other features include maintenance management, waivers, contracts, and plenty of automation to simplify your workflow and save time.
PerfectMind doesn’t publicize pricing for its community tool. You can contact the team for a quote and a product demo. All plans come with unlimited users.
8. Hello Club – Best for integrations
Hello Club is a tool built for managing clubs. It has many features that help pastors with facility stewardship. Like the other tools on this list, it helps you manage bookings and events. It’s easy for your congregation to rent facilities when they need them. All the bookings sync to your calendar, which gives you an in-depth overview of facilities usage.
A feature that caught my eye is the lights and doors management tool. This lets you set up automated lights and door rules for different facilities and bookings. The tool also has plenty of integrations. For example, you can use Stripe to collect payments via credit card and manage your church bookkeeping with Xerox.
Pricing depends on the number of members in your congregation. The most popular plan costs $50/month for up to 300 users. You can sign up for a free trial on the website.
9. Mazevo – Best for church event management
Mazevo is software designed specifically for churches that want an event management system to help with facility resource allocation. The software has powerful booking features. It automatically avoids schedule conflicts by only showing rooms available for dates the scheduler has chosen.
When listing space you can add detailed information about each room, including its type and how many people it is suitable for. All events are synced to the tool’s calendar. You can view this in multiple ways to get an overview of events on both a daily and monthly level. The tool has an app for easy phone access, and the UI on both mobile and desktop is easy to use.
The company doesn’t publicize pricing, but you can request a demo on the website.
10. ChurchStaq by Pushpay – Best for engagement metrics
ChurchStaq by Pushpay is a tool that lets you create optimized journey’s for your congregation designed to boost engagement. Each member of your church creates a profile that includes crucial contact information, event details, and contributions. Part of the engagement strategy is encouraging your congregation to join events.
The software makes it easy for group leaders to rent space to hold meetings. They can then add members and communicate with other people in the group. The tool has an easy-to-use app that all congregation members can download to stay connected. It’s an easy way to connect with individuals and ensure that everyone stays engaged.
ChurchStaq has three plans that provide access to different features. The company doesn’t promote pricing but you can contact the team via the website.
Other Facility Management Software Options
Here’s a few more that didn’t make the top list. Some are church-specific tools that understand the niche; others are more general facility management solutions for all building maintenance and upkeep needs.
- Imagine Mobile Church – Best for church administration
- UpKeep – Best for managing church maintenance
- Grplife Church Edition – Best for included church social network
- Hippo CMMS – Best equipment maintenance
- iOFFICE – Best for optimizing space use
- AkitaBox – Best for asset mapping
- BlueFolder – Best for tracking assets
What is church facility management?
Church facility management is all the activities you do to organize your buildings, assets, spaces, and rooms. Tasks typically include managing facilities usage and keeping all your assets well-maintained. You can use facility management software to streamline this work.
Is there any free church facility management software?
Many of the tools on our list have free paid trials you can use to test out the software before committing. There are no free church-specific facility management software options. But free general facility management tools are available:
What Do You Think About These Facility Maintenance Software Solutions for Churches?
The best facility maintenance software for your church will depend on what you want from the tool.
A simple calendar that shows when people are scheduled to use your rooms and spaces will suffice for many smaller churches. But the larger your church, the more you’ll benefit from advanced features like granular asset management tools, maintenance functionality, and work order software to manage work requests.
If you want to find out more about how software can help you manage your church, then check out some of our other church management software reviews.