Church management software supports many of the administrative aspects of church life to make organizing church faster, easier, and simpler. I'm sharing my top picks for all-in-one ChMS tools that consolidate management functionality to make church administration easier.
Below I'll share a simple, easy comparison of the best church management tools based on features and functionality, integrations, usability and pricing to help you make an informed selection for your church.
Best Church Management Software Shortlist
I’ve selected these as the best church management software for 2023.
- Subsplash - Best all-in-one church management software
- ChurchTrac - Best for people scheduling
- Elvanto - Best for church finances
- Breeze - Best for ease of use
- Chmeetings - Best value for price
- TouchPoint - Best mobile app experience
- Blackbaud - Best for managing people and payments
- Excellerate Church Management - Best for on-site local network installation
- FellowshipOne - Best worship planning software
- Planning Center - Best ChMs for larger churches
What is Church Management Software?
Church Management software (sometimes referred to as ChMS) is a suite of online tools that helps churches organize, automate and manage daily church operations. Church management software uses a database to consolidate the data and organization, which allows automation of many common church administrative, management and reporting tasks. The benefit is to expedite communications, streamline daily operations and support collaboration between church staff and the congregation.
Church management software typically includes membership management, giving and donor management, accounting, financial reporting, event and facilities management, volunteer management, communication tools, attendance tracking, child security and check in management, event planning, event management, financial reporting, communication, live streaming and website builders.
It incorporates a wide range of features and tools that support church administration and make running a thriving and growing church simpler, more effective, easier, and better. It does this by providing a combination of tools that connect the data, operations and communication that in many ways, automate, church administration.
If you're wondering how I selected the best church management software, it's pretty simple—I tried using each one. I started with church management software that already have high user review and satisfaction ratings. Then, using my experience in church management and leadership, I discerned what key criteria are most important for church management software and compared how each of them stacked up against the rest.
I know how much time it takes to source the right software for a job. I've used many of these platforms personally and done trials and product demos with the others to get a good understanding of what they're best for. I've been using and reviewing church management software for years so you can trust me to do the heavy lifting and compile all the facts you need to make your final decision.
The 10 Best Church Management Software Overviews
In this post, we’ve tried to cover a broad spectrum of software, considering the complexity, price points, and functionality.
1. Subsplash - Best all-in-one church management software
Subsplash is an all-in-one church management software that handles everything from website building, live streaming, social groups, messaging, events, volunteer management, and giving processes in one, centralized platform.
Why I Picked Subsplash: Subsplash is a smart, modern take on church management software that packs a punch for its price. They lean heavily on crafting great media and mobile experiences with branded apps, content curation, and audio/video content hosting. Subsplash enables media-savvy churches to reach their congregants where they are: on their phones and smart devices. You can upload blog posts, podcasts, videos, and even livestream your services.
Outside their stellar mobile media offerings, Subsplash is noteworthy because they quite literally "do it all." You'll find that this feature-packed ChMs can serve everyone—from new plants to mega- and multi-site churches—with their robust blend of facility and people management functions. You can plan events, build a drag-and-drop website, and set up recurring gifts within one church management solution.
Subsplash Standout Features & Integrations
Features include a branded app builder, in-app volunteer schedule management, native media player, Apple TV & Roku connection, mobile giving, group messaging, event scheduling, content management, drag-and-drop website builder, SEO tools, analytics, dashboards, donor management, recurring gift subscriptions, payment processing, donor-covered fees, media tagging & search, audio & video hosting, live streaming, child check-in, service planning, email & text messaging, member profiles, and small group organization.
Integrations include Church Community Builder (CCB), Breeze, Planning Center (PCO), and Rock RMS.
Subsplash Pricing & Plans
Subsplash One offers pricing upon request. Subsplash Giving doesn't require a monthly fee, but instead charges a percentage of donations collected (a fee that can be covered by donors, if they opt in).
Pros
- Offers "all-in-one" coverage of all basic church needs
- User-friendly interface with modern UI
- Great mobile app functionality
Cons
- Limited integrations with other systems
2. ChurchTrac - Best for people scheduling
ChurchTrac is a web-based church management software that offers features such as attendance tracking, membership management, volunteer scheduling, and donation tracking to help churches manage their operations more efficiently.
Why I Picked ChurchTrac: ChurchTrac is a comprehensive, easy-to-use web-based ChMs that offers a wide range of features to help churches manage their operations efficiently. It offers features such as attendance tracking, membership management, volunteer scheduling, and donation tracking, all in one place. It also allows churches to customize their profiles, reports, and services to meet their specific needs.
Additionally, it offers email and SMS communication tools that enable churches to stay connected with their members, and it is accessible on mobile devices, making it easy for pastors, staff, and volunteers to manage church activities on-the-go. Overall, ChurchTrac ChMs is a cost-effective solution that streamlines church operations, making it an excellent tool for churches of all sizes.
ChurchTrac Standout Features & Integrations
Features include attendance tracking, membership management, volunteer scheduling, donation tracking, accounting and budgeting tools, communication tools, customizable reports and services, online giving, child check-in, and mobile app accessibility.
Integrations include Mailchimp, Amazon SES, and Twilio.
ChurchTrac Pricing & Plans
Churchtrac is free to use. Paid plans with additional features start at $50/month.
Pros
- Affordable pricing, even for small churches
- User-friendly interface that is easy to navigate
- Provides excellent customer support
- Regular updates and new feature releases
- Provides a mobile app
Cons
- Limited integrations with other systems
- Reporting and analytics features could be more robust
- Limited functionality for multi-campus churches
3. Elvanto - Best for church finances
Elvanto is an all-in-one cloud-based solution with many innovative features. Child check-in, privacy, and safety are some of the key features integrated into Elvanto, vital for children and youth leaders to ensure all in their care are accounted for.
Elvanto has an all-inclusive range of tools with no add-on modules and no extra charges. Some of the main features include access control, customizable forms, custom reports, mobile apps, event management, group management, email and SMS messaging, volunteer scheduling, and attendance tracking.
Elvanto makes the planning of worship services and managing volunteers simple. Create run sheets, schedule your volunteers, and access your song database, lyrics, and chords. It has a simple drag-and-drop interface that makes quickly creating service plans for your team a breeze.
Why I Picked Elvanto: Elvanto has powerful features for accessing financial data, contribution management, and can connect with various online giving providers.
Elvanto Standout Features & Integrations
Features include access control, customizable forms, custom reports, mobile apps, event management, group management, email and SMS messaging, volunteer scheduling, and attendance tracking.
Integrations include SongSelect, Faithlife Proclaim!, SafeMinistryTraining, MailChimp, Stripe, PayPal, Continue to Give, Mogiv, and Pushpay.
Elvanto Pricing & Plans
Elvanto costs from $50/month and offers a free demo.
Pros
- Great integration with 3rd party financial partners
Cons
- Check-ins don't always work reliably
4. Breeze - Best for ease of use
Breeze is an easy-to-use web-based church management system designed with small churches to mid-sized churches in mind.
With Breeze, you can easily add new data, send mass emails and text messages, track attendance and check-in children securely, and process donations online and by text message. Breeze requires no contract or setup fee and offers a data migration service to get you started quickly.
Why I Picked Breeze: Breeze makes it easy to manage your church's database, communicate with your members via email or text message, offer online and text giving, safely check in children, manage events and volunteers, and run reports.
Breeze Standout Features & Integrations
Features include a membership database, email and text messaging, attendance tracking, donation processing, reporting, and event management.
Integrations can be built using the Breeze API.
Breeze Pricing & Plans
Breeze costs from $50/month and comes with a free demo.
Pros
- Easy data transfer from other systems
- Responsive customer support
Cons
- Some features are quite basic
5. CHMeetings - Best value for price
CHmeetings is a powerful church management system designed for churches of all sizes and denominations. Easily manage church membership, groups, events, follow-up, and broadcasts.
CHmeetings transforms your workflow by doing it all online. You can create registration forms, see who already submitted theirs, and view attendance data for all events. Check-in is easy for leaders and members via the app. You can also offer your members an easy option to manage their online giving and event fees and easily generate up-to-date financial reports.
Why I Picked CHmeetings: Managing the legal, security, and privacy aspects of your data are easy, and with account restriction settings you have total control over which data individuals can access. CHmeetings include state-of-the-art security features and firewall technology. No matter what device you access data from, it will be secure. CHmeetings also makes daily backups of your data.
CHmeetings Standout Features & Integrations
Features include member profiles, small group management, to-do lists, events, forms, reports, users and roles, and contributions/payment management.
Integrations include Stripe, Twilio, MailChimp, PayPal, and more if you use their developers' API.
CHmeetings Pricing & Plan
CHmeetings is free for 100 members. Paid plans cost from $10/month for up to 250 members.
Pros
- Very affordable, tiered pricing based on church size
- Up-to-date security and firewall features
Cons
- Mobile app could use some improvements
6. TouchPoint - Best mobile app experience
TouchPoint is a substantial cloud-based church management software solution that equips church leaders and administrators of mid-sized churches to large churches looking for an off-the-shelf ChMS which is also highly customizable.
TouchPoint has a marketing feature for staying in touch with donors. Plus, Touchpoint’s customizable mobile app can help you manage your church better. It has a self-check-in feature so members can register their attendance during their events.
Church leaders can use the mobile app to create sermon notes to guide them during worship services. Touchpoint’s mobile app has an accounting feature that lets church members review their giving history and statements.
Why I Picked TouchPoint: A fully-integrated mobile app helps you share sermons, Bible verses, song lyrics, and other media directly to your congregations' smartphones.
TouchPoint Standout Features & Integrations
Features include membership management, volunteer management, child check-in, discipleship groups, ministry engagement, tithes, and event management.
Integrations include OnlineGiving, Twilio, and Sage.
TouchPoint Pricing & Plans
TouchPoint costs from $300/year (based on a 100-member church).
Pros
- Responsive tech support
- Best-in-class mobile app
Cons
- Initial setup has a steep learning curve
- Slow to implement updates
7. Blackbaud - Best for managing people and payments
Blackbaud Church Management Software is a cloud-based tool that can effectively manage your people, gifts, communications, events, and volunteers all in one place.
Better understand how your congregation is engaging with your church through a single source of data. With connected Financial Management, Payments, and more, on one digital platform. Simplify tithes and online giving for your congregation with one-time and recurring giving options via a connected giving app.
Blackbaud is an excellent church software for planning and executing successful fundraisers. You can use Blackbaud to ensure that you can communicate with team members to make planning events easier. Blackbaud also lets you monitor how team members are doing on their assigned tasks so you can offer assistance if needed. You can also use Blackbaud to create reports about your fundraisers to assess their effectiveness.
Why I Picked Blackbaud: With Faith Journey tracking you can get a better understanding of your members using comprehensive member and family profiles. Monitor attendance, anniversaries, donations, and engagement.
Blackbaud Standout Features & Integrations
Features include analytics, fundraising, relationship management, financial management, marketing and engagement, payment services, and church accounting.
Integrations include Bonfire, CallHub, CampBrain, ClickBid, GivBee, Gratavid, and Promp.io.
Blackbaud Church Management Software Pricing & Plans
Contact Blackbaud for a quote.
8. Excellerate Church Management - Best for on-site local network installation
Excellerate Church Management Software is a comprehensive and flexible solution that is highly adaptable to your church needs, including membership management, visitor follow-up, small groups, fundraising, child check-In, volunteer scheduling, and more.
Excellerate church management software features like member tracking and attendance tracking can help you monitor the growth of your church and implement plans to sustain the said growth. You can use it to generate church directories to help you connect with members. You can also use it to monitor a pledge, donation, or contribution for record keeping and accounting purposes.
Why I Picked Excellerate Church Management Software: With the help of Excellerate, you can send follow-ups so you can schedule visits or invite prospects to church events. Excellerate also lets you gauge your success in converting new members so you can improve your methods and attract new members.
Excellerate Standout Features & Integrations
Features include membership management, visitor tracking and follow-up, tithes and offerings, small groups, class sign-ups and attendance, email/text messaging, reporting, and volunteer scheduling.
Integration with your church website is offered.
Excellerate Church Management Software Pricing & Plans
Excellerate Church Management is free for 50 members. Paid plans start at a one-time fee of $145/up to 100 members and offer scaled pricing according to the number of church members.
Pros
- Choice between cloud-based or on-site installation
- No monthly subscription for on-site installations
- Scalable cost based on church size
Cons
- Accessing technical support costs extra
- Some knowledge of SQL is helpful.
9. FellowshipOne - Best worship planning software
FellowshipOne's church management software suite of tools allows for easily accessible and automated management of member data. You can rapidly assimilate new visitors and reduce the workload of your staff. Members can access and update their own data and stay connected to the community through a central, online environment. FellowshipOne offers event management to plan events, manage resources, send invitations, and track registration.
FellowshipOne can help you create an SEO-friendly website to make it easier to find online. It has a wide variety of website templates you can use to have your website up and running quickly.
FellowshipOne also has a church accounting feature to help you manage your church’s expenses, payroll, and donations.
Why I Picked FellowshipOne: You can automate communication with mass email, using attractive newsletter templates and easily target specific demographics or groups, and maintain quality personal connections with all your members as your church grows in size.
FellowshipOne Standout Features & Integrations
Features include facility management, accounting & payroll, online giving, payment systems, mobile app, worship planning, website designs and hosting, and background checks.
Integrations can be facilitated through the FellowshipOne restAPI.
FellowshipOne Pricing & Plans
FellowshipOne costs from $19.60/month.
Pros
- All-in-one solution
Cons
- Not so user friendly
- Outdated user interface
10. Planning Center - Best ChMs for larger churches
Planning Center is a web-based church management software that offers a suite of tools for managing various aspects of church operations, such as scheduling volunteers, organizing services, tracking attendance, and collecting donations.
Why I Picked Planning Center: Planning Center is a web-based church management software that offers a suite of tools for managing various aspects of church operations. What makes Planning Center noteworthy is its user-friendly interface, customizable features, and ability to integrate with other software systems and services. This allows churches to manage all aspects of their operations in one place and tailor features according to their specific needs. Additionally, its mobile accessibility makes it easy for pastors, staff, and volunteers to access information and manage church activities on-the-go. Overall, Planning Center ChMs streamlines church operations, making it an invaluable tool for churches of all sizes.
Planning Center Standout Features & Integrations
Features include volunteer scheduling, service planning, attendance tracking, donations and giving management, child check-in, small group management, communication tools, reporting and analytics, integration with accounting software, and mobile app accessibility.
Integrations include other tools like Thryve, ProPresenter, Mailchimp, Faithlife Proclaim, MediaShout, and Checkr. More integrations can be unlocked using a paid plan through Zapier.
Planning Center Pricing & Plans
Planning Center pricing starts at $14/month for up to 25 members, and they offer a 30-day free trial.
Pros
- Easy-to-use interface
- Excellent customer support
- Integrates with a variety of other software
- Offers a wide range of features for managing church operations
- Mobile accessibility
Cons
- Can be pricey, especially for larger churches
- Limited customization options for certain features
- Scheduling tool can be complex to set up and use effectively
Other church management software
Do none of the above work for you? Check out the list below for additional church management software tools:
- Faithlife Equip - Best church website builder
- ChurchTrac - Best user-friendly ChMS
- CFS Live - Best feature-based subscription model
- Churchteams - Best for people data
- Ministry Tracker - Best for automated administration workflows
- Elexio - Best for church marketing
- CCIS - Best technical support & training
- Parishsoft - Best for Catholic parishes
- Power Church Software - Best assortment of add-ons
- Realm - Best for small churches
- Kyrios - Best church reporting dashboard
- Raklet - Best for building your own branded app
- Text In Church - Best SMS/messaging service for churches
- CDM+ - Best charity/NGO fundraising app
- Planning Center - Best for growing churches
- SeekerWorks - Best new guest onboarding
- Church Windows - Best shared calendar & event scheduling
- Wild Apricot - Best NGO membership management tool
- Shelby Systems - Best denominational headquarters solution
Other Church Management Software Reviews
Looking for something else? Here are some other types of church management software and technology you should also consider including in your toolkit.
- Church software
- Church website builder
- Church presentation software
- Church accounting software
- Worship software
- Membership management software
- Donor management software
- Church finance software
- Volunteer management
How I Selected the Best Church Management Software
After careful consideration, I've determined that these are the most important criteria when selecting the best church management software. Here's a brief list outlining the criteria for my selection.
Comparison Criteria
Here are the things I consider when selecting church management software for review.
Core Functionality:
Each church management software will have a range of functions and features. However, to be included on this list they must cover the following in regards to core functionality.
- Ability to manage people and places, including things like membership lists, event planning, room bookings, small group organization, and child check-in
- Ability to manage the day-to-day necessities of a church, like worship planning, finances, and communications
Key Features:
Although not an exhaustive list, church management software features typically include some or all of the following features.
- Calendar & Events management – easily organize events for social activities and outreach opportunities.
- Membership management – maintain an up-to-date member directory including family and contact information for your congregation.
- Volunteer management – Scheduling tools to manage large groups of volunteers to make running your church services and ministries as smooth as possible.
- Check-in and child security management – a vital tool to ensure the safety of all minors placed in the care of church leaders during Sunday School or other activities.
- Attendance tracking – Keep track of your congregation’s involvement and facilitate Covid-19 contact tracing.
- Donor & Giving management – provides a secure channel of collection, management and reporting of tithes, donations, online giving, and other contributions from church members.
- Financial accounting – assists in the management of resources, tracking of expenses, and reporting.
- Communication tools – Send mass emails and/or text messages to all members.
- Groups – Connect your congregation through community for small groups or life groups, groups can help you facilitate community within the church.
- Website builder – Tools to allow you to publish content, podcasts, sermons and livestreams create and deploy your church website.
- Metrics tracking – Easily track the ups and downs of memberships numbers, tithes, and outreach programs.
- Mobile app – A mobile app for your congregation to access content, and connect with the life of the church.
Usability:
Usability is an important factor to consider when selecting church management software as it can impact how easily and effectively the software can be used to manage church operations. A software with good usability would have an intuitive interface, simple navigation, and require minimal training. This will save time and effort spent on learning and using the software, which can improve productivity and overall effectiveness. Moreover, an easily usable software can reduce the likelihood of errors and increase the adoption rate among staff and volunteers.
Software Integrations:
Integrations are an important factor to consider when selecting church management software because they allow the software to connect with other tools and services that the church may already be using. This can include integrations with accounting software, online giving platforms, communication tools, and more. By integrating with these tools, the church can streamline its operations and improve efficiency. Moreover, integrations can reduce the need for duplicate data entry and increase the accuracy and consistency of information across multiple systems.
Value for Price:
Pricing and value for money is an important factor to consider when selecting church management software because it can impact the budget of the church. Different software options may have different pricing structures, such as monthly or annual subscriptions, or one-time fees. It is important to consider the specific features and functionality that the church needs and compare the pricing of different options to determine the best fit for the budget. However, it is important to also consider the value of the software and the potential return on investment in terms of increased efficiency and effectiveness in managing church operations.
People Also Ask
Here are a few questions I get every so often about church apps—answered for your convenience.
What are the benefits of church management software?
How much does ChMS cost?
What church management software is easiest to use?
Manage, Lead, and Inspire
In conclusion, church management software can help churches and faith groups and organizations manage their operations in a more efficient way. With the right church management software, churches can better track donations, manage members, and communicate with their congregation. The best church management software applications highlighted here provide great features to help churches increase efficiency and productivity. As you evaluate the different tools, be sure to explore what best suits the needs of your church or organization.
Here's a bonus for you looking to improve your church technology as well as management skills: The Best Church Technology Conferences.
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