Growing a congregation is one of the top goals of any church leader, and this is a mission that gets increasingly challenging in this day and age. For church leaders to attract new members, they need to manage their churches effectively, and church management software can be a crucial tool in achieving this goal.
This article will tell you about the best online church management software you can use if you want to manage your church successfully to retain existing members and attract new ones.
Tool Shortlist
- Planning Center
- Churchtrac
- Elvanto
- Breeze
- Chmeetings
- TouchPoint
- Blackbaud
- Excellerate Church Management
- Fellowship One
- ChurchTeams
Comparison Criteria
What do I look for when I select the best online chMS? Here’s a summary of my evaluation criteria:
- User Interface (UI): Church management software should not be confusing, so I look for one with a clean user interface that lets me quickly find the features I need.
- Usability: Aside from church leaders, other church members will use church management software, too, so I look for one that anybody can learn how to use quickly.
- Integrations: Churches use several tools, so I look for software that works well with the other tools that I use.
- Value for Pricing: Churches have limited funds, so I look for software with many features but reasonable monthly fees.
Online Church Management Platform: Key Features
- Membership management: Allows users to create member profiles and compile them into a centralized location.
- Online giving: Allows church leaders to accept and record donations to help fund their activities.
- Worship planning: Feature that lets church leaders plan and execute worship services.
- Accounting software: Tool that lets church leaders keep a faithful record of cash inflow and expenses for reporting and auditing purposes.
- Event management: This allows users to manage the different stages of events like planning, sending invitations, execution, and post-event analysis.
- Communication tools: Allows church leaders to connect with church members to boost engagement.
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Overviews Of The 10 Best Online Church Management Software Solutions
Here’s a brief description of each online church management system to showcase each tool’s best use case, some noteworthy features, and screenshots to give a snapshot of the user interface.
1. Planning Center – Church management software for managing membership information
Planning Center is church management software with different features to help you take care of your congregation, including a calendar feature for managing events and scheduling resources like facilities and equipment. It has publishing capabilities to create custom web and app content for your members. It also has a giving feature for processing, accounting, and reporting donations.
Maintaining an accurate record of church members is critical for any church because getting to know their members helps church leaders craft programs and services that will serve their congregation better. Planning Center allows you to create an accurate membership database with important details like personal information, contact details, and anniversaries. You can add notes like donations, activities, and group participation to know what activities your church members are interested in. Planning Center also allows you to include background checks to keep young church members safe.
Planning Center pricing starts at $14/month/account plus the cost of add-on modules. You can request a 30-day free trial to try Planning Center.
2. Churchtrac – Church management software for planning and executing worship services
Churchtrac is church management software that combines a wide variety of tools to help you manage your church to help you grow your membership. It has a membership management feature to help you create a directory of members allowing you to send mass emails and text messages with ease. Churchtrac’s giving feature enables you to track donors and contributions. It also has church accounting software that lets you monitor cash inflow and expenses so you can manage your church’s financial health.
Worship services are at the heart of any church, and Churchtrac can help you plan and execute worship services that your members would love. You can use Churchtrac to create a detailed outline of worship services, so volunteers and staff are on the same page during events. Churctrac lets you maintain a comprehensive library of worship songs, ensuring that you can find appropriate songs for various worship services quickly. This church management solution also lets you send email and text reminders to volunteers to remind them of their schedules and roles.
Churchtrac is free church management software but has a paid version that starts at $6/month/up to 75 members. Churchtrac offers a 30-day free trial.
3. Elvanto – Church management software to help you improve engagement
Elvanto is a cloud-based church management system, so you can access its tools without installing them on your computer. It has a worship planning tool to help you plan services and manage volunteers. Elvanto also has tools to make your church safer for children, including a child check-in feature and privacy and security tools to protect the information of young worshippers. It also has a church giving tool to track pledges and donations. This online giving tool also gives you access to your church’s financial data to assess your church’s financial state.
One of the best ways to attract more members is by showing members how much your church cares for them, and if you want church management software to promote engagement, then Elvanto is an excellent option. You can use Elvanto to track members and send follow-ups to encourage participation in church activities. It has a pastoral care notes tool to help you create notes about specific members who require your guidance. Elvanto has a reporting tool for creating reports quickly that you can share with your pastoral team to help you craft future programs.
Elvanto integrates with other church management solutions like SongSelect, Tithe.ly, Mailchimp, and PayPal.
Elvanto pricing starts at $50/month/account plus a one-time setup fee of $149. Elvanto offers a free demo upon request.
4. Breeze – Church management software to help you organize and manage groups
Breeze is an excellent church management system if you have a small church that constantly grows because the software allows you to add as many members as you want without affecting your monthly fee. It has a mobile app that works on Android and iOS mobile devices. If you are using an old church management software, Breeze has an import team to assist you in transferring your data into the new system for free, so you don’t need to worry about losing data. It has a church giving feature that makes giving easier for members through text and online giving.
If you want the best church management software to help you manage small groups, Breeze is your best option because it lets you create and manage small groups within your church. You can use Breeze to automatically add and remove members from groups according to their interests and preferences. Breeze has a messaging tool for sending emails and text messages to groups or individuals to stay connected to members. You can also use Breeze to schedule the sending of messages at a later date so you can concentrate on other critical matters.
Breeze costs $50/month/account, and they offer an instant demo so customers can try their software immediately.
5. Chmeetings – Church management software to help you plan and manage events
Chmeetings is a church management system with an informative dashboard that gives you access to crucial data about your church. You can use it to create member profiles and compile them into a church membership directory. Chmeetings has a mobile app that church members can access to view church news and events. The mobile app also lets members update their information as needed.
Chmeetings is an excellent church management software if your church holds many events because of Chmeetings’ event management feature. You can use it to create events and invite your members and guests using emails, text messages, or mobile app notifications. Chmeetings also has a tool that lets you print name tags, QR codes, and QR tags for attendees so you can control the crowd on ticketed events. You can use Chmeetings to check-in people during events, track attendance, and print reports to gauge the success of your event.
Chmeetings has a free version with limited features for churches with up to 100 members. For large churches, the pricing of Chmeetings starts at $100/year/up to 250 members.
6. Touchpoint – Church management software with a fully-integrated and customizable mobile app
Touchpoint has many church management features to help you take care of your flock, including an email tool to help you promote events and share news with your congregation. It also has a giving feature so a church member can send a donation to help shore up your church’s fund. Touchpoint also has church administration tools like volunteer management, distribution of worship guides, and financial reporting.
Having a mobile app is one of the best ways to stay connected with the church and team members. 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.
Touchpoint integrates with other tools like OnlineGiving, Twilio, and Sage.
Touchpoint provides pricing details after a live demo.
7. Blackbaud – Church management software for managing fundraising events
Blackbaud is a cloud-based church management solution to help you manage online giving, small groups, and ministries. This church software provides church members with online giving options to send tithes, recurring donations, and one-time contributions easily. It has a volunteer management feature to monitor volunteer positions, roles, and schedules. You can use Blackbaud to manage church events, including online registration and payments for ticketed events.
Church leaders need fundraising events to sustain their outreach programs, and 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.
Blackbaud offers a free trial and customized pricing upon request.
8. Excellerate Church Management – Church management software for attracting new church members
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 records keeping and accounting purposes.
Excellerate Church Management software is an excellent option to increase your church membership because it allows you to track visitors to your website and convert them to leads. 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 Church Management has a one-time fee of $145/up to 100 members and offers scaled pricing according to the number of church members.
9. Fellowship One – Church management software for creating and hosting church websites
Fellowship One is church software with different tools you can use to manage your congregation effectively. It has a church accounting feature to help you manage your church’s finances. Fellowship One also has a payroll feature to help you ensure you pay your staff correctly and on time. It has an event management feature to plan events, manage resources, send invitations, and manage registration.
Having a website is one of the best ways for a religious organization to welcome new visitors and keep existing members updated. If your church doesn’t have a church website, Fellowship One can help you create and host one. It has a user-friendly editing mode to help you customize your website. Fellowship One 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.
Fellowship One offers pricing and a free trial upon request.
10. ChurchTeams – Church management software with workflow automation feature for handling repetitive tasks
ChurchTeams is a church management solution to empower you with tools like a membership management feature for maintaining a directory of members. It has a giving platform to make donating easier for members. It also has a volunteer management feature for scheduling and communicating with volunteers. ChurchTeams has an informative dashboard to keep you updated on the state of your church and its programs.
Getting simple tasks out of the way can help you concentrate on managing your church, and ChurchTeams can help you with its workflow automation feature. You can automate the sending of welcome notes to new members or follow-ups to absentee members to help you sustain the growth of your ministry. ChurchTeams can also help you automate sending reminders to volunteers of their schedules and roles to ensure you have enough manpower for events.
ChurchTeams pricing starts at $37/month/up to 200 members, and they offer a free trial upon request.
Other Options
Here’s a few more that didn’t make the top list.
- Wild Apricots - SaaS to help you manage your members, events, and finances in one platform.
- Shelby Systems - Church management system to engage new and current church members.
- Servant Keeper - Servant Keeper has a child check-in feature to help keep young members safe during events.
- Tithe.ly - Tithe.ly church giving integrates online and mobile giving so church members can choose how to contribute to your church.
- ChurchSuite - ChurrchSuite lets you build a comprehensive membership database to understand your members and discover ways to serve them better.
What do you think about this list?
Managing a church is a huge responsibility, and church leaders can use all the help they can give to make church administration easier. With the help of the best church management software, church leaders taking care of responsibilities is easier, and they will have more time to connect with church members and serve their needs.
Follow The Lead Pastor and learn more about other useful software to help you grow your church and minister to your congregation.
Related Read:
- Technology In The Church: What Do Lead Pastors Need To Know?
- Church Administration Software For Church Management
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