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In the following article, we'll take a look at the 10 best companies that offer apps for churches–and how they can help your church community grow, connect, serve, and give in 2022.
In an age of tech-savvy churches and mobile culture, custom mobile apps can be great tools for churches. A custom church app may include a digital bulletin or church calendar, a prayer wall with prayer requests, interactive sermon notes, and other church app features for making donations and social media integration.
The good news is that churches don't need an in-house app developer to create a custom church mobile app. The best church app platforms make it easy for anyone to build an app for church communication, digital giving, and more.
<a href="#list-1" class="toc-link">1. Tithely</a>
<a href="#list-2" class="toc-link">2. Aware3</a>
<a href="#list-3" class="toc-link">3. Shoutem</a>
<a href="#list-4" class="toc-link">4. Go Church App</a>
<a href="#list-5" class="toc-link">5. The Church App</a>
<a href="#list-6" class="toc-link">6. Pushpay</a>
<a href="#list-7" class="toc-link">7. Secure Give</a>
<a href="#list-8" class="toc-link">8. Custom Church Apps by Supslash</a>
<a href="#list-9" class="toc-link">9. Appy Pie</a>
<a href="#list-10" class="toc-link">10. DialMyCalls</a>
A church app is an effective tool for helping users to learn, connect, and grow with their church family. In 2022, a custom church app is a staple of church communication.
An app for churches may include any number of custom features, but the best apps for church ministry include push notifications, an events calendar with upcoming events, and a media player. These tools can also act as tithing apps for churches, offering easy-to-use digital giving for donors.
Tech-savvy churches know that a church app can help them run more efficiently and effectively. Church app engagement reduces administrative load on church leaders and church management. Like it or not, a church app is also an expectation for churches, especially from younger generations.
Popular features of church apps include:
Advanced features of church apps include a:
The best church apps will offer tools for church management, spiritual development, and communications.
The best apps for churches will include all of the above, but won't cost thousands of dollars to build. It may come with small setup fees and a low, ongoing monthly cost for maintenance. Ideally, your custom mobile church app should come as one part of a package of effective tools for church management.
Below, we evaluated the best church app solutions based on capabilities, cost, and accessibility for both smaller and larger churches.
The top 10 best church app providers of 2022 offer a great user experience for churches and can help strengthen a church's overall mobile strategy. Some of these church apps are offered by app development companies; others are provided as one powerful feature of a comprehensive church technology platform.
Here they are, folks! The best church apps of 2022 are...
Tithe.ly's custom church app is effortless to use for churches. It's just one part of a whole suite of features including a church management system, CRM, website builder, and more. That makes it simple to integrate Tithe.ly's app with your church's existing media and content.
The Tithe.ly church app is one of the more comprehensive church apps available. It offers in-app mobile giving, a prayer wall and Bible, a media player, interactive sermon notes, an interactive newsfeed, a group chat feature, push notifications, and more.
A Tithe.ly app has everything your church members need to plug into prayer, the Word, and community on the go. Using Tithe.ly also means minimal upfront costs and labor for running and managing the app.
You can use the Tithe.ly church app as a standalone feature for $89 per month, or you can sign up for the entire suite of Tithe.ly tools for just $30 more per month (for a total of $119 per month).
Tithe.ly works with you to create the custom app that's ideal for your church community. They offer a wide range of features and capabilities, a beautiful and easy-to-use interface, and minimal costs.
If you're looking for a complicated, clunky app that takes months to build and thousands of dollars to manage and upkeep, well then, Tithe.ly just isn't for you.
Aware3 is a church app that's considered easy to use and simple to set up.
Aware3 offers a chat feature, a crowdfunding tool, interactive media, and member profiles. Aware3 offers the essential elements of a church app, but some users report that their list of features isn't very long.
Aware3 can help church members connect and engage with their community, use resources from Sunday morning, and donate to special campaigns.
Aware3's most basic plan starts at $125 per month, and its most popular plan starts at $220 per month.
Aware3 has great customer support and a fairly intuitive user interface.
Shoutem offers a simple, intuitive user experience for church members and staff.
Shoutem has features for sharing a calendar with event information, posting sermon and educational resources, podcast integrations, and a social wall to share prayer requests.
This mobile solution can help potential users connect with community, request prayers, and learn critical information about the church.
Shoutem costs $189 per month for the professional version. The minimum cost is $59 per month.
A Shoutem mobile app comes with several pre-built app templates to make it easy to get up and running quickly. For churches wanting a custom app to be setup/built for them, Shoutem offers a $1,499 setup option.
Shoutem doesn't offer as many features designed specifically for churches. Some features like app usage/analytics are not included in the lowest cost tier.
Go Church App is overall easy to use and provides a great user experience. However, some users report that certain features–like Events Registration–can be tricky.
Go Church App includes features such as push notifications, a giving tool, custom forms, and embedded video content.
Go Church App allows churches to build an app that's customized to their specific needs.
The fully customizable Go Church App is $57 per month, with a one-time setup fee of $997.
Go Church App is fully customizable. Putting design in the hands of customers, however, doesn't always produce a great result.
Go Church App doesn't include the most comprehensive list of features. To use its giving feature, for example, you're required to already have an online giving portal. Go Church App is also expensive to set up, with nearly a $1k sticker price for its customizable version.
In terms of usability, the Church App gets mixed reviews. Users report glitches that seriously interfere with the user experience.
As one part of the Subsplash family, the Church App has features for giving, website building, messaging, media, and live streaming that integrate with the rest of Subsplash's tech suite.
The Church App is one of the more comprehensive church app platforms. It provides tech-savvy churches the tools they need to engage their church members.
Pricing for the Church App isn't clear. While it costs $0 per month to use the giving feature, their website doesn't display information about the remainder of the features.
The Church App can integrate with your church's admin tools and engagement tools (if you use Subsplash).
The Church App's pricing isn't transparent, and users report serious glitches (such as defaulting to a different church after an update, or repeating a donation page).
Pushpay's church app–My Church App–is easy to use and simple to navigate.
My Church App integrates with Pushpay's church management system, offering features like check-in, group messaging, volunteer scheduling, and more. My Church App also includes updates about upcoming events, a media player, and church member profiles.
My Church App provides a seamless experience for both church members and staff to connect, communicate, and engage with the church community.
Pushpay's full package costs $199 per month.
My Church App is integrated with Pushpay's church management system, providing a smooth experience for churches that already use Pushpay.
As a part of Pushpay's full package, My Church App can be very expensive. Not only that, but My Church App features integrate with Pushpay, making this a good choice for Pushpay users only.
Secure Give has a simple, functional user experience.
Secure Give provides features for digital giving, an event calendar, a media player, note-taking, and podcast streaming.
Secure Give provides the basic tools that church members need to donate, connect, and learn.
Secure Give's most basic mobile package starts at $149 per month.
Secure Give has a simple UX and most of the basic features needed by a church.
Secure Give is very expensive, and some users report that they have very poor customer support.
Custom Church Apps have mixed reviews from users, in terms of usability and experience. To be fair, some of this may be due to user error.
Custom Church Apps offers push notifications, an in-app Bible, interactive sermon notes, live streaming, and giving tools.
Custom Church Apps give potential users the ability to connect with their church communities with messaging tools, a prayer request tool, event registration, and more.
Custom Church Apps cost anywhere from $19.95 per month to $129.95 per month, but with a $999 setup fee (There is also a 30-day free trial available).
Custom Church Apps provides dynamic content editing, allowing churches to create a more customized app than provided by tools with static content.
Appy Pie is a no-code app builder, meaning that users can develop their own app without coding experience. Users of Appy Pie report that its most basic version is simple enough, but it can be difficult to add more advanced "beta" features.
In theory, you could build a whole range of features that integrate with your church's website, community prayer list, weekly bulletin, contact info, and giving platform. However, that depends on how much time and energy you want to invest in Appy Pie.
Appy Pie can give churches the ability to build and publish an app all on their own.
Appy Pie's most basic self-service package costs $16 per month, or you can pay up to $60 per month for advanced packages to run and manage your app.
Appy Pie is highly customizable, and doesn't have to include anything your church doesn't need.
Appy Pie may not be the best choice for churches, as it will require quite a bit of work upfront and a potentially complex setup process to create an app you love. Sometimes, it's better to go to the experts.
DialMyCalls is easy to use and learn.
DialMyCalls is a basic tool for sending mass text messages or voice memos.
DialMyCalls can help your church staff and church members to stay connected and informed.
DialMyCalls increases in price with a greater number of contacts. With 500 contacts, it costs $85 per month–making it less ideal for larger churches.
DialMyCalls is easy to use and delivers on its promises.
Unlike app packages, DialMyCalls offers only one feature for churches. It does not provide an app with a traditional user interface.
Before choosing an app that's right for you, consider your church's budget and most pressing needs. If you need an app as a standalone feature, it doesn't need to be super pricey.
If you're interested in a beautiful, comprehensive app that's low in cost as a standalone or as a part of a full technology suite, check out Tithe.ly.
Yes. A church app is a powerful tool that can help your members engage, discover, and even grow in their faith. And as you've learned, building an app doesn't have to cost thousands of dollars.
It can cost anywhere from roughly $50-$130/month with a $1000 startup fee to run an app. However, if you use Tithe.ly's full suite of technology for $119 per month, the app comes at no extra cost (that's right, there's no setup cost for Tithe.ly).
Google any of the above services to get started, or click here to learn more about Tithe.ly.
Church apps work just like any other app. They are typically accessible in the app store, and can be downloaded by anyone. They can also be synced with a church's CRM, social media accounts, church calendar, mobile websites, blog posts, and more.
