10 Best Church Member Software 2024 - Features & Pricing

Churches have a lot to juggle. They have church events to manage, finances to organize, goals to meet, and most importantly, members to pastor. That’s why it’s critical to have the right kind of user-friendly church management software to accomplish all these tasks.

Think of church member software as a “toolbox” for running your church more successfully. With a number of different features and functionalities, it helps you improve financial health, build automated workflows, and in some cases, create stellar marketing content. Most importantly, it helps you prioritize your members with contact databases, communication tools, and more. 

In the following article, we’ll take a look at what church member software is, how these powerful tools for churches are priced, what to look for in a software, and the 10 best church member software tools in 2024. 

Table of Contents

What is Church Member Software?

Church Member Software Buyers Guide

Why You Should Consider a Church Member Software

Factors To Be Considered

How Is Church Member Software Priced?

Best Church Member Software

Final Thoughts

Church Member Software FAQs

What is Church Member Software?

Church member software is a suite of tools that can help you to: 

• Organize member information, including contact info, financials, and activity;
• Offer church members the ability to connect with your church community, make online donations, and learn;
• Allow you to build workflows and systems to help your staff stay organized, manage church events, meet goals, and more;
• Market your church with a website and app (offered on some church member software);
• Provide additional features such as volunteer scheduling, contribution tracking, and worship planning; 
• And more…

Church Member Software Buyers Guide

Church member software can be a wonderful tool when selected correctly. Like most things, there are plenty of options for church member software, and it can be hard to know how to choose one that’s right for your needs. 

There are a few questions to ask yourself before selecting a software tool for your church. They are: 

• Why do I need a church member software? 
• Are there any special factors to consider, i.e. the size of my church or future plans to scale?
• What’s my budget and what solution will be most cost-effective?

Why You Should Consider a Church Member Software

Church member software should make running and managing a church faster, easier, and less expensive. The monthly cost can be more than worth it, saving you and your staff logistical headaches and hours of administration time (Given that you choose the right tool). Most importantly, these cloud-based software solutions can help you focus on what’s really important at your church–shepherding your congregants on their faith journey, building a thriving community, and advancing the Kingdom of God. 

Factors To Be Considered

There are a few factors to consider when it comes to selecting a church member software. These factors include:

• Range of features offered through the tool…
• Ease of use….
• Pricing….
• And the ability to use the tool as your church grows.

How Is Church Member Software Priced?

Affordable church management software is typically priced on a per month basis. Many software tools have different pricing tiers, or pricing plans, that rise in price for increasing the size of your member database, adding additional users to the software, or adding new features or capabilities. Many church member software tools also offer a free trial, or in some cases a freemium version of the software (like Tithe.ly, which allows you to use Tithe.ly Giving for free).

Best Church Member Software

Church member software comes in all shapes and sizes, and can be focused on all different kinds of church communities–from nondenominational church plants to Catholic parishes. But as we combed through the selection, we focused on the factors listed above–namely, range of features, pricing tiers, and scalability.

1. Tithe.ly

Features:

We'd be lying if we said we aren't a little biased.

Tithe.ly is a comprehensive, streamlined church management software that helps you create an awesome experience for your church staff and church members. By giving church staff the tools they need to work efficiently (like workflow automation, marketing tools, a church check-in system, and reporting) and members the tools they need to connect (like an engagement platform and an app), Tithe.ly serves everyone. 

Tithe.ly’s suite of advanced features includes a giving platform (Tithe.ly Church Giving has multiple options for giving, including giving with credit card, with crypto, and more), a church management system for church operations, a website builder, an app builder, accounting tools, people management and communication, volunteer management, service and worship planning, and even a free media kit. It’s easy to use and will scale with your church as it grows–without scaling in price. 

Pros:

Out of all church member software tools, Tithe.ly offers the widest range of capabilities. For example, Tithe.ly is the only tool that offers free church media, allowing you to create awesome graphic content for your social media accounts, website, sermon series, and more.

Cons:

The only con? Tithe.ly might just take the place of your other tools...and leave your church admin scrounging for more work to do.

Pricing:

Finally, Tithe.ly is an affordable church management software. For $72 a month, you get access to all features with unlimited users. 

2. Breeze

Features:

Breeze is a centralized platform that includes a church directory, contribution tracking, text giving, attendance tracking, child check-ins, and event registration. It also includes membership management, with the ability to view member profiles based on giving information, or the customizable information of your choice.

Pros:

Breeze is a cloud-based church management system and hands down is one of the best ChMS there is, meeting all of your basic needs as a church.

Cons:

Breeze doesn’t offer marketing tools to build your own church website or church app.

Pricing:

Breeze is very affordable, at $72 per month.

3. PowerChurch Plus

Features:

PowerChurch Plus offers tools for member management, accounting, event scheduling, and inventory keeping (such as with equipment and other assets). 

Pros:

PowerChurch appears to be cost-effective because it doesn’t require ongoing payments.

Cons:

You must pay for additional upgrades. Not only that, but it doesn’t offer a comprehensive suite of tools. PowerChurch does not, for example, offer tools for email or text marketing, website or app building, or free media. Unlike most church member software, PowerChurch is not cloud-based.

Pricing:

PowerChurch has a single upfront cost for downloading ($395-$415).

4. Churchteams Software 

Features:

Churchteams is a church member software that offers a suite of helpful tools and capabilities, including a giving platform, a texting platform, membership management, volunteer management, a dashboard for automating workflows, and more. 

Pros:

Churchteams does offer some marketing tools like email marketing and texting. 

Cons:

Churchteams does not offer the capabilities for creating digital assets like a website or app. 

Pricing:

Churchteams’ pricing tiers are also based on your members–making this is fine solution for mid-sized churches, but not for churches that want to scale. 

5. ShelbyNext

Features:

ShelbyNext, or Shelby Systems, is a church management software solution that provides tools for accounting, management, website and app building, online giving, and more. 

Pros:

As far as church member software goes, Shelby Systems is one of the more comprehensive offerings available.

Cons:

There’s one significant downside: the pricing. ShelbyNext charges per feature, meaning you’ll pay separately for church management, background checks, accounting, and more. 

Pricing:

There is an “all-in-one” package for Shelby Systems, but the pricing isn’t transparent on the website. 

6. FellowshipOne

Features:

Fellowship One offers a suite of tools to help churches run more efficiently, manage their members, and market themselves online. The platform includes church management, church accounting, online giving, a church app and website builder, background checks, and worship planning.

Pros:

FellowShip One provides a pretty comprehensive range of solutions for churches. 

Cons:

Like ShelbyNext, the pricing tiers for FellowShip One aren’t transparent. And while it does offer some marketing capabilities, it doesn’t provide free media for churches–leaving them to turn to search engines and external tools for help with actually generating content. 

Pricing:

While it provides a monthly price for its giving platform, Fellowship One doesn’t provide pricing for other tools. 

7. SimpleChurch CRM

Features:

SimpleChurch CRM is a membership software that includes tools for contact management, online giving, volunteer scheduling, attendance tracking, and task management. It also includes an app builder (though it doesn’t include a website builder). 

Pros:

SimpleChurch CRM is a robust church management software. 

Cons:

SimpleChurch CRM may be one of the most expensive options for churches looking for a centralized platform with all the tools they need. 

Pricing:

SimpleChurch CRM is a bit on the pricier side–at $60 per month for a church with less than 200 people (and $160 for a church with less than 1,000 people). 

8. One Church Software

Features:

One Church Software offers communication tools, financial tools, kid check-in, worship planning, volunteer management, reporting, member management and more. It also provides an app, with pricing tiers, depending on how much customization you would like. 

Pros:

One Church might be a good solution for churches–if it weren’t for the high monthly pricing.

Cons:

As church size increases, so does price. Even with their annual plan–which cuts down on monthly costs–pricing is still high. For a church of 500 people (on the annual plan), the monthly price for the complete solution is $72. And, if your church membership grows, you could end up paying well over $100 a month for their solution.

Pricing:

For a church of 1,000 people, the complete solution costs $140 per month.

9. MinistryPlatform

Features:

MinistryPlatform is a church management software solution that offers tools for contact management, volunteer management and child check-in, reporting, donations, and a search tool. You can also add custom fields to the platform to customize it for your needs. 

Pros:

MinistryPlatform has some cool features–but it’s also missing some of the key features of an all-in-one solution. 

Cons:

It doesn’t have any tools for marketing or website/app building, and it doesn’t seem to include texting or mass email tools. And it’s incredibly expensive. 

Pricing:

10. Faithlife Equip

Features:

Faithlife Equip is marketed to stressed-out church leaders who need more time to focus on ministry (and less time on admin). The most distinctive feature of Faithlife Equip is that it includes Bible software–in fact, “Equip” is an arm of a Bible software.

Pros:

Equip includes many of the major features that churches are looking for, including tools for church management, online giving, website building, and worship planning.

Cons:

User reviews, however, report that Equip is “clunky” and not very user-friendly.

Pricing:

Faithlife Equip is one of the most church member solutions, costing a minimum of $149.99 per month for very small churches...and up to $649.99 per month for churches over 1,500 members. 

Final Thoughts

Clearly, there are plenty of church management solutions to choose from. Choosing which one is best, however, will take time and consideration. Church teams and religious organizations will want tools to help them create a great experience for staff and members. That includes tools to run daily operations, to maintain financial health, to manage church events, and to create an amazing online experience for the entire congregation. 

A user friendly church management solution will provide all of this tooling in an intuitive, single source system. Plus, the yearly price or monthly price should be low enough for small and midsize churches. Finally, the software should be a cloud-based solution–avoiding extra costs for storage or potential loss of data. 

Tithe.ly is a cloud-based church management solution that has all of the key features for effective church management–and more. With a tool for creating a website and mobile device app, Tithe.ly Church Giving for offering multiple options to give, a powerful texting platform, and the ability to create smart reports based on church attendance and member activity, Tithe.ly is the best church member software of 2024. Not only that, but it doesn’t rely on confusing pricing tiers, or leave you wondering about accurate price estimates. For a single price––you get all features with unlimited scalability. 

Church Member Software FAQs

Here are some of the most commonly asked questions about church management software. 

What are the features of Church Management Software?

How to Choose a Good Church Management Software?

How do Churches Keep Track of Members?

How do Churches Collect Data?

What are the features of Church Management Software?

Church management software typically includes the following key features:

• Online giving
• Service planning to track attendance and communicate effectively
• Volunteer management to help staff schedule volunteers
• Financial management
• Workflow automation to improve event management and more
• Marketing tools to help with branding, event planning, mass communication, and more
• Reporting tools (including attendance records, financial reports, and more)

How to Choose a Good Church Management Software?

Look for an all-in-one package that allows you to take advantage of all tools for one low price. An integrated package will prevent you from add-on costs, and will allow you to scale. You’ll also want to look for customer reviews that report on ease of use, onboarding, and customer support. 

How do Churches Keep Track of Members?

Church member software helps churches to organize contact information and maintain records of members’ activity, roles, financial contributions, and more. 

How do Churches Collect Data?

Reporting tools help churches to collect data on attendance, financials, and more.