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8 Top Church App Providers

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Churches use many apps for presenting media, tracking membership, helping with budgets, and even updating their websites. Some churches also offer a church app primarily for people who attend their church. They contract with a church app provider to make an app that is branded for their church and focused on the needs of people in the pews.

These forward-facing church apps help the church communicate with their members, guests, and community and, in turn, offer opportunities for church members and attendees to communicate with the staff. We also have an article that lists church apps according to how affordable they are.

We tested eight church app services and rated them based on the following five criteria:

  1. Ease of Use – How much expertise and technical skill does the user need?
  2. Platform Support – Will it work on an iPhone, iPad, Android and maybe even other mobile devices?
  3. Setup Process – What is the setup process like?
  4. Cost – How much does it cost and can medium or smaller churches afford it?
  5. Features – Does the service offer the kinds of features users will want?

This list of 8 Top Church App Providers is in alphabetical order. You can click on any of the hyperlinks below to jump down to that company's review:

  1. Aware3
  2. The Church App
  3. Custom Church Apps
  4. MinistryOne
  5. Pushpay
  6. Sharefaith
  7. Subsplash
  8. Tithe.ly

#1 – Aware3

preview image
Aware3 is a church app company that focuses on three areas of interaction, which they call connection, communication, and generosity. To that end, they offer ways to connect with the members and the church, two-way communication between people and their staff, and in-app donations.
Potential users can schedule a demonstration where a member of the Aware3 staff will walk the user through the setup process and show them how the backend works. This backend lets users control their app and add or subtract various features.

The app will offer features for the following:

  • Chat
  • Push Notifications
  • Sermon Notes
  • App, Text, and Web Giving
  • Live Polls
  • People Profiles

preview image2

You won’t get much of a look at the features from the backside without scheduling a demo. You can, however, download examples from churches that use Aware3 for their church apps. They run on both iOS and Android.

Aware3 charges on a monthly or annual basis giving users the opportunity to save some money if they pay for 12 months in advance. The starter plan starts at $69/month billed annually. A Basic plan costs $148/month and the Standard level costs $219/month. That's a pretty big upgrade from when we last rounded up the best church apps. If you want to pay monthly, prices increase to $158 and $239.

The Starter package is for smaller churches with less than 150 in attendance. The Basic plan is for larger churches. The Standard costs more because it includes the three features listed below. With the Starter or Basic plans, churches can also add some features for an extra monthly cost as follows:

  • Live Polling – $19
  • Chat – $39
  • Text Engagement – $59

These three are included in the more expensive Standard plan.

#2 – The Church App

the church app

The Church App was built by Subsplash to be a home for churches and ministries everywhere, a place where your current members and those looking for a new spiritual home can find you on their mobile devices. You can create a custom presence within The Church App that enables you to engage and grow your audience with gospel-centered content, receive donations digitally, build community with in-app messaging, and much more.

This platform includes every feature that churches need in a mobile app. “Media delivery” is where The Church App really shines—you can host, stream, and share your sermons, podcasts, and other media without exposing your congregation to ads or third-party content. Does your church have a podcast or music to share? Audio can be downloaded for offline listening and keeps playing when other apps are being used. The audio for your videos will continue to play after the screens on your congregants’ phones have been turned off, and the video will sync up with the audio when the phone screens get turned on again.

The Church App has many more features helpful for both churches and their congregations. You can keep your congregation informed with push notifications, an events calendar, and a blog. With The Church App’s in-app giving tool, your community can make donations anytime, anywhere using their phones. An in-app messaging tool drives users back to your app, keeping church communication safe and centralized in a medium you control. The Church App also includes a Bible and “fill in notes,” prebuilt note sheets about sermon content to help your community follow along and interact with it.

Adding your church to The Church App costs $99.99 per month when billed annually or $110 per month when billed monthly. There are additional charges for certain features, like in-app messaging. The digital giving solution is free, but a processing fee of 1.9–2.9% plus 0.30 is charged for each transaction.

#3 – Custom Church Apps

Custom Church Apps offers benefits to potential users by offering a free 30-day trial. It is the only service where churches can get an app designed for them and have full access without paying a dime. Churches will need to sign up with a credit card, and they can get started by making a few simple choices. The company will get you started building your app right away.

custom church apps console

I set up my church app by answering a few questions and then chose the style and features I wanted. They worked on building the app and contacted me to make sure I didn’t have any special needs.

The basic plan costs $29.95/month with no setup fee – if you have simple needs and already have an online giving service. You can add custom forms for things like guests, new members, prayer requests, and more. It will cost you $59.95/month. Pricing is based on the number of church attendees and full details are available here.

custom church apps examples
The service can integrate Proclaim signals from Faithlife’s worship presentation service. This lets users see content on their phones when doing presentations in church using Proclaim.

Other features include online giving, note taking integration, podcasts for sermons or other media, digital Bible integration, an online store for music, and more.

Custom Church Apps builds apps for both iOS and Android. If you want to see some iOS examples, see their listing of Custom Church Apps for iPhone or iPad. Here’s the list of Android examples.

[Editor’s Note: Custom Church Apps is currently offering $500 off the setup fee to CTT readers. Select “ChurchTechToday” from the drop-down menu once you enter your email address to sign up.]

#4 – MinistryOne

One of the best values in church apps comes from Ministry One. They wanted to make the creation of a church app simple and they succeeded. It’s as close to set it and forget it as you come in church app providers.

The company keeps the cost low at only $39/month. If the church uses one of their sister products, then they will throw in access to a church app for free. Those services include the following:

Churches that use third-party services can integrate them into their church app. In addition to their sister site listed above, they will work with other companies solutions. Here’s a graphic showing some of these services below:

ministry one partners
Ministry One will integrate with any of these services.

The Ministry One church app service is an add-on to their other services. That means it will help churches interact with members with attendance, keeping track of contact information, handle giving and sign up for events and even pay for the even, plus support the church with their offerings and tithes.

ministry one configuration screen

To set up an app, you’ll log into their configuration screen. Along the left, you'll see the links to open each section of the configuration system. The Modules will help you add tabs to your app. They offer the following modules:

  • Giving – Set up a screen to give tithes or make contributions to special causes or offerings and see giving history.
  • Sermons – Access to sermons from other services like YouTube, Vimeo or one of the Ministry One partners.
  • Events – Set up events for the people to learn about and sign up for.
  • Discover – A kind of landing page where app users can find sermons and events you choose to show.
  • Contact – Create contact forms for things like prayer requests and letting guests give their information.

Add all of these sections and then design the app style and color to match your church's branding.

Here's a look at the final product below:

ministry-one-church-app

On the screen furthest to the right in the screenshots above you'll see the messages section. You can send out notifications and schedule them to go at predetermined times. The app user can set up the app to receive them instantly when they come or only when they open the app by turning on or off notifications on their phone.

See all of the company's training videos on Vimeo.

The App Store apps, whether you use Android or Apple, work the same except that Apple doesn’t let you take donations within the app without taking 33% for themselves. So the company solves this by using a link in the app to a website where app users can then make donations online.

#5 – Pushpay

pushpay app river church

The Pushpay philosophy focuses on giving and community with an app making both easy for churches and users alike. They offer a strong company to make support a benefit.

The home screen (see image above) stays up-to-date with the most current information that the church wants users to see. They can also use the service for varied communication methods:

      • Push Categories: Users can choose to receive certain kinds of updates, like emergency messages, reminders or others.
      • Geo Categories: The staff of the church can let users set up push notifications based on location so that when a user comes by the church building, they get a notification. Use this to remind users with something like, “The office is open. Come by and grab a cup of coffee!”
      • Campus Categories: Multisite churches can let attendees choose to receive notifications from their site instead of from all sites. This could be used to let the folks at each location know that their senior pastor will preach from their location this week.

The above video shows the Mobile App Studio. This application allows churches to customize their app with a drag-and-drop user interface in the online control panel where they set up their app. Churches get access to the Mobile App Studio which makes it easy for them to update their app.  Pushpay provides personal training for church staff on how to use the MAS during the implementation process.

The company prides itself on their security promising PCI Level-1 compliance, meaning they have an outside organization audit their security to ensure customers data gets secured properly.

Pushpay comes in three available tiers as follows:

  • Core
  • Advanced
  • Complete

To get the custom church app you’ll need to subscribe to the Advanced or Complete tiers. The lowest level, Core, leaves off the quick polls, sermon notes, Bible reading plans, and responses. Churches will also need to upgrade to Advanced or Complete to get a branded giving experience and custom-giving URL. To see all the differences see their optional tiers see https://pushpay.com/pricing/To get actual pricing details you’ll need to contact the company directly.

The service starts at $200/month. Giving costs include a 1% fee for ACH, 2% for debit cards and 3% for credit cards. The giver can choose to pay that costs instead of passing them along to the church.

#6 – ShareFaith

Sharefaith Church Mobile AppsShareFaith offers a full suite of church-focused services. I first discovered them as a church graphics supplier. They offer a nice collection of church video loops, background graphics, theme graphics, and videos for worship services and church marketing material. They have added a slew of other services including websites, giving services, Sunday School, VBS lessons, worship presentation software, and now church apps.

sharefaith app exampleTo subscribe to the ShareFaith Church App, you’ll need a ShareFaith Complete Yearly Membership, which costs $72/month billed annually or $80/month billed monthly. The full services include all the items listed above including the online or app giving service. They also do not charge for startup, which can be a big saving compared to the other services.

The app service includes some great features like:

  • Streaming video and audio of sermons and sermon notes
  • AirPlay or Google Play for streaming sermons from the app to a TV
  • Online and app giving
  • Calendar and event planning
  • Bulletins and newsletter publishing
  • Blogs
  • Promos of upcoming events
  • Push notifications

sharefaith app builder

The ShareFaith Church App Builder looks simple to use. It is not as advanced as other apps and people without a lot of skill or time will appreciate it. Plus the user can create both an iPhone or iPad app as well as Android apps.

#7 – Subsplash

Subsplash

Subsplash, which created the very first church app in 2009, offers best-in-class church engagement tools with multiple plans to serve churches and ministries of all sizes. Subsplash app packages start at $99/month ($1,200 per year), plus a one-time $499 setup fee.

As part of their Ultimate Engagement Platform™, Subsplash’s base package includes an all-in-one suite of tools, including custom mobile apps, media hosting and streaming, digital giving (with no monthly fee), and a website builder.

The advanced packages contain even more features, such as in-app messaging, live streaming, custom Roku and Apple TV apps, API access for developers, and more.

Additional functionality included in all app packages:

  • In-app media delivery platform with sermon player
  • Group/segmented push notifications
  • Calendars and recurring events
  • Media storage (1 TB)
  • Live streaming add-on
  • Integrated Bible with audio
  • Sermon notes
  • Custom website forms
  • Google Chromecast and Apple Airplay for casting to TVs
  • Podcasts and audio downloads for offline listening

Every Subsplash client receives a dedicated Client Success Manager, with technical support offered seven days a week.

#8 – Tithe.ly

Screenshot for Top 8 app article 2018

Tithe.ly church apps have been built to engage people on the go and help your church connect with people through interactive tools. Their focus is on enabling church members to have meaningful interactions by allowing them to take interactive sermon notes, listen to messages on the go, access small group material, check the prayer list, engage with your real-time church news feed, give a donation, and much more.

Churches looking for an app can call the Tithe.ly phone line and get a demonstration where a member of the Tithe.ly staff will walk you through the setup process and show you how the backend works.

The Tithe.ly church app backend/admin tools allow you to easily update your app, but Tithe.ly's goal is to build your church an app that you don’t have to spend much time managing. They work hard to feed your app from sources you’re already using such as YouTube, Google Calendar, your website, blog, Facebook, Twitter, and more.

One of the best parts of the Tithe.ly church app is that their team does the building for you then trains your team on how to use the admin tools. That way, you’re not spending a lot of time learning the tool on your own.

ChurchAppGraphic top 8 post 2018

The app offers many features. Some of the notable features are:

  • Custom branding and configuration/layout
  • In-app media player for sermons, podcasts, and video
  • Live and interactive sermon notes
  • Built-in bible and prayer wall
  • Interactive Social and Church Content Newsfeed
  • Blast and scheduled push notifications
  • Integrated calendar and events
  • Built-in digital bulletin and content feeds
  • In-app, text, and online giving tools + admin/reporting features

 Tithe.ly charges a $149 setup fee and then $59/mo, but you can get your first six months and the setup fee for free right now. You get all the features and will not be charged more for more users or church size.

Alternate Option: Contract With Your Own Developer

Another option is for a church to contract with an independent developer to create a custom church app for their specific needs. You might have a programmer in your church who’s talented enough to produce a great iPhone, iPad, and Android app. That’s rare, but not impossible. It’s also possible to find a developer who specializes in church app development. If you can’t find a mobile app developer to suit your needs, you might have a website developer who can make a great mobile website for your church that users can use on their phones or tablets as if they have an app. On iOS, you can add a link to the iPhone’s Home screen that behaves like an app. Android has a similar feature, although not as easily.

Which One to Choose?

All the church app solutions listed here offer useful features. By evaluating your church’s specific needs in terms of communication, giving, and messaging, you can best determine what solution will work for you. Many of the solutions listed above to have trial offers or conditional periods of service where you can test out the app to make sure it’s going to be the best mobile solution for your church.

[This article was revised as of February 2019.]

Kevin Purcell
Kevin Purcellhttp://www.kevinpurcell.org
Dr. Kevin Purcell is a pastor, writer, and tech enthusiast. He serves High Peak Baptist Church as pastor. He is passionate about digital Bible study and enjoys helping others delve into God's Word using tech tools. Kevin is married to Barb, an elementary school teacher, and is father to two college-age sons. Pastor Kevin blogs at https://www.kevinpurcell.org/

13 COMMENTS

  1. Thank you for sharing this list of top church app providers. I think it’s very useful for churches that want to create their own app and connect with their members. However, I also think that churches should know more about the process and benefits of building a church app, and what features and options they have. That’s why I want to share this article with you: https://www.cleveroad.com/blog/how-to-build-a-church-app/. It explains how to build a church app step by step, what are the main challenges and solutions, and how much it costs. I hope you find it helpful and informative.

  2. Streaming live is a great choice! We can definitely reach million audiences and shower our preachings across the globe. I’d suggest you to get a support of live streaming solution providers to stream your live events for church better. Below I compiled the list of top 10 platforms to build your own church apps effortlessly. Checkout https://hackernoon.com/10-best-live-video-streaming-solutions-to-build-live-streaming-website-app-instantly-ea129432d59d

  3. Your intro says you rated the apps based on 5 criteria, but then you listed them alphabetically. There is no “rating” on the list. I’d love to see an actual rating or a spreadsheet with features compared for easy viewing.

  4. Hi guys! Tom, thanks for the quide it looks absolutely must-to-read for anybody who deals with marketing communication in daily routine. What about the others? Did you feel the power of push notifications? Is it really worth trying? What were your inbound rates after implementing marketing automation? Could you, please, share your experience? What about our last discoveries – we were really satisfied with that new tool for churches called Interactio ( more info available upon link https://interactio.io/house-of-worship?src=church ) – in short it’s app designed for churches that are multi-cultural and multi-language, it basically saves your time and input for broadcasting speaker’s speech in real life time to any language you need to any smart device ( smartphone or tablet) just by using headphones, wi-fi & uploaded application. Isn’t that fantastic, is it? So taking into account, this tool can save a lot of investment that previously we spend on communication, planning, ordering & transporting on equipment for our church services. Absolutely added value experience for multi-cultural events and venues.

  5. Neil, thanks for the overview. We are on the same page thinking of Aware3 – they have easy-to-use interface navigation, forms and all insides are very well designed for users of different level. So all users can receive their updates or any needed info fast, easy and quick – that’s the perfect match in my opinion. What’s more this app provides smart pushes that’s very handy in some cases, I have no doubts that this notifications are essential, if you’re still wondering its power, strongly suggesting to read this guide https://getfirepush.com/blogs/news/web-push-notifications-acomplete-beginners-guide So what about the others Aware 3 users? Are you satisfied overall? What is your favorite feature?

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