Best church management software under $50 a month

Fifty bucks. You can run a small church’s ChMS, giving, and check-in on a budget that wouldn’t cover a single Sunday’s coffee at a megachurch. 

The catch is that “under $50” means several different things depending on how a vendor prices its software, and the number on the pricing page is rarely the number you pay.

Most of these tools are cloud-based, so there’s nothing to install and your data syncs across the office and the mobile app. What separates them is the pricing model, the depth of features, and the transaction fees on donations. The cheapest plan on paper isn’t always the cheapest plan you’ll run.

The short answer on the cheapest options

If you want the fast version, here’s where most small churches land.

• ChurchTrac: the strongest all-around value under $50, and it stays cheap because you pay by how many people you track.
• FlockBase: the pick when fund accounting is the priority, since FlockBase was built by accountants before it was built for pastors.
• Planning Center: the flexible choice, because you buy one module at a time and a light setup lands well below $50.
• Churchease: a newer all-in-one platform where the $49 plan includes giving and full church accounting.
• Breeze ChMS: now owned by Tithely, its flat rate sits just over the line at around $72.

Everything below is the reasoning, the feature detail for each option, and the part where “cheapest” and “right for you” turn out to be two separate questions.

How church management software pricing works

Three churches can buy nearly identical features and get three very different bills, because church management software runs on three pricing logics.

Flat-rate pricing is the simplest. Breeze ChMS (now Tithe.ly‘s church management plan) charges one price for unlimited members and unlimited users, so a 40-person plant and a 400-person church pay the same monthly rate. Predictable, and a little rich when you’re tiny.

Per-person or membership tiering is ChurchTrac’s model. Your price climbs with the number of people you track, so a 75-member congregation pays almost nothing and a 2,000-member church pays real money. It scales with your membership in both directions, and there’s no penalty for being small.

Modular, per-product pricing is the third, and it’s where Planning Center lives. You pay for each product you turn on, so giving, check-in, and service planning each carry their own line item. Two modules can sit comfortably under $50. Add a couple more and you’ve quietly built a $120 plan.

One cost hides behind all three: transaction fees on donations. Most platforms take around 2.9% plus $0.30 on card gifts, with ACH running cheaper. On $200,000 in card giving, that’s roughly $6,100 a year, which dwarfs any $50 subscription. When you compare tools, the giving fees matter as much as the sticker price. Price aside, check the integrations each platform supports, whether it offers custom fields, and how quickly the support team responds.

Here’s roughly what each option costs as of mid-2026. Treat these as starting points, because vendors reprice and your final bill depends on giving volume and add-ons.

Church management plans and features compared

Most church management software sells in tiers, and the jump between plans is really a jump in features. Knowing which features live on which plan keeps you from overpaying for capability you won’t touch or picking a tier that can’t run your Sunday.

• Free and starter plans: ChurchTrac, Planning Center, and Churchease each offer a genuinely free plan with core people management, groups, and basic communication. Churchease’s free Starter adds a member portal and unlimited members; ChurchTrac’s free tier handles directories and messaging.
• Mid-tier plans (about $9 to $29): this is where the features that run a service show up, including attendance tracking, child check-in, and volunteer scheduling. ChurchTrac’s Standard plan and Churchease’s $29 Standard plan both sit here.
• Top budget plans (up to about $49): accounting and automation join the feature set. ChurchTrac Plus adds budgets and fund balances, while Churchease’s $49 Growth plan adds full accounting, children’s ministry, and AI tools.
• Flat-rate, all-in plans: Breeze ChMS/Tithe.ly include every feature at one price (around $72), which is simpler to budget but crosses the $50 line.

The takeaway for plan shopping: match the plan to the features you’ll use this year, not the ones you might want someday. You can almost always upgrade a plan mid-year without losing data.

ChurchTrac pricing and features

ChurchTrac offers a usable free plan, paid plans start in the single digits, and because you’re billed by database size, the cost grows only as your church does. For most congregations under a few hundred people, this is the cheapest serious option on the market.

The paid tiers add the tools a small church leans on: giving and pledge tracking, online donations, child check-in, attendance tracking, event sign-ups, and volunteer scheduling. The Plus plan layers in church accounting, so you can manage budgets, track deposits and spending, and watch fund balances without a second product. There’s a Church Connect member portal and mobile app for profile updates, event registration, and online giving. ChurchTrac also offers free data imports and integrations for exporting to your accounting system. Reviews consistently rank it near the top on value, and its ratings across review sites reflect how much you get for the price.

The tradeoff is polish. The interface feels more utilitarian than the glossier platforms, and there’s a learning curve for the finance tools. For a church that cares more about capability than curb appeal, that’s an easy trade.

FlockBase for church accounting

If your treasurer still keeps the books in a spreadsheet they guard like the communion silver, FlockBase is the answer. FlockBase was built around fund accounting first, which is the feature that separates real church accounting from generic bookkeeping. It handles designated funds, payroll, and the reporting a church board asks for, and it does it at a starting price around $24 a month.

Where most church management software treats accounting as an afterthought, FlockBase treats membership and giving as the add-ons and puts the ledger at the center. You get fund-based reporting, contribution tracking, and payroll that understands clergy tax rules. That focus is the whole point: churches that pick FlockBase usually do it because a general ChMS couldn’t produce the fund reports their denomination requires.

Two things to weigh before you commit. Online giving costs extra on top of the base FlockBase price, so factor that in if you want donations and accounting under one roof. And FlockBase is lighter on engagement features like a branded app or advanced communication, so it pairs best with a church that already has those bases covered. For accounting-first teams, FlockBase earns its spot on the short list.

Breeze ChMS pricing and features

Breeze ChMS charges a flat $72 a month for everything, and that number doesn’t move whether you have 50 members or 800. Unlimited people, unlimited users, phone and email support, online and text giving, a mobile app, and no setup fees. Churches love Breeze ChMS for being close to foolproof, which matters when the person running it is a volunteer who changes every 18 months. Reviews and user ratings consistently single out its support and clean design.

At $72, Breeze sits just over a strict $50 budget, so why include it? Because the flat rate makes Breeze ChMS one of the most predictable tools to budget, and a growing church often crosses the $50 line anyway once it adds the members and giving volume that make the cheaper tiers climb. If you’re weighing $50 tools against Breeze, the honest question is whether $22 more a month buys you enough simplicity and support to be worth it. For a lot of churches, the answer is yes.

Breeze still charges standard transaction fees on donations, so the $72 is the subscription floor, not the total. And the flat model that helps a mid-size church can feel expensive to a 40-person plant that would pay a few dollars on ChurchTrac. Match Breeze ChMS to the churches it fits: small-to-mid congregations that value a clean, low-training platform over squeezing the last dollar.

Planning Center per-module pricing

Planning Center works differently from every flat-rate tool on this list, and the difference is the whole appeal. You start with a free People database, then bolt on individual products, and your monthly cost is the sum of the modules you turn on.

Here’s how the per-module pricing works in practice. Each product is priced on its own usage tier:

• Check-Ins: starts around $14 a month and scales with how many check-ins you run.
• Services: starts around $14 a month, tiered by how many people you schedule for worship and volunteer teams.
• Giving: free until you pass roughly $20,000 in annual donations, then it steps up.
• Groups and Registrations: each start in the low double digits and climb with members and active events.

A church running two light modules can stay well under $50. Planning Center is among the highest-rated tools in the category, and its ratings reflect that polish, which is why it’s a favorite for church plants that want pro-grade check-in and scheduling without paying for a giving module they don’t need yet. The trap is the same as the appeal: add Services, Groups, and a higher Giving tier as you grow, and a “cheap” plan can pass $100 before anyone notices. The freedom to pay only for what you use is also the freedom to build a bigger bill by accident.

More church software under $50: Churchease, SWAPP, Lumen, and Gatherly

The big four aren’t the only budget options. A handful of newer platforms are worth a look, especially if one specific need is driving your search.

Churchease plans and features

Churchease is a cloud-based, all-in-one platform with a free Starter plan and two paid tiers, and it’s one of the few tools that puts real accounting inside a sub-$50 plan.

• Starter (free forever): people management, family grouping, group management, announcements, a message center, and a member portal, all with unlimited members.
• Standard ($29/month): everything in Starter plus events and a calendar, a service planner, attendance tracking, admin and member self check-in, volunteer management, and follow-up tools.
• Growth ($49/month): everything in Standard plus church giving and donations (contributions, pledges, tax statements), full church accounting (expenses, budgets, financial reports), children’s ministry, automations, forms and surveys, multi-campus management, priority email support, and a set of AI features.

So does the $49 Growth plan include accounting tools? Yes. Church accounting is one of the headline features of the Growth tier, covering expenses, budgets, and financial reports, which is rare at this price. Churchease also runs giving on Stripe with a low 0.5% platform fee on top of card processing, offers integrations and custom forms, and includes unlimited members and a mobile app on every plan. For a church that wants giving, accounting, and engagement in one product without crossing $50, Churchease is a legitimately strong option.

What SWAPP includes for $49 a month

SWAPP is a branded church app and CRM aimed at small churches, and it delivers mobile engagement at a flat $49 a month for the full product. If your main gap is a way to reach people between Sundays, this is the category to look at.

For that $49 a month, SWAPP includes a custom church app with these mobile engagement features:

• Push notifications: send urgent prayer requests and announcements straight to members’ phones.
• A prayer wall: members post requests and celebrate answered prayers in the app.
• Check-in and attendance: built-in tools for services, classes, and events.
• Online giving and scheduling: secure mobile giving plus volunteer scheduling and outreach.

SWAPP is less of a back-office database and more of a front-of-house engagement platform, so a church that already has accounting handled but wants an app its people will actually open should try the free trial and see if it sticks.

What Lumen Suite Basic includes at $19.99 a month

Lumen Suite is a lightweight, cloud-based option that sits at the very bottom of the budget range. Its Basic plan runs $19.99 a month, which makes it one of the cheapest paid tools on this list.

For that $19.99, Lumen Suite Basic covers the essentials: an online member directory with contact management, donation tracking with funds and deposit batches, and end-of-year tax receipts for members. What you’re trading for the low price is depth. Lumen Suite Basic is closer to a smart directory with giving records than a full church management suite, so there’s no rich engagement app or advanced service planning. For a very small church that mostly needs to keep member records and track donations cleanly, the $19.99 Basic plan does the job. For anything more, you’ll outgrow it fast.

Gatherly flat pricing

Gatherly is an all-in-one church communication platform built around community rather than administration, with fellowship circles, a prayer wall, and daily scripture. It uses a low flat rate (around $30 a month at last check) for unlimited members, currently through an invite-only early access program with hands-on onboarding.

How does that flat pricing compare? On price alone, Gatherly undercuts Breeze ChMS by more than half and lands under the $50 cap comfortably. The catch is scope. Gatherly focuses on communication and connection, so it’s a better fit alongside a giving or accounting tool than as your single system of record. If keeping your congregation connected during the week is the problem you’re solving, its flat, unlimited-member pricing is hard to beat.

Which under-$50 ChMS fits your church?

Church size decides more than feature lists do, so start there.

• Under 50 people: ChurchTrac or a two-module Planning Center setup will cover you for the price of a couple of pizzas. Churchease’s free Starter plan is also worth a look if you mostly need people management and communication.
• 50 to 200 people: you’ve got the widest set of options. The deciding factor is usually whether you’d rather pay by headcount (ChurchTrac) or pay one flat, predictable rate (Churchease Growth at $49, or Breeze ChMS just above the line).
• 200-plus people: flat-rate tools start to look like the better deal, since per-person pricing climbs. This is also the size where a premium platform’s giving tools can start to pay for themselves.

For the church whose real need is volunteer scheduling and check-in, two options stand out. Planning Center pairs its Services module for scheduling worship and volunteer teams with a dedicated Check-Ins product, and it’s the most polished combination in the category. If you’d rather keep everything in one bill, Churchease bundles volunteer management and both admin and member self check-in into its $29 Standard plan, which is the cheaper path to the same jobs. ChurchTrac’s advanced scheduling with SMS invites is a strong third.

If accounting is the priority, FlockBase or ChurchTrac’s Plus plan should lead your short list, with Churchease Growth close behind now that it includes financial reports. And if you just want something a rotating cast of volunteers can learn in an afternoon, Breeze ChMS is worth the few extra dollars.

When budget software starts costing you money

There’s a point where the budget plan becomes the expensive one, in a way that never shows up on the invoice. It happens when giving becomes the thing that funds your staff, your building, and your ministries, and your giving tools can’t keep up.

Picture a church bringing in $200,000 a year in online gifts. A recurring giver’s card expires and nothing in the system recovers it, so that monthly gift just stops. A first-time visitor tries to give from their phone during the service, hits a clunky flow, and gives up. There’s no branded app pulling anyone back on a Tuesday. None of that shows up as a fee. It shows up as donations that flatten while your subscription stays a tidy $24.

This is where Pushpay enters the conversation. Pushpay is not a $50 tool. Pushpay is quote-based and sold on an annual plan. If a stronger giving experience lifts recurring gifts or recovers a handful of expired cards each month, the added subscription can pay for itself. On $200,000 of annual giving, recovering even 2% of lapsing gifts is $4,000 back in the budget.

If you’re pre-launch church plant and affiliated with a church planting network, you can apply for Pushpay’s church plant grant and run the full platform free for the first 12 months: giving with Everygift®, church management, and a mobile app. The logic is that the cheapest time to build your foundation is the one before your first Sunday. Your people data, your recurring givers, and your app are in place on day one instead of bolted on after you’ve outgrown a starter tool, and you skip the migration most churches hit when the free plan stops keeping up.

Frequently asked questions about church software pricing

Before you commit

Do this before you sign up for anything. Pick the two tools that fit your size, start the free trials this week, import your real member list, and run one test gift through each so you can watch the fee and feel the giving flow before money’s on the line. Comparing sticker prices takes five minutes. Learning what a platform feels like on a busy Sunday takes a trial, and it’s the only comparison that tells you what you actually need.