Apps Talk to your people
Talk to your people
Church texting, email, and social scheduling
Texting is for clarity and care. A cancelled service, a death in the congregation, a prayer request the elders need to carry: all worth a message. A weekly promotional drip teaches the congregation to ignore the number, and once they ignore it you have lost the channel for the message that mattered. Consent, quiet hours, and a real opt-out come before any feature on a pricing page.
Before you buy
Demand this in writing
Ask for every line below before a card goes on file. A vendor who will not put an answer in an email has answered.
- Documented consent and a working opt-out on every message you send
- Quiet hours you control, especially Sunday afternoon and after nine at night
- Lists narrow enough that one event never reaches the whole directory
- Written confirmation of who owns the phone number and the message history if you leave
- Compliance guidance built into the sending flow rather than buried in a help article
- A draft and approval step when more than one person writes
- A post history an elder can review without asking a volunteer for a login
The tools
Named options
Rows are not ranked. They run from the tool most churches meet first to the narrower options, and anything of ours goes last. Where a price was verified, the row carries the date it was read and a link to the page it came from.
Clearstream
Right for
Churches that want church-shaped texting with a low entry price
The cheapest published entry point of the church texting tools we checked, and incoming messages cost nothing, so a two-way conversation with a member does not burn the budget. Credits are the unit you are buying, so estimate your monthly sends before picking a tier.
Who should skip it
Skip it if you send a handful of messages a year. A group thread costs nothing.
Price
Starter is $29 a month for 1,250 credits and one number. Growth is $49, Professional is $99, Business is $199, and the tiers continue upward. Only outgoing messages use credits. The trial runs 30 days with 100 credits.
Text In Church
Right for
Offices that want the follow-up sequences written for them
Sold as texting with the workflows attached: first-time visitor follow-up, absence check-ins, event reminders, with templates already written. That is the value and also the risk, because the templates are what turn a pastoral channel into a marketing one. Rewrite them in your own voice or do not use them.
Who should skip it
Skip it if you will not review every bulk message before it sends. The automation is the expensive part and the part that can hurt.
Price
Basic is $37 a month for 500 messages and one local number. Pro is $67 for 1,500 messages, Premium is $97 for 2,500. Paying yearly brings those to about $31, $56, and $81 a month. Overage is 3 cents a message.
Meta Business Suite
Right for
Churches that post to Facebook and Instagram and nowhere else
Free scheduling for the two networks most congregations use, from the company that owns both. The interface pushes boosted posts and paid reach at every step. Decline them, schedule service times, Scripture, and pastoral notices, and it does the job at no cost.
Who should skip it
Skip it if you post anywhere beyond those two networks, because you will end up in two tools.
Price
Free for scheduling. Advertising is a separate decision.
Buffer
Right for
A volunteer scheduling a few accounts across several networks
A calm interface that queues posts and gets out of the way. The free plan connects up to three channels, which covers most churches without a card on file. Captions still need a person; generic faith graphics teach the public to scroll past your church.
Who should skip it
Skip it if one person posts to one page. The native tool is free and already open.
Price
Free for up to 3 channels with 10 scheduled posts per channel. Essentials is $5 a month per channel and Team is $10 a month per channel on the yearly bill.
Church Posting poster
By Church PostingRight for
Churches that want scheduling at no charge when it opens
Our scheduler, in early access at social.churchposting.com. The planned free tier covers up to three social accounts when it goes live. We are not promising a date. Until it opens, Meta Business Suite or Buffer does the same work today.
Who should skip it
Anyone who needs to schedule a post this week. Use one of the tools above.
Price
Not open yet. The planned free tier covers up to three accounts.
Write every message as if a grieving member reads it first. If it can wait for the bulletin, let it wait.
Have a bill that says otherwise?
Invoices from pastors and treasurers correct these pages faster than anything else does. Send one, or read how we review.