Apps Money
Money
Giving platforms and church accounting
Giving and accounting used to be two pages here. A church does not decide them separately. The gift arrives through a processor, lands in a fund, and has to show up on a statement the giver can hand to an accountant, so the processor and the ledger are one purchase with two invoices. Count the fees in dollars a year at your real giving volume before you compare anything else.
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.
- A published fee schedule for cards, ACH, and American Express, in writing, before signup
- The effective rate worked out in dollars against last year total giving
- ACH or bank transfer offered, so families can avoid card fees when they choose to
- Designated fund records that match your chart of accounts line for line
- Year-end statements a giver can hand to a tax preparer without a phone call
- Restricted and unrestricted funds kept separate in the ledger, not in a spreadsheet beside it
- Payroll that handles a minister housing allowance correctly in your state
- Export for CPA review and for the board packet
- Separation of duties written down: who enters, who approves, who reconciles
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.
Planning Center Giving
Right for
Churches already keeping people records in Planning Center
The lowest published card rate of the church processors we checked, and donor identity stays attached to the household record instead of living in a second database. The free tier stops at 10 donations a month, which almost every church clears.
Who should skip it
Skip it if your membership records live somewhere else, because the integration is most of the value.
Price
Card and debit processing at 2.15% + $0.30 in the US. Free up to 10 monthly donations, paid above that.
Tithe.ly
Right for
Churches that want giving at no monthly charge and may add a site or app later
Giving costs nothing a month, and the ACH rate at 1% + $0.30 is the number to point families toward. A church of 200 giving units moves real money by asking for bank transfer instead of card. The other products are separate subscriptions and the bundle only pays off if you use all of them.
Who should skip it
Skip the bundle if you already have a website and a church management system you like. Buy the giving and leave the rest.
Price
Giving is $0 a month. Card and debit processing at 2.9% + $0.30, American Express at 3.5% + $0.30, ACH at 1% + $0.30. Their church management is $72 a month, a website is $19 a month, a custom app is $89 a month, and the all-access bundle is $119 a month. Premium onboarding is a one-time $599.
Givelify
Right for
Churches whose givers will use a phone app and nothing else
No monthly fee and a giving experience a first-time digital giver can finish in under a minute. There is no ACH option in the published fee schedule, so every gift carries a card rate. At a card rate of 2.9% + $0.30, a church receiving $300,000 a year in gifts of $100 pays roughly $9,600 in fees.
Who should skip it
Skip it if a meaningful share of your giving could move to bank transfer, because that is where the savings are.
Price
No signup fee and no monthly fee. Card processing at 2.9% + $0.30, American Express at 3.5% + $0.30.
Pushpay
Right for
Large churches with someone who negotiates contracts for a living
A polished product with a sales process attached. We checked their pricing page and it publishes no rate and no fee schedule; the page asks you to book a demo. We have not signed a contract, so we have no figure to give you and we are not going to guess at one. Ask for the effective rate in writing, ask for the term length, and have an elder read it.
Who should skip it
Skip it if nobody at your church will read the whole agreement. A multi-year term you cannot explain to the congregation is not a stewardship decision.
Price
No price is published. Pricing comes through a sales conversation.
Aplos
Right for
Churches that want true fund accounting without an enterprise ledger
Built for nonprofit and church books, so restricted and unrestricted funds are the structure rather than a workaround. A treasurer can close a month in it without inventing a system first.
Who should skip it
Skip it if your bookkeeper already runs a clean chart of accounts elsewhere and your activity is simple.
Price
Monthly subscription by tier. We have not verified a current figure, so none is printed here. Ask for the tier list and the payroll add-on cost in writing.
QuickBooks Online
Right for
Churches whose bookkeeper or CPA already lives in QuickBooks
Every accountant in the country knows it, which lowers the cost of finding help and closing a review. Fund accounting is possible through classes and a disciplined chart of accounts, and it holds up when a competent person owns it.
Who should skip it
Skip it if nobody owns the books. The discipline is the product here, and without it the fund balances quietly stop meaning anything.
Price
Intuit subscription, priced by plan. We have not verified a current figure, so none is printed here. Accountant fees are separate.
Print the fee schedule once a year and put it in front of the finance team. A processor that will not show you its rate before signup has told you what the rate is going to be.
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.