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By Church Posting

Church software cost calculator

Put in your congregation size, your online giving, your text volume, and your seats. It returns an annual total for five real stacks, with the payment-processing fee worked out line by line, because that fee is usually larger than every subscription put together.

Every rate read off the vendor page on

Run the numbers See the formula Sources and refusals

Your church

Nine numbers, one annual total

Defaults describe a congregation of 180 taking $220,000 a year in online gifts at an average gift of $80, with a fifth of it arriving by bank transfer. Change anything. Every figure below recomputes from the rates in the source table.

The congregation

Two of the systems here charge the same whether you have 60 people or 900. Size shows up in your giving volume and your text volume instead.

Breeze charges nothing per login. Planning Center Services is free to five team members and paid above that at a rate its page does not print.

Texting

One message to everyone costs one message per person. A congregation of 180 sending four all-church messages a month sends about 720.

Online giving

This decides the transaction count, and every processor here charges a flat 30 cents on top of its percentage. 2,750 gifts a year.

20%

The single biggest lever on this page. Cards run 2.15% to 2.9%. Bank transfer runs 0% to 1%, and one vendor here publishes no bank-transfer rate at all.

Sunday

$289 a seat a year, or $649 for a 20 seat campus license. At three seats the campus license is already cheaper.

Payment processing is 7.9 times everything else you pay. Moving every gift to bank transfer on Planning Center Giving would bring that fee from $4,609 to $825. The dearest stack here is Tithe.ly All-Access at $8,493 a year, $3,303 more than the cheapest.

Cheapest published stack at your numbers

Planning Center

$5,190

a year, plus a records subscription the vendor does not publish

  • Records system no price published
  • Payment processing $4,609
  • Texting $233
  • Streaming $0, Straight to Facebook or YouTube, no streaming subscription
  • Presentation seats $348, 1 seat

The same $220,000 of giving costs $4,609 a year to receive through Planning Center Giving and $7,205 through Givelify. That is $2,596 a year, decided by nothing but which contract you signed.

Where the money arrives

Annual processing fee at your giving volume and your bank-transfer share. This is the line that decides the total.

Annual payment processing fee by processor
Processor Cards Bank transfer A year Relative
Planning Center Giving $4,444 $165 $4,609 64% of the dearest
Subsplash Giving $4,708 $440 $5,148 71% of the dearest
Tithe.ly, and Breeze giving $5,764 $605 $6,369 88% of the dearest
Givelify $7,205 not offered $7,205 100% of the dearest

The records system

Annual subscription for the records system
System A year Logins
No system, records kept in a spreadsheet $0 However many people can open the file, which is the risk.
Breeze ChMS $864 Unlimited admin users at the same price.
Tithe.ly All-Access $1,428 Not stated on the pricing page.
Planning Center no price published Services is free to 5 team members. Above that it is paid, at a rate the page does not print.

Texting

Annual texting cost at your message volume
Provider A year What you are buying
Breeze, includedneeds Breeze ChMS $120 250 free a month, then $10 per 500.
Planning Center messagingneeds Planning Center $233 $5 a month for a toll-free number, then 2 cents a text.
Clearstream $348 Credit tiers from 100 at $0 to 500,000 at $5,400 a month. Incoming texts are free. Paying annually takes 16% off.
Text In Church $523 Basic $37 a month or $369 a year for 500 texts. Pro $67 or $668 for 1,500. Premium $97 or $967 for 2,500. Overage 3 cents a message.

Every stack, itemized

Annual total for each stack, broken into line items
Stack Records Processing Texting Sunday A year
Planning Center not published $4,609 $233 $348 $5,190 plus subscription
Subsplash Giving, records elsewhere $0 $5,148 $348 $348 $5,844
Breeze, giving and texting included $864 $6,369 $120 $348 $7,701
Givelify, records elsewhere $0 $7,205 $348 $348 $7,901
Tithe.ly All-Access $1,428 $6,369 $348 $348 $8,493

What moving gifts to bank transfer is worth

The same giving volume, the same average gift, one variable changed. A church that asks families to give from a bank account instead of a card changes its annual fee more than any software decision on this page. One processor here cannot offer that saving because it publishes no bank-transfer rate.

Annual processing fee at each bank transfer share
By bank transfer Planning Center GivingSubsplash GivingTithe.ly, and Breeze givingGivelify
0% $5,555$5,885$7,205$7,205
20% $4,609$5,148$6,369$7,205 (no change)
40% $3,663$4,411$5,533$7,205 (no change)
60% $2,717$3,674$4,697$7,205 (no change)
80% $1,771$2,937$3,861$7,205 (no change)
100% $825$2,200$3,025$7,205 (no change)

Worked out on paper

The default congregation, in full

A congregation of 180. $220,000 of online gifts a year at an average gift of $80, which is 2,750 transactions. A fifth of it by bank transfer, so 2,200 card gifts and 550 bank gifts. 720 texts a month. One ProPresenter seat. No streaming subscription. Monthly billing. Every figure in this table is fixed at build time and needs no scripting.

Annual cost of each stack at the default congregation, 29 July 2026
Stack Records Processing Texting Sunday A year
Planning Center The lowest published card rate and the only 0% bank-transfer rate here. The subscription is the unknown. not published $4,609 $233 $348 $5,190 plus subscription
Subsplash Giving, records elsewhere No monthly fee on giving and a rate between the other two. The records problem stays unsolved. $0 $5,148 $348 $348 $5,844
Breeze, giving and texting included One flat invoice, unlimited logins, and the giving rate you inherit with it. $864 $6,369 $120 $348 $7,701
Givelify, records elsewhere The simplest signup and the only option with no way to move gifts off card rates. $0 $7,205 $348 $348 $7,901
Tithe.ly All-Access Records, an app, a website, and giving on one bill. $1,428 $6,369 $348 $348 $8,493

Read the processing column against the records column. At this congregation the whole records subscription for Breeze is $864 and the fee to receive the money is $6,369. The gap between the cheapest and the dearest processing figure in that column is $2,596 a year, which buys several years of any subscription on the page.

The fixed fee nobody quotes

Every rate here is really two rates

A processor quotes a percentage and adds a flat 30 cents. The percentage is what gets advertised, the 30 cents is what decides your bill, because it does not shrink with the gift. A congregation of small weekly gifts pays a much higher effective rate than the headline number, and a congregation of large monthly gifts pays close to it.

On a $10 gift, Planning Center's 2.15% card rate costs $0.51, which is 5.15% of the gift. On a $500 gift the same rate costs 2.21%. Same schedule, nearly 2.3 times the effective cost.

Bank transfer at Planning Center is the extreme case. At 0% plus 30 cents, a $500 gift costs 0.06% and a $10 gift costs 3.00%. The fee is the fixed part and nothing else.

Effective fee as a share of the gift, by gift size
0% 1.5% 3% 4.5% 6% $10$25$50$100$250$500 Card 2.9% Card 2.15% Bank 1% + $0.30 Bank 1%, no fixed fee Bank 0% + $0.30 Size of one gift Fee as a share of the gift
  • 2.9% + $0.30 card Tithe.ly, Breeze giving, Givelify
  • 2.15% + $0.30 card Planning Center Giving
  • 1% + $0.30 bank transfer Tithe.ly, Breeze giving
  • 1% bank transfer, no fixed fee stated Subsplash Giving
  • 0% + $0.30 bank transfer Planning Center Giving

Rates read off vendor pricing pages on 29 July 2026. Subsplash's 2.3% card rate is in the table below and off the chart to keep the lines separable.

Effective fee by gift size, every published schedule
Rate schedule $10 gift$25 gift$50 gift$100 gift$250 gift$500 gift
2.9% + $0.30 cardTithe.ly, Breeze giving, Givelify 5.90%4.10%3.50%3.20%3.02%2.96%
2.3% + $0.30 cardSubsplash Giving 5.30%3.50%2.90%2.60%2.42%2.36%
2.15% + $0.30 cardPlanning Center Giving 5.15%3.35%2.75%2.45%2.27%2.21%
1% + $0.30 bank transferTithe.ly, Breeze giving 4.00%2.20%1.60%1.30%1.12%1.06%
1% bank transfer, no fixed fee statedSubsplash Giving 1.00%1.00%1.00%1.00%1.00%1.00%
0% + $0.30 bank transferPlanning Center Giving 3.00%1.20%0.60%0.30%0.12%0.06%
Annual processing fee as online giving grows
$0 $8,750 $17,500 $26,250 $35,000 50,000 100,000 220,000 500,000 1,000,000 Planning Center Giving Subsplash Giving Tithe.ly, and Breeze giving Givelify Online gifts received a year, in dollars Processing fee a year

At an average gift of $80 with a fifth arriving by bank transfer. Rates read off vendor pricing pages on 29 July 2026. Givelify carries no bank-transfer rate, so its whole volume is charged at the card rate.

See the numbers
Vendor 50,000 dollars a year100,000 dollars a year220,000 dollars a year500,000 dollars a year1,000,000 dollars a year
Planning Center Giving $1,048$2,095$4,609$10,475$20,950
Subsplash Giving $1,170$2,340$5,148$11,700$23,400
Tithe.ly, and Breeze giving $1,448$2,895$6,369$14,475$28,950
Givelify $1,638$3,275$7,205$16,375$32,750

How this is calculated

The arithmetic, in full

A calculator whose working is hidden is a black box, and nobody should trust a number about their own budget that they cannot reproduce. Here is every step, in the order the page runs it. Nothing else happens.

  1. Transaction count

    gifts a year = online giving ÷ average gift, rounded to a whole gift

    At $220,000 and an average gift of $80 that is 2,750 transactions. Every processor charges a fixed 30 cents on each one, so this number matters as much as the percentage.

  2. Split by payment method

    bank volume = giving × bank share. card volume = giving − bank volume. Gifts split in the same proportion.

    Where a vendor publishes no bank-transfer rate, the bank share is forced to zero for that vendor and every gift is charged at the card rate. That is why Givelify does not move when you drag the slider.

  3. Processing fee

    fee = (card volume × card percent) + (card gifts × card fixed fee) + (bank volume × bank percent) + (bank gifts × bank fixed fee)

    Worked once per processor at the rates in the source table. American Express carries a higher rate at two of these vendors and is not modeled, because no church knows in advance what share of its gifts will arrive on an Amex card. Where a page names a promotional or volume-negotiated rate, the standard rate is used, because a promotional rate is not a price you can budget against.

  4. Texting

    Metered: (monthly number fee + messages × per-message price) × 12

    Credit tiers: the cheapest tier whose credit allowance covers your volume, × 12

    Message plans: the cheapest plan once overage is counted, which is not always the plan that covers your volume

    Included allowance: ceiling((messages − free allowance) ÷ block size) × block price × 12

    That third line is a real finding rather than a nicety. Text In Church prices overage at 3 cents a message, so at 720 messages a month the Basic plan plus overage costs $523 a year while the Pro plan that covers the volume outright costs $804. The calculator picks the cheaper one and says which.

  5. Seats

    seats = minimum of (seats × per-seat price) and (ceiling(seats ÷ 20) × campus license price)

    ProPresenter is the one line in a church stack that really is priced per person. At $289 a seat a year against $649 for twenty seats, the campus license wins from the third seat onward.

  6. Streaming and records

    monthly price × 12, or the published annual price when annual billing is selected

    Resi publishes both, and its annual price is exactly twelve times its monthly price on every plan, so annual billing saves nothing there. Clearstream takes 16% off for annual. ProPresenter charges $289 a year against $348 paid monthly. Text In Church publishes an annual price on each plan.

  7. The total

    annual total = records + processing + texting + streaming + seats

    No hardware, no bank fees, no CCLI license, no payroll, no accounting subscription, no setup fee, and no staff time. Every one of those is real and none is on a vendor pricing page in a form that can be modeled honestly. The Planning Center row carries no records subscription because the vendor's page did not give one up, so its total prints with "plus subscription" attached rather than a guess.

What this cannot tell you

Nothing here weighs whether your elders will open the system, which is the question that actually decides whether a purchase was wise. A cheap tool used every week beats an expensive suite the staff avoid, and no calculator can price that. Run the total, then run a full export of your data before you sign, and open the file.

Sources

Every number, and the page it came off

Each page below was opened on 29 July 2026, in the same session that wrote this calculator. A rate that is not in this table is not on this page.

  1. Planning Center pricing

    Planning Center read

    Card 2.15% + $0.30, ACH 0% + $0.30, international cards +1.5%. Texting at $5 a month for a toll-free number plus 2 cents a text. Music Stand $5 a month. Free tier caps: People unlimited, Services 5 team members, Registrations 5 attendees, Giving 10 monthly donations, Check-ins 10 daily, Groups 15 members, Calendar 1 room. The paid tier dollar amounts sit inside an on-page calculator and did not come back in the fetch.

  2. Breeze ChMS pricing

    Breeze ChMS read

    $72 a month flat. Unlimited admin users. Giving included. Text messaging 250 free a month then $10 per 500. A $119 a month bundle is referenced without a full feature list.

  3. Tithe.ly pricing

    Tithe.ly read

    All-Access $119 a month. Church Management $72. Custom app $89. Website $19. Free Giving $0. Card 2.9% + $0.30, American Express 3.5% + $0.30, ACH 1% + $0.30. Premium onboarding $599 once.

  4. Tithe.ly church giving

    Tithe.ly read

    The same three rates, confirmed a second time. Reached because https://www.breezechms.com/giving answered with a 301 to this address, which is why Breeze giving is modeled at Tithe.ly rates rather than a rate of its own.

  5. Givelify pricing

    Givelify read

    No sign-up fee, no monthly fee, no maintenance cost. Cards 2.9% + $0.30 a donation. American Express 3.5% + $0.30. The page states no bank-transfer rate.

  6. Subsplash pricing

    Subsplash read

    Subsplash Giving at $0 a month, cards 2.3% + 30 cents, ACH 1%. Promotional rates as low as 1.9% on cards and 0.5% on ACH are named but not guaranteed, so neither is modeled. Subsplash One is priced on church size and usage and prints no figure.

  7. Clearstream pricing

    Clearstream read

    The full United States credit table from 100 credits at $0 to 500,000 at $5,400 a month. All incoming texts are free. Monthly credits do not roll over. A 16% discount for paying annually. Extra credits from 125 for $10 up to 10,000 for $425.

  8. Text In Church pricing

    Text In Church read

    Basic $37 a month or $369 a year, 500 texts, 1 local number. Pro $67 or $668, 1,500 texts, 2 numbers. Premium $97 or $967, 2,500 texts, 3 numbers. Overage 3 cents a message. Unlimited users, contacts, and keywords on every plan.

  9. Resi live streaming plans and pricing

    Resi read

    Social Only $99 a month or $1,188 a year. Starter Lite $159 or $1,908. Pro $299 or $3,588. Enterprise is quoted. Every plan includes one ProPresenter Encoder license.

  10. ProPresenter

    Renewed Vision read

    $29 a month or $289 a year for one seat. A 20-seat campus license at $59 a month or $649 a year. A 14-day trial.

What refused a fetch

Six addresses were tried and returned nothing usable. They are named because a missing vendor is information, and because a reader who finds a rate we do not print deserves to know why it is absent rather than assume it was overlooked.

Addresses tried on 29 July 2026 that returned nothing usable
Address Result What it costs this page
https://www.churchtrac.com/pricing HTTP 403 ChurchTrac appears in no table on this page. Its tiers are priced by database size, which would have been the only vendor here whose subscription moves with congregation size.
https://www.churchtrac.com/pricing/ HTTP 403 The trailing-slash form refused as well.
https://support.planningcenteronline.com/hc/en-us/articles/204261084-Pricing HTTP 403 The second route to Planning Center tier prices. So the Planning Center row carries no subscription figure.
https://www.planningcenter.com/giving/pricing HTTP 404 No separate giving pricing page exists.
https://pricing.planningcenter.com/ DNS did not resolve Guessed address, not a real one.
https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/mpp/charity-nonprofit-fees HTTP 404 PayPal's nonprofit rate is not modeled, so the comparison holds church-specific processors only.

Our own position

Church Posting builds a church management system called Covenant OS. It is in development, it is not available to buy, and it has no price, so it is in none of the tables above and it is not a recommendation. The rule we hold ourselves to is on how we review. There are no affiliate links on this page and every vendor link above carries no tracking of ours.

Keep reading

Where the decisions get argued