Church management systems

A church management system holds the membership roll, household relationships, attendance, giving records, and serving schedules. The right one is the one your elders and office staff open every week without calling for help. Weigh data export as heavily as any feature, because churches change systems and the records belong to the church.

The tools

• Planning Center

  Churches that want people, services, giving, and check-in from one vendor

  The system most volunteers have already used somewhere else, which shortens training to almost nothing. Every product has a free tier with a hard cap, and the caps are low enough that a growing church crosses them one at a time. The bill starts near zero and climbs one module at a time.

  Who should skip it

  Skip it if you need one number on one invoice. Six products is six line items, and the total moves whenever a ministry grows.

  Price

  A free tier on every product with a cap on each: 5 team members in Services, 10 monthly donations in Giving, 10 daily check-ins, 15 group members. Paid tiers are priced product by product, card giving is processed at 2.15% + $0.30, texting is $5 a month for a toll-free number plus $0.02 a message, and Music Stand is $5 a month, with no contract and no setup fee. Read on July 28, 2026 at planningcenter.com/pricing .

• Breeze ChMS

  A small office with no IT staff that wants one flat bill

  One price, unlimited admin users, and a volunteer can learn the whole thing in a week. Giving is included at no monthly charge. Because the rate is flat, the treasurer can put one figure in the budget for next year and be right.

  Who should skip it

  Skip it if you run multiple campuses, need layered permissions, or want to build custom workflows on top of your records.

  Price

  $72 a month, flat. Unlimited admin users, people, giving, groups, events, and email. Texting includes 250 messages a month, then $10 per 500. No setup fee, no contract, 30 day trial. Read on July 28, 2026 at breezechms.com/pricing .

• ChurchTrac

  Churches under a few hundred members that want accounting in the same system

  Priced by how many people are in your database, which means a church of 90 pays like a church of 90. Accounting and messaging are add-ons, so a church that keeps its books elsewhere pays nothing for a ledger it will never open.

  Who should skip it

  Skip it if your roll is large or growing fast, because the tiers are what you are buying and each step up is a new decision.

  Price

  Tiered by the size of your database, from 75 names to unlimited. Accounting adds $15 a month and messaging adds $7 a month. Paying yearly takes 10% off. There is a 30 day trial and no free plan. Read on July 28, 2026 at churchtrac.com/pricing .

• Rock RMS

  Churches with a developer on staff or a budget for one

  Open source, so the software itself is not the cost. The cost is a server, a person who maintains it, and the hours it takes to configure. Churches that can staff it get a system they own outright and can extend without asking permission.

  Who should skip it

  Skip it if nobody on staff can name the last time they applied a security patch. An unmaintained church database is worse than a spreadsheet.

  Price

  The software is open source, so a church hosts it or buys hosting from the project. The site publishes no dollar figures, so get the hosting quote in writing. Read on July 28, 2026 at rockrms.com .

• Covenant OS

  Church Posting product

  Churches that want Sunday planning, membership, giving, check-in and communications in one system

  Covenant OS is church management software from Church Posting, so weigh this row knowing that. The beta opens on Tuesday, December 1, 2026, and the full release follows in the first quarter of 2027. Beta churches use Covenant OS free during the beta, and Covenant OS will publish prices before the beta ends. A church on Planning Center can sign in with it to bring its people, teams, songs and service plans across.

  Covenant OS is Church Posting's own product.

  Who should skip it

  Skip the beta if your church has no time in December to try new software. Breeze fits a small office today, and Planning Center fits a church that needs its depth.

  Price

  Free during the beta. Covenant OS will publish prices before the beta ends.