Church app: does your church need one, and what three options cost

A church app is a program members install on their phones to see events, give, join groups and read what the church sends. Most small churches do not need an app of their own in the App Store. A website that works on a phone serves the guest, and a free member app or a text message serves the member who comes back every week. This page shows what the jobs look like and what three paid options cost.

What members use an app for

Members open an app for six jobs. They check Sunday’s time and sermon, give, sign up to serve, ask for prayer, find a group and see what is on the calendar. These two screens, drawn with a sample church, show the first and the most common.

A website can do the same jobs on a phone, and the table shows where it falls short.

A guest looks for a service time without installing anything, so the website has to work on a phone either way. An app serves members who come back every week.

The cheaper message

The one job an app does that a website cannot is the message on the phone’s screen. A church can send most of those as text messages, which reach every phone with no install. People want the cancellation notice before they leave the house.

Free tool you can try here

Send the message without an app

Choose who gets it and type the message. Free Church Texting sends it from one shared inbox, to every phone.

Who gets it EveryoneYouth groupNursery volunteersChoir

Your message Grace Baptist: Both services are cancelled Sunday, Jan 17, because of ice. The sermon will come by email at 10. We meet as usual next week. 0 of 160 characters

C Everyone
Cedar Hill, shared inbox

Grace Baptist: Both services are cancelled Sunday, Jan 17, because of ice. The sermon will come by email at 10. We meet as usual next week.

Count us in!

We will be 10 minutes late.

Open Free Church Texting

The software is free. A church opens its own Twilio account and pays Twilio’s rates directly, and nothing is added.

Free Church Texting is Church Posting's own product.

Four questions before you buy

1. Will members install it and use it? Count how many members you expect to use it in its first year.
2. Who will keep it current? Someone has to post the events and the sermons each week.
3. Does it come with software the church already uses? Many church management programs include a member app.
4. What happens to the members’ accounts and the giving records if you leave? Ask in writing how you would download a copy of them.

What three options cost

Each figure below was read on the company’s own page on October 13, 2026.

Planning Center’s pricing page lists Church Center as “Free Member app and web platform publishing.” A church that already uses Planning Center has a member app at no extra charge, and a church using other software should look for an app in what it already pays for. The calculator below adds up the yearly cost of the software a church pays for today.

Free tool you can try here

What your software costs for a year

Start with texting, one line of the yearly bill. The full calculator adds church management, giving and streaming.

This free tool is made by Church Posting.

Texts your church sends in a month A church of 180 sends about 720 when it texts each member four times a month.

Texting for a year, lowest first

Use it free

The calculator is free, and the full version adds church management, giving and streaming to the same sheet.

When an app is worth it

An app earns its place when members use it each week, such as for signing up for groups, reading the directory or getting a message about a cancelled service on the phone’s screen. If your church’s needs are the service times, the sermons and a giving page, a website that works well on a phone does the job.