Church Directory Software: Apps, Prices and a Free Maker

A church directory lists each household’s names, address, phone number and email, often with a family photo, so members can reach one another. Every example below uses Riverside Community Church in Cedar Falls, Iowa, a sample church of about 200 people that prints a booklet each fall and keeps an app the rest of the year.

What should a church directory include?

Print names, a phone number and an email for every household that agreed, and add a family photo and an address for the households that want them. Leave out birth years, giving, health and prayer notes, and any household that asked to be left out.

Field	Put it in?	How to print it
Last name, then the adults’ first names	Yes	The names the household goes by
Children’s first names	With a parent’s consent	No ages, birth dates or schools
Home address	With consent	Some households want a phone number only
Phone number	With consent	Ask which number to print
Email	With consent	One address for the household
Family photo	With consent of each adult and the children’s parents	A photo the family has seen
Adults’ birthdays and anniversary	With consent	Month and day, without the year

Add one page at the front for the pastors, elders, deacons and staff, with the church office’s phone number and email.

Hansen, Mark and Julie

Ava and Eli

412 Walnut Street, Cedar Falls, Iowa

319-555-0142

hansens@example.com

How do I make a church photo directory?

Collect a consent form from every household, gather the photos, put one household to a row in a spreadsheet, and lay it out in a directory maker. Riverside’s office does the whole job in five steps each September.

1. 1 Consent forms Handed out two Sundays in a row. A household with no form stays out.
2. 2 Photos Families send their own, or volunteers take headshots after the service.
3. 3 Spreadsheet One household a row Only the fields each household marked yes.
4. 4 Layout Directory maker Photo directory or plain list, letter pages or booklet.
5. 5 Printed copies For members only, with the old copies collected or shredded.

The office keeps the signed forms in a locked drawer until the next year’s forms come in.

Church Posting’s free directory maker takes the spreadsheet and the photos and lays out the pages. It prints letter pages or a booklet folded in the middle, you can open any household to edit it or leave it out, and the names, addresses and photos stay on your computer. Type one family below and the entry appears; open the tool and that family is already at the top of your list.

Free tool you can try here

Make a directory page

Type one family and see its entry. The real tool opens with that family at the top of your list.

This free tool is made by Church Posting.

Church name

Family name

Adults

Children

Phone

Riverside Community Church

Church directory

Brooks

Michael and Hannah

Ella, Sam

(417) 555-0191

Carter

James and Linda

(417) 555-0112

Use it free

The maker is free and keeps your list and photos in your browser.

What does church directory software cost?

Church Posting’s directory maker costs nothing for a printed copy, and Planning Center People costs nothing at any size. Instant Church Directory costs $99.80 to $154.88 a year, and Breeze includes a directory in its $72-a-month church management software. Covenant OS (ours) starts at $39 a month up to 50 people and goes to $399 a month for 1,001 to 3,000, with every part of the plan included.

Service	What it does	Price
Planning Center People	Membership database with a church-wide directory in the Church Center app, where members update their own profiles	$0 for every church
Instant Church Directory, Standard	Directory for print as a PDF, plus a member app and a members’ website	$9.99 a month or $99.80 a year
Instant Church Directory, Premium	Standard plus your own logo, colors and tab labels	$14.99 a month or $154.88 a year
Breeze	Church management software with a member directory and app	$72 a month, no setup fee
Church Posting directory maker	Prints a photo directory or list from a spreadsheet	$0
Covenant OS (ours)	Church management software that keeps each household on one page, with the directory beside the household’s serving, giving and care notes	$39 to $399 a month by average weekly attendance, from $699 above 3,000

Prices read on each company’s own page on 22 October 2026. Instant Church Directory and Breeze charge one price at any church size.

1. Planning Center People Free at any size $0
2. Church Posting maker Printed copies only $0
3. Instant Church Directory Standard Billed yearly $99.80
4. Instant Church Directory Premium Billed yearly $154.88
5. Breeze $72 a month, with the rest of the software $864
6. Covenant OS (ours) 101 to 300 a week, paid yearly, with the rest of the software $1,190

Breeze’s $864 and Covenant OS’s $1,190 each buy a whole church management system, so compare it with the software your church already pays for. Prices read 22 October 2026.

If your church already uses church management software, look for the directory in it before you buy a second product. Our guide to church management software prices and free options compares the systems and covers the ones with a free plan.

Is there a free church directory app?

Yes. Church Posting’s directory maker prints a booklet or a plain list from your own spreadsheet at no cost, and the names and photos stay on your computer. Instant Church Directory’s member apps are free to members once the church pays for a subscription. If the directory should update itself, put it in the church software the church already pays for, and Covenant OS (ours) keeps each household’s people, serving, giving and care notes on one page, from $39 a month up to 50 people.

How do I get each household’s consent?

Ask every household once a year on a signed form, and keep the forms. A household may change its answer at any time, and a household that returns no form stays out until someone asks them.

Part	Wording
Opening	Please list our household in the Riverside Community Church directory. We understand the directory goes to members of the church and to no one else.
What to show	Address, phone, email, children’s first names, photo, and the adults’ birthdays and anniversary by month and day, each with a box for yes and a box for no
Leaving out	Leave our household out of the directory.
Signatures	The name and signature of each adult in the household, and the date

A line left blank counts as no.

The form asks about names, address, phone, email, a photo and children’s first names. Add a line for birthdays if your directory prints them. To set the same choices in an app, use the directory permissions matrix, a spreadsheet of which field each audience sees.

Who should get a copy of the church directory?

Give it to members and to no one else. Print “For members of Riverside Community Church only” on the cover with your own church’s name, keep the file off the public website, and put any app behind a sign-in the church office approves.

1. Hand printed copies to members, and to no one outside the church.
2. Send the PDF by email only to a member who asks.
3. Put an online or app directory behind a sign-in the office approves.
4. Collect or shred old copies when the new one comes out.

The church office holds more about each household than the directory shows. If your records are in software, set who sees each kind of record there.

Record	Members	Group leaders	Staff
Names	Yes	Yes	Yes
Phone and email	If the household agreed	For their own group	Yes
Home address	If the household agreed	If the household agreed	Yes
Children’s names	If the parents agreed	For children in their own class	Yes
Birth dates, notes and giving	No	No	Only the staff who need them

A household’s consent covers what members see. Group leaders and staff use the other details for the church’s work, such as calling a family or checking a child in, and pass them to no one.

When should a household be left out of the directory?

When a member tells the office about a protective order, a custody dispute or a person looking for them. Leave that whole household out of every copy, printed and online, and leave no gap that shows a name was removed.

Keep their record in the office with a note only staff can read, and tell whoever prints the directory and whoever runs the church’s app. Check the list of left-out households again before each printing. Removing an entry does nothing about copies already handed out, so tell the household which earlier directories listed them and ask members to return or shred those copies.

What should I ask before buying a directory app?

Five questions, and a product that fails any of them puts a household at risk or traps your records.

Question	Why it matters
Can each household choose which fields show?	Consent differs from one household to the next
Can the office hide a household completely?	A household at risk has to disappear from every screen
Is the directory behind a sign-in the office approves?	A link anyone can open is a public directory
Can a member download the whole list?	A downloaded list leaves the church’s control
Can you export every record?	You will need the records if you change software

For the rest of what the office holds, from giving records to counseling notes, read protecting member data.