Free church management software, and where each free plan stops

Church management software keeps a church’s members, households, giving, groups and volunteers in one place, and several companies offer a version that costs nothing. Most of those free plans stop at a limit, and two, Planning Center People and B1, have none. This page lists where each free plan ends, from prices read off each company’s own page on October 12, 2026.

Four meanings of free

Free up to a limit

Planning Center

Planning Center People, the membership database, is free at any size. The company’s page says so plainly: “People is free for every church, regardless of church size and whether or not you use any of our other products.”

The other products are free only at small sizes. Check-Ins is free up to 10 check-ins a day, Groups up to 15 group members across the whole account, Giving up to 10 gifts a month, Services (worship planning and volunteers) up to 5 team members, Calendar for 1 room, and Registrations for 5 people per event. Past each limit the product costs $15 a month and climbs from there. A church of 80 with a nursery and two children’s classes passes the Check-Ins limit on an ordinary Sunday, so plan on paying for that one first.

ChMeetings

ChMeetings is free for up to 50 people and 50 gifts a month. Above that it costs $12 a month for 100 people and $25 for 250. The free plan leaves out email, volunteer scheduling, worship planning and accounting, so most churches outgrow it quickly.

Flocknote

Flocknote Starter is “Free for life!” for up to 40 members, and it costs $10 a month at 41 to 50 members and $25 at 71 to 100. Flocknote is mainly a tool for email and texting, with member records and giving attached, and it does no worship planning or volunteer scheduling.

B1

B1 calls itself free “for everything, forever.” It includes a member app, a website builder, online giving, children’s check-in and church management, and a church pays “only standard Stripe or PayPal processing rates” on gifts. B1 is open source, which means anyone may read and change its code. It comes from Live Church Solutions, which describes itself as “a 501(c)(3) nonprofit founded in 2012.” It is the most complete free option on this page, so run your own records through it before you rule it in or out.

Free product, paid giving fees

Tithely’s free giving plan costs nothing a month. Each gift costs 2.9% plus $0.30 by card, 1% plus $0.30 by bank transfer, and 3.5% plus $0.30 by American Express. It handles giving only, so a church still needs a place to keep its people. The percentage is where the cost hides, and it grows with every gift. Type a year of online giving and see what four platforms keep.

Free tool you can try here

What your giving platform keeps

Type what your church receives online in a year and see what four platforms would keep, at the rates each one publishes.

This free tool is made by Hamilton Holdings LLC, the company behind Covenant OS, and published on Church Posting.

Online giving in a year, in dollars With 60 percent on cards, 30 on bank transfer and 10 on American Express, and gifts averaging $100.

Fees for a year, lowest first

Use it free

The calculator is free, and the full version splits cards, bank transfers and American Express across eight platforms.

Free software you host yourself

ChurchCMS offers a church website, a mobile app, a member directory and online giving. ChurchCRM’s own install page says “The software is free. Hosting is separate.” Someone at the church has to install updates, keep backups and restore one now and then to prove they work, and renew the security certificate that keeps the site on a secure https address. Write down who that person is and what happens when they move away.

Rock RMS lets any church use it “solely for internal use by faith based organizations,” and asks each church to pledge $4.45 a year for each person in average weekend attendance. RockCloud hosts Rock for $419 a month for up to 1,000 attendees, with the pledge included, and 9 Embers charges $405 a month, both plus a $249 setup fee. That makes Rock the most expensive free option for a small church.

Trials that only look free

Breeze, now sold as Tithely Church Management, offers 30 days free and then costs $72 a month. ChurchTrac offers 30 days free and then costs $29 a month for 75 names, up to $119 for unlimited names. Both appear on lists of free church software, and both cost money after the first month.

Before you load your records

Ask every company, free plan included, whether a staff member can export every person, every gift and every custom field to a spreadsheet without calling support, and have them show you the button while you watch.

A church that keeps its people in a spreadsheet for now can still do two jobs a database does. It can print a directory, and it can send year-end giving statements. Both tools read the spreadsheet in your browser, and the file never leaves your computer.

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 Hamilton Holdings LLC, the company behind Covenant OS, and published on Church Posting.

Church name

Family name

Adults

Children

Phone

Cedar Hill Baptist 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.

Look up the price one step above your church’s size today. If your church grows past the free limit in the spring, you will either pay that price or move your records again.

Our guide to church management software compares the paid systems.