Church Management Software Cost: Four Sizes Worked Out

What a year costs at four church sizes

The table below is one worked stack at 80, 200, 500 and 1,200 people on a Sunday: ChurchTrac for records, Clearstream for texting, a Nucleus website, Proclaim slides and Resi streaming. The calculator above prices six church software stacks for the same year with your own numbers.

Sunday attendance	80	200 Riverside	500	1,200
Records system (ChurchTrac)	$421	$853	$1,069	$1,285
Texting (Clearstream)	$353	$353	$595	$1,200
Website (Nucleus)	$780	$780	$1,188	$1,188
Presentation (Proclaim)	$270	$270	$400	$400
Streaming (Resi)	$0	$0	$1,908	$3,588
Software total	$1,824	$2,256	$5,160	$7,661
Records system (Covenant OS, ours)	$590	$1,190	$2,290	$3,990
Texts past 250 a month at 2 cents	$32	$170	$516	$1,322
Software total with Covenant OS	$892	$1,630	$5,114	$9,300
Card fees at 2.9% + $0.30	$2,560	$6,400	$16,000	$38,400
Per person on a Sunday	$54.80	$43.28	$42.32	$38.38

Vendor prices read October 22 and October 24, 2026, at yearly billing where the vendor offers it, and Covenant OS on October 24, 2026. Names in the database are taken as 1.5 for each person on a Sunday. Streaming is $0 where a church sends its service free to YouTube or Facebook. Card fees assume $2,000 given per person a year (Faith Communities Today 2020), half of it online, at an average gift of $100. The Covenant OS line replaces the ChurchTrac line, and its plan carries texting and the church website, so the total with Covenant OS drops the Clearstream and Nucleus lines. Texts past the 250 a month the plan includes are 2 cents each, counted at six texts a month to 80 percent of the church.

Four of the five lines barely move with size. The records system steps up as the database grows, streaming starts costing money when a church wants the service on its own website, and the card fees grow with the offering. A church of 200 people spends $2,256 a year on software and $6,400 on card fees, so moving half of its online givers to bank transfer saves more than the whole software budget.

With Covenant OS for records, the same 200-person church pays $1,630 a year for software, including about $170 of texts past the 250 a month the plan includes, because the plan carries texting and the church website, and the card fees still come to $6,400.

What does a church management system cost?

A year of a records system costs $313 to $1,285 on ChurchTrac, $864 on Breeze, $880 on Servant Keeper Core, and $390 to $3,990 on Covenant OS (ours), which runs from $699 a month above 3,000 people, where the yearly price is quoted. ChurchTrac charges by the number of names in the database, Breeze and Servant Keeper charge a flat rate, Planning Center charges each product separately, and Covenant OS charges by average weekly attendance.

1. ChurchTrac 500-name band, paid yearly $853
2. Breeze $72 a month, any size $864
3. Servant Keeper core Paid yearly, four users $880
4. Planning Center Giving at $32 for 167 gifts a month $1,920
5. Covenant OS (ours) 101 to 300 a week, paid yearly $1,190

Prices read on each vendor's pricing page between October 22 and October 24, 2026, and Covenant OS on October 24, 2026. Each figure is a year at the vendor's own yearly rate. Covenant OS is Church Posting's own and charges by average weekly attendance.

The Planning Center bar counts five products: Services, Check-Ins, Groups, Giving and Registrations. At 200 people, 50 people log in to Services, 40 check in on the busiest Sunday, 100 sit in groups and 50 sign up for events, which puts those four at $32 a month each. Calendar is left out, because Covenant OS does not sell room booking. Giving sits at the tier the gifts in the month reach, and Riverside gives $200,000 online at $100 a gift, so 167 gifts a month puts Giving at $32 and the five come to $160 a month and $1,920 a year.

System	How it charges	Price	Watch for
ChurchTrac	Names in the database	$29, $39, $59, $79, $99 or $119 a month for 75, 125, 250, 500, 1,000 or unlimited names; yearly billing is 10.8 months	A rise of 20 to 51% each time the database crosses a band
Breeze	Flat rate	$72 a month, unlimited people	Worship planning is $29 a month more
Servant Keeper	Flat rate, four or eight users	Core $79.99 a month or $879.89 a year; Complete $159.99 or $1,759.89	Check-in is $199 extra on Core
Planning Center	Each product on its own counter	$0, $15, $32, $69, $115, $179 or $239 a month per product	One large event can move Registrations up two tiers
Covenant OS (ours)	Average weekly attendance	$39, $59, $119, $229 or $399 a month for up to 50, 100, 300, 1,000 or 3,000 a week, and from $699 above that, where the yearly price is quoted; paid yearly is 10 months	Texts past 250 a month are 2 cents each

Read on each vendor's pricing page on October 22 and October 24, 2026, and Covenant OS on October 24, 2026.

Count the rows in your own database before you compare. A church of 200 on a Sunday often carries 300 names or more, because members who moved away, grown children and years of guest cards stay in the file, and ChurchTrac bills on that count.

For a side-by-side of the three most common systems, read Planning Center vs Breeze vs ChurchTrac. For the plans that cost nothing, read free church management software.

Texting, streaming, presentation and website costs

Texting runs about $350 a year for a 200-person church, a website $780 to $1,200, presentation software $210 to $400, and streaming nothing until the church wants the service on its own website.

Category	Vendor and plan	Price	What moves the price
Texting	Clearstream	$35 a month for 1,000 credits, $59 for 2,500, $119 for 6,000; 16% off yearly	How many texts you send
Website	Nucleus	Essential $65, Standard $99, Complete $199 a month	The features you choose
Presentation	Proclaim	On Air $269.99, Pro Media $399.99, Partner Media $999.99 a year	Media library and features
Presentation	EasyWorship	Basic from $210, Premium from $330 a year	Plan and weekly attendance
Streaming	Resi	Social Only $1,188, Starter Lite $1,908, Pro $3,588 a year	Streaming to your own website and bandwidth

Read on each vendor's pricing page on October 22 and October 24, 2026, with Clearstream on October 24, 2026. Starter Lite is Resi's first plan that streams to the church's own website, with 200 GB of bandwidth a month.

Texting is billed by the credit, so the size of the list and how often you send set the bill. Six texts a month to 160 people uses 960 credits, which fits Clearstream's $35 tier. Read church texting services for the full comparison.

Costs missing from vendor price lists

Setup fees, text overages, the jump at each pricing tier, and the volunteer hours a move between systems takes. Each one lands in the first year.

Cost	Example	What to do
Text overage	Clearstream sells extra credits at $10 for 125, or 8 cents a text	Count a month of sends before you pick a tier
Setup and check-in	Servant Keeper check-in is $199 on Core	Ask for every one-time fee in writing
The tier jump	ChurchTrac goes from $59 to $79 a month at 250 names	Find how far you are from the next band
Moving systems	40 volunteer hours at $36.14 an hour is $1,446	Stay put if the yearly saving is under about $700
Paying yearly too early	You pay for twelve months of a tool you have not used	Pay monthly for anything you are still testing

Volunteer hour value from Independent Sector for 2025. Prices read October 22 and October 24, 2026.

Should a church switch software to save money?

Only after it fixes its giving page and checks its database count. Those two steps usually save more than a new vendor, and they cost no migration hours.

1. Pull last year's online giving and split it into card and bank transfer. Multiply the card total by 2.9%, add 30 cents a gift, and bring that dollar figure to the next finance meeting.
2. Make bank transfer the first option on the giving form and the default on recurring gifts.
3. Export your database, count the rows, and find how far you are from the next price band on every product you pay for.
4. Price a switch with the new subscription, every setup fee and the migration hours at $36.14 each. Before you sign, get in writing what you can export when you leave, and read protecting member data.

For the records system itself, read church management software for every system priced and scored, and the Planning Center vs Breeze vs ChurchTrac comparison for three of them side by side.

The July 2026 price book and cost model stay available for comparison. ChurchTrac, Clearstream and Text In Church have raised prices since then, so budget from the October file.