Church app guide: what a church app does, app builders and Planning Center, custom vs. template, and getting members to use it

A church app puts the things members do every week in one place on their phone: giving, sermons, events, small groups, prayer requests and announcements through push notifications. Many churches use a church app builder, such as Tithely's Church App at $89 a month, Subsplash, or Planning Center's Church Center, which has a free Essential plan and paid tiers at $15 and $32 a month in published 2026 pricing. Pushpay's 2025 State of Church Technology report found that 67% of churches use an app. An app does its job when it is connected to your giving, sermons and calendar, kept current every week, and introduced to the congregation with a clear plan.

What does a church app do?

A good church app is a weekly tool, not a second website. These are the features churches use most:

• Giving. One-tap tithes and offerings, recurring giving, giving history and year-end statements.
• Sermons. Live stream, past messages by series, audio for the car, and sermon notes.
• Events and registration. A current calendar, sign-ups, and payment for retreats, camps and conferences.
• Groups. Find a small group, Bible study or ministry team, then message the group and share resources.
• Push notifications. Service reminders, weather closings, urgent prayer needs and event announcements sent straight to members' phones.
• Prayer requests. A private form to the pastoral team, or a prayer wall where members can pray for one another.
• Children's check-in. Parents pre-select their kids and check in with a code on their phone.
• Directory. A members-only directory with contact details members choose to share.
• Bible reading plans and devotionals. Daily content that gives people a reason to open the app between Sundays.

Giving is a core feature for most churches. In Ministry Brands' 2026 Protestant Annual Church Giving Report, churches that offer digital giving said an average of 41% of their giving came from digital methods.

Church app builders compared

Church app builders give you a ready-made app that connects to the platform's giving, church management and media tools. You add your content, colors and logo. Here is what the major platforms publish as of October 2026:

Giving carries processing fees on every platform. Published U.S. card rates as of October 2026 are 2.9% plus $0.30 at Tithely, 2.15% plus $0.30 at Planning Center, and 2.3% plus 30 cents on Subsplash One. Bank (ACH) gifts cost less on all three. Compare fees using your church's real monthly giving, because over a year the fees can add up to more than the app subscription.

Church app Planning Center: how Church Center works

If your church already runs on Planning Center for people, check-ins, groups or giving, Church Center is the natural place to start. Planning Center says Church Center comes with every Planning Center subscription at no extra cost. Members download the Church Center app and connect to your church through a setup link or QR code you share, by location, or by searching for your church, according to Planning Center's help center. That shared-app model is the trade-off: your members open "Church Center" with your church inside it, rather than an app with your church's own name and icon on their home screen. For many churches that is a fair exchange for a free tool connected to the rest of Planning Center.

Free church app options

A truly free church app usually means a shared app with your church inside it, such as Planning Center's Essential plan, or a free giving plan where you pay only processing fees, such as Tithely's or Subsplash's. A branded app with your own name in the App Store and Google Play costs a monthly subscription with a builder, or a custom development budget.

Custom church app vs. template

A template app from a church builder fits many congregations: it is maintained by the vendor and connected to giving and church management. A custom app makes sense when your church has needs a template cannot meet, such as a multisite network with its own content system, a large discipleship or school ministry, a denominational app serving many congregations, or features no builder offers.

There is an App Store rule that affects this decision. Apple's App Review Guidelines (guideline 4.2.6) say apps created from a commercialized template or app generation service will be rejected unless they are submitted directly by the provider of the app's content. In practice, a branded church app is often published under the church's own Apple developer account, with the platform helping you set it up. The same guideline also lets template providers publish one shared app that holds many churches, which is how a shared app such as Church Center works. Ask any builder exactly whose account the app is published under and what you need to provide.

For custom development, our guide on app development cost covers budgets, monthly running costs and how to plan a first version.

Church app design: what makes members open it

Good church app design is mostly about how fast someone can do the one thing they came to do.

• Put the top three actions on the home screen. For most churches that is Give, Watch and Events.
• Match your church's brand. Use your logo, colors and sermon series artwork so the app feels like your church, not a generic product.
• Use real photos. Your congregation, your building, your ministry leaders.
• Keep the menu short. Five or six tabs is plenty. Keep anything people use weekly one tap away.
• Design for older eyes. Large text, strong color contrast and big tap targets help every member. The WCAG 2.2 accessibility guidelines are a good standard.
• Update weekly. New sermon, new events, new series art. An app with last month's announcements on the home screen gives people a reason to stop opening it.

Church app examples: patterns worth borrowing

Well-run church apps share a few patterns you can use without copying anyone:

• A "This Sunday" card at the top with the service time, sermon series art and a Watch Live button.
• Sermon series pages with every message, the notes and the scripture in one place.
• A "New Here" path with a plan-your-visit page and a connect form.
• Giving next to the live stream, so online worshipers can give in the moment.
• Push notifications that respect people. A few useful notifications a week, not a daily stream.
• A daily reason to open it, such as a reading plan or devotional. Pew Research found in a November 2022 survey that 21% of U.S. adults use apps or websites to help them read scripture and 14% use them to help or remind them to pray.

Getting your church app on the App Store and Google Play

If you are using a shared app such as Church Center, there is nothing to publish. If you want your own branded app, here is what the stores require:

Register both accounts in the church's legal name using a church email address, not a volunteer's personal account. Apply for Apple's nonprofit fee waiver if your church qualifies; Apple asks for official recognition as a nonprofit, such as from the IRS. Request your D-U-N-S number early.

Giving inside the app

Apple's rules treat donations specially. Under guideline 3.2.1(vi), approved nonprofits may fundraise directly in their apps if they support Apple Pay. Under guideline 3.2.2(iv), apps from organizations that are not approved must collect donations outside the app, such as through Safari or SMS. Church app platforms handle this in different ways, so ask your vendor how giving works in their iPhone app and what your church needs to do. Google Play has its own payments policies, which your vendor should also explain.

Privacy and children's data basics

A church app holds sensitive information: names, phone numbers, giving records, prayer requests, and details about children. Treat it with care.

• Children under 13. The federal Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) requires covered operators of child-directed apps to get verifiable parental consent before collecting personal information from children under 13, according to the FTC's COPPA guidance. The FTC finalized amendments to the rule in 2025, and covered operators had to comply by April 22, 2026, as summarized by Hunton Andrews Kurth. The FTC's FAQ says COPPA applies to commercial sites and services and generally not to nonprofit entities, but your app vendor is usually a company, and the careful course is to design children's features for parents, not kids: parents hold the account, register children and manage check-in.
• App Store rules on minors. Apple's guideline 5.1.4 requires apps that collect personal information from a minor to include a privacy policy and comply with all applicable children's privacy laws.
• Prayer requests. Let members choose whether a request goes only to the pastoral team or to a public prayer wall. Keep requests private by default.
• Directories. Make the directory members-only and let each person choose what to share.
• Account deletion. Apple's guideline 5.1.1(v) requires apps that support account creation to offer account deletion inside the app.
• A clear privacy policy. Say what you collect, why, who can see it and how long you keep it. Both stores require one.
• Admin access. Limit who can see giving records and children's information, use strong passwords, and remove access when staff and volunteers step away.

How to get members to download and use your church app

Treat the launch as a ministry project, not only a tech announcement.

1. Pick a launch Sunday. Announce it from the pulpit, show a short video of the app on screen, and give people two minutes in the service to download it with a QR code.
2. Have helpers in the lobby. Volunteers at a table can help older members download, log in and set up recurring giving.
3. Give people a reason. Move sermon notes, event sign-ups and kids' check-in into the app so it becomes the easiest way to do things members already do.
4. Use the app every week from the stage. "Open the app for today's notes" builds the habit.
5. Send a few good push notifications. Service reminders, closings and real news. Too many and people turn them off.
6. Put it everywhere. Website header, email signature, bulletin, slides, visitor cards and social media. Our guide on church social media covers promotion.
7. Connect it to the stream. Pair the app with your church live streaming so online members can watch, take notes and give in one place.
8. Watch the numbers. Track downloads, weekly active users, app giving and event sign-ups each month, and adjust.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best church app builder?

The best church app builder is the one connected to the tools your church already uses. Churches on Planning Center usually start with Church Center, while Tithely and Subsplash offer branded apps tied to their giving and media platforms. Compare the subscription, giving fees and how much of your weekly workflow the app replaces.

Is there a free church app?

Yes. Planning Center's Church Center has a free Essential plan, and Tithely and Subsplash offer free giving plans where you pay only processing fees. A branded app under your church's own name in the app stores generally requires a paid subscription or custom development.

How does the church app from Planning Center work?

Church Center is included with every Planning Center subscription. Members download the Church Center app and find your church through a link, QR code, location or search, then give, register for events, join groups and check in children. Paid tiers at $15 and $32 a month add custom pages, themes, media channels and sermon notes.

How much does a church app cost?

Published 2026 pricing runs from free for Church Center's Essential plan to $89 a month for Tithely's Church App, with Subsplash priced by church size. Add giving processing fees, Apple's $99 annual developer fee (waivers are available for qualifying nonprofits) and Google Play's one-time $25 fee if the app is published under your church's name.

What should a church app include?

Giving, sermons, events and registration, groups, push notifications and prayer requests are the core. Children's check-in, a members-only directory and reading plans give members reasons to open the app during the week.

Can a church accept tithes inside an iPhone app?

Apple allows approved nonprofits to collect donations directly in their apps if they support Apple Pay (guideline 3.2.1(vi)). Organizations that are not approved must collect donations outside the app, such as through Safari or SMS (guideline 3.2.2(iv)). Ask your app provider how their giving feature works on iPhone.

Do we need a church app if we have a website?

A website serves guests and searchers. An app serves members who give, watch and sign up every week. Many churches use both, with the website as the front door and the app as the weekly tool.

How Leo Operations approaches this

Leo Operations builds web and mobile apps alongside a full church media practice. We are building a family faith app for Family Faith Ministries, currently in development for the App Store, so the store requirements, privacy rules and design decisions in this guide are part of our current work. Our church work also includes a new website for St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church in North Nashville with service times, weekly sermons with transcripts, events and a plan-your-visit page, and weekly vertical sermon clips, service graphics and visitor cards for Cathedral of Praise.

We start by looking at the tools your church already uses for giving, people and sermons, then recommend whether a builder, Church Center or a custom app fits. Our design team, led by Partner and Creative Director Morganne Norwood, makes the app look like your church, with your series artwork and real photography. If your church is considering an app, email us your church, the platforms you use now and what you want members to do in the app, and we will tell you honestly what it takes. See our church work and app development.