Most “free church software” lists are written by the vendors selling the software, so guess which tool ranks first every time. Half the “free” tools on those lists are trials with a countdown clock. You find that out after you’ve already built your donor database in the wrong system.
I’m not going to do that to you. This list covers 17 tools with genuinely free tiers, and I checked every price against the vendor’s official pricing page on July 8, 2026. Where a “free” plan quietly became a trial, I’m calling it out by name.
I run REACHRIGHT. We’ve worked with hundreds of churches on their websites, ad grants, and marketing, and I’ve watched staff pick software off a listicle and regret it six months later. We don’t sell church management software, accounting software, or presentation software. That’s the whole point of this list: nobody paid to be here, and we have nothing to gain by ranking one tool over another.
Use this as a shopping list, not a sales pitch. Pick what fits your church size and skip what doesn’t.
The Short Answer: The Best Free Church Software Stack
If you want to build a full free stack today without reading the rest of this post, here it is.
| Category | Top free pick | What the free tier caps at |
|---|---|---|
| Church management | Planning Center People | Unlimited people database, no cap |
| Accounting | Wave | Invoicing and bookkeeping, no bank feeds |
| Email and docs | Google Workspace for Nonprofits | Up to 2,000 user accounts |
| Design | Canva for Nonprofits | Full Pro plan free for verified 501(c)(3)s |
| Presentation | OpenLP | Open source, no caps at all |
| Giving | Tithe.ly Giving | $0/month plan, you only pay processing fees |
| Communication | Flocknote | Free up to 40 users |
If you only bookmark one thing on this page, bookmark this table. It’s a complete, working church tech stack for $0 a month.
How I Chose These Tools
I used four criteria to decide what made this list.
First, the tool needs a real free tier that lasts forever, not a 14-day or 30-day trial disguised as “free.” Second, a normal church volunteer needs to be able to run it, not just a staff member with a computer science degree. Third, I verified every price directly against the vendor’s official pricing page as of July 8, 2026, because software pricing changes constantly and old blog posts are full of numbers that stopped being true years ago.
Fourth, no pay-to-play. Nobody paid to be included on this list, and none of these tools are REACHRIGHT products.
Free forever and free trial are two different things, and most “free church software” articles blur that line on purpose. I don’t. Tools that used to be free and now require a paid plan get their own honest section further down, not a quiet mention buried in a features list.
Free Church Software Comparison
Here’s the full lineup, all 17 tools, side by side.
| Tool | Category | Free tier | Biggest limit | Paid starts at |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Planning Center | Management | People app unlimited | Other apps cap at small volume | ~$15/mo per app |
| ChurchTrac | Management | Free under ~100 people | Donations, attendance, check-in are paid | $6-9/mo |
| ChMeetings | Management | Free to 50 members | Locked features stay visible, grayed out | $12/mo |
| ChurchCRM | Management | Free forever, no member cap | You need a tech volunteer to host it | N/A (hosting cost only) |
| Gracely | Management | Free to 30 members | Too small for most churches past a small group | Contact vendor |
| Flocknote | Communication | Free to 40 users | Hard user cap, no partial upgrade | Contact vendor |
| Wave | Accounting | Free invoicing and bookkeeping | No bank feeds; non-owner collaborators now paid | $19/mo (Pro) |
| Zoho Books | Accounting | Free under $50k/yr revenue | 1 user + 1 accountant only | $15/mo |
| ZipBooks | Accounting | Unlimited invoices and customers | Basic reports only, no smart tagging | $15/mo |
| Google Workspace for Nonprofits | Productivity | Custom domain email, up to 2,000 accounts | Requires TechSoup 501(c)(3) verification | Free (nonprofit tier) |
| Microsoft 365 Nonprofits | Productivity | Free Office apps, Teams, SharePoint | Requires TechSoup verification | Free (nonprofit tier) |
| Slack for Nonprofits | Communication | Free Pro for up to 250 members | 85% discount only, not free, above 250 | 15% of Pro price |
| Mailchimp | Communication | 250 contacts, 500 sends/mo | No automation or scheduling on free | $13/mo |
| Canva for Nonprofits | Design | Full Pro free, 50 seats, 100GB storage | 7-10 day approval process | Free (verified nonprofit) |
| Adobe Express | Design | Free Premium for verified nonprofits | Requires nonprofit verification | Free (nonprofit tier) |
| OpenLP | Presentation | Fully free, no caps | Dated interface, community support only | N/A (always free) |
| Tithe.ly Giving | Giving | $0/mo plan | Processing fees (2.9% + $0.30 card) | $0/mo (fees only) |
Free Church Management Software
1. Planning Center
Planning Center splits into separate apps: People, Services, Check-Ins, Giving, Groups, and more. The People app, which holds your core membership database, is fully free with no member cap.
The other apps are free at small scale: 5 team members in Services, 10 daily check-ins, 10 monthly giving donations, and 15 Groups members. Once you outgrow one, that app runs about $15/month while the rest stay free.
The honest limit: costs stack up app by app as your church grows, so a church running Services, Check-Ins, and Giving at scale is paying three separate bills, not one flat fee.
Use it if you want to start with one free app and add paid apps only where you actually need them.
2. ChurchTrac
ChurchTrac offers a genuinely usable free plan for churches under roughly 100 people, including messaging and free tech support even on the free tier.
Donations, attendance tracking, and child check-in are paid features, running about $6-9/month, with an accounting add-on for another $15/month.
Use it if you’re a small church that wants one simple system and doesn’t need donation tracking yet.
3. ChMeetings
ChMeetings is free up to 50 members with unlimited admin accounts, which is generous for a small congregation’s leadership team.
The catch: locked features stay visible in the interface, just grayed out, which can feel like a constant upsell nudge. Paid plans start at $12/month.
Use it if your church is under 50 members and you want several staff and volunteers to have full admin access without extra seats.
4. ChurchCRM
ChurchCRM is open source and genuinely free forever. You pay for hosting, nothing else, and there’s no member cap or feature paywall waiting for you later.
The honest limit: you need someone comfortable with basic tech to set it up and keep it running. This isn’t a plug-and-play SaaS tool.
Use it if you have a tech-savvy volunteer or staff member and want to avoid subscription costs permanently.
5. Gracely
Gracely covers member profiles, attendance, donations, and event organization on a free plan capped at 30 members, with free data migration from your old system.
Use it if you’re a very small church or a single ministry team inside a larger church and don’t need it to scale past 30 people.
6. Flocknote
Flocknote is a communication platform built for email and text messaging to your congregation, with a drag-and-drop email composer and open/click tracking.
The free plan includes unlimited emails and messages, but caps at 40 users total.
Use it if your church or a specific ministry group is small enough to fit under 40 people and you want a simple way to text and email everyone at once.
Free Church Accounting Software
7. Wave
Wave offers free invoicing, expense tracking, and receipt capture, which covers the basics most small churches need for day-to-day bookkeeping.
There are no bank feeds or automatic reconciliation on the free plan, and as of a June 2026 pricing change, non-owner collaborators now require the paid Pro plan at $19/month. If your treasurer and bookkeeper are different people, budget for Pro.
For a deeper comparison of church-specific accounting tools, see our church accounting software guide.
Use it if you’re a one-person finance operation who doesn’t need bank feed automation.
8. Zoho Books
Zoho Books is free for organizations under $50,000 in annual revenue, with one user plus one accountant seat included.
It includes a donor portal and expense tracking. Paid plans start at $15/month once you exceed the revenue cap or need more users.
Use it if your church’s annual revenue is genuinely under $50k and you only need one bookkeeper.
9. ZipBooks
ZipBooks gives you unlimited invoices and customers on its free Starter plan, plus payment acceptance through Square or PayPal and basic reports.
Paid plans start at $15/month for templated invoices and smart expense tagging.
Use it if you already work with an outside accountant and just need clean, shareable books.
Free Productivity, Email, and Communication Tools
10. Google Workspace for Nonprofits
Google Workspace for Nonprofits gives verified 501(c)(3) organizations a custom email domain, Google Meet for up to 100 participants, up to 2,000 user accounts, generous pooled cloud storage, and Gemini AI tools built in.
You’ll need TechSoup verification of your nonprofit status to qualify. Read our full breakdown in the Google Workspace for churches guide.
Use it if your church wants professional email at your own domain without paying per user.
11. Microsoft 365 Nonprofits
Microsoft 365 Nonprofits bundles free Office apps (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook), Teams, and SharePoint for verified nonprofits through TechSoup.
Use it if your staff already knows Word and Excel and you’d rather not retrain everyone on Google’s tools.
12. Slack for Nonprofits
Slack gives workspaces of 250 members or fewer a free upgrade to the Pro plan, and an 85% discount above that size.
Use it if your staff and volunteer teams are under 250 people and you want faster internal communication than email.
13. Mailchimp
Mailchimp’s free tier was cut in 2026 to 250 contacts and 500 sends per month, down from the more generous limits older articles still quote. There’s no automation or send scheduling on the free plan.
Use it if your email list is genuinely small, like a single ministry team, not your whole congregation.
Free Design Software
14. Canva for Nonprofits
Canva for Nonprofits gives eligible 501(c)(3) organizations the full Canva Pro plan free, including up to 50 seats and 100GB of storage. See our full Canva for churches guide for setup details.
Approval typically takes 7-10 business days, so apply before you need it urgently.
Use it if multiple people on your team design graphics and you want them all on Pro without paying per seat.
15. Adobe Express
Adobe Express offers its Premium plan free to qualified 501(c)(3) nonprofits, with drag-and-drop video creation, social scheduling, and PDF editing included.
Use it if your team is already inside the Adobe ecosystem and wants Premium features without a paid plan.
Free Church Presentation Software
16. OpenLP
OpenLP is open source worship presentation software: fully free, with no member caps or feature paywalls of any kind. It displays lyrics, Bible verses, videos, and even PowerPoint decks, with a smartphone remote control option. Our church presentation software guide covers more options if OpenLP isn’t the right fit.
The honest limit: the interface looks dated, and support comes from the community, not a help desk.
Use it if you want zero cost forever and don’t mind a less polished interface.
Free Church Giving Software
17. Tithe.ly Giving
Tithe.ly Giving has a genuine $0/month plan. You don’t pay a platform fee, only standard processing fees: 2.9% + $0.30 per card transaction, or 1% + $0.30 per ACH transaction. About 60% of donors choose to cover those fees themselves at checkout.
Subsplash Giving offers a similar $0/month structure with comparable processing fees, if you want a second option to compare.
Use it if you want online giving live today without committing to a monthly software fee.
For a broader look at tracking donors beyond just processing gifts, see our donor management software guide.
Free Trial Is Not Free: Tools That Moved Away From Free
This is the section most “free church software” lists skip, because admitting a tool used to be free and isn’t anymore doesn’t help sell it.
Breeze ChMS, now rebranded as Tithely Church Management, has no free plan at all. You get a 30-day trial, then it’s $72/month flat for unlimited users. That flat rate can actually be a good deal for a larger church, but it is not free, and several older articles still list it as if it were.
Aplos gives you a 15-day trial before its Lite plan kicks in at $79/month.
FlockBase offers a 2-week trial before pricing starts at $24/month.
None of these are bad software. They’re just not free, and calling them free sets churches up to build a workflow around a tool they’ll have to pay for or abandon in a few weeks.
What Changed in 2026
Three pricing changes worth knowing about before you build your stack
Mailchimp cut its free tier down to 250 contacts and 500 sends per month, a significant reduction from what older comparison articles still quote. Wave restricted non-owner collaborator access to its paid Pro plan as of June 2026, so a treasurer who isn't the account owner now needs a paid seat. And Google Workspace for Nonprofits now includes considerably more pooled storage than the 30 GB per user figure that keeps circulating in outdated posts.
How to Choose
Match the tool to your actual church, not the biggest feature list.
- Choose Planning Center if you want to start with one free, unlimited people database and add paid apps only as you scale.
- Choose ChurchTrac if you’re under 100 people and want one simple system for membership and communication.
- Choose ChurchCRM only if you have a tech volunteer who can handle self-hosting.
- Choose Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 based on whichever office suite your staff already knows, not whichever one looks newer.
- Choose Wave if you’re the only one touching the books; choose Zoho Books if your revenue is under $50k and you use an outside accountant.
- Choose Canva for Nonprofits if more than one person on your team creates graphics regularly.
- Avoid trial-only tools like Breeze or Aplos if you have no software budget at all. A trial you can’t afford to convert is wasted setup time.
- If you’re building from zero, start with the stack in the short answer table above and add tools only when a real limit actually stops you.
Free software solves half the budget problem. It doesn’t get anyone through your doors, which is worth remembering: your church’s website faces the exact same “free vs. real” decision, and we cover that honestly in our free church website builder guide.
Frequently Asked Questions
Free software saves your budget. It doesn't grow your church.
Once your systems are in place, the next question is whether your church is actually reaching new people. Our Free Church Growth Review looks at your website, SEO, and online presence and tells you exactly where you're losing visitors before they ever walk through your doors.