Church Digital

Free tool · No email required

Which giving platform actually fits your church?

Four questions, an honest top 3, and the trade-offs named out loud. Grounded in what small churches actually use: we followed every giving link across a 2,000-church national sample — 1,298 of them resolved to a working giving destination. See the full study.

Four questions

How many people are in the room on a typical Sunday?
Roughly how much giving moves through the church in a month?
Do you want text-to-give?
Do you already run a church management system (ChMS)?

All 9 platforms are listed below — with JavaScript enabled, the questions narrow them to your top 3.

The platforms

Tithe.ly

Pricing
Free giving plan — no monthly fee or contract; you pay card processing of 2.9% + $0.30 per gift.
Monthly fee
$0 for giving (text giving $19/mo add-on)
Fee fine print
Cards 2.9% + $0.30 (Amex 3.5% + $0.30); ACH bank gifts 1% + $0.30. Text giving is normally a $19/mo add-on.
Text-to-give
Yes (paid add-on on the entry plan)
Best for
first online giving setup · no monthly budget · live this week
Trade-off
The free plan is giving only — text giving, apps, and the wider Tithe.ly suite cost extra, and the admin tooling is a step behind the bundled platforms.

Observed usage: 41 of the 1,298 working giving links in our 2026 study pointed here. About the study · Pricing verified 2026-07-16

Planning Center Giving

Pricing
Free up to 10 donations/mo, then tiered from $15/mo to $239/mo by donation count; cards 2.15% + $0.30, ACH a flat $0.30.
Monthly fee
$0–$239/mo by donation volume
Fee fine print
Cards 2.15% + $0.30 per gift — the lowest published card rate on this page. ACH is 0% + $0.30 flat, which is exceptional for recurring givers. Text-to-give included.
Text-to-give
Yes, included
Best for
Planning Center churches · recurring/ACH-heavy giving · lowest published card rate
Trade-off
The monthly fee scales with donation count, and the product makes the most sense inside the Planning Center suite — as a standalone it gives up some of its advantage.

Observed usage: this platform’s giving host didn’t appear in our study’s top-host table (that means “below the table’s cutoff”, not “nobody uses it”). · Pricing verified 2026-07-16

Givelify

Pricing
No monthly fee; 2.9% + $0.30 per donation.
Monthly fee
$0
Fee fine print
Amex runs 3.5% + $0.30. ACH pricing is not published. No text-to-give — givers use the Givelify app or your online giving link.
Text-to-give
No · Donor experience centers on the platform’s own app
Best for
mobile-first donors · fast one-time gifts · zero setup cost
Trade-off
Donors land in the Givelify-branded app experience rather than on your site, and church-side reporting is lighter than the ChMS-attached platforms.

Observed usage: 17 of the 1,298 working giving links in our 2026 study pointed here. About the study · Pricing verified 2026-07-16

Subsplash Giving

Pricing
No monthly fee for giving; cards 2.99% + $0.30 (2.3% + $0.30 on an exclusive partnership), ACH 1% with no fixed fee.
Monthly fee
$0 (giving only)
Fee fine print
Amex 3.5% + $0.30. GrowCurve rebates can pull effective rates as low as 1.9% on cards and 0.5% on ACH as volume grows. Tap and text giving included.
Text-to-give
Yes, included
Best for
churches in the Subsplash bundle · growing giving volume · text + tap giving
Trade-off
The headline low rates assume an exclusive partnership or GrowCurve volume; giving-only churches start at the higher 2.99% rate, and the product shines most inside the wider Subsplash bundle.

Observed usage: 8 of the 1,298 working giving links in our 2026 study pointed here. About the study · Pricing verified 2026-07-16

Vanco

Pricing
Grow plan $0/mo (onboarding conditions apply — $10/mo otherwise) or Thrive at $54/mo with lower processing rates.
Monthly fee
$0/mo (Grow, conditional) or $54/mo (Thrive)
Fee fine print
Grow: cards 2.9% + $0.45, ACH 1% + $0.45. Thrive: cards 2.65% + $0.39, ACH 0.9% + $0.39. Amex 3.99% on either. Text-to-give is $10/mo on Grow, included on Thrive.
Text-to-give
Yes (paid add-on on the entry plan)
Best for
mainline & liturgical churches · denominational familiarity · staffed church offices
Denomination note
Vanco has long-standing denominational partnerships and is especially common in Lutheran, Methodist, Episcopal, and Catholic settings.
Trade-off
Per-transaction fixed fees are the highest here ($0.45 on the free plan), which stings on small gifts, and the $0/mo plan carries onboarding conditions.

Observed usage: 14 of the 1,298 working giving links in our 2026 study pointed here. About the study · Pricing verified 2026-07-16

easyTithe

Pricing
Plans from $19/mo to $75/mo (with a $10 monthly minimum); cards 2.6%–3% + $0.42 depending on plan.
Monthly fee
$19–$75/mo
Fee fine print
The $19/mo plan runs cards at 3% + $0.42 and ACH at 1% + $0.42; the $49/mo plan drops cards to 2.6% + $0.42. Text giving available.
Text-to-give
Yes, included
Best for
kiosk giving · Ministry Brands stacks · flat-plan predictability
Trade-off
You pay a monthly fee AND some of the higher per-gift fees on this page — hard math to win at small-church volume against the free-plan platforms.

Observed usage: 14 of the 1,298 working giving links in our 2026 study pointed here. About the study · Pricing verified 2026-07-16

PayPal

Pricing
No monthly fee; confirmed 501(c)(3) charities pay 1.99% + $0.49 per donation.
Monthly fee
$0
Fee fine print
The 1.99% + $0.49 charity rate requires confirmed charity status (the standard online card rate is 2.89% + $0.39). No church-specific tooling: no text-to-give, pledges, or giving statements.
Text-to-give
No
Best for
lowest percentage rate · donors who already trust PayPal · zero commitment
Trade-off
It's a payments tool, not a giving platform — year-end statements, recurring-giver care, and fund designations are on you, and the donor flow leaves your site for PayPal's.

Observed usage: 17 of the 1,298 working giving links in our 2026 study pointed here. About the study · Pricing verified 2026-07-16

Realm Giving (ACS Technologies)

Pricing
Sold as part of the Realm church management suite — pricing is quoted by church size; processing rates are not published.
Monthly fee
Not published (quoted with the Realm suite)
Fee fine print
Giving is bundled with the Realm ChMS rather than sold standalone, so the real cost is the suite subscription. Text giving is included with online giving.
Text-to-give
Yes, included
Best for
churches already on Realm/ACS · membership + accounting in one system
Denomination note
ACS Technologies has decades of church-office software history; Realm giving is typically adopted by churches already running ACS for membership and accounting.
Trade-off
You're buying a ChMS, not a giving tool — if you don't want Realm for membership and accounting, this is the wrong door. Interestingly, onrealm.org was still the single most-seen giving destination in our study.

Observed usage: 23 of the 1,298 working giving links in our 2026 study pointed here. About the study · Pricing verified 2026-07-16

Pushpay

Pricing
Custom quote — Pushpay does not publish pricing, and annual contracts are standard.
Monthly fee
Not published (quoted; annual contract)
Fee fine print
Processing rates are quoted, not published. Budget for a real monthly subscription on top of processing — this is an enterprise giving and engagement suite.
Text-to-give
Yes, included
Best for
larger churches · recurring-giving strategy · donor development tooling
Trade-off
Built and priced for large churches: unpublished pricing, annual contracts, and a sales process. Most sub-100 congregations are paying for headroom they will not use.

Observed usage: 20 of the 1,298 working giving links in our 2026 study pointed here. About the study · Pricing verified 2026-07-16

How we ranked these

A fixed scoring rubric, the same for everyone: a platform that is native to the church management system you already run scores highest; then text-to-give fit; then how each platform’s pricing behaves at your monthly giving volume (monthly fees are penalized hard at low volume, volume-friendly rates rewarded at high volume); then congregation size. Ties break on observed usage in our study. Same answers, same top 3, every time.

Every published price on this page was verified against the vendor’s own pricing page on July 16, 2026. Where a vendor doesn’t publish pricing (Pushpay, Realm), we say “not published” instead of repeating third-party guesses. Published fees change — confirm with the vendor before you sign anything.

No platform paid to be here. The usage numbers come from our own 2026 study, The State of Small Church Websites, which followed every giving link across a 2,000-church national sample.

Questions pastors ask

How did you rank these giving platforms?
A fixed, deterministic scoring rubric: platforms native to the church management system you already run score highest, then text-to-give fit, then how each platform's pricing behaves at your giving volume (monthly fees are penalized at low volume; volume-discount rates are rewarded at high volume), then congregation size. Every published price was verified against the vendor's own pricing page on 2026-07-16. No platform paid to be here.
What does online giving cost a small church?
Most platforms small churches use charge no monthly fee and take roughly 2.9% + $0.30 per card gift, with ACH bank transfers around 1% or less. Planning Center Giving publishes the lowest card rate here at 2.15% + $0.30. A few platforms charge a monthly subscription on top — at small-church volume, that math rarely works in your favor.
Where does the "of the 1,298 working giving links" number come from?
Our 2026 study, The State of Small Church Websites, crawled a 2,000-church national sample and followed every giving link it found; 1,298 resolved to a working giving destination. The counts shown per platform are how many of those links pointed at that platform. See the full study at /research.
Do you sell or resell any of these giving platforms?
No. Church Digital builds church websites; we don't sell a giving platform and no platform paid to be in this tool. Whichever platform you pick, wiring it into your website — the give button, the mobile flow, the embedded form — is included in our website service.

Whichever platform you pick, we wire it into your website.

The give button in the right places, the mobile flow, the embedded form — it’s included in every website we build. No upsell for “giving integration.”

See how our websites work