If you’ve started looking into a mobile app for your church, you’ve probably noticed that pricing is surprisingly hard to find. Most platforms require you to book a demo call before they’ll tell you the number. That’s not an accident.
This guide breaks down what actually drives the cost of a church app, what the major platforms charge, and what a realistic budget looks like for a small-to-medium Australian congregation. No sales pitch until the end, the goal here is to help you ask the right questions before you speak to anyone.
What drives the price of a church app?
Church app pricing varies enormously, from free to several thousand dollars a month, because the products being sold are genuinely different. Understanding the categories helps you compare like with like.
White-label vs. custom-branded
Some lower-cost options publish your church’s content inside a shared app, under the provider’s branding. Your congregation downloads the provider’s app and finds your church listed inside it. Custom-branded apps give your church its own listing in the App Store and Google Play, under your name and logo. Most platforms charge more for custom branding, and it matters: a congregation is more likely to keep an app installed when it looks like it belongs to their church.
Features included vs. gated behind tiers
Platforms differ significantly in what’s included at entry-level pricing. Some charge a base fee for a basic communication app, then add separate fees for online giving, sermon archives, push notifications, or livestream embedding. These add-ons add up quickly. Before you compare two monthly prices, check what’s actually included at that price.
App store submission and ongoing maintenance
Publishing an app to Apple’s App Store and Google Play requires developer accounts and periodic updates as operating systems change. Some platforms handle this in the subscription; others charge separately for setup or bill for each update. If a platform quotes you a very low monthly fee, ask whether app store submission is included.
Contract terms
Month-to-month subscriptions cost more per month than annual contracts, but they don’t lock you in. Many enterprise-tier platforms require 12 to 24-month commitments, sometimes with early termination fees. For a church that wants to try an app before fully committing, the flexibility of month-to-month is worth paying attention to.
Support and timezone
This one is easy to overlook. If your volunteer admin encounters a problem on a Friday afternoon AEST, US-based support teams may not respond until Monday morning your time. For churches without a dedicated IT function, local or AEST-hours support is a practical consideration, not just a nice-to-have.
What the major platforms charge
The three platforms most Australian church leaders encounter are Subsplash, Pushpay, and Tithe.ly. All three are US-built. Here’s what the research shows about their pricing as of mid-2026.
Subsplash
Subsplash does not publish pricing for its paid plans (Subsplash One and Enterprise). You must contact sales before receiving a quote. Third-party review data and aggregator sites place real-world church spend in the range of USD $249–$600 per month for small-to-medium churches, and USD $700–$1,200+ per month for enterprise and multi-campus churches. (source: competitor scan, 2026-06-25, citing Buildify and SaaSworthy data)
At current exchange rates, USD $249–$600 translates to approximately AU$375–AU$915 per month. Annual contracts with early termination penalties are commonly reported.
In July 2025, Subsplash was acquired by Roper Technologies for USD $800 million. Roper is a serial acquirer of vertical SaaS businesses known for holding products long-term and maintaining pricing discipline. No changes to Subsplash’s AU pricing or support arrangements have been announced. (source: Nasdaq, au.investing.com, 2026-06-25)
Pushpay
Pushpay’s pricing is not publicly listed either. Third-party review data places the giving-only entry at approximately USD $199–$399 per month, with full bundles, giving plus app plus their ChMS platform, running USD $500–$1,500+ per month depending on congregation size. Annual contracts are standard. (source: churchmemberpro.com review, 2026-06-25)
Pushpay has recently acquired Nurture.io, a pastoral engagement analytics platform that aggregates data across 17+ church technology integrations. This signals Pushpay is building toward an enterprise suite, analytics, ChMS, giving, and now pastoral care intelligence, which is reflected in their pricing positioning. (source: Yahoo Finance, 2026-06-25)
Tithe.ly
Tithe.ly is the most transparent on pricing. Their All Access plan, which bundles giving, a church management system, a custom church app, website builder, and worship tools, is published at USD $119 per month (approximately AU$182 at current rates). (source: get.tithe.ly/pricing, 2026-06-25)
Tithe.ly’s entry point is lower than Subsplash and Pushpay, though the bundle includes a church management system and website builder that some churches won’t need or want to manage. They also have established relationships with Australian churches through the Elvanto acquisition, so they’re worth including in any shortlist.
What you actually need vs. what you’re paying for
A recurring pattern with enterprise church platforms is that pricing is built around the largest churches, the ones with multiple campuses, full-time staff managing communications, and budgets to match. Small-to-medium Australian churches often end up paying for features they won’t use and complexity they don’t want.
A Pushpay and Barna Group survey of 1,300+ church leaders (March 2026) found that 59% of churches plan to adopt a mobile app within three years. The “alignment” question, which app fits our culture and capacity, is now more common than the basic adoption question. (source: GlobeNewswire, 2026-06-25)
For a church of 100–500 members, the features that matter most are generally:
- Push notifications (the single highest-value feature for congregation communication)
- Events calendar and RSVPs
- Sermon audio or video archive
- Online giving
- A branded listing in the App Store and Google Play
Beyond that, additional features are useful if your volunteers have the capacity to manage them. A long feature list on a pricing page only helps if someone in your team will actually use it.
A realistic budget for an Australian church
Based on published pricing and third-party research, here’s a rough summary of what you should expect to spend at different price points in 2026:
| Monthly budget (AU$) | What’s typically available |
|---|---|
| AU$0–$50 | White-label apps (shared branding), limited push notifications, basic giving tools at percentage fees |
| AU$50–$200 | Entry-level custom-branded apps with core features; some platforms at this range are giving-focused with apps as an add-on |
| AU$200–$500 | Mid-tier custom apps with full feature sets; usually annual contracts |
| AU$500+ | Enterprise suites with ChMS, analytics, multi-campus support; quote-only |
The “free” tier is worth examining closely, platforms offering free giving tools make their revenue on transaction fees, typically 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction. For a congregation with AU$5,000 in monthly giving, that’s roughly AU$175/month in fees, before any app costs.
Where ETKApps fits
ETKApps is a custom-branded iOS and Android church app built for Australian churches. The price is AU$39.99 per month, all features included, no tiers. That’s a flat, published number, no call required to find it out.
The feature set covers the core functions most Australian churches ask about: push notifications, events calendar, sermon archive, online giving via Stripe, livestream embedding, Bible integration, prayer request submissions, polls and forms, and ministry management. There’s a 30-day free trial with no credit card required, and subscriptions are month-to-month with no lock-in.
ETKApps is built and supported in Australia, which means AEST support hours and an understanding of the local church landscape across Pentecostal, Baptist, Anglican, Catholic, and Uniting churches.
It’s positioned for churches that want a properly branded, fully functional app without the overhead of an enterprise suite. If you’re currently managing communications through Facebook, email, and a website, and finding that Facebook’s organic reach has dropped (average pages now reach 2–5% of followers, (source: Caffeinated Church, 2026-06-25)), a church app at this price point is worth a genuine look.
Questions to ask any provider
Before signing up for any church app platform, these questions will save you from surprises later:
- Is custom branding (App Store/Google Play under our church name) included at this price, or is it an add-on?
- Are push notifications unlimited, or is there a cap or per-message fee?
- What are the contract terms, month-to-month or annual? What’s the cancellation process?
- Is app store submission and ongoing maintenance included?
- Where is your support team based, and what are your support hours?
- What does the onboarding process look like, and how long does it take to go live?
The answers will quickly tell you whether a platform is built for churches your size or whether you’re being sold a product designed for much larger organisations.
If you want to see what AU$39.99/month looks like in practice, ETKApps offers a 30-day free trial with no credit card required. You can set up your app branding and send a test push notification to your own phone in under an hour, which is the fastest way to know whether it’s the right fit for your congregation.
Related: for a full pricing breakdown with a side-by-side comparison table, see Church App Cost in Australia: 2026 Pricing Guide.
