Everything you need to know about church management software — costs, features, switching, and what makes ShepherdOS different.
Church management software (ChMS) is a platform that helps churches organize their congregation — tracking member information, attendance, giving, pastoral care, and visitor follow-up in one place. Modern tools like ShepherdOS add AI automation to flag at-risk members, follow up with first-time visitors, and surface care needs before they become crises.
Church management software ranges from free (limited features) to $300+ per month. ShepherdOS is $79/month for unlimited members with all features included. Breeze is $72/month, Planning Center starts around $14/month but reaches $200–$300+ for full functionality across all modules, and Tithe.ly offers a free tier with paid upgrades starting at $149/month.
For small churches (under 500 members), ShepherdOS is built from the ground up for your scale — not a stripped-down enterprise tool. You get AI-powered attendance tracking, a visitor kiosk, missing member alerts, and care notes at $79/month with no per-module fees. Planning Center is powerful but complex and expensive at scale; Breeze is simpler but lacks automation features that actively help your church grow.
ShepherdOS lets you configure multiple services (Sunday morning, Sunday evening, Wednesday night, etc.) and tracks attendance separately for each one. The analytics dashboard shows weekly trends across configurable time periods (4–26 weeks), service-level breakdowns, and automatically flags members who haven’t been seen in two or more weeks — sorted by severity so the most at-risk members surface first.
ShepherdOS includes a visitor registration kiosk — a tablet-optimized web page your guests can self-check-in on when they arrive. Their information flows directly into your member directory and triggers a notification to your pastoral team. From there you can log care notes, assign follow-up tasks, and track each visitor’s journey from first visit to active member.
Planning Center is a modular platform built for large churches — each module (People, Check-Ins, Giving, Groups, etc.) is priced separately, and full functionality easily reaches $200–$300+/month. ShepherdOS is a single all-in-one platform designed specifically for small churches at a flat $79/month, with AI features like missing member alerts and automated care tracking that Planning Center does not offer at any price tier.
Yes. ShepherdOS includes a CSV import tool that lets you upload your member list from any spreadsheet or previous ChMS export. The importer validates your data and shows a preview before confirming, deduplicates records on email address and phone number, and normalizes member status automatically. No technical skills required — if you can export a spreadsheet, you can import your data.
No. ShepherdOS is designed for pastors and church administrators — not IT staff. Setup takes minutes, the interface is entirely point-and-click, and the visitor kiosk works on any tablet or iPad without any configuration beyond opening a browser. If you can use a smartphone, you can use ShepherdOS.
The visitor kiosk is a web page you open on any tablet or iPad at your welcome desk. Visitors tap to enter their name, contact info, and how they heard about your church — it takes under 30 seconds and auto-resets for the next guest. The data flows directly into ShepherdOS, notifies your pastoral team, and is immediately available in the member directory for follow-up. No app installation required.
ShepherdOS includes real-time attendance analytics (weekly trends across 4–26 week periods, service-level breakdowns), a missing members report with severity ratings (amber for 2–4 weeks absent, red for 4+ weeks), care note tracking with open/resolved status, visitor conversion tracking, and a site traffic overview. All data updates in real time — no exports or spreadsheets needed.
Yes. ShepherdOS offers a 14-day free trial with no credit card required. Submit a trial request with your church name and contact info, and your instance is set up and emailed to you within 24 hours. You can import your member data, run the kiosk, and explore every feature before committing to a subscription.
Your data belongs to your church. You can export your complete member directory and attendance history as a CSV at any time — before or after cancellation. ShepherdOS does not use proprietary lock-in formats. Your records are yours to take wherever you go.
Start your 14-day free trial and explore ShepherdOS with your own congregation data. No credit card required — your instance is set up within 24 hours.