7 Inexpensive Online Giving Solutions for Small- and Mid-Sized Churches

As a small to medium-sized church, every dollar counts. That’s why it’s a must to research any software solution before you invest time and money into it, or else you could end up with an overstrained budget and problems that still aren’t solved. Fortunately, when it comes to online giving solutions, there are a number of low-cost options out there.

The trick is finding one that gives you key features now and is able to scale with you as you continue growing down the road. Here are seven platforms to consider, along with input from current and past users.

#7 Mogiv

Built with local churches in mind, Mogiv is a great starter platform for your small church that’s learning the ins-and-outs of online giving and church software. With recurring gifting, embeddable forms, text-to-give, and designated contributions alongside easy-to-generate reports, Mogiv offers most the features a budding church could need.

• Biggest Praise: Reviewers note its simplicity. “What I like most about this software is how easy it was to give. Also very user-friendly and looks good.”
• Biggest Complaint: Sneaky pricing with some saying there’s a “non-use” fee. Others said they can also “be a bit pushy with some of their extra features and community participation.”

They have no setup, subscription, annual, or contract fees, which is one of the main appeals of Mogiv. The simple pricing plan starts at $10/month with a $10 minimum collection and per-transaction fees of 2.90% + $0.70 for all credit cards. There’s a flat fee of 1% + $0.45 for ACH transactions.

Their flat fee structure definitely makes things predictable, although you could end up paying more than with other software if you’re collecting a lot of small donations as opposed to fewer large donations. Text giving is also another $5/month, kiosk giving is $19/month, and a church app is another $39/month, so the costs can add up quickly.

#6 ChurchTrac

With a free version, free trial, and paid plans starting at just $5/month, ChurchTrac is a highly affordable solution for small churches seeking a simple software. Despite its affordable price, this church management software tries to do it all with child check-in, event management, donation tracking, communication tools, and more.

When reading reviews, it becomes apparent that ChurchTrac is far from perfect, but it could be a good starter solution if you’re working on a very tight budget and want to dip your toe in the water with a church management and online giving software.

• Biggest Praise: Affordability is a major source of praise, with everyone admitting it “doesn’t break the bank.”
• Biggest Complaint: Multiple limitations for reporting, sign-up collection, and integrations. Additionally, some users say the support is mostly a “self-service” setup.

With all of that in mind, it may be worthwhile pursuing a more feature-rich and support-centric environment like one of these other options, even if it means paying a little more. Otherwise, you will likely find yourself eventually having to transient to another tool.

#5 Kindrid

With Kindrid, you can accept donations via text, web, or a kiosk. They call their setup seamless with the promise of increasing total giving and the number of new givers using their software. Like any solution, though, it’s not perfect. Users on Capterra point out the following.

• Biggest Praise: Ease of reporting. “I love that I can request and customize a report and just print it out. I enjoy making designations at a moments notice as well as the marketing material that you are giving.”
• Biggest Complaint: Lack of customization. “We’ve tried to customize some areas of the system, but have been unsuccessful. For example, we’d like to customize the automated response when a gift is process, but that is nailed down and non-customizable.”

The pricing starts at $15/month in addition to per-transaction fees. No free version is available. If you collect more than $25,000/month, you can also ask about a custom plan.

#4 Donately

With the startup plan featuring no monthly charge and just a 4% fee, Donately is becoming a popular donation collection solution for growing churches. The recommended plan is just $69/month with a 2% fee and custom plans are also available, meaning this is a tool you could scale with.

Donation pages, peer-to-peer fundraising, mobile responsive forms, and more are all included in their base plan and higher tiers unlock even more features, like text message engagement.

• Biggest Praise: Quick to setup with the ability to deploy widgets on third-party websites.
• Biggest Complaint: Some say they were spammed with emails like other free tools tend to do. Others state the donation receipts and similar components need a design update.

As a church, you may run into some hurdles since this isn’t a faith-focused platform, but you should be able to work around them if you just want a simple and cheap solution to start collecting donations without the fuss of tracking or management system.

#3 Tithe.ly

With nearly 30,000 churches using Tithe.ly, it’s certainly one of the biggest solutions on this list. With it, you can enable online, mobile app, and text giving for your church and they also offer church management and communication software to help you stay on top of things.

On top of all that, you’ll get cash and check gift recording along with event management, recurring gifts, debit/credit/ACH gifts, and a mobile app for Android and iOS. This software also integrates with QuickBooks. Unfortunately, reviewers on Capterra say it’s not perfect.

• Biggest Praise: User interface. “Giving is super easy with the app, too. On the backend, I can get giving reports easily with all the information I need.”
• Biggest Complaint: Lack of customization. “The negatives for Tithe.ly have to do with the lack of customization for their embedding iframe feature, as well as the lack of overall aesthetic for integration with preexisting websites.”

With no setup costs, you can get the giving platform up-and-running for cheap. Fees range from 2.9% and $0.30 per transaction and up, with AMEX costing 3.5% and $0.30 per transaction and bank transfers costing just 1% and $0.30 per transaction.

#2 easyTithe

Seeking an online giving solution that offers a truly free version? easyTithe is a popular solution. Unlike many softwares that say they’re free but go on to collect monthly security fees and setup fees, this one is different. No software or security charges and no monthly minimum to get Get started. You can even use text giving free-of-charge.

If you decide you like it, the smallest plan starts at $10/month. There are fees of 3% + 39¢ per transaction for debit/credit gifts and 1% + 39¢ per transaction for bank transfer donations. These are pretty standard and you can score even lower pre-transaction fees if you bump up to a bigger plan.

• Biggest Praise: Support team. “They are truly a company that cares about you. Making sure that you have everything you need for success, and is very willing to go the extra mile to help you.”
• Biggest Complaint: Reporting and incomplete information.  “The thing I really hate is that when I try to print a report from last month by person. Or do a date search by last name for the previous month. Neither one prints up completely.”

As you can see, easyTithe isn’t perfect, but it is an extremely popular solution. That’s due to its overall ease of use and affordability. The truly free trial is also what gets many churches hooked, although it’s unappealing for a church hoping for an all-in-one solution that also offers coaching and church management beyond donation collection.

#1 DonorWerx

Do you need to get all the tools you need under one umbrella? All while having the freedom to scale as needed? If so, DonorWerx is a fantastic solution. Affordable for churches big and small, DonorWerx offers donation collection, relationship building, and church management software all bundled into a customized coaching package.

• Biggest Praise: Feature-rich and robust. Powerful donation collection and church management software coupled with one-on-one coaching.
• Biggest Complaint: Setup may seem daunting with all the features. Fortunately, you’ll be guided through it with step-by-step tutorials. There’s also a support team that’s only a click or phone call away at any time.

Do you like seeing the “whole picture” without having a dozen software platforms integrating with each other? If so, DonorWerx is the solution you’re looking for. Schedule a Discovery Call today and we’ll walk you through our pricing structure and features so that you can make an informed decision.