Buyer's guide · 2026
Church management software (ChMS) is a platform for congregations to manage members, household records, giving, small groups, events, and communications.
The ChMS category is crowded, with Planning Center, Breeze, and Tithely dominating. Here is a practical guide for churches evaluating whether to switch or consolidate.
01 · Evaluation criteria
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Parents and kids roll up to one household. In Covey, a household membership has one payer and each person keeps their own login and directory entry, with date of birth and notes on each record. Relationships beyond the household are not modeled yet.
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Giving in the same system as membership and events. Covey lets members give when they join or renew, alongside dues. Standalone recurring gifts, pledges, and capital campaigns are not in Covey yet.
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Small-group leaders manage their own rosters and attendance. Not in Covey yet: you can tag people by group and search People by tag, but leaders cannot manage their own group.
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Secure check-in for Sunday school with printed name tags, security codes, and authorized pickup verification. Not in Covey yet: Covey does not offer child check-in.
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Sensitive notes seen only by the people who need them. Covey gives each team member a role (owner, admin, events, website, email, or read-only) and logs every change to a member record. Clergy-only notes and a log of who viewed a record are not in Covey yet.
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IRS-compliant statements generated automatically every January. Not in Covey yet: Covey does not produce giving statements.
02 · Buying questions
Planning Center dominates mid-size churches. Breeze and Tithely serve smaller congregations. Covey serves churches that want membership, giving, events and email in a single platform (community forums are coming soon to Covey).
$15 to $50/month for small churches (under 100 attendees). $50 to $200/month for mid-size. $200 to $800/month for large. Most tools include giving processing fees on top of subscription.
Yes. All major ChMS platforms include giving. Some (Planning Center, Tithely) charge lower giving processing fees than others.
03 · Tools to evaluate
04 · Where Covey fits
Covey is built for organizations in the church management software category that want four things at once: a considered interface, transparent pricing, a 48-hour migration, and human support on every plan. If those four things matter to you, Covey is worth a demo. If you need something else (a specific vertical module, an enterprise-scale implementation, a particular integration), we will tell you and point you somewhere that fits.
Legacy membership platforms feel like they were designed in 2008. Covey is built by a small team that treats typography, spacing, and the quiet details as the product.
A real human moves your members, levels, and renewal dates from your existing platform and rebuilds your upcoming events and email templates. You're live on Covey inside 48 hours, not six weeks.
No support tiers, no ticket queues that take four business days. Every plan includes a real person answering your questions, often the same person who wrote the feature.
One page, plain numbers. Plans are priced by active members, not contacts, and every plan has every feature. Migration is included, onboarding is included, support is included.
Ready when you are
30 days free, no card required · Plans from $49/month · Migration from any platform included
