Churchory gives a church administrator one people directory, a permissions grid that decides who sees what, and products the church adds only when it needs them. Churchory is church management software for small and mid-size churches. Start free with Core (your people directory, families, roles and church-wide email and push), then add only the products you need, like groups, events, Sunday serving and check-in, kids, care, chat and voting, or get everything with Churchory One.
What does a church administrator's week look like?
A church administrator keeps the machinery of church life running so everyone else can do ministry. In a small church that might be a part-time employee or a faithful volunteer; in a mid-size church it is often a full-time role that touches everything. A typical week includes updating the directory after Sunday, answering "can you add me to the email list?", booking rooms, fixing the bulletin, chasing serving gaps, setting up next month's events, and fielding a question from the pastor that starts with "do we have a list of…".
The hard part is rarely any single task. It is that every task lives in a different tool, and none of those tools agree on who your people are.
What problems do church administrators run into most?
- Four directories that disagree. The email tool, the check-in tool, the group spreadsheet and the giving system each hold a slightly different copy of the church.
- Access that is all or nothing. To let a volunteer run check-in you have to hand them a login that can see everyone's phone number and address.
- Being the only person who can do anything. Because access is risky, every small change routes through you.
- Exports nobody can find. Year-end reports, attendance counts and contact lists live in personal downloads folders.
- Paying for a bundle you half use. Many systems price by headcount and sell features in tiers you outgrow or never touch.
How does Churchory keep one directory for the whole church?
Every Churchory church has one shared people directory with real households, and every product reads from it. A person who checks a child in, joins a group, serves on the welcome team and votes at the members' meeting is one record, not four. That foundation is called Core, and it is free forever: people and families, roles and permissions, church-wide email and push announcements, and the Churchory web and mobile apps. The Core page and the people solution page cover it in full.
Administrators get the tools to keep that directory clean: adding, editing, merging and archiving people, handling join requests from people who find the church in the app, custom member fields, and a scheduled request for everyone to re-confirm their details so phone numbers and addresses stay current.
How do permissions work for an administrator?
Churchory's permissions are a grid of 23 areas, each with up to four levels: None, View, Manage (assigned) and Manage (all). "Assigned" means only what that person leads: their group, their serving team, their care train. You create roles with your church's own names and set each area per role.
Every church starts with a few roles already made:
| Role | What it can do |
|---|---|
| Admin | Everything, including church settings, roles and billing |
| Staff | Manage everything except church settings |
| Small Group Leader | Runs their own groups, takes their attendance, edits people, creates events they organize |
| Welcome Team | Runs Sunday check-in; views the directory |
| Deacon, Small Group Coach | Church offices that carry no extra access on their own |
| Member | Everyone; can always act on their own records |
Insights are separate grants on purpose. Running check-in and seeing attendance trends are different jobs, so the welcome team can take attendance without seeing who has stopped coming, and a deacon can be given just the attendance dashboards. There are nine insight areas in all.
One detail administrators appreciate: chat is not something you grant. Every member already has chat in a church that owns it, and they reach a conversation by being in it. The Chat permission only decides who can moderate.
Which products does an administrator use day to day?
It depends on what the church owns, but the most common are:
- Sunday: serving teams, worship plans, and Sunday check-in and attendance in one product.
- Events: RSVPs, sign-up sheets, room booking so two ministries stop claiming the same space, and paid registration through the church's own Stripe account.
- Digital Bulletin: build the bulletin in sections and publish it once as a push notification, a public link and a lobby QR code. Authoring and publishing are separate permissions, so a volunteer can draft and you can publish.
- Newsletters: the weekly email, with unsubscribe links and suppression handled on every send.
- Documents: folders with their own access, so the elders' folder stays the elders'.
- Giving: online giving through the church's own Stripe account, funds, recurring gifts, cover-the-fee and year-end statements.
Owning Newsletters or Digital Bulletin also unlocks a shared communications planner, so every send sits on one calendar.
How do we move our data into Churchory?
Most administrators let Churchory's team do it. The free, staff-run migration covers Planning Center, Breeze, Church Community Builder, Tithe.ly and Elvanto, Realm, Servant Keeper, ChurchTrac and spreadsheets, and brings over 12 to 24 months of history. Giving ledgers are not migrated, so keep your old giving records for the years before you switch.
If you prefer to do it yourself, the attendance and serving history import reads CSV or Excel files and has presets for Planning Center, Breeze and a generic layout; anything a preset does not recognize you map by hand. The switching page walks through both paths.
How does billing work for the administrator?
Churchory is priced by product, not by headcount. Each product is $99 a year, which saves $201 against paying $25 a month, and the new plans have no people-count tiers. Churchory One is $599 a year, which saves $949 against $129 a month, and includes every product, every future product and your church's own branded app. It becomes the better deal from the sixth product on monthly billing and the seventh on yearly billing. Prices are in US dollars, with no contract and cancel any month, and an annual price fits neatly on one line of the church budget.
For an administrator the bigger saving is usually the tools you stop running. If you pay for a separate check-in tool, chat app, newsletter tool and group spreadsheet today, add up what those cost and compare it with $99 a year per product or $599 a year for everything, on one directory you keep once. Core is free forever, giving carries no Churchory platform fee (only Stripe's processing fees), migration is free, and your questions are answered by the husband-and-wife team who build Churchory.
The 45-day free trial needs no card and includes only the products you pick, plus Core. Adding another product during the trial is one click and free. When the trial ends nothing switches off automatically. Billing, like roles, sits in church settings, which only admins can open. Full details are on the pricing page.
Can administrators work from a phone or a Mac?
Yes. Setup, configuration and reports are on the Churchory web app, and members and leaders use Churchory Mobile on iOS and Android. There is also Churchory for Mac. The web app is available in five languages: English, Spanish, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese and Korean.
Is our church's data safe?
Permissions are enforced on the server, not just hidden in the app, and a person can only reach what their role allows. The security page explains how data is stored and protected.
Who should the administrator share Churchory with next?
Once the directory is in, hand off the parts other people own. The volunteer coordinators page covers serving schedules, the kids ministry page covers check-in, and the pastors page explains what your pastor will want to see. If you are comparing systems, start with the comparison page.
Churchory products in this page
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between an admin and the Staff role?
Admins can do everything, including church settings, roles and billing; the Staff role can manage everything except settings. Most churches keep two or three admins and give other employees the Staff role.
Can I import our people and history from another system?
Yes. Churchory's team will migrate your data for free from Planning Center, Breeze, Church Community Builder, Tithe.ly and Elvanto, Realm, Servant Keeper, ChurchTrac or spreadsheets, with 12 to 24 months of history. Giving ledgers are not migrated.
Can I give a volunteer access to one area without opening up the directory?
Yes. Each of the 23 permission areas is set separately, so a volunteer can manage, for example, Sunday check-in while only viewing the directory, or a single event without anything church-wide.
Can we use our own words for members, attendees and groups?
Yes. Settings let you rename what Churchory calls a church member, an attendee and a group, and add custom fields such as baptism date. Renaming changes the wording only, never who can see what.
What happens when our free trial ends?
Nothing switches off automatically. The trial is 45 days with no card, and when it ends a person on our team reviews the account rather than a job turning things off.
How is Churchory billed?
Each product is $99 a year, or $25 a month, and Churchory One is $599 a year, or $129 a month. Yearly saves $201 a product and $949 on Churchory One. Prices are in US dollars, there are no contracts, and you can cancel any month.
Does each product work on its own?
Yes. Every product runs on Core by itself except Retreat Builder, which needs Events because every retreat is an event. Products light up extra features when you own them together: Groups plus Chat gives each group its own channel, Sunday plus Care puts first-time guests on the follow-up list, and Events plus Newsletters pulls upcoming events into a newsletter.
How do we clean up duplicate people?
Use the merge tool: it combines duplicate records without losing their history, and an import always shows possible duplicates for review before anything merges. You can also download a spreadsheet of current values, change it, and upload it back with a preview of every change before it applies.