Churchory gives a pastor one place to see the church: who came on Sunday, who is new, who is struggling, and which groups and teams need help. 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 pastor's week look like, and where does software fit?
A pastor's week is mostly people, and software should give time back to people rather than take it. In a small or mid-size church the same person often preaches on Sunday, visits the hospital on Tuesday, meets a couple on Wednesday night, answers a dozen texts about the potluck, and still has a sermon to finish by Saturday. The admin work does not go away; it just squeezes into the gaps.
Churchory is built for that week. It will not replace a phone call; it keeps the facts of church life in one place, so you are not piecing together who came and who is new from three spreadsheets and a group text.
What problems do pastors bring to us most often?
The same few come up again and again:
- "I don't know who has stopped coming until it's been two months." Attendance lives on a clipboard, if anywhere, and nobody is looking at it week to week.
- "First-time guests fall through the cracks." Someone fills in a card, it goes in a basket, and the follow-up depends on who remembers.
- "I'm the bottleneck for everything." Every question about a room booking, a serving swap or a group roster ends up on the pastor's phone.
- "Our members' meeting is a mess." The same three people talk, the quiet ones never ask their question, and counting paper ballots takes longer than the discussion.
How does Churchory help a pastor see the whole church?
Everything in Churchory sits on one shared people directory, so a person, their family, their group, their serving team and their attendance are the same record everywhere. That is the part every church gets, called Core: the directory, families, roles and permissions, church-wide email and push announcements, and the Churchory web and mobile apps. You can read more about it on the Core page.
On top of that, each product a church owns adds its own view. A pastor typically spends time in these:
| What you want to know | Where it lives | Product |
|---|---|---|
| Who came on Sunday and who is new | Sunday check-in and attendance | Sunday |
| Who is following up with each guest | Follow Ups | Care |
| Who is in the hospital and who is bringing meals | Meal trains and prayer chains | Care |
| Which groups are healthy and which have gone quiet | Group attendance and the missing-attendance list | Groups |
| What the congregation is asking | Live Q&A for members' meetings | Open Floor |
| What the congregation decided | Secret-ballot votes with quorum | Voting |
Insights sit on top of all of it. Churchory has nine insight areas, including Sunday attendance, groups, care, serving and engagement, and each one is its own grant. That means a pastor can see attendance trends and absent regulars, and the welcome team who runs check-in does not see those trends unless you say so.
How do first-time guests get followed up?
When a church owns both Sunday and Care, every first-time guest added at Sunday check-in lands on a follow-up list with a person's name next to them. The list is called Follow Ups, and it is the quiet sibling of Care: Care is what a church does when something happens, such as a surgery or a new baby, and Follow Ups is what it does so nobody is forgotten in between.
A pastor with full access sees the whole list and hands people out. A deacon or a welcome-team leader can be given "Manage (assigned)" so they see and act on only the people assigned to them. The details are on the care solution page.
What permissions would a pastor usually have?
A pastor is usually either a church admin or holds the Staff role. Churchory creates the Staff role for every church, and it can manage everything except church settings, which are admin-only and include roles and billing. Many small churches make the senior pastor an admin and give associate or volunteer pastors the Staff role.
Churchory's permissions are a grid of 23 areas, each with up to four levels: None, View, Manage (assigned) and Manage (all). If you would rather a pastor see more and change less, give View on most areas and Manage only where they actually do the work. The permissions overview on the people solution page explains how roles you name map to those levels.
Two seeded roles matter to pastors in particular. Deacon is a church office that carries no extra access on its own, so naming someone a deacon puts the title on their profile without opening the directory to them. Small Group Coach works the same way: what a coach sees is set group by group.
How does Churchory help with members' meetings and votes?
Open Floor and Voting are built for exactly the meeting most pastors dread. Open Floor gives the room a public Q&A link that needs no app and no account; questions can be submitted before the meeting, the room upvotes them, and you work through them on the projector. Voting then turns a question into a ballot: one member, one vote, secret ballots that nobody, staff included, can see by voter, and a quorum and passing threshold you set before it opens.
If your church is congregationally governed, the Baptist churches page goes into how eligibility, quorum and thresholds work in more detail.
Will Churchory do the admin work for me?
Churchory can prepare some of it, and a person always decides. With the relevant products, the home screen can hold prepared work: a drafted bulletin for the week, a drafted ask to the people who are free to fill an empty serving slot, or a drafted check-in note to someone who has missed several group meetings. Each one is a draft waiting for review. Churchory never sends anything in your name on its own. These features are in beta; the AI page describes what exists today.
Which Churchory products should a pastor buy?
Buy for the problem you have now, not for every problem you might have. Each product is $99 a year, which saves $201 against paying $25 a month, and Core is free forever.
- A small church that mainly wants to know its people: Sunday and Care, $198 a year ($50 a month).
- A church built around small groups: add Groups, $297 a year ($75 a month).
- A congregationally governed church: add Voting and Open Floor to whatever else you run.
- Many products, or your own app: 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.
The value is less in any one product than in what it replaces. If you pay for a separate check-in tool, chat app and newsletter tool today, add up what those cost and compare it with $99 a year per product or $599 a year for everything, all on one directory your staff only keep once. Giving carries no Churchory platform fee, only Stripe's processing fees.
Every church gets a 45-day free trial with no card. The trial includes the products you pick, and adding another during the trial is one click and free. See pricing for the full table, and the page on church software for small churches for a fuller walk-through of what a church under about a hundred people tends to need.
How hard is it to move from what we use now?
Usually less hard than pastors expect. Churchory offers a free, staff-run migration from Planning Center, Breeze, Church Community Builder, Tithe.ly and Elvanto, Realm, Servant Keeper, ChurchTrac and spreadsheets, bringing over 12 to 24 months of history. Giving ledgers are the exception and are not migrated. The switching page explains the process, and the comparison page shows how Churchory lines up against the tools a small church usually stitches together.
Who else at the church should read this?
Point your church administrator at setup, your small group leaders at the group tools, and whoever schedules Sunday at the volunteer coordinators page.
Churchory products in this page
Frequently asked questions
What does a pastor actually use Churchory for?
Mostly for seeing the church clearly: who came, who is new, who needs a visit, and which ministries need attention. Pastors also use it to run members' meetings with Open Floor and Voting, and to make sure follow-ups with first-time guests have a name next to them.
Does the pastor have to be the person who sets Churchory up?
No. Most churches have an administrator or a volunteer do the setup, and the pastor is given the Staff role or an admin seat. Staff can manage everything except church settings, roles and billing.
Can I see attendance trends without seeing everything else?
Yes. Insights are granted area by area, so a pastor, elder or deacon can be given Sunday attendance dashboards without being given giving or care dashboards, and the reverse.
Will Churchory send messages to my people on its own?
No. Churchory can prepare drafts, such as a follow-up note or a serving ask, but a person always reviews and sends them. Nothing goes out in your name without someone pressing send.
Which products should a pastor of a small church start with?
Most small churches start with Sunday and Care, at $99 a year each ($25 a month), and add Groups when small groups matter. Churchory One, at $599 a year or $129 a month, becomes the better deal from the sixth product on monthly billing and the seventh on yearly billing, and it is the only way to get your church's own app.
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 does Churchory help us notice people drifting away from groups?
Leaders take attendance in seconds and get reminded when they forget, and with Care added, someone who misses three meetings in a row prompts a drafted check-in note for their leader to send. Staff see which groups are healthy and which are quietly emptying.