Loading…
For churches · Online giving
Online giving for churches: a plain-language overview
5-minute picker · 5 platforms compared
The 2026 state of online giving for churches — what it costs, the five platforms churches actually choose between, how to pick one, and where your website fits inside the decision.
The basics
What online giving actually is
Online giving is software that lets people give to your church using a credit card, debit card, or bank transfer (ACH) instead of cash or a check. The platform processes the payment, sends the donor a tax receipt by email, and gives your staff a dashboard showing who gave what and when.
Most churches either embed a giving page directly on their website or link out to a hosted donation form provided by the platform. Some platforms also ship a mobile app, a recurring-giving system, and a donor-management database. The line between “giving platform” and “church management system” gets blurry past a certain price point.
Why churches move
Why churches move to online giving
Cash and check giving have been declining at most churches for years; the pandemic accelerated a shift that was already happening. People who used to bring cash to the plate now expect the same one-tap giving experience they get everywhere else online. If the website doesn't make that easy, those gifts don't always come back in another form.
The other big driver is recurring giving. A donor who sets up a monthly gift once contributes consistently in ways a Sunday-only giver doesn't — even when life gets busy, even when they're traveling. For most churches, the share of revenue that comes from recurring gifts is one of the steadier numbers on the books, and it's almost entirely driven by online giving.
The third reason is generational. Younger givers are mobile-first by default. A church without a frictionless mobile giving experience is asking those givers to do something they don't do anywhere else.
The money question
How online giving actually charges churches
Most online giving platforms charge a percentage plus a small fixed fee on each transaction. Some add a monthly subscription on top of that. The basic math is the same across vendors; the differences are at the edges.
A typical credit-card gift runs roughly 2.15% to 2.9% of the gift plus a fixed amount per transaction (commonly around $0.30). ACH bank transfers are noticeably cheaper — usually under 1% — which matters at scale. A $1,000 gift on credit can cost the church $25 to $30; the same gift on ACH might cost $5 or less. That difference compounds for large recurring gifts.
Two newer wrinkles. First, most platforms now let the donor opt to cover the fee at checkout — when adoption is decent, the effective rate the church pays can drop substantially. Second, the bundled platforms (Pushpay, Subsplash) sometimes charge a subscription on top of transaction fees, in exchange for the app, messaging, and ChMS pieces of the bundle. Whether the bundle math works depends entirely on whether you would have bought those other pieces separately.
What most churches pay (as of 2026-05-13)
- Credit / debit card transaction fee~2.15% – 2.9% + $0.30
- ACH bank transfer transaction fee~0.8% – 1.0%
- Monthly subscription (free-tier platforms)$0
- Monthly subscription (bundled platforms)Varies / quoted
- Donor-cover-fees optionCommon
Published fees move. Confirm directly with each vendor before committing. The numbers above are typical ranges across the five platforms most churches choose between.
The shortlist
The 5 main online giving platforms churches use
These are the five platforms that come up in almost every conversation we have about church giving. Each one is good at something specific. The decision is rarely about which is “best” — it's about which fits your church.
Tithe.ly
Small to mid-sizeThe default starter platform for churches that want online giving up in a weekend without a contract. Free to set up, transaction fees only. The trade-off is that the donor experience and admin tooling sit a step behind the bundled platforms.
Read the deeper notes →Pushpay
Mid-size to largeAn enterprise-leaning giving and engagement suite. Built around recurring giving, donor data, and a polished mobile app. Pricing isn't public and contracts run annual — fit is best when a church is past the 'set it up and forget it' stage.
Read the deeper notes →Subsplash Giving
Bundled buyersGiving inside the broader Subsplash bundle — app, website, messaging, sermons. Strong if the church already lives inside that ecosystem; rarely worth choosing as a standalone giving tool. The bundle math is the real story.
Read the deeper notes →Givelify
Mobile-first donorsA donor-side app with a Givelify-branded discovery layer. The user experience for one-time gifts is genuinely fast. Less flexible for recurring-heavy operations and reporting, and donors land in the Givelify app rather than your site.
Read the deeper notes →Planning Center Giving
PCO-using churchesAn add-on to Planning Center's ChMS. Pricing scales by donations processed rather than by feature tier. The natural pick if you already run Planning Center for groups, services, and check-in — the integration is tight.
Read the deeper notes →
We're not reproducing the side-by-side comparison here — for that, the full 2026 comparison post walks through fees, fit, and website integration for each platform in depth. This page is the orientation; the comparison is the spreadsheet.
The decision framework
How to choose: the 5 questions to ask
Volume
Integrations
Mobile
Recurring
Budget
1. Volume. Roughly how much giving runs through your church each month? Under about $10,000 a month, transaction fees dominate and a free-tier platform usually wins. Over $50,000 a month, the spread between platforms on percent points actually matters — and a paid platform with better donor tooling can pay for itself.
2. Integrations. Do you already run a church management system (Planning Center, Breeze, Realm, Rock, Ministry Brands) or a website platform that has a preferred giving partner? Integration weight is real. The cleanest stack often beats the cleverest standalone tool.
3. Mobile.Do you need a branded mobile app, or is a mobile-friendly giving page enough? Most churches don't need an app. Some do — usually larger churches with a meaningful chunk of weekly engagement happening on a phone, not just giving.
4. Recurring. Is recurring giving central to how you fund the church, or a nice-to-have? Some platforms are built recurring-first (Pushpay, Planning Center). Others treat it as a feature. The difference shows up in donor retention over time.
5. Budget tier. Are you willing to pay a monthly subscription on top of transaction fees in exchange for app, messaging, and donor-data tooling? Or do you want transaction fees only and no subscription?
Or skip the worksheet — answer five questions in our online giving platform picker and get a ranked recommendation in under five minutes. Free, no signup.
The piece nobody plans for
What integration with your website actually involves
Picking a giving platform is the headline decision. The quieter decision — and the one that determines whether the platform actually gets used — is how it connects to your church website. A few things we keep noticing across reviews.
Where the giving link lives matters more than what the giving page looks like.The most common pattern we see is a polished giving platform reached by a “Give” link buried two taps deep in the mobile nav. The donor never sees the polish.
Mobile placement is a separate decision from desktop placement.A “Give” button in the desktop header doesn't automatically appear in the mobile header. Most templates collapse it into a hamburger menu by default. Treat the mobile placement as its own design decision.
Embedded vs. hosted giving pages. Most platforms offer both. Embedded keeps the donor on your domain and brand; hosted is faster to set up but breaks the visual continuity. For most churches the embedded option is worth the small extra setup. For some — usually smaller churches without a designer in the room — hosted is fine.
Recurring-giving sign-up flow.The path from homepage to “I have set up a monthly gift” should be two or three taps, with the recurring toggle on the donation form itself. If a donor has to find a separate page, the conversion rate falls.
The brand match. When the giving platform looks like a different brand from the rest of the site, donors notice — often subconsciously. The visual handoff matters. Fonts, colors, button styles, and the headline tone on the giving page should feel continuous with the rest of your church website.
Send your site URL and we'll record a five-minute Loom walking through the homepage, the give button, the mobile flow, and what we'd change. Request a free review →
A common detour
What about giving apps?
Several platforms offer a dedicated mobile app — either a branded church app you publish to the App Store and Google Play, or a shared donor-side app (the Givelify model). They're worth understanding even if you don't end up using one.
For most churches, a giving app is solving a problem that doesn't exist. A mobile-friendly giving page on the website handles 95% of what a member would ever do in an app. The exception is larger churches where the app becomes the primary engagement surface — sermons, push notifications, small group sign-up, check-in — and giving is one feature among many. In that pattern, the app makes sense; the giving piece is secondary to the rest of the bundle.
If you're a small or mid-size church and the only argument for an app is “easier giving” — fix the mobile flow on your website first. That's where the actual lift is.
Common pitfalls
Five mistakes we keep seeing churches make
Switching without exporting your recurring-donor list. Moving platforms is fine. Losing the list of givers on recurring schedules is not. Before you sign with a new vendor, confirm the export format and how donors re-authorize their cards. Most attrition during a platform move is silent.
Burying the giving link in the nav. If a guest has to open a dropdown to find the give button, you've lost a meaningful share of impulse gifts. The link belongs in the primary nav and the mobile footer at minimum.
Never opening the mobile giving flow yourself. Over half of church traffic is on a phone. Open your live site on your own phone — not a desktop preview — and complete a $1 gift end-to-end every six months. Pretty much every platform breaks something small once a year.
Letting transaction fees go uncommented. A 2.5% fee on $20,000 a month is $500 a month leaving the budget. Donor-cover-fees toggles, ACH-vs-credit splits, and platform negotiations all move that number. Treat it as a real line item — because it is.
Coupling giving too tightly to your ChMS. Bundled stacks are convenient until you need to switch one piece. If the giving platform is welded to your ChMS, the cost of leaving either is doubled. Keep an exit plan in mind even when you're happy.
Honest framing
Where Busic Digital fits
Busic Digital doesn't sell a giving platform. We don't resell one either. This page exists because pastors searching for “online giving for churches” deserve an honest overview that points them at the right tools — and the right tools, for most churches, are some combination of the five platforms above.
Where we come in is the website around whichever giving platform you choose. Custom-built from scratch, no templates, with the giving link in the places guests and members actually look. Two flat monthly plans (Launch + Train at $57/mo, Launch + Ongoing Care at $97/mo), 12-month minimum, no setup fee. Your church owns the site after the term.
If the giving platform is the wrong fit, our picker tool helps you find the right one. If the website is the bottleneck, we'll tell you exactly what to fix in a free five-minute Loom — and it's genuinely free. No follow-up call unless you ask.
Where to go next
The tools and reads worth your next click
Ready to move
Want a five-minute review of your church website?
If your giving platform is fine but the link is buried, the mobile flow is broken, or the giving page feels like a different site — send us your URL. We'll record a Loom and tell you exactly what to change.
Or read the full 2026 comparison if you want the spreadsheet view.
Custom church website plans start at $57/mo. No setup fee. Church owns the site after the term.