Online church directory software reviews

Evaluating new church management software can be a daunting task—there are many variables to consider and hundreds of products from which to choose. We recently surveyed buyers across multiple industries to determine which tactics are most effective for selecting software.

Top methods include checking vendor references, having agreements reviewed by an attorney, assessing financial viability of vendors and preparing an RFP. By sticking to selection tactics that fall in "most effective" quadrant and avoiding tactics in the "least effective" quadrant, you can avoid spending time using methods that are less likely to return information that is most useful finding the right software.

As a church manager, you know that budgeting, contributions and compliance are ongoing issues that impact your ability to serve your church members and communities.

Here are a few other issues to keep in mind as you explore the right solution for your organization:. Adoption of the cloud. Church managers are charged with finding ways to boost contributions, and one of the biggest hindrances to growth is handling financial management tasks.

Cloud accounting software allows church leadership to review budgets and monitor program impact in real-time from any location. Online giving. According to the Blackbaud Index on Charitable Giving Trends, online giving in faith-based organizations grew by 6.

Social media. To foster ongoing communications with members and volunteers, churches and religious organizations are turning to social media tools such as Twitter and Facebook to share information and increase support. Connecting other outreach channels, such as email communication and events, with social media channels can facilitate increased communication among members.

Software Advice uses reviews from real software users to highlight the top-rated Church Management Software products in North America. Get Advice. Other Software. Breeze FrontRunners Breeze is an intuitive web-based church management software that helps small to mid-size churches and organizations monitor people, manage events and track donations. Visit Website Learn More. ShelbyNext Membership Shelby System is a cloud-based church management solution for ministries and nonprofit organizations.

TouchPoint TouchPoint is a cloud-based church management system designed for midsize-to-large churches. Servant Keeper FrontRunners Servant Keeper by Servant PC Resources is a hybrid church management solution that caters to churches and faith-based organizations and helps them to manage their business operations. Clearstream Clearstream is an SMS marketing software, which helps churches of all sizes communicate with members in real-time and automate follow-ups with first-time guests.

Elexio Community FrontRunners Elexio church management software ChMS is simple, easy to use, and integrated, giving you a whole church management system at your fingertips. Blackbaud Church Management Drive vitality and care for your church with an easy-to-use, customizable solution for churches of all sizes. ChurchTrac FrontRunners ChurchTrac church management software features tools for managing people and groups, pledges, tithes and payments, attendance, events and budgets.

Church Office Online FrontRunners Church Office Online's church management software ChMS is simple, easy to use, and integrated, giving you a whole church management system at your fingertips. Chmeetings FrontRunners Chmeetings is a cloud-based church management solution designed for orthodox, Catholic and Protestant churches. Anedot Anedot is a cloud-based solution that helps non-profit organizations manage fundraising campaigns and collect donations.

Bitrix24 FrontRunners Bitrix24 is a client management solution that provides a platform for businesses to organize and track interactions with potential or existing clients and partners. Donarius FrontRunners Donarius is a church management software solution available for on-premise deployment that serves both churches and other non-profit organizations. Text In Church Text In Church is a cloud-based church management solution that connects pastors with church members.

View all products. Popular Comparisons. Buyers guide. Church software donor management demonstration video from Servant Keeper Common Features of Church Management Software Membership management Keep important member, volunteer and visitor information, such as phone numbers, addresses and activity involvement, up-to-date. Search and reporting features allow you to create directories and customize lists for outreach.

Accounting Enables secure tracking and reporting of expenditures and revenues for multiple funds. Scheduling functions prevent double booking of resources, such as rooms, vans and video equipment.

Other functions include Web-based registration , event listing search, payment process support, tracking and reporting. Volunteer management Volunteer management software helps churches organize contact information, volunteer history, availability and more.

Scheduling features provide outreach tools to contact volunteers for upcoming events. Many check-in programs integrate with touch screen technology for self-service check-in.

Others include child check-in functionality, which keeps track of which children are present in specific church locations, such as classrooms and nurseries. Church management systems generally follow three pricing models: Pricing model Description Example products Subscription based on weekly attendance A monthly or annual fee based on weekly attendance numbers.

Fresh Vine, ACS Realm Subscription based on number of member records A monthly or annual fee based on number of member records stored in the database. Some licenses allow multiple users one a single license, while others require an additional license for each user. Benefits and Potential Issues Churches that adopt the right types of software may realize many benefits, such as: Maintaining a secure contact database of every church visitor and member with reporting capabilities to compile the information necessary to make good stewardship decisions.

Easily communicating announcements to the entire congregation or select individuals and groups for increased membership engagement. Securely tracking donations and contributions with back-end processing and reporting for statement generation and audit purposes. Empowering members and groups through automated event and activity scheduling.

These tragedies do happen and churches should plan the best they can for them. Church management software is a cheap option to ensure data is safe. These copies should be in multiple locations. If you are not using a church management software, is your data stored safely in the same manner? When using the right church management software and a tragedy hits, the data will be safe.

In most instances all you have to do is find a working Internet connection at a Starbucks and have a laptop computer. Once your logged in you have all the contact information for church members and visitors. Better yet, during tragedies, you can start calling families to see if they were okay and offer assistance to them during. For future reference, an email with your log in credentials is on its way to your inbox.

If you do not receive an email or have any other questions, please contact our sales department at or sales iconcmo. What if your church management software does not do a directory? If your ChMS does not do a directory, you should look elsewhere for your software needs. Every decent package on the market has this feature.

And most packages have multiple directory variations. A different question to ponder. If this is the case then a more thorough investigation is needed.

If its the latter, then you have two choices. You can accept the directory from the ChMS as is. Or find a niche church directory software that will do what you want it to do. Some times change is hard and the church directory area is no exception. That may be true, but if no software puts it exactly the way you like, then you need to choose a software that will get you as close as possible. For example, 60 years ago, birthdays on the directory were common.

No it is not! Because of identity theft. Birthdays by themselves are not innocuous. But, birthdays combined with other pieces of data about you like address, phone numbers and emails, become damaging.

All that information is on that directory. If you agree that birthdays should be removed, then ensure that your directory software can remove it. This is an example of a holdover church criteria. Ensure you adjust the selection criteria before analyzing directory software packages. In other words just because you have always done it one way, does not make it right today….

A word on ChMS directory styling and other options. Most larger companies that provide church management software provide several variations of directories. More than likely, they have had hundreds of suggestions for their directories. Each suggestion varies from one to the other. In other words, none of them are the same just like no one church is the same. So what should the software provider do?

They could spend every waking moment and create hundreds of directory variations, which takes time away from developing other features on the system. Worst yet, it would make the system so hard to use the church users would look elsewhere for a less complicated system. Typically, the church management software companies develop the most popular request that can satisfy the widest range of clients. Other less requested suggestions like adding baptism dates, ethnic origin, or gender to the directories are not developed.

Because one or two clients want that on their directory thus not satisfying the mass amount of users. It comes down to a popularity contest, so to speak.

The items requested the most like phone numbers and emails will make the cut as this satisfies more clients versus adding the ethnic origin where one church is asking for that. Disclaimer: Finding a software that does everything you need is impossible.

However you may find one that does So now you have to figure out the cost of this software to the perceived benefits. You are using a ChMS that does create directories. Otherwise everything else would work. You search and find a church directory software that does sort the kids by age. It is what we call a niche software. It does one thing very well and in this case church directories.

If this sort order of children is not a big deal, then you can get by using the ChMS software. It would save money, time, training, and so on using no new software. Using your church management software for your church directory offers many benefits. You have all the membership information in one place. Thus when updating data you are not going to multiple spreadsheets, word documents or other places to update the same piece of information. With a church management database, this issue is resolved because you update it in one place and it reverberates throughout the entire system.

Using the directory is easy; however, if I find something to be a challenge, then a call to the help desk gets quick answers. The help desk can assist church members with learning how to add photos, or change their contact data. I often respond to inquires by sending a link to one of the tutorials that will resolve the question in a pleasant and clear way. The annual fee is reasonable, the members of the church can quickly become accustomed to using the directory on their computer or their mobile device.

Mountain Shadows Presbyterian. Greater Milwaukee Synod. The quality and ease of use for this online directory allows me without reservation to give it a huge thumbs up! First Presbyterian Church. Our directory is a great ministry tool. Continue your great work friends, and thanks for all your help! The Salvation Army Oshawa. Grace United Methodist Church. Almena United Methodist. We could not be more pleased with the results.

Our congregation has found both products to be user-friendly, and the app, in particular, to be helpful since we live in a large metro area where folks need quick access to phone numbers, addresses, etc. The tech support has been excellent at every step of the process. Grace Presbyterian Church. A thousand thank-yous for the online directory for my phone! And having addresses linked to a map makes finding an address incredibly easy and so helpful for those of us who are directionally-challenged.

One click and no more endless searching! Christ Church Cathedral. Fox Point Lutheran Church. Unity of Greater Portland. Paw Creek Presbyterian Church. Learning names and faces is so much easier with this online directory. All the information we need is with us any time we have our phone.

Southmont Baptist Church. We highly recommend Online Church Directory! Linda Hanson Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace. Community Bible Chapel. Facebook RSS. Our Customers Love Us!