- Starting price
- $58/mo annually or $69/mo monthly for 35 active members
- Free tier
- Yes
- Platforms
- Web · iPhone · Android · Apple Silicon Mac · Apple Vision
- Developer
- JX3 Digital LLC
- Launched
- 2020
- Updated
- Aug 3, 2026
The verdict
Altar Live is a browser-first church engagement platform that places chat, polls, lobbies and small video tables around an existing livestream. It is more relational than a plain embed and less general-purpose than Zoom. Current public pricing starts at $58 a month billed annually, or $69 monthly, for 35 logged-in monthly active users; anonymous guests are not charged, while overages can add $1.50 per active user. The March 2026 acquisition by JX3 Digital has produced a newly updated Android app and new legal ownership, but the iPhone client is still on a November 2023 build. Churches should test the web experience as primary, reconcile the calculator with any legacy pricing blocks, obtain a data-processing agreement, and establish moderation, safeguarding, recording, retention and private-message rules before inviting a congregation.
Try Altar Live ↗Opens altarlive.com
A normal church livestream answers one question: can someone watch? Altar Live tries to answer the harder questions around it. Who welcomed the visitor? Can friends sit together? Where does a newcomer go after the service? Its event interface surrounds a YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook or custom video feed with visible attendance, public chat, private and group messages, polls, announcements, a lobby and video-conference spaces. Tables can hold small conversations while rooms support larger follow-up gatherings. Separate meetings give churches a faith-oriented alternative to a generic video call for classes, prayer and teams.
The product began in June 2020 under founder Stephanie Antonucci Leathe and 923 Digital. Altar says more than 1,300 churches have used it and more than 60,000 people have joined experiences on the platform. In March 2026 JX3 Digital acquired Altar Live. Its leaders describe ministry and local-church experience, and ownership has now changed in the Apple and Google stores as well as the legal documents. Google received an acquisition-focused update in June 2026; the iOS participant app remains version 1.0.53 from November 2023.
Altar sells to organizations, not individual viewers. Anonymous visitors can join without being counted as paid monthly active users; logged-in people who attend at least one event or meeting in a month are billable. That design can make public outreach affordable while charging for recurring community. It also creates an incentive that administrators need to understand: account status, attendance and repeat participation directly affect invoices and appear in engagement analytics.
This researched review uses the current official site, pricing calculator, help and legal pages, acquisition material, exact Apple and Google records, public reviews and faith.tools. We did not create an organization, conduct a 14-day trial, host a live service, test every stream provider, measure latency, inspect attendee analytics, request a DPA, exercise deletion rights or audit video encryption, accessibility, moderation or source code. Pricing is especially dynamic; the live page contains current Essential and Premium tables alongside older Engagement blocks, so obtain a written quote before budgeting.
✓ The good
- Designed for participation - chat, polls, announcements, lobbies, tables and rooms turn a broadcast into a hosted gathering
- Works with existing video - churches can keep YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook, Ecamm or another stream source instead of replacing production tools
- Anonymous access is practical - visitors can attend without an account and do not count toward monthly active-user billing
- Small-group transition - the same event can move people from a public stream into more conversational video spaces
- Host controls - greeter messages, private host notes, timeouts, removal and bans give teams more structure than an open comment feed
- No long contract advertised - monthly and annual options plus a 14-day trial reduce procurement commitment
- Current Android maintenance - the June 2026 release moved ownership to JX3 and fixed YouTube playback
- Clear new legal owner - the May 2026 policy and terms identify JX3 Digital LLC and provide contact details
✗ Watch out
- Pricing page is internally messy - current Essential and Premium tables coexist with older Engagement plans and different trial language
- Active-user overages - billable logged-in attendance can rise unpredictably after a successful event
- Old iPhone client - Apple still lists a November 2023 build even after the 2026 acquisition
- No Apple accessibility declarations - screen reader, caption, keyboard, text-size and contrast support are not documented in the store
- Sensitive interaction data - attendance, private messages, photos, video, support content and device identifiers can be connected to people
- Marketing tracking - the public policy names Meta conversion tracking, Facebook Custom Audiences and Google Analytics alongside platform processing
- Terms disclaim moderation - users supply content and Altar reserves removal rights but says it does not filter or moderate everything
- Casting complaints - older mobile reviewers asked for native TV casting and reported deep-link and stability problems
- Acquisition transition risk - churches must confirm the controller, subprocessors, retention and contractual commitments carried into JX3 ownership
Best for
- Churches with an established livestream that want trained hosts and real-time congregation interaction around it
- Hybrid services that need a lobby, prayer room, newcomers table or post-service conversation without sending multiple links
- Online-only ministries prepared to staff moderation, safeguarding, technical support and pastoral escalation during every event
- Organizations whose public audience is mostly anonymous and whose smaller recurring member base fits a predictable active-user tier
- Classes, retreats and conferences that value a church-shaped participant journey more than a generic webinar grid
Avoid if
- You only need reliable one-way video; an embed and moderated chat will be cheaper and simpler
- Your church cannot monitor public chat, private messages, video rooms and reports in real time
- A youth or vulnerable-adult ministry lacks parental consent, two-adult rules, recording policy and an independent reporting route
- Finance requires one fixed bill regardless of active-user growth or cannot reconcile anonymous and logged-in attendance
- You need a recently maintained native iPhone experience, documented accessibility compliance or native television casting
- Procurement requires a reviewed DPA, subprocessor list, recovery objectives, security documentation and data-export plan before trial
What Altar Live is
Altar Live is an event and meeting layer for digital church. An organization schedules an event, connects a live or prerecorded source, configures who may enter and assigns hosts and greeters. Attendees watch in a branded space, interact publicly or privately and can move into lobby, row, table or room experiences. Analytics help administrators distinguish guests, members and repeat attendance.
It is not a video-production suite, full church-management database or automatic online ministry. A church still needs a camera and encoder or hosted video source, people to greet and moderate, follow-up processes and pastoral judgment. Integrations reduce tool switching, but they do not transfer responsibility for consent, safety or the theology and quality of the service.
Why virtual tables change the shape of a church stream
Most streaming products optimize the stage. Altar optimizes what happens around it. A table of up to a few people can recreate some of the conversational scale of a foyer, prayer corner or class without placing everyone in one giant call. Hosts can announce the next step, invite a visitor to a named space and remain present during the transition.
That relational design is valuable only when consent is real. Seeing that someone is online does not make them available for a private approach. Churches should label who is staff, let people decline messages, prevent one-to-one adult/minor rooms, prohibit covert counseling and give participants a visible exit and report control. Good online hospitality lowers pressure; it does not use engagement analytics to intensify it.
Events combine an existing livestream with guided interaction
Altar can ingest common hosted video sources and place general chat, scheduled prompts, polls, announcements and calls to action beside the program. Organizations can create unlimited events, set viewing permissions and use host notes that attendees do not see. Anonymous participation keeps the first visit low-friction.
Run a rehearsal with the exact production path, browsers, phones, captions and backup stream. Assign separate roles for broadcast health, welcome, content moderation and pastoral escalation. Publish what chat is recorded, whether screen names are public and when a private message may be reviewed. Never make a prayer response or poll answer a condition for access.
Lobbies, rooms and tables support follow-up and small groups
After or during a service, participants can enter video-conference spaces rather than opening a new Zoom link. Rows and tables emphasize small clusters; rooms and meetings extend the platform to Bible studies, volunteer teams, conferences and retreats. Paid tiers advertise sessions supporting hundreds of participants.
Video increases risk as well as presence. Define capacity, naming, camera and recording expectations before entry. Use waiting and removal controls, two trained adults for youth spaces, separate accounts for leaders and a written response for harassment, self-harm, abuse disclosure or medical crisis. A platform ban is not a complete safeguarding response.
Analytics and monthly-active-user billing need one governance policy
Altar can identify logged-in repeat participation while allowing anonymous guests. Administrators can use attendance and interaction signals to understand which events are working. The same definition drives billing: a unique logged-in user attending at least one meeting or event in a month is active.
Collect only metrics tied to a stated ministry decision. Do not infer belief, vulnerability or pastoral need from watch time, room choice or repeat attendance. Limit dashboard access, set deletion periods, export aggregate reports where possible and alert finance before automatic tier changes. Pastoral notes belong in an approved care system, not a livestream analytics record.
Pricing
Essential · annual
From $58/mo
Full feature access, self-service support and no contract for a starting allowance of 35 monthly active users, billed annually.
Essential · monthly
From $69/mo
The same entry tier with monthly billing. The live pricing page advertises a 14-day free trial.
Premium
$87/mo annual · $99/mo monthly
Adds priority support, a dedicated account manager, staff training and technical consultation, starting at 35 active users.
Altar Academy
$835 annual offer · $964 monthly offer
A six-month strategy and coaching engagement bundled with Premium. Confirm the exact payment schedule in writing.
Overage
$1.50 per additional MAU
The FAQ says logged-in active users above the selected tier are prorated; anonymous visitors are not counted.
The clearest current table lists Essential at $69 month-to-month or $58 per month billed annually, starting with 35 monthly active users. Premium is $99 monthly or $87 on annual billing. Both advertise a 14-day trial. Anonymous attendees are unlimited for billing purposes, while an account holder who attends during the month counts once.
The same page still exposes legacy Engagement Basic at $9 and Engagement Plus at $69 with 30-day trials. Those blocks conflict with the Essential/Premium structure above them and should not anchor a budget. Ask sales for the plan name, included active users, overage rate, RTMP allowance, support, training, taxes, cancellation and renewal date in one signed order form.
The FAQ states that overages are $1.50 per additional monthly active user and no attendee is blocked. That protects the event but can surprise finance. Use the trial with realistic member logins, calculate a high-attendance month and decide whether anonymous access meets the community’s needs without forcing account creation.
Altar Academy bundles six months of Premium with online ministry coaching and a roadmap. Evaluate the consultant deliverables separately from the software. A platform can enable a plan, but staff time, moderation, captioning, safeguarding and production remain ongoing operating costs after coaching ends.
Where Altar Live falls behind
Remove the legacy pricing calculator blocks or clearly label them so buyers see one authoritative plan and trial structure.
Bring the iOS participant client onto the current JX3 codebase and publish a post-acquisition migration and maintenance roadmap.
Publish a current security center with DPA, subprocessors, hosting regions, encryption scope, penetration testing, incident response and recovery targets.
Document message, video, attendance, analytics and support-content retention separately, including organization export and deletion after cancellation.
Add first-class safeguarding controls: adult/minor restrictions, recording indicators, report queues, moderator audit logs and configurable private messaging.
Submit accessibility evidence for captions, transcripts, VoiceOver, TalkBack, keyboard access, focus order, contrast, text scaling and reduced motion.
Explain whether Meta remarketing and Custom Audiences touch only the marketing site or authenticated church and attendee activity.
Provide native casting or clearly document supported television, AirPlay, Chromecast and accessibility playback routes.
Altar Live vs. Church Online Platform vs. Zoom
Church Online Platform is the strongest free starting point for a scheduled service with public chat, prayer, moments and basic analytics. Altar Live costs more because it extends beyond the chat rail into lobbies and small video spaces. Choose Altar when structured face-to-face follow-up is central; choose the free platform when reliable broadcast and moderated text interaction are enough.
Zoom is a mature general meeting product with familiar controls, broad device support and extensive enterprise administration. It is better for a known class or team entering one call. Altar is better for a public church journey that begins with a stream and branches into hosted spaces. Some churches should use both: public Altar event, tightly managed Zoom meeting for internal work.
Subsplash and Pushpay bundle streaming into larger church app, giving and engagement ecosystems. They make more sense when a church wants one vendor for mobile presence, media, donations and database workflows. Altar is narrower and more interaction-centered. Compare total system cost and data portability, not just the livestream line item.
The bottom line
Altar Live understands that online church is not merely television. Its useful idea is the journey from anonymous watching to voluntary, human-scale conversation: a greeter, a poll, a lobby, a table, a room. The web platform is active, Android has moved to JX3 Digital and the new owner has updated the legal paperwork. The buyer work is still substantial. The pricing page mixes current and legacy offers; logged-in engagement can create overages; the iOS client is old; marketing trackers sit inside a broad platform policy; and private messages and video rooms demand church-level safeguarding. Run the trial with a representative service, older phones, captions and a sudden audience spike. Ask for a written quote and data agreement. Staff every interactive space. Separate anonymous welcome from account pressure and pastoral care from analytics. With those controls, Altar can make a stream feel more like a gathered community. Without them, it multiplies surfaces that nobody is prepared to lead.
Alternatives to Altar Live
SubsplashA broader church app, media, streaming and giving ecosystem when consolidation matters more than table-style video engagement.
PushpayChurch giving, apps and engagement infrastructure for larger organizations prepared for a wider vendor relationship.
StreamYardA polished browser production studio for multistreaming, stronger behind the camera but without church lobbies or tables.ZoomThe familiar general meeting choice for known groups, with mature administration but no church-specific event journey.Frequently asked questions
How much does Altar Live cost?
The current primary table starts Essential at $69 monthly or $58 per month billed annually for 35 monthly active users. Premium starts at $99 monthly or $87 annually. The page also exposes older Engagement pricing, so obtain a written quote.
Does Altar Live charge for every viewer?
No. Its FAQ says anonymous visitors do not count. A unique logged-in user who attends at least one event or meeting during the month is a billable monthly active user, and overages are listed at $1.50 each.
Does Altar Live replace YouTube, Vimeo or a video encoder?
Usually no. It wraps engagement around a stream from YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook or a custom provider. The church still needs a production and hosting path, along with a tested backup.
Can people join without an account?
Yes, anonymous guest access is a central part of the model. Some community and repeat-participation features require login, so explain the benefit and data consequences before asking a visitor to register.
Who owns Altar Live now?
JX3 Digital acquired Altar Live in March 2026. The current terms identify JX3 Digital LLC, and the Apple and Google developer ownership has transitioned to JX3.
Is Altar Live safe for youth ministry?
The software has host and removal controls, but safety depends on church policy. Use parental consent, screened leaders, two-adult rooms, private-message restrictions, visible recording rules and an independent reporting and escalation path.
Is Altar Live accessible?
Apple lists no developer-submitted accessibility features. Test captions, keyboard navigation, screen readers, text scaling, focus order, contrast and reduced motion with disabled participants before adopting it.
Sources & further reading
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