- Starting price
- Free · optional Gloo account and integration
- Free tier
- Yes
- Platforms
- Web · iPhone · iPad · Android · Apple silicon Mac compatibility
- Developer
- Gloo LLC · originally created by Life.Church
- Launched
- 2014
- Updated
- Aug 2, 2026
The verdict
Church Metrics is still one of the clearest ways for a church to stop managing weekly totals in disconnected spreadsheets. It records defined categories by service, campus, and date; produces dashboards, charts, and reports; supports roles, imports, exports, email reporting, an API, integrations, and private network Groups; and costs nothing. Its 2026 Gloo connection adds a consequential second layer: four default categories can sync into Gloo, compare campuses with national or Circle benchmarks, and receive AI-generated insights. Those features can reveal patterns, but they do not make a number accurate, comparable, causal, or pastorally wise. Churches must define every metric, restrict access, minimize individual data, document transfers, audit corrections, interpret small counts carefully, and keep humans responsible for decisions. Free software lowers the acquisition barrier, not the governance burden.
Try Church Metrics by Gloo ↗Opens churchmetrics.com
Church Metrics began as a free Life.Church tool and is now offered by Gloo. The product addresses a narrow but recurring operational problem: churches count attendance, giving, volunteers, baptisms, stated salvation decisions, children, cars, groups, or other outcomes, yet collect those figures in texts, paper forms, spreadsheets, and systems that do not produce one consistent view. Church Metrics provides a shared web dashboard and mobile entry point so approved people can submit totals during or after a service.
An organization can create campuses and service times, use the standard categories, add unlimited custom categories, drill into a date or location, graph patterns, assemble reports, schedule email summaries, import or export Excel-compatible data, switch accounts, assign roles and permissions, connect external services, and use an API. Church Metrics Groups aggregate participating churches for a denomination, church-planting movement, network, or other invitation-only association. Categories and tags help that group compare relevant cohorts rather than expose one public league table.
The major 2026 change is the optional connection to Gloo. Church Metrics data can synchronize into a Gloo account; the Gloo dashboard defaults to attendance, salvations, volunteers, and contributions; and authorized users can compare campuses, a combined church, national averages, or organizations in a Circle. Gloo advertises AI-driven insights to help explore the data. The integration currently links a Church Metrics account with one Gloo account. That is materially different from viewing an internal weekly chart because data crosses a product boundary and enters a broader insights ecosystem.
This independent review is based on current Church Metrics feature, group, and support pages; Gloo’s integration and dashboard documentation, legal pages, and privacy FAQ; exact Apple and Google listings, releases, privacy labels, ratings, and public review themes; and faith.tools. We did not create a church, enter real or fictional services, inspect permissions, join a Group, link Gloo, see the national benchmark dataset, evaluate an AI insight, use the API, test an import or complete export, request deletion, or conduct an accounting, statistical, pastoral, legal, privacy, security, accessibility, reliability, disaster-recovery, or code audit.
✓ The good
- Genuinely free core - churches receive entry, dashboards, charts, reports, categories, campuses, roles, export, API access, and integrations without a subscription
- Fast distributed collection - volunteers and staff can enter counts in real time from mobile devices instead of routing every tally through one administrator
- Flexible measurement - standard attendance, giving, baptism, salvation, and volunteer fields sit beside unlimited custom categories
- Multi-site and network views - campuses, services, multiple accounts, and private Groups support churches and associations beyond one weekly total
- Useful portability hooks - Excel import and export, reports, emails, API access, and external integrations reduce dependence on one screen
- Active 2026 maintenance - iOS and Android both received March 2026 updates under Gloo
✗ Watch out
- Metrics can become spiritually reductive - attendance and contribution totals are useful, while “salvations” or ministry impact cannot be made objective merely by adding a field
- Gloo increases the data boundary - synchronization, benchmarks, Circles, and AI insights involve another account, policy, access model, and interpretation layer
- Comparisons may be invalid - definitions, counting methods, church traditions, calendars, geography, size, and missing data can make national averages misleading
- Store privacy answers need operational context - Apple lists linked identity, location, usage, and performance fields; an aggregate dashboard can still expose sensitive religion and finance data
- Mobile ratings are mixed and sparse - about 4.1 from 18 Apple ratings and roughly 3.7 on Google do not guarantee dependable service-day entry
- Accessibility and assurance are not prominent - public marketing does not provide a current accessibility report, uptime history, independent security scope, or recovery evidence
Best for
- Churches replacing ad hoc weekly spreadsheets with a consistent free process for aggregate ministry measures
- Multi-campus churches that need the same definitions by service, ministry, date, and location
- Denominations, church-plant networks, and associations prepared to govern invitation-only aggregate Groups
- Leaders with statistical discipline who will document definitions, uncertainty, corrections, access, and the limits of every comparison
Avoid if
- You need a complete church-management system for people, households, check-in, giving transactions, workflows, communications, events, groups, and pastoral records
- Your organization will enter identifiable names, donor-level details, pastoral notes, health data, child records, immigration information, or individual conversion judgments into custom fields
- Leaders want rankings, targets, bonuses, staffing, or ministry conclusions without stable definitions, comparable denominators, uncertainty, and qualitative context
- You require self-hosting, a negotiated data-processing agreement, specified data residency, independent assurance, formal accessibility conformance, or custom retention before adoption
What Church Metrics by Gloo is
Church Metrics is an aggregate measurement and reporting service, not a full ChMS or accounting ledger. It is designed to answer questions such as how many people attended each service, how weekly giving totals moved, how many volunteers served, or how one campus compares over time. It can track anything a church defines, but flexibility does not mean every possible item belongs there.
The safest data model is totals with clear provenance. “Children attendance: 84” may be appropriate; a list of 84 children, allergies, custody alerts, and attendance history belongs in a protected check-in system. “Contributions: $24,150” may support a trend; donor identities and transactions belong in a controlled giving and accounting workflow. “Salvations: 6” requires a written operational definition and humility about what a church can observe.
A free, focused measurement layer avoids buying a whole church suite
Planning Center, One Church Software, Rock RMS, and similar systems manage people and ministry workflows, with reporting attached. Church Metrics starts with the report itself. A small church can establish consistent weekly totals without migrating its directory, giving, children, groups, messages, and forms. A large church can maintain a neutral aggregate layer across campuses or source systems. Network Groups extend that focused model across participating organizations.
The discipline must come from the church. Each field needs a plain-language definition, unit, inclusion and exclusion rules, source, owner, deadline, correction path, denominator where relevant, and version date. A dashboard that merges first-time guests, unique people, seats filled, online starts, household estimates, and volunteer headcount under “attendance” is more polished than a spreadsheet but less trustworthy.
Real-time entry, campuses, service times, and categories organize the weekly handoff
Approved users can enter ministry numbers from a phone, drill into a service time or category, switch locations, and see account-wide totals. The examples include parking counts, children’s ministry, main-auditorium attendance, salvations, giving, and anything defined through a custom category. Multiple users reduce the need for one person to chase and retype every number.
Real-time should not mean unreviewed. Use a two-stage workflow: a counter records a source and provisional total; an accountable owner checks duplicates, late arrivals, online windows, children and volunteer overlap, currency and refund rules, and unusual changes before closing the period. Lock historical periods or require an auditable reason for edits. A timestamp alone does not validate a number.
Charts, reports, email summaries, Excel, API, and Groups move data to decisions
Dashboards visualize trends; interactive charts help find patterns; reports package results for pastors or boards; automatic email reports distribute recurring views; Excel-compatible import and export support migration or deeper analysis; and an API allows approved systems to exchange data. Groups offer network administrators invitation-only aggregate views with categories and tags.
Every distribution route expands risk. Email can forward sensitive small counts, spreadsheets lose permission controls, API credentials can expose every campus, and a Group can reveal a church even when names are removed if its cohort is tiny. Export only the fields required, suppress or combine low counts, expire access, inventory recipients, rotate credentials, log downloads, and prohibit re-identification or public ranking.
Gloo benchmarks and AI insights are prompts for investigation, not verdicts
The optional Gloo connection synchronizes Church Metrics information into Gloo. Its dashboard draws four categories by default—attendance, salvations, volunteers, and contributions—and can compare two campuses, a campus with a national average, combined campuses with a benchmark, or Circle participants. Gloo says AI-driven insights can help users dig further. Linking currently associates a Church Metrics account with one Gloo account.
A generated insight has no pastoral authority and cannot repair incompatible definitions. Leaders should see the source series, benchmark cohort, sample, date range, missingness, transformations, confidence or uncertainty, prompt and model context where relevant, and a plain explanation of why the comparison is valid. Require human verification before sharing an insight, and never let an algorithm recommend action about a person from aggregate religious or giving data.
Pricing
Church Metrics
$0
The web service and current iOS and Android apps are free. Core dashboards, reports, custom categories, users, campuses, imports, exports, API access, and integrations are advertised without a paid tier.
Church Metrics Groups
$0 listed
Private invitation-only aggregation for networks, denominations, or church-plant groups is presented as part of Church Metrics. Confirm administration and support expectations.
Gloo integration
Optional Gloo account
Connecting makes Church Metrics data available in Gloo for comparisons and AI-driven insights. Review the current Gloo account terms, data boundary, and any associated service costs before authorizing it.
Implementation
Staff time
Definitions, training, backfill, validation, permissions, governance, privacy work, exports, and interpretation are the real cost even when the license is free.
The $0 license is exceptional. Start with a fictional account and one service, not a full historical import. Write definitions for three operational metrics, create least-privilege roles, enter known test totals from two devices, correct one error, export everything, inspect email reports, and document deletion before introducing real church data.
Do not activate Gloo on day one. First make internal data trustworthy and have the board or accountable leadership approve the transfer purpose, fields, recipients, privacy notice, agreement, retention, benchmark use, AI policy, and disconnect procedure. Record the date and account used to authorize the connection, then verify exactly what appears on each side.
Budget an owner, backup owner, periodic access review, definition review, data-quality meeting, incident contact, and annual export. Free products can change ownership, terms, integrations, or support. A portable clean dataset and documented process protect the ministry more than loyalty to a particular dashboard.
Where Church Metrics by Gloo falls behind
Metric dictionary and quality controls. Provide native definitions, units, denominators, source attachments, data owners, provisional and approved states, edit reasons, duplicate handling, locks, anomaly comments, missing-versus-zero distinction, revisions, quality scores, and definition versioning. Customizable cannot mean unknowable.
Gloo integration transparency. Show every synced field, direction, cadence, history, error, authorizing user, token scope, Gloo recipients, benchmark eligibility, AI use, retention after disconnect, and deletion action before consent. Let churches exclude individual categories and backfill windows.
Benchmark methodology. Publish cohort construction, inclusion rules, church-size and location bands, tradition and service-model effects, unique-versus-total attendance definitions, online treatment, currency normalization, outliers, sample sizes, recency, missingness, privacy thresholds, and uncertainty. A national average without methodology can create false precision.
AI accountability. Label generated observations, cite the exact source points, show calculations, reveal material limitations, test hallucination and bias, log revisions, prevent sensitive small-group inference, allow opt-out, prohibit autonomous decisions, and explain whether customer content or prompts train any model. Gloo’s current terms say non-prompt private content is not used for model training unless a customer expressly opts in; product-level controls should make that visible.
Security and privacy assurance. Publish Church Metrics-specific controller and processor roles, subprocessor list, encryption, privileged access, multifactor support, audit logs, penetration-test scope, independent reports, incident history and notice, backup and recovery objectives, retention, deletion, data residency, vulnerability reporting, and customer DPA path.
Accessibility and reliability. Report web, iOS, and Android conformance; keyboard and screen-reader flows; large text; contrast; chart tables and non-color cues; focus; error recovery; supported versions; status and incident history; offline or queued entry; conflict handling; and service-day recovery. An entry tool must work at the exact crowded moment it is needed.
Church Metrics vs. Planning Center vs. Rock RMS
Church Metrics is the focused free dashboard: aggregate categories, campuses, reports, groups, exports, API access, and optional Gloo insights. Planning Center is a modular paid church-management ecosystem for people, check-ins, giving, services, groups, registrations, publishing, and workflows. Rock RMS is an open-source relationship-management platform with extensive customization and hosting or implementation responsibility.
Choose Church Metrics when the problem is consistent aggregate reporting and another system already handles people and transactions. Choose Planning Center when operational modules and a managed ecosystem matter. Choose Rock when customization, control, and technical capacity justify a more complex platform. One Church Software provides another integrated commercial ChMS with member app, giving, workflows, accounting options, and configurable pricing.
Products can be combined, but every integration requires a system-of-record map. The giving system owns transactions; check-in owns person-level attendance; accounting owns the ledger; Church Metrics may hold approved weekly aggregates; Gloo may receive selected metrics for broader insight. Never let bidirectional convenience create several conflicting truths.
The bottom line
Church Metrics earns a strong recommendation for a well-governed use case: consistent aggregate church reporting without a software bill. It is flexible, multi-campus aware, network capable, exportable, and current in 2026. Begin with few metrics, define them rigorously, keep identifiable pastoral and financial records elsewhere, validate before reporting, and let narrative context accompany every chart. Treat the optional Gloo link as a new data project—not a harmless login button. Benchmarks and AI observations can form questions, but people must inspect definitions, methodology, uncertainty, and consequences before acting. Gloo should now make quality workflows, integration scope, benchmark methods, AI provenance, Church Metrics-specific assurance, and accessible service-day reliability first-class product features.
Alternatives to Church Metrics by Gloo
Planning CenterA mature modular church-management suite for people, check-ins, giving, services, groups, registrations, workflows, publishing, and reporting.
Rock RMSAn open-source church relationship-management platform offering deep control and customization for organizations with technical capacity.
One Church SoftwareAn integrated commercial ChMS with people, workflows, giving, check-in, forms, communications, accounting options, and branded member apps.GlooA wider church engagement and insights platform that can receive Church Metrics data for benchmarks and AI-assisted exploration.Frequently asked questions
Is Church Metrics really free?
Yes. Church Metrics advertises its account, web dashboard, mobile apps, custom categories, reports, Groups, exports, API access, and integrations as free. Staffing, governance, connected products, and implementation still cost time or money.
What can Church Metrics track?
Standard examples include attendance, salvations, baptisms, giving, and volunteers. Unlimited custom categories can track other aggregate measures, but sensitive identifiable records should remain in appropriate protected systems.
Is Church Metrics a full church-management system?
No. It focuses on aggregate metrics and reports. It does not replace a full people database, children’s check-in, donor ledger, accounting, workflow, communication, group, or pastoral-care platform.
What does the Gloo integration do?
It syncs a linked Church Metrics account into Gloo, where users can view selected measures, compare campuses with national averages or Circles, and receive AI-driven insights. One Church Metrics account can currently sync to one Gloo account.
Should a church track salvations as a number?
Only with a humble written definition such as recorded first-time professions during a defined event and with a separate pastoral follow-up process. A total cannot measure God’s action, authenticate faith, or describe a person’s whole journey.
Is Church Metrics data private?
Access can be restricted, but privacy depends on data entered, roles, exports, Groups, API connections, and Gloo synchronization. Apple lists linked identity, location, usage, and performance categories. Use minimal aggregate data and obtain appropriate agreements.
Can leaders trust the national comparisons and AI insights?
They are starting points, not conclusions. Verify metric definitions, cohorts, dates, denominators, missing data, outliers, uncertainty, calculations, and source records, then add local pastoral context before making a decision.
Sources & further reading
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