Disciple.Tools Review 2026: Free CRM, Hosting & Security

Starting price: Free software · WordPress hosting and administration required
Free tier: Yes
Platforms: Web · Mobile web · self-hosted WordPress · legacy iPhone and Android apps
Developer: Disciple.Tools / Gospel Ambition
Launched: 2013 project · 2019 mobile apps
Updated: Aug 9, 2026

Free and open sourceCore license

About $3–$30/month basic self-hostingHosting estimate

5.0 from 7 US ratingsApp Store

Development ended after 2023Native apps

1K+ downloads · March 2024 updateAndroid listing

The verdict

Disciple.Tools is one of the most substantive free and open-source CRMs built specifically for disciple-making and church-planting work. Contacts, follow-up, groups, churches, generations, workflows, maps, permissions and plugins can live on infrastructure the organization controls. That control is not automatic privacy: operators inherit WordPress patching, hosting, backup, telemetry, plugin, administrator and incident duties, while the abandoned native apps should be avoided in favor of the actively developed mobile web interface. Use the smallest possible data model, aggregate location, require MFA and professional operations, and never let stages or generation maps become scores of spiritual worth.

Try Disciple.Tools ↗

Opens disciple.tools

Disciple.Tools is a free open-source customer-relationship-style system redesigned for disciple-making, church planting and movement teams. It began from field work in North Africa after a team concluded that conventional commercial CRMs did not fit their workflow. The platform tracks contacts and follow-up, assigned workers, milestones, groups, churches, leadership, coaching, generations, church health and geographic context. Workflows, reminders, custom fields, plugins and multisite sharing let an organization adapt the system rather than wait for one vendor roadmap.

The software runs as a WordPress theme and plugin ecosystem. An organization can install it on ordinary compatible hosting, use private or zero-trust infrastructure, customize the code and decide where its database lives. Core software does not charge by user, contact, group or feature. That makes it appealing to small teams and large networks alike. Recent web releases have added a mobile-oriented home screen, magic links, mapping and bulk editing while continuing monthly maintenance and security fixes through 2026.

The native mobile story is different. Disciple.Tools says development of its iOS and Android apps ended after 2023 and recommends the mobile web interface. Apple’s last listed version is from March 2023. Google’s listing was updated in March 2024 and says the app may collect personal information and contacts, share device identifiers and cannot delete data. Apple says the developer collects no data, but that label concerns central developer collection and does not mean records never leave the phone: the app connects to the organization’s own server. A stale client that opens sensitive field records is a liability even when it remains downloadable.

This researched review uses the official pricing, hosting, security, privacy and mobile pages, public documentation, exact Apple and Google records, current release information and faith.tools. We did not deploy WordPress, inspect code or dependencies, configure a private contact, test magic links, install plugins, connect sites, review server logs, restore a backup, submit deletion or independently audit security, translations, uptime or accessibility. Apple shows five stars from seven US ratings and Google more than one thousand downloads. Those legacy app numbers should not be read as evidence about the current mobile web experience.

✓ The good

Free open-source core - there are no per-user, contact, group or feature license charges
Mission-specific records - follow-up, milestones, groups, churches, coaching and generations fit the intended workflow
Deployment control - teams can choose hosting, region, network access, backup and code customization
Granular access concepts - assignments, roles and private contacts can limit ordinary record visibility
Extensible architecture - plugins, custom fields, tiles and workflows support varied strategies and languages
Active web development - 2026 releases continue to improve mobile access, mapping, bulk work and security
Mobile web is the current path - users can get phone access without relying on abandoned native binaries
Federation options - multiple sites or teams can share selected data instead of centralizing every record
Community transparency - public source code allows inspection, contribution, independent testing and self-directed migration

✗ Watch out

Self-hosting transfers responsibility - WordPress, PHP, database, server, plugins and backups all require ongoing patching
Native apps are abandoned - iOS last updated in 2023 and Android in 2024 despite remaining in stores
Extremely sensitive records - names, faith journey, baptism, precise location and relationship graphs can endanger people
Privacy varies by operator - each host and organization determines administrators, logs, retention, exports and local rights
Central policy has broad retention - the project’s hosted-service notice says some backups may be kept indefinitely
Telemetry can reveal instance metadata - site URL and record counts should be disabled where even existence is sensitive
Plugins expand attack surface - custom and community extensions can add vulnerabilities or unexpected data transfers
Magic links are bearer credentials - forwarding or mailbox compromise can expose access if scope and lifetime are broad
Metrics can dehumanize - pipeline stages and generation maps may turn people and churches into performance units

Best for

Technically capable mission organizations that require source, hosting and data-location control
Teams with named owners for security patches, access reviews, backups, training and incident response
Networks willing to design a minimal record model and use aggregation in sensitive regions
Organizations that need customizable follow-up, group, church and generation workflows without per-seat fees
Users prepared to access the current responsive web application instead of the legacy native apps

Avoid if

No one can reliably maintain WordPress, PHP, database, plugins, certificates, logging and tested backups
A leaked identity, location, faith milestone or relationship graph could create serious physical or legal danger
Your team needs a current vendor-supported native app with centralized mobile security and deletion behavior
Leadership intends to rank workers, disciples or churches by stage counts, multiplication pace or map density
You require one vendor to accept end-to-end contractual responsibility for hosting, application and data operations

What Disciple.Tools is

Disciple.Tools is a WordPress-based operational CRM for teams that follow contacts, disciples, groups and churches over time. It adds assignments, milestones, reminders, comments, mapping, generation views and configurable workflows, with plugins for additional use cases. The software can be installed, modified and integrated under its open-source license.

It is not a centrally secured cloud product merely because a public project maintains the code. Every deployment has its own domain, host, administrators, plugins, settings, logs, backups and users. The organization operating that instance becomes responsible for protecting the people represented in it.

Why ownership of the code and server changes both control and accountability

A commercial CRM asks teams to accept the vendor’s cloud, data model and product life cycle. Disciple.Tools can run in a chosen jurisdiction, behind a VPN or access gateway, with selected plugins and locally defined fields. An organization can inspect the source, remove unneeded features, export the database and keep using the software without a per-seat renewal.

That freedom eliminates no risk; it relocates it. A missed WordPress update, public backup, reused administrator password, vulnerable plugin or overbroad server log can defeat careful application permissions. Adoption should begin with an operations plan naming who patches, monitors, restores, reviews access and responds at all hours—not with a feature demonstration.

Contact, group and church records support follow-up but invite overcollection

A contact can carry assignment, status, milestones, next actions, communication history and relationship links. Groups and churches can record leadership, health characteristics and generational connections. Workflows and reminders help a team identify a real promised follow-up rather than relying on one worker’s memory.

Collect only information needed for that next action. Avoid full legal names, exact coordinates, speculative religious labels, family networks and narrative details when a code or aggregate is enough. Explain data use where safe, correct errors and delete inactive records on a defined schedule. A person is not a sales opportunity, and a status field must never become an identity or verdict.

Maps and generation views visualize relationships, not spiritual causation

Mapping, GenMapper and church-generation views can show how recorded groups relate, where coaching is assigned and where a team’s own information is thin. Leaders may find disconnected records, duplicate claims or practical needs that are difficult to see in a table. Small multiples and time-based views can support honest evaluation.

A dense tree does not prove healthy discipleship, and a blank region does not prove absence of faith. Display uncertainty, source and last verification. Blur geography, suppress small cohorts and restrict exports. Never publish an interactive map of emerging churches or contacts. Use qualitative local review to interpret every apparent movement pattern.

Permissions, magic links and federation need defense in depth

Assignments and roles can limit which contacts a user sees, while private records add another boundary. Multiple sites can share selected records across teams instead of forcing everything into one universal database. Magic links can simplify access where password friction prevents participation, and optional two-factor tools strengthen conventional accounts.

Test permissions from the least-privileged user and through every sharing path. Make MFA mandatory for administrators, keep magic links short-lived and narrowly scoped, review accounts regularly and alert on bulk exports. Separate hosting control from ministry administration, encrypt and test backups, and log sensitive access without placing record content in the log itself.

Pricing

Best value

Disciple.Tools software

Download and use the open-source core with unlimited users, contacts, groups and features.

Basic WordPress hosting

Roughly $3–$30/month

The official guide gives a broad commodity-hosting estimate; performance and security vary substantially.

Managed deployment

Provider-specific

Pay a specialist for setup, updates, backups and support; verify that responsibility is contractual rather than assumed.

Private or zero-trust hosting

Custom

Restricted environments, private cloud, VPN or access gateways add infrastructure and administration cost.

Internal operations

Staff time required

Budget for security review, training, field design, access audits, incident response, upgrades and data cleanup.

The core software is free. Disciple.Tools does not charge by user, contact, group or feature, and the source can be downloaded and modified. Optional donations support the project but do not unlock a commercial tier. This is a meaningful cost advantage for a network with capable technical staff.

Hosting is separate. Official guidance has estimated ordinary WordPress hosting at roughly $3 to $30 monthly, but the cheapest plan may lack isolation, backup, logging or support appropriate to sensitive records. Private cloud, zero-trust access, managed operations and geographic requirements can cost substantially more.

Staff effort is the real recurring price. Someone must test updates, patch WordPress and PHP, evaluate every plugin, review accounts, monitor logs, rotate credentials, restore backups and respond to incidents. A volunteer setup with no named successor can become more expensive and dangerous than a managed subscription.

Before importing real records, build a synthetic site, document every field, turn off unnecessary telemetry, enable MFA, test least privilege, create an encrypted backup and restore it into an isolated environment. Export and delete a sample record. If the team cannot complete those exercises, it is not ready to self-host the data.

Budget for succession as well. Domains, hosting, encryption keys, administrator accounts and update knowledge should belong to the organization under documented custody, not to one volunteer. Maintain a second trained operator and a recovery procedure that works when the original installer is unavailable. Test that handoff annually and record emergency contacts outside the hosted instance. This keeps disaster recovery accountable to more than one person’s memory. Technical independence is durable only when responsibility survives a personnel change.

Where Disciple.Tools falls behind

Remove the discontinued native apps from stores or replace listings with an unmistakable notice directing users to mobile web.

Reconcile Apple’s “data not collected” declaration with server-connected records and Google’s collection, sharing and deletion labels.

Publish supported-version and security-maintenance timelines for WordPress, PHP, core, plugins and mobile web browsers.

Provide hardened reference architectures for basic, managed, VPN, private-cloud and high-risk deployments.

Replace indefinite hosted-service backup retention with bounded schedules and documented deletion exceptions.

Make telemetry opt-in for new instances and explain every transmitted field, endpoint, retention and disable control.

Add administrator MFA enforcement, audit-log guidance, export alerts, backup encryption and tested incident playbooks to setup.

Create data-minimization presets with coded identities, coordinate blurring, small-count suppression and short retention.

Publish an extension security process covering review, signing, vulnerability reports and compatibility status for plugins.

Verify keyboard, screen-reader, large-text, contrast, translation, right-to-left and low-bandwidth accessibility.

Disciple.Tools vs. The GAPP vs. Planning Center

The GAPP is a managed configurable platform with current offline native apps, people-group research, dashboards and published team-based tiers. It reduces self-hosting burden but keeps sensitive data in a vendor service. Disciple.Tools offers far more deployment and source control with no license fee, while making the operator responsible for security and current mobile web use.

Planning Center is a mature modular church-management ecosystem for congregational people records, services, groups, check-ins, giving and registrations. It is better suited to established church operations and vendor-managed integrations. Disciple.Tools focuses on field follow-up, groups, churches and multiplication relationships rather than Sunday administration.

A general CRM can offer extensive compliance, automation and integration but requires significant customization to model this work. A minimal spreadsheet may be safer for a tiny low-connectivity team if it is encrypted and governed. Disciple.Tools earns adoption when its specific workflow and hosting control outweigh the operational burden and the team refuses unnecessary detail.

The bottom line

Disciple.Tools demonstrates the best and hardest parts of open-source ministry software. It gives teams a capable domain-specific CRM without locking them into per-seat pricing or one vendor’s infrastructure. Contacts, follow-up, groups, churches, workflows, maps, generations and plugins can be shaped around local work, and active web releases show that the project is not abandoned. The native apps are abandoned, however, and should not remain the default merely because stores still offer them. More fundamentally, source availability does not secure a deployment. The operator must patch every layer, restrict administrators, manage plugins, encrypt backups, govern telemetry and respond when something fails. That duty is unusually serious because a single database can connect identity, location, religious interest, baptism, leaders and emerging communities. Teams should start with a threat model and data-minimization table, not a dashboard. Use coded or aggregate records where possible, blur locations, make MFA mandatory, test permissions and restores and document deletion. Treat generation views and status counts as fallible operational notes, never measures of faith or people’s value. For organizations with real technical stewardship, Disciple.Tools is a powerful and economical choice. For organizations without it, “free” can become the most expensive deployment model available.

Alternatives to Disciple.Tools

The GAPP 4.9A managed mission activity and analytics platform with current offline apps and team-based pricing.

Church Metrics 4.1A much simpler free system for aggregate weekly church measures without individual relationship graphs.

Planning Center 3.7A mature vendor-managed church operations ecosystem with people, services, groups and integrations.

Tithely 4.5A broad church technology suite for management, messaging, apps and giving rather than field movement tracking.

Epistle 4.9A missionary communication and partner-development service focused on newsletters, supporters and donor follow-up.

Frequently asked questions

Is Disciple.Tools free?

Yes. The open-source core has no per-user, contact, group or feature fee. Hosting, administration, security and support still cost money or staff time.

Does Disciple.Tools require WordPress?

Yes. It is built as a WordPress-based application and requires compatible hosting, database and ongoing WordPress, PHP and plugin maintenance.

Are the Disciple.Tools mobile apps still supported?

No. The project says native-app development ended after 2023 and recommends the responsive mobile web application. The store binaries remain available but are stale.

Can Disciple.Tools be self-hosted?

Yes. Self-hosting is a central advantage, allowing control over region, network and code. The operator then owns patching, backup, monitoring, access and incident response.

Is Disciple.Tools secure?

It provides useful permissions and supports hardened deployments, but security depends on the specific host, configuration, plugins, administrators, devices and maintenance. Open source is not an automatic guarantee.

What data should teams avoid storing?

Avoid exact locations, unnecessary legal names, speculative religious labels, third-party stories and relationship graphs when codes or aggregates will do—especially in restricted settings.

How does Disciple.Tools differ from GAPP?

Disciple.Tools is free open-source software with deployment control and technical burden. GAPP is a managed service with current native apps, built-in research and team-based paid scaling.

Sources & further reading

More Focus, Habit & Productivity Apps

Epistle 4.9Epistle brings missionary updates, partner responses and ministry-partner-development records into one thoughtful workflow—powerful for ordinary communication, but sensitive stories, donor data and AI coaching demand much clearer boundaries than a newsletter tool alone.

The GAPP 4.9The GAPP gives mission teams a configurable system for recording activity, groups, churches and people-group context across offline fieldwork—capable operational software whose location-rich spiritual records require a threat model before a rollout.

Glossa 4.9Glossa sends live sermon captions and translated audio in more than 100 languages to ordinary phones, with church-specific vocabulary and optional voice cloning—but leaders must test accuracy, consent, latency, privacy and fallback plans before Sunday dependence.

Atoms 4.8Atoms turns James Clear’s Atomic Habits framework into reminders, repetitions, identity cues, lessons, and progress tracking—an elegant aid for consistent practices, but a religiously neutral tracker whose privacy disclosures and cross-platform quality need scrutiny.

Hope Translator 4.7Live captions and AI translation let listeners follow a sermon from any phone without installing an app—but pricing is complex and the privacy policy never explains microphone or transcript handling.

Blank Spaces 4.6Blank Spaces replaces a noisy iPhone home screen with calm text widgets and optional friction, schedules, and app locks—effective for reclaiming attention, but still an iOS workaround rather than a true launcher or an accountability system.

Try Disciple.Tools ↗