Resource Review · Church Management Software
Faithlife Equip
The church platform side of the Faithlife ecosystem — and the only one that hands a Logos-trained pastor a unified workflow from study to Sunday morning.
- Editor rating
- 4.1 / 5
- Starting price
- $99/mo (Essentials tier)
- Free tier
- No
- Platforms
- iOS · Android · Web · macOS · Windows
- Developer
- Faithlife Corporation
- Launched
- 2014
The verdict
Faithlife Equip is the church platform pastors choose when they already live inside Logos. The integration with Logos and Proclaim is genuinely best-in-class — but the branded app and giving pieces, taken on their own, are merely competitive rather than category-leading.
Try Faithlife Equip ↗Opens faithlife.com
Faithlife Equip has quietly become the default church platform for pastors who already run their sermon prep inside Logos Bible Software. That sentence is doing a lot of work, so it is worth unpacking. Equip is not a standalone product so much as the church-facing half of the Faithlife ecosystem — the same company that ships Logos, Proclaim worship presentation, and the Faithlife Study Bible. If a pastor opens Logos every weekday morning to write a sermon, Equip is what carries that sermon — and its outline, scripture references, and slide deck — through to Sunday.
That positioning matters. Equip does not try to be the cheapest church platform. It does not try to be the simplest. It does not try to win the small-plant market that Tithe.ly and Subsplash compete over on price alone. It is aimed squarely at the church whose teaching pastor is a Logos power user and whose worship team already runs Proclaim — the segment for which a unified Faithlife stack saves real hours every week.
For everyone else, the calculus is different. The branded mobile app is solid but not visibly better than what Subsplash ships. Giving works but is not the cheapest option on the market. Group communication is fine. The Logos and Proclaim ties are the reason to choose Equip; without them, you are paying ecosystem premium for parity features. This review walks through who wins big, who does not, and where the platform genuinely earns its price tag.
✓ The good
- Logos integration is the differentiator — sermon outlines, scripture references, and study notes flow from a pastor’s Logos workflow into church-facing assets without re-entry
- Proclaim worship presentation is tightly bundled — slides, lyrics, and announcements stay in sync across the auditorium, the stream, and the mobile app
- Branded church app covers the standard expectations — sermon archive, push notifications, event RSVPs, group chat, and giving in a clean wrapper
- Sermon hosting includes automatic transcription — searchable transcripts make sermon archives genuinely useful for newcomers and members hunting a specific message
- Backed by a serious software company — Faithlife has shipped pastor-facing tools since 1992 and is not an overnight church-tech startup
- Group messaging and prayer requests live inside the same app as sermons — fewer logins than the Slack-plus-app-plus-giving stack many churches end up with
- Web, mobile, and desktop parity — the platform meets pastors and members where they already are rather than forcing one entry point
✗ Watch out
- Pricing climbs fast as church size grows — the $99 entry tier is honest, but mid-size churches frequently end up in the $300–$500/mo range
- Branded app design feels conservative — competent and clean, but not as visually polished as Subsplash’s newer templates
- Giving fees are competitive but not category-leading — Tithe.ly and Givelify often come in cheaper for small churches running on tight budgets
- Heavy lift if you are not already on Logos — the integration value evaporates for pastors who study in Olive Tree, Accordance, or Bible Gateway
- Learning curve is real — the Faithlife ecosystem rewards investment but punishes pastors who only want one or two pieces (yet)
- Customer support response times vary — generally responsive on technical issues, slower on billing and account questions during peak seasons
Best for
- Logos-powered teaching pastors
- Churches already using Proclaim
- Mid-size congregations (200–1,500)
- Multi-staff teams wanting unified tools
Avoid if
- You study in Olive Tree or Accordance
- You need the absolute cheapest option
- You want a design-forward branded app
- You only need giving — nothing else
What Faithlife Equip is
Faithlife Equip is the church-platform half of the Faithlife product family. It bundles a branded mobile church app, sermon hosting with automatic transcription, group messaging, online giving, a website builder, and event management into a single subscription. The platform launched in 2014 and has grown alongside Logos, which the same company has shipped since 1992. Equip is sold in tiered subscriptions running from around $99 to $500-plus per month depending on church size and feature mix.
What separates Equip from the broader church-management category is the surrounding ecosystem. Pastors who study in Logos can push sermon outlines, slide content, and reading plans into Equip’s church-facing tools with minimal re-entry. Worship teams running Proclaim get presentation slides and lyrics synced to the mobile app and the live stream. The platform is, in other words, less a standalone product than the front door to an integrated Faithlife workflow that touches study, planning, presentation, and delivery.
Why Logos-using pastors prefer Faithlife Equip
The single biggest practical difference between Equip and the Tithe.ly or Subsplash side of the market is that Equip assumes its primary user is already a serious student of scripture. A teaching pastor who runs Logos every weekday — building sermons in Sermon Builder, pulling commentary, cross-referencing original languages — opens Equip and finds the same scripture references, outline points, and visual aids already available. Nothing to copy-paste. Nothing to re-format.
That assumption shapes the whole platform. Sermon hosting auto-transcribes and indexes by scripture reference, so a member searching "Romans 8" finds every sermon that touched the passage. The Faithlife reading-plan engine pulls from the same Logos library the pastor teaches out of. Proclaim slides update when the underlying sermon outline changes. None of these are flashy features in isolation. Together, they remove an enormous amount of weekly admin work — the kind that quietly burns out solo pastors and small staffs.
Logos integration: the differentiator pastors actually feel on Sunday
Faithlife Equip is the only church platform that ships with a first-party tie-in to Logos Bible Software. For pastors who already build sermons inside Logos — using Sermon Builder, the Factbook, the original-language tools, and the resource library — Equip becomes the downstream delivery layer for that work. A finished sermon outline in Logos can be pushed directly into Equip’s sermon hosting, the slide content can flow into Proclaim, and the scripture references can populate a follow-along reading plan in the branded church app. No exporting to PDF. No emailing slides to the worship lead. No retyping anything.
This sounds like a small thing. In practice it is transformative for the right user. A teaching pastor who preaches forty-plus times a year and already runs Logos saves several hours a week — the cumulative grind of moving the same content between five different tools. The catch, of course, is that the benefit only exists if Logos is already in the workflow. A pastor who studies in Olive Tree, Accordance, or just Bible Gateway gets none of this — and at that point, Equip is competing on its branded-app and giving features alone, where it is solid but not category-leading. The Logos pastor is the bullseye. Everyone else is paying ecosystem premium for parity features.
Proclaim worship presentation: the rare presentation tool built for the broader stack
Proclaim is Faithlife’s worship presentation software — the on-screen system that drives lyrics, scripture, announcements, and sermon visuals during a service. It competes with ProPresenter, EasyWorship, and OpenLP, and on a standalone basis it holds its own. What makes Proclaim interesting in the Equip context is that it does not live as a separate, isolated app. Slides built in Proclaim show up in the live-stream lower-third, in the sermon archive on the branded app, and in the printed bulletin generator. Lyrics pushed into Proclaim flow into the post-service archive automatically — so a member who liked a song on Sunday can find it in the app on Monday.
That cross-product sync is the model that respects your work. Most churches running ProPresenter have a separate person managing slides, a separate person managing the stream, and a separate person managing the church app — three workflows touching the same content. Proclaim inside Equip collapses those into one. The trade-off is honest: Proclaim is less feature-rich than ProPresenter at the high end (fewer transitions, fewer creative effects, weaker support for video-heavy productions), so churches with large media teams sometimes still prefer ProPresenter. But for the mid-size church that wants Sunday morning to "just work" without a full AV staff, the bundling alone justifies the upgrade to the Standard tier.
Branded church app + sermon hosting: the front door members actually use
The branded mobile app is the piece members touch most. Equip ships a customizable iOS and Android app under each church’s own name and icon, with the standard expected sections — sermon archive, live stream, push notifications, event calendar, group chat, prayer requests, and giving. The build process is template-driven (no developer required) and the resulting app is clean, fast, and unsurprising. Sermon hosting includes automatic transcription, which is the genuinely useful feature here: every sermon becomes a searchable transcript, indexed by scripture reference and topic, which turns a passive archive into something a member or newcomer might actually browse.
The honest comparison is to Subsplash, which is widely considered the design leader in the branded-church-app space. Subsplash’s templates feel a touch more modern and their video player is marginally smoother on slow connections. Equip’s app, by contrast, is more conservatively designed but tightly woven into the Faithlife backend — when a pastor updates a sermon outline in Logos, the corresponding app entry updates without anyone touching the app dashboard. For most members, the difference between Subsplash and Equip is invisible. For the church staff managing weekly content, the integration savings are real and recurring.
Pricing
Essentials
$99/mo
Branded church app, sermon hosting with transcription, group messaging, basic giving. Suited to churches under ~150 attendees.
Standard
$249/mo
Adds Proclaim presentation bundled in, website builder, expanded storage, and full event/RSVP tools. The most common mid-size tier.
Pro
$499/mo
Multi-site support, advanced analytics, expanded admin seats, priority support. For churches over ~750 attendees or multi-campus.
Enterprise
Custom
Custom contracts for large churches, denominations, and networks. Includes dedicated onboarding and SLA-backed support.
Faithlife Equip pricing starts at around $99 per month for the Essentials tier and climbs through Standard ($249/mo) and Pro ($499/mo) to custom Enterprise contracts for large multi-site churches. Pricing varies by church size, feature mix, and whether Proclaim is bundled in — so the figures above are the public starting points rather than firm quotes.
The Standard tier is the bestValue pick for most churches in the 200–750 attendee range — it bundles in Proclaim, the website builder, and the full event tooling, which would cost noticeably more if assembled from separate vendors. Churches under that size can usually run on Essentials for a while; churches over that size will end up in Pro or Enterprise as multi-site, advanced analytics, or expanded admin seats become non-negotiable.
Most churches do not need the Pro tier. The honest read is that Standard is the platform’s sweet spot, and a church that finds itself outgrowing Standard is often a church that should also be re-evaluating whether the all-in-one model still fits — at a certain scale, best-of-breed tools paired with a developer or two can beat any integrated platform.
Giving fees are processed through the platform and run roughly in line with the rest of the category — competitive, but not the cheapest. Churches whose only need is giving will find Tithe.ly or Givelify cheaper. Churches that need giving plus sermon hosting plus an app plus presentation are the ones where Equip’s bundling math works in their favor.
Where Faithlife Equip falls behind
No first-party calendar integration with general-purpose tools. Equip’s calendar is internal to the platform — it does not push cleanly into Google Calendar, Outlook, or Apple Calendar in the way a member might expect in 2026. Staff and members can subscribe to feeds, but the experience is fiddlier than it should be at this price point.
Limited customization of the branded app’s visual design. Compared to Subsplash, the template options feel more constrained — a few color and logo choices, but no deep layout reworking. For churches with a strong visual brand identity, this is a real limitation. Subsplash’s newer templates simply look more current.
The learning curve is steeper than competitors. Equip rewards investment, but the first month of onboarding a new staff team is genuinely heavier than spinning up Tithe.ly or Planning Center. Pastors who only want one or two pieces of the platform often feel like they are paying for parts they will never use.
Customer support is uneven during peak seasons. Faithlife has shipped pastor-facing software since 1992, so the underlying competence is real, but response times around Christmas and Easter can stretch in ways that frustrate church staff handling event-heavy weeks.
No native integration with Planning Center for service planning. Many churches that already use Planning Center for their service order do not want to migrate that workflow into Equip — and the lack of a clean bridge means data lives in two places. This is the single most common reason mid-size churches stop short of going all-in on Equip.
Faithlife Equip vs. Subsplash vs. Tithe.ly
These three platforms get compared constantly, and the comparison is almost always framed wrong. They are not competing for the same customer — they are competing for three overlapping but distinct customers, and choosing well means starting with which one you actually are.
Different strengths. Faithlife Equip is the integrated stack for the Logos-and-Proclaim church — its differentiator is workflow unity, not feature count. Subsplash is the design-forward branded-app leader — its templates look the most modern, its video player is the smoothest, and it is the safe pick for a church that cares about the app being a polished public face. Tithe.ly is the budget-conscious essentials platform — strong giving, lightweight app, broad reach, and the cheapest entry into the market by a meaningful margin.
The decision usually sorts itself out fast. A teaching pastor who already lives in Logos and runs Proclaim should not be on any other platform — Equip exists for them. A church whose biggest pain point is a dated-looking app or a clunky streaming experience should look at Subsplash first. A church plant or small congregation that needs giving to work, an app to exist, and the bill to stay small belongs on Tithe.ly. The mistake is treating these as three flavors of the same thing — they are not, and the cost of choosing wrong shows up in either wasted spend or features that never get used.
The bottom line
Faithlife Equip is the church platform built for pastors who already live inside Logos. For that user — a teaching pastor running Sermon Builder, Proclaim, and the Faithlife Study Bible every week — Equip is the only platform on the market that delivers a genuinely unified workflow from study to Sunday morning, and the price is fair for what it removes from the staff’s weekly grind. For everyone else, the branded app, sermon hosting, and giving features are solid and competitive but rarely category-leading. The verdict is straightforward: if you are deep in the Faithlife ecosystem, Equip is the right answer; if you are not, the better fit is usually Subsplash or Tithe.ly. Real gaps, but they are worth knowing about going in rather than dealbreakers.
Alternatives to Faithlife Equip
Tithe.ly
The budget-conscious entry point — strong giving, lightweight branded app, and the most accessible pricing in the category for small churches.
Subsplash
The design leader in the branded-app space — modern templates, smooth video player, and the safe pick when the app is the public-facing priority.
Planning Center
The service-planning standard for mid-size and large churches — strong scheduling and people management, often used alongside Equip rather than instead of it.
Logos Bible Software
The sermon-prep side of the Faithlife ecosystem — the reason most Equip churches end up choosing Equip in the first place.
Frequently asked questions
- Do I have to use Logos to get value out of Faithlife Equip?
- No, but it is a fair question to ask whether you should be on Equip if you are not. The platform’s strongest differentiator is the Logos workflow — sermon outlines, scripture references, and slide content flowing from study into Sunday morning without re-entry. A pastor who studies in Olive Tree, Accordance, or just Bible Gateway gets none of that benefit, and at that point Equip is competing on its branded app and giving features alone, where Subsplash and Tithe.ly are often the better fit.
- How much does Faithlife Equip actually cost for a typical mid-size church?
- Most mid-size churches (200–750 attendees) land on the Standard tier at around $249 per month, which bundles in Proclaim presentation, the website builder, and the full event tooling. Smaller churches can run on Essentials at around $99/mo; larger or multi-site churches typically end up in Pro at $499/mo or in a custom Enterprise contract. Pricing varies by feature mix, so request a quote rather than relying on the public starting points.
- Is Proclaim included in the Equip subscription?
- Proclaim is bundled into the Standard tier and above, which is one of the reasons Standard is the bestValue pick for most churches. Essentials customers can add Proclaim separately, but at that point the math often pushes them toward Standard anyway. Churches already running ProPresenter sometimes keep it rather than migrating — Proclaim is competent but less feature-rich than ProPresenter at the high end.
- How does the giving feature compare to Tithe.ly or Givelify on fees?
- Equip’s giving fees are competitive with the rest of the category — neither the cheapest nor the most expensive. Churches whose only need is giving will usually find Tithe.ly or Givelify cheaper. The case for Equip’s giving is bundling: if you are already paying for the branded app, sermon hosting, and Proclaim, rolling giving into the same platform saves the cognitive overhead of managing a separate vendor and a separate dashboard.
- Does Faithlife Equip work alongside Planning Center?
- There is no native integration with Planning Center, which is the most common friction point for mid-size churches considering Equip. Many churches already use Planning Center for service planning and people management, and end up running both platforms in parallel rather than migrating. If a deep Planning Center workflow is non-negotiable, that is worth raising with Faithlife sales before signing.
- How does sermon transcription work, and is it accurate?
- Equip auto-transcribes uploaded sermons and indexes them by scripture reference and topic, which turns the sermon archive into something members can actually search. Accuracy is generally strong for standard English speech but degrades on heavily accented voices, multiple speakers, or poor audio. Most churches find the transcripts good enough for search and accessibility purposes, though they may want a human pass before publishing transcripts as a polished public artifact.
- Is Faithlife Equip a good fit for a church plant or small congregation under 100 people?
- Probably not, unless the teaching pastor is already a Logos power user. The Essentials tier is honest at $99/mo, but a small church plant focused on giving and a basic app is usually better served by Tithe.ly’s cheaper entry point. Equip’s value compounds with church size and ecosystem investment — it is the right answer when you are running multiple Faithlife products and have enough staff to feel the workflow savings, and overkill when you do not.