- Starting price
- Free; paid plans $25/month
- Free tier
- Yes
- Platforms
- Web · iPhone · iPad · Android
- Developer
- Faith Software, Inc.
- Launched
- 2024
- Updated
- Aug 16, 2026
The verdict
myChelper is one of the more credible free starting points for a small church that wants app, site, communication, community, and giving in one place without a sales process. Pilot the shared app and hosted site first, test roles and exports, and reconcile a few gifts before launch. Do not publish a fee claim to donors or commit to Branded until support confirms the current per-plan platform fee, Stripe’s added fixed and transaction charges, refund and dispute handling, app-store ownership, cancellation storage rule, and complete data-return process in writing.
Try myChelper ↗Opens mychelper.com
myChelper is a church engagement platform operated as a registered trade name of Faith Software, Inc., which identifies itself as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. One admin login manages a church-branded space inside the shared myChelper iOS and Android app, a hosted website, giving, push notifications, groups, member messaging, Scripture readings, sermon follow-up, events, prayer, and community content. Paid plans add domains, capacity, lower stated giving fees, and a separately listed branded app.
The free Ready-To-Go tier is not merely a time-limited demo. It includes a presence inside the shared mobile app, a website on a pages.mychelper.com subdomain, community and communication tools, and Stripe-based mobile giving without a credit card at signup. Ready-To-Go+ is $25 per month and adds a short custom domain, higher messaging limits, room to grow, and a lower platform fee. Branded is $70 monthly and advertises an independent Apple App Store and Google Play listing plus use of the church’s existing website domain.
Giving uses Stripe Connect, Apple Pay and Google Pay where available, recurring gifts, funds, donor history, reporting, and export. The church completes Stripe-hosted legal and banking onboarding, and deposits are described as going directly to its bank, typically within one or two business days. Fee disclosures conflict: the current pricing page says platform fees are 2% Free, 1% Plus, and 0.5% Branded plus Stripe’s typical 2.9% + 30¢, while mobile-giving and get-started pages still advertise a 3.9% total composed of 1% plus 2.9% and omit the fixed charge.
We researched the current product, features, plan, giving, privacy, terms, setup, Apple App Store, and Google Play pages. We did not create a church, connect Stripe, submit apps under a church name, send push messages, recover an account, export data, or test support. The privacy policy is materially better than many small ministry tools: it names Stripe, Google, Firebase, U.S. processing, rights, and deletion. Important limits remain, including unnamed other subprocessors, non-specific retention, a short security section, and differences between store privacy disclosures.
✓ The good
- Substantive free tier - a church can launch a shared-app presence, hosted website, community tools, and giving without monthly software cost
- Integrated publishing - app and website content share one administrative home rather than five disconnected vendors
- Nonprofit operator - Faith Software publishes its organization status, trade name, and EIN
- Clear paid progression - $25 adds a short domain and capacity; $70 adds independent store listings and an existing web domain
- Stripe Connect separation - payment credentials stay with Stripe and gifts are described as moving directly to the church account
- Useful community mix - groups, prayer, messages, push, readings, plans, events, and giving create reasons to return beyond announcements
- Modern privacy notice - the policy names major data categories, vendors, legal bases, transfers, rights, deletion paths, and advertising choices
✗ Watch out
- Giving fees conflict publicly - plan, giving, and get-started pages state different platform percentages, totals, and fixed-fee treatment
- Cancellation has a storage condition - paid customers must reduce home-screen images to 21 MB before moving to free or billing may continue
- Subscription terms are very short - they omit service license, app-store process, data ownership, export, uptime, termination, disputes, and governing law
- Store disclosures conflict - Google Play says data is not encrypted while the website describes secure and encrypted payment handling
- Branded-app ownership is unclear - account holder, transfer rights, certificates, developer fees, review delays, and post-cancellation behavior need written answers
- Scale claims are inconsistent - current homepage says hundreds of churches while a get-started page says thousands
- Other subprocessors are available only on request - hosting, database, email, messaging, monitoring, support, and backup providers should be public
Best for
- Small churches needing a credible free app, simple website, and communication hub
- Volunteer-led teams that value one admin interface over deep enterprise customization
- Churches willing to start in a shared app before paying for their own store listing
- Organizations comfortable using Stripe Connect and reconciling giving with a separate accounting system
Avoid if
- You need a mature full ChMS with check-in, complex workflows, accounting, background checks, or detailed attendance records
- You require a vendor security report, SLA, full subprocessor list, or negotiated data-processing agreement before use
- Your finance team cannot accept fee ambiguity or lacks a documented refund, dispute, chargeback, and tax-receipt process
- You need guaranteed ownership and portability of a branded app without confirming the store-account arrangement
What myChelper is
myChelper is a digital front door and engagement layer. Members select a church inside the shared app or, on Branded, can search app stores for that congregation’s own listing. The church publishes app and website content, communicates, supports groups and prayer, provides readings, and accepts gifts through one platform.
It is not presented as a complete church management database or accounting ledger. A church may still need a system of record for households, attendance, check-in, workflows, background screening, pastoral care, contribution statements, and general-ledger reconciliation. Test whether the same person and giving records can be exported and matched cleanly.
Why the shared-app-to-branded-app path fits a small church budget
Most standalone church-app vendors charge setup and monthly fees before leaders know whether members will install anything. myChelper lets a church publish inside a shared app and on a hosted website for free, then move to a short domain or independent store identity only after adoption warrants the expense.
That progression reduces financial risk but creates a migration question. Before inviting everyone, test deep links, sign-in continuity, notifications, saved group memberships, giving history, analytics, and content when moving among Free, Plus, and Branded. Ask whether a later app-store transfer preserves the listing, reviews, bundle identifier, and installations.
App, website, and one publishing home: practical simplicity
Leaders customize branding and home-screen modules in the admin portal, while members access events, sermons, giving, groups, prayer, readings, and messages in mobile or web surfaces. Website content can stay aligned with the app instead of being re-entered.
A fast launch is only useful if ownership survives staff turnover. Create organization-controlled admin emails and store accounts, require least-privilege roles, document publishing approval, test accessibility and search indexing, and keep a current export outside the platform.
Groups, notifications, readings, and prayer: engagement with sensitive data
Groups can be discoverable or invite-only, support leader announcements and optional member messages, and sit beside push notifications, inbox history, daily Scripture, reading plans, sermon notes, and prayer. The combination gives members several reasons to open the app.
Group messages and prayer requests may expose health, family, sexuality, finances, immigration, safeguarding, or conflict. Define who can see, export, moderate, and delete each space; tell members not to report emergencies or abuse in ordinary chat; and establish escalation outside the app.
Stripe Connect giving: strong infrastructure, incomplete fee clarity
Churches onboard through Stripe, create funds, accept cards and supported wallets, schedule recurring gifts, see real-time records, and export donor history. Keeping full card numbers with Stripe reduces the church platform’s payment-data scope.
Finance leaders still need the legal merchant, gross gift, platform fee, processor fee, net deposit, refund, dispute, failed recurrence, settlement delay, restricted-fund, year-end statement, donor-covered-fee, and reconciliation rules. Run small gifts, refunds, and a dispute scenario before broad promotion.
Pricing
Ready-To-Go
Free
A church space inside the shared myChelper app, customization, messaging, community, a pages.mychelper.com website, mobile giving, and hosted maintenance. The current pricing page assigns a 2% platform fee plus Stripe charges.
Ready-To-Go+
$25/month
Adds a short custom domain such as church.zone.church, higher messaging limits, and room to grow. The pricing page lists a 1% platform fee plus Stripe processing.
Branded
$70/month
Adds a separate iOS and Android store listing under the church’s name and icon plus use of the church’s existing web domain. The pricing page lists a 0.5% platform fee plus Stripe processing.
Giving
Confirm current fee
The pricing page says plan platform fees of 2%, 1%, or 0.5% plus Stripe’s typical 2.9% + 30¢. Other current pages say 3.9% total. Obtain a written fee schedule.
Free is valuable for evaluation and may remain sufficient for a small congregation comfortable with the shared app and hosted subdomain. “Free” refers to software access; donation transactions still incur charges.
Ready-To-Go+ costs $300 over twelve monthly payments. Its value is a shorter domain, higher messaging limits, capacity, and the pricing page’s lower platform fee. Ask for the exact thresholds that trigger the upgrade.
Branded costs $840 over twelve months before any app-store, domain, payment, or implementation costs not explicitly included. Confirm whether both stores, updates, certificates, screenshots, review appeals, and migration are part of that fee.
Paid subscriptions auto-renew, cancellation takes effect at period end, and partial-month refunds are not offered. The terms require home-screen image storage at or below 21 MB before downgrade to Free and warn that billing can continue until it is reduced.
Where myChelper falls behind
Unify giving disclosures. Publish one versioned fee table covering every plan, Stripe payment method, fixed fee, international card, currency, refund, dispute, failed payment, payout, and optional donor fee.
Expand the service terms. Define license, data ownership, acceptable use, admin authority, content moderation, exports, backups, uptime, suspension, branded-app delivery, support, termination, liability, disputes, and governing law.
Resolve store privacy discrepancies. Explain why Google Play currently reports data is not encrypted, reconcile all declarations with actual transport and storage, and document independent security testing.
Publish all subprocessors and concrete retention. Name hosting, database, email, messaging, monitoring, support, analytics, backups, locations, data categories, and deletion timelines.
Clarify branded-app portability. State developer-account owner, identifiers, certificates, review timelines, update frequency, transfer process, source or binary access, and what happens after downgrade or closure.
myChelper vs. Subsplash vs. Tithe.ly vs. Church Center
Subsplash is a mature media, app, web, messaging, and giving ecosystem with deeper services and a higher typical commitment. Tithe.ly offers giving plus church app, website, messaging, and management options at broader scale. myChelper’s advantage is the usable free on-ramp and simple $25/$70 progression.
Church Center is the congregation-facing companion to Planning Center’s mature ChMS modules. It is stronger when people, services, check-ins, registrations, groups, and giving already live in Planning Center. myChelper is a lighter independent front door for a church that does not want that entire suite.
Choose myChelper when speed, low cost, and an integrated basic presence matter most. Choose a mature suite when detailed database workflows, formal security procurement, large-scale support, extensive integrations, or complex finance and safeguarding requirements dominate.
The bottom line
myChelper offers an unusually generous route from no church app to a shared mobile presence, synchronized website, groups, communication, Scripture content, and Stripe giving. The nonprofit operator, named major vendors, deletion paths, and published $25 and $70 upgrades inspire more confidence than a vague “contact sales” funnel. The weak spots are fixable but material: different pages disagree on giving costs, Google Play reports unencrypted data, the subscription terms are only a handful of clauses, and branded-app ownership is not explained. Pilot Free with leaders, reconcile real and refunded gifts, audit privacy and roles, secure fee and store answers in writing, then upgrade only when member adoption makes the next tier worthwhile.
Alternatives to myChelper
SubsplashA mature church engagement, media, web, app, and giving ecosystem for organizations that can support a larger commitment.
Tithe.lyA broad church technology suite with established giving, apps, messaging, websites, and management tools.Church CenterThe member-facing app for churches already using Planning Center as their system of record.
Planning CenterA deeper modular ChMS for people, services, check-ins, groups, registrations, and giving.A simple website plus StripeA portable alternative when a church needs giving and public information but not another app or community database.Frequently asked questions
Is myChelper really free?
Ready-To-Go has no monthly subscription or credit-card requirement and includes a shared-app presence, hosted site, communication, community, and giving. Donation processing still has platform and Stripe fees.
How much are myChelper giving fees?
The current pricing page says a 2%, 1%, or 0.5% platform fee by plan plus Stripe’s typical 2.9% + 30¢. Other pages advertise 3.9% total. Ask support for the current written schedule before launch.
Do members get a separate church app?
On Free and Plus, members use the shared myChelper app and select the church. The $70 monthly Branded plan advertises independent Apple and Google store listings under the church’s name and icon.
Who operates myChelper?
myChelper is a registered trade name of Faith Software, Inc., which identifies itself as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and publishes EIN 42-3505436.
Can a paid church cancel anytime?
Terms allow a move to Free at the end of the billing period with no partial refund, but home-screen images must first be reduced to 21 MB or less; otherwise billing may continue.
Does myChelper store credit card numbers?
The privacy policy says Stripe processes donations and subscriptions and myChelper does not store full card numbers. The church should still document permissions, reconciliation, refunds, disputes, and donor-record handling.
Is myChelper a full church management system?
It covers a digital front door, content, groups, messaging, prayer, and giving, but public features do not establish the depth of a mature ChMS for check-in, complex workflows, safeguarding, accounting, and comprehensive people records.
Sources & further reading
More Church Management Software
B1 ChurchA genuinely free, open-source church platform - app, website, giving and check-in on one database - run by an Oklahoma nonprofit. The catch is not the price - it is that the vendor own docs call the native app deprecated.
Involv Chat (church.chat)Involv Chat combines ministry-team messaging, rosters, blocked dates and service scheduling in a focused church workspace—useful when leaders protect volunteer consent and resist turning attendance or gifts data into a spiritual score.
ChurchSoftwareChurchSoftware—formerly StoreHouse—offers an unusually broad church-management core for $0, including giving, check-in, accounting and a shared mobile app, while charging transparently for vendor-heavy extras.
Pastor Notes AppA two-app system that lets leaders publish sermon notes and invite live congregational response while attendees use the free Bible Notes companion—but its pricing math, refund terms and app privacy disclosures need correction before a church commits.
Take RootA low-cost, offline-friendly relationship tracker built specifically for evangelism and discipleship follow-up—more intentional than a spreadsheet, but its old generic privacy policy does not adequately describe the sensitive ministry data the product exists to hold.
Develop.MeDevelop.Me packages course building, cohorts, discussion, assignments, gamification and mobile learning for churches and mission-driven organizations—with unlimited learners on paid plans, but a vague free tier and a 2022 website privacy notice leave procurement questions open.