- Starting price
- $100/mo
- Free tier
- No
- Platforms
- Web · Parish websites · School sites · Tilma Pay · Resource libraries
- Developer
- Glass Canvas
- Launched
- 2020
- Updated
- Aug 16, 2026
The verdict
Tilma gives Catholic parishes a purpose-built digital front door rather than a generic site builder: modern pages, bulletins, announcements, Mass times, homilies, curated formation resources, giving options, and support are organized around parish life. Transparent current pricing is a strength. Parishes should still review data ownership, sacramental and donor records, accessibility, content licensing, payment terms, integrations, migration, exports, and vendor exit before making it diocesan infrastructure.
Try Tilma ↗Opens tilmaplatform.com
Tilma Parish is a Catholic website and digital ministry platform created by Vancouver-based Glass Canvas. It is designed so pastors, administrators, and volunteers can update pages, announcements, bulletins, homilies, staff listings, Mass times, events, and other parish information without specialized web development.
Its formation layer adds curated Catholic content from ministry partners and organizes material by felt need, life stage, faith journey, and ministry objective. The optional Behold Library and Resource Center extend that into guided Pathways, campaigns, leader assets, and evangelization material.
The broader Tilma ecosystem has included forms, payments, donations, parishioner data, communication, school websites, managed updates, and diocesan publishing. Tilma Pay can reduce or eliminate the base website charge for parishes meeting published donation-processing thresholds.
We reviewed the current product, pricing, Starter, services, Glass Canvas materials, and public parish examples without administering a site or processing a donation. We did not verify uptime, support response, editor ease, data model, security, accessibility, SEO controls, migration accuracy, payment reconciliation, integrations, or full contract and exit terms.
✓ The good
- Catholic parish fit - Mass times, bulletins, formation, homilies, announcements, and diocesan structure are first-class
- Transparent base pricing - current subscription and major add-on amounts are publicly listed
- Easy publishing focus - the platform is designed for nontechnical parish staff and volunteers
- Curated formation layer - ministry content and pathways extend the website beyond schedules and documents
- No published usage caps - the pricing page emphasizes unrestricted use rather than metered visitors or pages
✗ Watch out
- Catholic-specific design - churches outside Catholic structures will find better-fitting alternatives
- Add-on growth - content, school site, managed services, implementation, and payments raise total cost
- Vendor concentration - website, formation, giving, communication, and records can become difficult to replace together
- Data sensitivity - donor, family, sacramental, form, event, and communication information needs strict roles and retention
- Case-study claims need local proof - outcomes at one diocese do not guarantee giving or participation gains elsewhere
Best for
- Catholic parishes replacing dated websites with a platform staff can maintain
- Dioceses seeking consistent design and shared resources across multiple parish sites
- Parishes wanting Catholic formation and evangelization content integrated with ordinary website communication
- Teams prepared to govern content, data, donations, accessibility, domains, migration, and vendor exit centrally
Avoid if
- You are not a Catholic parish, school, diocese, or ministry and need a tradition-neutral church platform
- Your diocese requires another system for websites, giving, sacramental records, hosting, identity, or archives
- No one can own content freshness, consent, data roles, accessibility, payment reconciliation, and annual review
- You need complete source-code ownership, self-hosting, instant portability, or integrations not confirmed in contract
What Tilma is
Tilma is a hosted parish website, content, and digital-ministry ecosystem. It is not the Catholic Church, diocesan authority, canonical sacramental register, legal archive, accounting system, bank, payment processor guarantee, accessibility certification, records-retention policy, or substitute for pastoral discernment about formation content.
The parish or diocese remains responsible for domains, truth and freshness, sacramental and donor handling, consent, photo releases, minors, accessibility, restricted gifts, receipts, reconciliation, incident response, archives, copyright, and a complete export and transition plan.
Why a parish website should form people, not merely post PDFs
Most church sites answer time and place questions but offer little next step for the newly married couple, grieving parent, curious visitor, or parishioner ready to serve. Tilma’s content libraries and Pathways aim to connect those needs with Catholic formation and parish action.
Personalization and targeting require pastoral and privacy discipline. Label authors and sponsors, review doctrine and accessibility, avoid inferring sensitive conditions from browsing, minimize tracking, and give local leaders authority to curate rather than surrendering formation to a vendor feed.
Parish websites and managed updates: easy editing still needs ownership
Tilma supports mobile-friendly pages, bulletins, announcements, homilies, teams, Mass times, forms, events, and modern visual design. Training and support are included, while paid managed services can update a site from the weekly bulletin.
Assign an owner for every page and automatic expiration for time-sensitive notices. Test keyboard, screen reader, zoom, contrast, captions, language, search, structured data, redirects, emergency banners, and a process for correcting Mass or sacramental information quickly.
Behold Library and Pathways: curated formation needs local review
The content layer draws from Catholic ministry partners and organizes resources around life stages, felt needs, prayer, relationships, identity, culture, evangelization, and guided inward, upward, and outward pathways.
Create a parish or diocesan review board for theology, trauma, mental health, marriage, sexuality, minors, copyright, accessibility, and cultural fit. Archive publisher, date, version, and local approver so a changing feed does not silently alter endorsed formation.
Tilma Pay, forms, and parish data: convenience expands stewardship
Online giving and forms can connect parish communication with donations and registration. Published pricing says Tilma Pay processing at 2.9% plus $0.30 can discount the platform by 50% below $150,000 annual processing or make the base site free above it.
Confirm processor identity, settlement, chargebacks, refunds, restricted gifts, receipts, PCI scope, donor anonymity, recurring-gift migration, bank changes, fraud, tax statements, Canadian and US treatment, and data export. Never choose payment routing solely for a software discount.
Pricing
Tilma Parish
$100/mo
Modern Catholic website, content feeds, bulletins, announcements, onboarding, training, and support.
Behold Library
+$70/mo
Curated formation content and access to the Tilma Resource Center.
School website
+$50/mo
An integrated site for a parish school.
Managed services
From $20/mo
Bulletin-driven updates, announcements, events, Mass times, brand work, or fractional webmaster help.
Implementation
From $650
Quick Flip migration begins at $650 USD; a customized homepage package is listed at $1,500.
Tilma Parish is currently listed at $100 per month with no usage limits. The base includes the website, content feeds, bulletins, announcements, onboarding, training, and support.
Behold Library costs an additional $70 monthly, a school site adds $50 monthly, and managed services begin at $20 monthly. Managed sub-sites include one school-bundle site and then list additional sites at $5 each.
Implementation services are separate: Quick Flip content migration is $650 USD or $850 CAD, while Homepage Makeover is $1,500 USD or $1,950 CAD and includes Quick Flip.
Tilma Pay lists processing at 2.9% plus $0.30. More than $150,000 yearly processing can make Tilma Parish free; lower volume can produce a 50% discount. Compare total fees and contract terms with independent processors.
Where Tilma falls behind
Publish a complete trust center covering hosting, security audits, encryption, backups, recovery, subprocessors, incidents, data residency, logs, SSO, permissions, retention, and deletion.
Document full exports and portability for pages, media, redirects, forms, parishioners, donations, recurring gifts, events, content approvals, sacramental data, and audit history.
Provide conformance reports and authoring guidance for WCAG accessibility across templates, editor output, forms, media, PDFs, payment, and third-party content.
Clarify content-feed licensing, editorial review, update notice, removal, translation, local override, analytics, targeting, and pastoral approval controls.
Publish integration and API documentation for diocesan systems, accounting, email, identity, calendars, records, analytics, livestreaming, and giving reconciliation.
Tilma vs. eCatholic vs. Ministry Designs
Tilma combines Catholic parish websites with curated formation, diocesan potential, and giving discounts. eCatholic is a mature Catholic website, livestream, communications, and online-giving provider. Ministry Designs serves a broader church market with managed design, visual content, support, and ministry websites.
Choose Tilma when Catholic digital formation and a connected parish ecosystem are central. Choose eCatholic for another established Catholic platform and compare its specific communications and giving stack. Choose Ministry Designs when denominational neutrality and higher-touch general church design fit better.
Run the same parish scenario in each: migrate content, post Mass changes, build a form, publish bilingual content, complete a donation and refund, use a screen reader, export everything, and price five years of add-ons and processing.
The bottom line
Tilma is one of the clearest examples of a church platform designed from the institution outward. It understands parish websites, diocesan consistency, formation content, bulletins, schools, support, and giving as parts of one Catholic digital ministry rather than unrelated plugins. The $100 base price and add-ons are unusually visible, making honest comparison possible. The same integration creates responsibility: formation feeds require local pastoral review, donations require reconciliation, personal and sacramental data require governance, and the parish needs a tested exit. Pilot one site, insist on accessibility and security evidence, compare payment economics independently, and preserve domains and full exports. With that groundwork, Tilma can replace a neglected website with a real ministry presence.
Alternatives to Tilma
Ministry Designs SitesManaged church website design, content, visual assets, and support for a broader church audience.
SolaSitesA managed church website service with unlimited support and straightforward ministry-focused packages.NucleusChurch website and next-step tools focused on calls to action, forms, prayer, and digital engagement.WordPress with diocesan teamGreater flexibility and portability when a diocese can own hosting, accessibility, security, and maintenance.Frequently asked questions
How much does Tilma cost?
Tilma Parish is listed at $100 per month. Behold Library adds $70 monthly, a school site adds $50, and managed services begin at $20.
Is there a free Tilma plan?
No permanent free tier is listed. Tilma Pay volume can discount the parish platform by 50% or make the base site free under published processing thresholds.
What is included in Tilma Parish?
The base includes a modern Catholic website, content feeds, bulletins, announcements, onboarding, training, and support, with no published usage limits.
What is the Behold Library?
It is an optional curated Catholic formation library and Resource Center with articles, audio, video, pathways, and campaign tools organized around ministry and life needs.
What does website migration cost?
Quick Flip is listed at $650 USD or $850 CAD. Homepage Makeover is $1,500 USD or $1,950 CAD and includes Quick Flip.
How does Tilma Pay affect pricing?
Published terms list 2.9% plus $0.30 processing; annual volume above $150,000 can make Tilma Parish free, while lower volume can receive a 50% platform discount.
Is Tilma only for Catholic churches?
The product is explicitly designed around Catholic parishes, schools, dioceses, formation partners, and ministry structures, so other churches will usually find a better fit elsewhere.
Sources & further reading
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