AltarDesk vs POINT

AltarDesk is a church management platform for member records, donor statements, schedules, safeguarding and giving. Its member portal and app let people update their details, view rota duties, give and access giving statements. Paid plans include Gift Aid and GASDS management, direct HMRC claim submission and contactless giving. Bank statement imports support Lloyds, HSBC, NatWest, Barclays and Monzo; member giving uses Stripe card payments. The free plan covers up to 15 people and includes 500 MB of storage. The displayed tier for up to 75 people costs £17 a month and includes 2 GB of storage. Member and giving records are held in UK data centres, while sermon video and audio remain in the church’s own Google Drive. AltarDesk says connections use TLS 1.3, stored data is encrypted with AES-256, and organisation records are isolated with row-level security. It also says it does not sell church data, share it with advertisers or train AI models on it. At a plan’s member cap, a church must move to a higher plan before adding people.

POINT provides volunteer management tools for organizations and helps people find and join volunteer opportunities. Organizations can recruit through website widgets, a hosted volunteer hub, social media integrations, and email invitations. Its onboarding process can include custom applications, waivers, background checks, progress tracking, and admin approvals. The platform organizes volunteer profiles, programs, groups, cohosts, and documents; volunteers can register for shifts and groups, including youth and guest registrations and ongoing opportunities. Hours can be recorded automatically, entered manually, or captured at self-check-in kiosks, then reviewed through reports and custom exports. POINT supports SMS and email, automated confirmations and reminders, push notifications, and calendar integrations. It runs on Android, iOS, and the web. A free plan is available, along with a 14-day trial; Pro starts at $99 a month billed annually, or $140 a month billed monthly. POINT says it serves qualifying nonprofit organizations in the U.S. and Ukraine.