Overview

AltarDesk brings church administration and member-facing tools together, with particular relevance for UK churches managing Gift Aid and governance. It is strongest when a church wants members to maintain their own records and needs its plan to scale with the size of its people list.

The trade-off is that the free tier is tightly capped, and each plan’s people limit can require a move up as a church grows.

Key features

Church and member administration

AltarDesk covers member records, donor statements, schedules, safeguarding and giving. Members can update their details, check rota duties, give and access giving statements through the portal and app. That self-service access can reduce routine record updates for administrators, while keeping rota information and giving statements in the same service.

Paid plans add Gift Aid and GASDS management, direct HMRC claim submission and contactless giving. Bank statement imports cover Lloyds, HSBC, NatWest, Barclays and Monzo, and member card giving uses Stripe. Those UK-focused giving tools make AltarDesk a more natural fit for churches handling Gift Aid than for organisations seeking a general-purpose membership system.

Data and safeguards

Member and giving records are held in UK data centres; sermon video and audio stay in the church’s own Google Drive. AltarDesk says it uses TLS 1.3 for connections, AES-256 to encrypt stored data and row-level security to isolate organisation records. It also says it does not sell church data, share it with advertisers or use it to train AI models, and identifies itself as UK GDPR compliant and ICO registered under ZC117860.

Storage is modest at the entry levels: 500 MB on Free and 2 GB on the displayed tier for up to 75 people. Churches with substantial sermon media should note that those files remain in their own Google Drive rather than being covered by AltarDesk storage.

Pricing

The free plan is free and covers up to 15 people with 500 MB storage. It is a useful starting point for a small church, but the member ceiling and storage allowance leave little room for growth. There is also a 30-day trial.

The Up to 75 people plan costs £17 a month, payable monthly or annually, and includes 2 GB storage, 1 giving device and 500 marketing emails/month. This is the clearest paid fit for a small congregation that needs paid-plan giving tools. At the 75-person cap, the church must move to a higher tier to add people; there are no surprise overage charges.

Larger plans are priced by people served: 76–125 people costs £25.00 GBP per month; 126–200 costs £35.00 GBP per month; 201–500 costs £69.00 GBP per month; 501–1,000 costs £99.00 GBP per month; and 1,000+ costs £199.00 GBP per month. Each is billed a month, with monthly or annual payment available. These tiers suit churches that need to keep their records within a defined capacity, but the published details do not give further storage or feature breakdowns for them.

Platforms

AltarDesk runs on Android, iOS and the web, covering common mobile and browser access for administrators and members.

Who it's for

AltarDesk is best suited to UK church administrators who need member records, rota access and giving administration together, especially those using Gift Aid and Charity Commission governance modules. Its people-based tiers also make the capacity threshold easy to identify. Churches expecting to exceed a tier’s cap should budget for the next plan rather than treating the limit as flexible.

Pros and cons

UK giving administration: Paid plans include Gift Aid and GASDS management and direct HMRC claim submission, alongside contactless giving.
Member self-service: Members can update details and access rota duties and giving statements, reducing reliance on administrators for those tasks.
Clear capacity-based pricing: Tier caps and no surprise overage charges make the consequence of growth explicit.
Constrained entry plan: Free covers only 15 people and 500 MB, so a growing church may reach its limit quickly.
Limited published detail on larger tiers: Beyond people caps and prices, the plan breakdown does not establish what storage or specific features those tiers include.

Alternatives

ChurchTrac is worth comparing for a church that needs broader desktop platform coverage, including macOS and Windows, and is willing to pay $29.00 USD per month for its 75-person plan rather than use AltarDesk’s £17-a-month tier.

POINT is a better match when volunteer signups, scheduling, event and group management, messaging and time tracking matter more than AltarDesk’s church records and UK giving administration; it has a free plan and supports Android, iOS and web.

VolunteerReady suits organisations prioritising volunteer coordination with no volunteer, opportunity or seat cap on its free plan, while AltarDesk is more specifically oriented to church records and giving.

AlignMint is an option for eligible organisations with up to $100K in annual donations that value its free plan’s 10 GB storage and single-user allowance; AltarDesk instead centres on church administration and UK Gift Aid.

Faith Teams offers a free account for up to 100 active people if the church activates online giving within 30 days of sign-up, making it a relevant alternative for a larger congregation considering a free starting point.

Planning Center is worth considering for churches that want free modules such as unlimited database and reporting in People, or a free Calendar plan limited to one room, rather than AltarDesk’s single church-management system.

VolunteerBadge is an alternative for organizations focused on background-check management; checks cost extra on its free management-tools plan.

MosesTab Worship Planning is a better fit when worship planning is the priority: its free plan includes unlimited members, one admin, one group and ministry, five events, three forms and 500 MB storage.

For a focused shortlist, see Church Background Check Software.

Verdict

Choose AltarDesk if you are a UK church that wants member self-service alongside records, schedules and Gift Aid administration, and your people count fits a defined tier. Its UK-specific giving workflow is the main reason to choose it; the 15-person free cap, limited entry storage and required upgrade at each member ceiling are reasons to look elsewhere if the church is growing quickly or needs more room at no cost.

	AltarDesk	SignMeUp
Free plan	Yes	No
Free trial	Yes
Paid from	£17/mo
Platforms	Android, iOS, Web	Web
Free plan	Yes	No
Screening scope	both	volunteers
Renewal tracking	Yes
Record storage	Yes
Mobile access	all	web
Multi-location support	Yes

AltarDesk vs SignMeUp

AltarDesk

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