AltarDesk vs VolunteerReady

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.

VolunteerReady gives nonprofits and other organizations tools to recruit, screen, schedule, and manage volunteers. Volunteers can find opportunities and carry verified records between organizations using the platform. Organizations can build screening questionnaires with automatic pass-or-fail rules and review results in an application queue. Background checks use Checkr and Sterling and include an FCRA adverse-action workflow. Credentials such as training, orientation, ID verification, and reference checks can travel with volunteers across organizations. For scheduling, organizations can set up shifts, define capacity, accept sign-ups, and track attendance. Reporting covers hours, headcount, and credential status; corporate ESG summaries can be exported as CSV or PDF. The service is available on Android, iOS, and the web. Its free plan is free and has no volunteer, opportunity, or seat cap. Starter is $49 a month, and Pro is $149 a month. Roster CSV export is included in every plan, but rollout is organization by organization and may require enabling.