ChurchBuddy vs ChurchTools
ChurchBuddy
church.worshipbuddy.org
ChurchTools
church.toolsSide by side
| Figure | ChurchBuddy | ChurchTools |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | $39/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | — |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| iOS | Yes | Yes |
| Android | Yes | Yes |
| API | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 6 |
| Spec score · Church Scheduling Software | 8.2 (#13) | 8.4 (#9) |
| Founded | 2025 | 2016 |
| Integrations | The ChurchBuddy site lists connections to WorshipBuddy songbooks and BibleBuddy resources, along with cloud storage, background checks, live streaming, and automated workflows. | Official integrations include ALPHA Bookstore, CCLI SongSelect, SongBeamer, OpenSong, ProPresenter, CM Telecom, Optigem, Nextcloud, MailChimp, CleverReach, MailJet, LimeSurvey and Evangelische Termine. |
| Purpose | ChurchBuddy is a church management platform for scheduling volunteers, planning services, running events, teaching Sunday school, and reaching a congregation. | ChurchTools is an all-in-one software solution designed to empower churches. |
| Support | The maker provides a ChurchBuddy guide for documentation and setup help. | Free dedicated support is included in all ChurchTools packages, with help pages, a forum, a blog and a contact form. |
Plans
ChurchTools
- Package XS$39 a month
- Package S$59 a month
- Package M$99 a month
- Package L$159 a month
- Package XL$249 a month
- Package XXL$399 a month
In their own words
ChurchBuddy
ChurchBuddy is a free church management platform for coordinating ministry work across web, Android, and iOS. It handles volunteer scheduling, worship-service planning, recurring service templates, availability, conflict detection, automatic and bulk scheduling, and schedule export or printing. Churches can maintain congregation directories, family links, teams, groups, profiles, and Excel imports, with granular access control. Event tools provide registration forms, CSV responses, QR and badge check-in, plus transportation, housing, and meal management. Sunday school functions cover classes, curricula, teacher, parent, and student portals, attendance, gradebooks, report cards, and check-in scanners. The platform also lists announcements, push notifications, texts, email, targeted messaging, a unified calendar, room and resource booking, service timers, dashboards, analytics, form building, and online giving with payment processing. Integrations include WorshipBuddy songbooks, BibleBuddy resources, cloud storage, background checks, live streaming, and automated workflows. The maker says data is encrypted at rest and in transit, with no ads or data sales. The plan is free, billed Forever, with no hidden fees, premium tiers, or add-ons.
ChurchTools
ChurchTools is church management software with modules for people, groups, posts, calendars, resources, events, wiki, check-in, chat, Sync and finances. It is designed for Christian churches and congregations of different denominations and sizes, from church plants to multi-site churches. Each package includes unlimited groups, calendars, events, wiki sites, chats, check-ins and reports, as well as a church app, 5 GB of storage, integrations, an open API, a writing assistant, ChurchTools Academy and email support. The service has web access and Android and iOS apps; the mobile app can be signed into several installations at once. ChurchTools lists more than 800 REST API endpoints, with API access free of charge. Packages start at $39 a month, billed monthly, with a 30-day trial and no free plan. Package XS allows 100 people, no additional campuses, 10 resources and 20 rosters. The service was founded in 2016 and is headquartered in Karlsruhe, Germany.