ChurchFinance vs ParishSOFT

ChurchFinance is cloud-based financial management software for churches and religious organizations. It records income and expenses using categories, funds, recurring entries, bank rules, CSV imports, and an audit trail. Budgeting covers annual plans, ministry-scoped budgets, fund accounting, and budget-versus-actual tracking. Reports include income statements, fund summaries, cash-flow and reconciliation reports, giving statements, and board packets.

Online giving accepts cards, ACH bank transfers, and Apple Pay through Stripe, for one-time or recurring gifts, with no ChurchFinance platform fees. The free Starter plan covers one team member. Growth is $71 a month, billed annually at $853, and Ministry is $134 a month, billed annually at $1,609. The service says it uses HTTPS/TLS, encrypts sensitive credentials at rest, hashes passwords, and takes daily backups; it has not pursued SOC 2 or HIPAA certification. Users can export donor, transaction, and fund data as JSON or CSV. An auditor portal provides scoped, read-only, time-bound access.

ParishSOFT provides church management software and related tools for Catholic parishes, dioceses, schools, and ministry organizations in the United States and Canada. Families manages household and member details, sacramental records, communications, and reporting. Accounting supports budgets, payroll, purchasing, and financial reporting; the maker describes it as GAAP compliant. Giving handles online and recurring donations, reports, payment forms, and contribution and pledge tracking. Family Suite also supports religious education and ministry scheduling, and connects with several ParishSOFT products. MinistryOne offers digital giving, media, event management, prayer requests, group messaging, and push notifications. The listed platforms include web, Android, iOS, and an API. Pricing for the main products is on request. Separate consulting plans range from $250, paid once for ParishSOFT Giving Consulting to $3,200, paid once for Family Suite or Accounting Standard Consulting. ParishSOFT Giving has a stated free 30-day trial. The maker says its tools are used by more than 185 dioceses and 12,000 parishes across the United States and Canada.