Congregate vs Digital Church
Congregate
congregateonline.com
Digital Church
digitalchurch.comSide by side
| Figure | Congregate | Digital Church |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $10/mo | $15.83/mo |
| Free plan | — | — |
| Free trial | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| iOS | Yes | — |
| Android | Yes | — |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 10 | 8 |
| Spec score · Church Website Builders | 9.1 (#1) | 8.0 (#15) |
| Founded | The Congregate service was launched in 2009. | 2014 |
| Purpose | Congregate is a church management platform combining a church website, member management, and leadership tools. | Digital Church is a suite of tools that helps churches thrive in online ministry. |
| Security | The service supports two-factor authentication for administrators and members. | Digital Church's DNS guide says its Cloudflare SSL/TLS encryption mode is set to Full (strict). |
Plans
Congregate
- Virtual Library$10 a month
- Sermon Transcriptions$15 a month
- Economy$20 a month
- Members Only$20 a month
- Text Messaging$25 a month
- Voice Messaging$25 a month
- Classic$45 a month
- Self-Hosted WordPress$55 a month
- Unlimited$55 a month
- Congregate-Hosted WordPress$70 a month
Digital Church
- Starter$19 a month
- Standard$39 a month
- Premium$59 a month
- Starter$190 a year
- Unlimited$199 a month
- Standard$390 a year
- Premium$590 a year
- Unlimited$1,990 a year
In their own words
Congregate
Congregate is a church management platform that combines a church website, member management, and leadership tools. Member features include a directory, attendance tracking, visitor registration and follow-up, and a leadership CRM. Communications include email, premium SMS, and premium text-to-speech voice messages. Its worship scheduler assigns positions and volunteer tasks, with support for blockout dates, replacements, confirmations, and reminders.
Churches can upload sermon media in formats such as MP3, PowerPoint, PDF, or YouTube links; the platform can create podcast feeds and support social sharing. The native members app is available for iPhone, iPad, and Android, and includes member modules, a directory, Bible, and sermon audio. Congregate says more than 30 modules are included in each service plan. Plans include a public website and mobile app at $20/mo for Economy, while Members Only is also $20/mo and omits the public website and email accounts. Standard plans carry a one-time $499 setup fee, discounted by $50 for churches with fewer than 50 members. Free technical support is included, with ticket responses stated as within 24 hours or less. The site offers a free test drive but gives no duration. The service runs on web, Android, and iOS.
Digital Church
Digital Church is a web- and API-accessible suite for managing church online ministry through a website or app. Its website builder supplies templates for more than 20 page types. The event calendar supports free or paid registrations and connections to streaming services. Sermon publishing can pull from YouTube automatically and handle notes, PDF downloads, audio podcasts, and series. The platform also includes online giving, live streaming, forms, and private small-group spaces for communication and sharing worksheets or notes. Forms can use Digital Church, Elexio, or Planning Center sources. Stripe Giving accepts card donations through Stripe Connect and routes them to the church’s connected Stripe account. The Unlimited plan includes hosting, updates, backups, security, and full content management for one website. A native app is not included in that plan but can be added for $49/mo. Plans are billed monthly: Starter is 19.00 USD, Standard 39.00 USD, Premium 59.00 USD, and Unlimited 199.00 USD. A 45-day trial is available, and there is no free plan.