Congregate vs Mainfolk
Congregate
congregateonline.comMainfolk
mainfolk.comSide by side
| Figure | Congregate | Mainfolk |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $10/mo | $15/mo |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| iOS | Yes | Yes |
| Android | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | — |
| Self-hosted | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 10 | 10 |
| Spec score · Church Website Builders | 9.1 (#1) | 8.9 (#4) |
| Availability limitation | Terms say the platform may become inaccessible because of maintenance, equipment faults, network failures, attacks, or other causes and is provided without an uptime guarantee. | Terms state that uninterrupted service is not promised and describe the service as provided as-is and as-available. |
| Intended users | Congregate describes its service as built for local churches and their visitors, members, and leaders. | Mainfolk describes its church offering as suited to small churches that want a website without an agency or a volunteer maintaining WordPress. |
| Licence | Terms assign Congregate platform intellectual-property rights to Congregate and its licensors and prohibit copying, reverse engineering, and derivative works. | The Mainfolk platform, software, design system and templates are identified as property of Champlin Enterprises, LLC. |
| Privacy | The privacy policy says collected information is not sold or rented and may be shared with service partners only as needed to provide services. | The privacy policy says Mainfolk does not sell personal information and uses Stripe, Mailgun, Cloudflare, its hosting provider and first-party Pulse analytics. |
| Support | Free technical support is included in every service plan, and the company says it responds to support tickets within 24 hours or less. | Free includes community help, Launch includes email support, and Pro and Civic include priority support; the company also advertises direct access to its engineers. |
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
Mainfolk
- FreeFree
- FreeFree
- Launch$15 a month
- Launch$15 a month
- Pro$29 a month
- Pro$29 a month
- Civic$149 a month
- Civic$149 a month
- White-Glove Design$199, paid once
- White-Glove Design$199, paid once
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.
Mainfolk
Mainfolk is a website builder for organizations, including churches, that generates an initial draft with AI. Church sites can include service times, visitor information, sermons and media, events, groups, ministries, and giving. Staff can edit page content directly, and Mainfolk says published changes go live worldwide in under a minute. Giving pages can link to an existing processor such as Tithe.ly, Pushpay, or PayPal, so the church retains its processor. Mainfolk says each site includes structured data, semantic HTML, and a per-site llms.txt to support discovery. Hosting, SSL, updates, security patching, and global delivery are included on all tiers. The service says it builds to WCAG 2.1 Level AA, while noting uploaded documents and third-party embeds can create accessibility issues. Free includes a Mainfolk subdomain, unlimited edits, about 10 AI assists per month, and community help. Launch is $15 a month, Pro is $29 a month, and Civic is $149 a month; annual billing is also listed for each. A one-time White-Glove Design option is $199.00 USD, with the ordinary plan price still applying. Access is available on Android, iOS, and web.