The honest math on church apps.
Every church wants "our own app." The question is whether that means a five-figure custom build, another monthly subscription, or the member portal you already pay for — installable on every phone, no app store in the way.
The three ways churches get an app
All three genuinely work. They just sit at wildly different price points, and the sticker price is rarely the whole bill — so here is each path with its published numbers and its fine print.
1. Commission a custom app
Total control, total cost. Published agency data puts most app projects between $10,000 and $49,999 — and that's the build alone. Add Apple's $99-per-year developer program and Google Play's $25 one-time registration to stay in the stores, then ongoing maintenance every time iOS or Android moves underneath you. For a church, that's a staff-salary line item for something members use to check service times.
Range: Clutch app-development pricing guide (July 2026). Store fees: published by Apple (developer.apple.com) and Google (play.google.com/console), July 2026.
2. Subscribe to a church app builder
The middle path: a branded template app in the stores for a monthly fee. Tithe.ly publishes $89/month for its standalone custom church app; Subsplash — the biggest name in the category — publishes no platform price at all and quotes per church. Either way it's a second subscription beside your ChMS, and the app-store review cycle sits between you and every update.
Verified against get.tithe.ly/pricing and subsplash.com/pricing (July 2026).
3. Use the member app included in GLAD
GLAD's member portal installs to the home screen like an app — your church's name, your icon, straight from the browser, offline-tolerant. No app store between you and your congregation, no per-platform fee, and no second subscription, because it's part of every plan and runs on the same data as everything else:
- Giving — one-time, recurring, history, and receipts
- Event RSVP with live capacity
- Group browsing, joining, and live group chat
- Parent-initiated kids check-in from the phone
- Ministries, messages inbox, and member profile
- Installs in two taps — nothing to download
When a native app is genuinely worth it
Honesty first: GLAD's portal doesn't send push notifications today. If push is non-negotiable for your communication strategy, or your church specifically wants a presence in the App Store, a native app builder earns its monthly fee — that's the real trade.
For everything else members actually open an app for — giving, RSVPs, groups, chat, check-in — the installed portal does the job with zero incremental cost, and your announcements still reach people by email and text from the same platform.
Frequently asked questions
Skip the app invoice entirely
The member app is already in your plan. Start free and hand your congregation the install link today.
What does "free" church software really include? → Church texting, compliance included →
