What a church app costs you comes in two layers. A giving app takes a processing fee on each gift, about 2.15% to 2.9% plus $0.30 by card and about 1% by bank transfer (ACH). Apple and Google charge their own commission only on digital goods sold inside an app, and the sections below show which layer applies to a tithe.
Every digital gift given to a church is taxed twice before it funds a single ministry hour: once by the card networks, and once by the software platform sitting between the giver and the church bank account. Most congregations have never calculated what that costs them in a year.
Short answer: church giving apps charge a processing fee of about 2.15%-2.9% + $0.30 on card gifts and about 1% on bank (ACH) gifts. App store commissions from Apple and Google apply to digital purchases made inside an app, and donations to a registered nonprofit are generally handled under separate rules.
This guide puts the five platforms American churches actually use (Tithe.ly, Pushpay, Givelify, Planning Center Giving and Subsplash) side by side on published rates, shows the real dollar cost at five giving levels, and identifies the one change that recovers the most money for the ministry.
Apply this study
Set the number before you worry about the rails. Run our Tithe Calculator to fix your giving amount, then use the tables below to make sure the largest possible share of it lands in ministry.
Church fees for app purchases: what Apple and Google charge, and where donations fit
Two different fees get confused, and only one of them applies to a tithe. The first is the app store commission that Apple and Google charge on digital goods sold inside an app: a percentage of the sale, generally up to 30%, with lower rates for small developers and for subscriptions. The second is the payment processing fee that a giving platform charges on each gift. Every rate in this guide is the second kind.
Donations sit under different rules from purchases. Both stores publish their own policies for nonprofit fundraising, and the general pattern is that a gift to a registered nonprofit is not treated like a paid subscription or an in-app upgrade. Apple’s App Review Guidelines and Google Play’s payments policy both address donations separately. The details differ by store and change from time to time, so read the current text of each policy and ask your app vendor how your church’s gifts are handled.
| What the church app does | Fee layer that applies | Who usually pays |
|---|---|---|
| Takes a tithe or offering | Processing fee: 2.15%-2.9% + $0.30 by card, about 1% by ACH | The church, unless the giver covers it |
| Sells a paid course, premium sermon library or subscription | Possible app store commission on top of processing | The church or the app vendor, sometimes built into the price |
| Collects gifts through the web giving page | Processing fee only | The church, unless the giver covers it |
If your church app sells anything digital, ask the vendor in writing which items go through the store and what commission applies. For one platform in dollars, see the Tithe.ly fees breakdown. The rest of this page covers the processing fees a church pays on every gift.
How church giving app fees are actually structured
A church giving app fee is a stack of three distinct charges, and platforms market whichever layer makes them look cheapest.
- Interchange and processing — the percentage plus fixed cents taken per transaction. This is the layer everyone quotes. Typical published range in 2026: 2.15%-2.9% + $0.30 on credit and debit cards, and roughly 1% (often capped) on ACH bank transfers.
- Platform subscription — a flat monthly or annual fee the church pays for the software itself. Some platforms fold this into the transaction rate ("free" tiers), others quote it separately and can run from about $19/month to several hundred.
- Feature gating — text-to-give shortcodes, kiosk hardware, church management integration, and recurring-gift recovery tools are frequently priced as separate add-ons.
Two churches on the same nominal rate can therefore pay very different effective costs. The honest measurement is total platform spend divided by total dollars given over twelve months — the effective cost of digital generosity.
Church giving app fees compared (published 2026 rates)
The table below reflects each provider's publicly advertised pricing at the time of writing. Pushpay and Subsplash quote per-church, so their transaction rates vary by contract volume. Always confirm current rates directly with the provider before signing — pricing pages change quarterly.
| Platform | Card rate | ACH / bank rate | Platform fee | Best fit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tithe.ly Giving | 2.9% + $0.30 | 1% + $0.30 | Free tier; paid tiers for ChMS and app | Small to mid-size churches wanting a free entry point |
| Givelify | 2.9% + $0.30 | 1% + $0.30 | No monthly fee | Churches wanting the simplest donor-side app |
| Planning Center Giving | 2.15% + $0.30 | 1% (capped) | Included in Planning Center plan pricing | Churches already using Planning Center for people and services |
| Pushpay | Quoted per church (commonly ~2.4%-2.9% + $0.30) | Quoted (typically ~1%) | Annual contract, generally the highest of the five | Large multi-site churches needing engagement analytics |
| Subsplash Giving | Quoted per church | Quoted | Bundled with app/media platform | Churches buying app, media and giving as one stack |
Read the table with one filter: the ACH column matters more than the card column. The difference between 2.9% and 2.15% on cards is real but modest. The difference between a card gift and a bank-transfer gift is roughly two-thirds of the fee.
What the fee actually costs in dollars
Percentages hide the size of the loss. Here is the same gift processed at three common rate points, showing the dollars that never reach ministry.
| Gift amount | Card at 2.9% + $0.30 | Card at 2.15% + $0.30 | ACH at 1% + $0.30 |
|---|---|---|---|
| $50 | $1.75 | $1.38 | $0.80 |
| $100 | $3.20 | $2.45 | $1.30 |
| $500 | $14.80 | $11.05 | $5.30 |
| $1,000 | $29.30 | $21.80 | $10.30 |
| $10,000 | $290.30 | $215.30 | $100.30 |
Now scale it. A church receiving $1,000,000 per year entirely by card at 2.9% surrenders roughly $29,000 annually, before any platform subscription. The same million given entirely by ACH costs about $10,000. That $19,000 delta is a part-time staff salary, a full youth ministry budget, or the annual support of several missionaries.
Digital giving remains worth it. Churches that moved to digital platforms consistently report higher per-household giving and dramatically lower seasonal volatility. The savings come from routing digital giving intelligently.
The biggest single change: move recurring gifts to ACH
One operational decision outperforms every platform switch. Recurring givers — the households who set a monthly amount and rarely change it — represent the largest, most predictable share of digital volume in most congregations. Moving that cohort from card to bank transfer cuts the fee on the church's most reliable income by roughly two-thirds, permanently, with no change of vendor.
How to actually make the switch
- Set ACH as the default option in the giving form, with card as the secondary choice. Defaults drive behavior more than appeals do.
- Label it honestly — "Bank transfer (lowest fee, more reaches ministry)". Givers who understand the fee overwhelmingly choose the cheaper rail.
- Run one annual ask from the platform to existing recurring card donors, showing the specific dollar difference their switch produces over a year.
- Keep guilt out of it. 2 Corinthians 9:7 governs, and it ends with "God loves a cheerful giver." Share the information and leave the decision to the giver.
Should givers cover the fee?
Nearly every platform offers a checkbox letting the donor add the processing cost to the gift so the church receives the full intended amount. Adoption typically runs high when the box is checked by default and the copy is plain.
Two cautions. First, a donor who gives $100 and covers a $3.20 fee has given $103.20; the church should receipt the full deductible amount according to its accounting policy and applicable tax guidance. Second, the tithe is calculated on income and stays the same whatever the fees are — see our complete biblical tithing guide for how to set the figure before the rails ever enter the conversation. Covering the fee is generosity above the tithe, and the tithe itself stays where it was.
"God loves a cheerful giver." 2 Corinthians 9:7 (ESV)
Tithe.ly complaints: what users actually report
Tithe.ly is the most searched platform of the five, and the most searched phrase attached to it is a complaint query. Reading the recurring themes across app-store reviews and church forums, the grievances cluster into four categories — and only one of them is about price.
- Payout timing — the most common complaint. Deposits arriving on a multi-day delay, with holds on new accounts or after a volume spike, catch churches that budget week to week.
- Support responsiveness — ticket-based support with slower turnaround than churches expect during a Sunday-morning outage.
- Donor-side friction — account creation, password resets and app updates interrupting habitual givers, which measurably suppresses one-time gifts.
- Fee surprise — discovering that the free tier's included features stop where the church's actual needs begin, which is a separate matter from the headline rate.
None of these are disqualifying, and the same categories appear in reviews of every competitor. Our full breakdown of features, tiers and alternatives is in the Tithe.ly review. The practical lesson: evaluate a giving platform on payout reliability and support first, and on the third decimal of its rate second.
A seven-question evaluation framework for church leaders
- What is our effective rate? Total platform cost over twelve months divided by total dollars given. One number. Compute it before shopping.
- What percentage of our volume is ACH? If it is under 40%, fix routing before switching vendors.
- What is the payout schedule, and what triggers a hold? Get this in writing.
- Does it integrate with our existing church management system? Duplicate data entry costs staff hours that dwarf a rate difference.
- What happens to recurring gifts if we migrate? Recurring profiles rarely transfer between processors; a migration can silently cancel a large share of predictable income.
- Is the contract annual or month to month? Enterprise platforms typically require a term commitment.
- Is the donor experience three taps or eight? Friction suppresses giving far more than fees do.
Question five is the one that ends most migrations. Budget for a deliberate re-enrollment campaign, or the savings evaporate in lost recurring volume.
What Scripture does and does not settle here
The Bible names no payment rail. It does establish the principles that govern the decision. Faithful administration of other people's offerings is treated with unusual seriousness: Paul deliberately built an audited, multi-witness process for carrying the Jerusalem collection, and wrote that he aimed at what is honorable in the Lord's sight and in the sight of man (2 Corinthians 8:21).
Reducing avoidable leakage on entrusted funds is straightforward stewardship — the same logic Jesus applies in Luke 16:10, where faithfulness in very little is the test for faithfulness in much. Choosing a cheaper rail keeps the congregation's offerings from being spent on friction. Our Biblical Stewardship Hub works through that principle across the rest of the church budget, and the Christian Finance Apps Hub compares the other money tools for Christians.
A short prayer
"Father, everything we handle here was given first by You. Make us careful with what Your people entrust to this church — unhurried in our decisions, honest in our accounting, and free from the fear that counts pennies while forgetting the poor. Let more of every gift reach the work You called us to. Amen."
Set the number first
Decide what to give before you decide how to send it.
Gross or net, salaried or self-employed — get your figure in under a minute, then pick the lowest-fee rail to deliver it.
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