Affordable CRM for Churches: What to Look For
If you're managing your church's members, donors, and communications across spreadsheets, email lists, and sticky notes — you're not alone. Most churches start that way. But as your congregation grows, those workarounds start costing you time, money, and relationships.
An affordable CRM for churches brings everything into one place: member profiles, giving history, communications, volunteer tracking, and event management. The right one fits your budget and your mission.
Why Churches Need a CRM
A church CRM (Constituent Relationship Management) system is more than a contact list. It's the central hub for every relationship your church maintains.
Here's what a good church CRM helps you do:
- Track members and donors: Keep contact info, giving history, family relationships, and engagement in one place
- Manage communications: Send emails, newsletters, and event invitations to the right people at the right time
- Automate giving receipts: Provide year-end giving statements for tax purposes without manual work
- Segment your congregation: Target outreach by small group, giving level, ministry involvement, or engagement
- Coordinate volunteers: Track who's serving, where, and when — with volunteer management tools built in
Without a CRM, your staff spends hours each week on tasks that should take minutes. That's time taken away from ministry.
Key Features to Look For
Not all church CRMs are created equal. Here's what matters most when you're evaluating options:
1. Member and Donor Tracking
Your CRM should store complete profiles for every member: contact information, family relationships, giving history, event attendance, and volunteer involvement. You should be able to search, filter, and segment your congregation in seconds.
Look for a system that supports household grouping — so you can see an entire family's engagement at a glance.
2. Online Giving Integration
Your members expect to give online. Your CRM should accept tithes and offerings through your website or a custom donation page, then automatically sync those gifts with the donor's profile. No manual data entry.
3. Fund Accounting (Not Just Bookkeeping)
This is where most church CRMs fall short. Generic tools track income and expenses, but they don't support fund accounting — the method churches use to track tithes, offerings, building funds, mission funds, and other restricted gifts separately.
If your church manages multiple funds, you need software that tracks each one with its own balance and reporting. QuickBooks "classes" aren't the same thing — here's why QuickBooks isn't enough for churches.
4. Communication Tools
Send targeted emails, newsletters, and event reminders directly from your CRM. The best platforms let you segment by group, giving history, or custom tags — so your youth pastor can email youth families while your finance team sends giving updates to donors.
5. Volunteer and Group Management
Track small groups, ministry teams, and volunteer schedules. A good CRM lets volunteers sign up for roles, log their hours, and even complete digital waivers — all from a self-service portal.
6. Event Management
From Sunday services to retreats to fundraising dinners, your CRM should help you plan events, manage registration, sell tickets, and track attendance. Look for a platform where event attendees are automatically linked to their member profiles.
7. Affordable, Transparent Pricing
Church budgets are tight. Look for transparent pricing with no per-seat fees, no hidden costs, and no long-term contracts. Some platforms offer free tiers for smaller churches — that's a good sign.
Common Church CRM Challenges and Solutions
| Challenge | Without a CRM | With a CRM |
|---|---|---|
| Scattered member data | Spreadsheets, paper files, multiple systems | Unified member database with search and filters |
| Manual giving receipts | Hours of work each January | Automated year-end statements in minutes |
| Poor communication | Mass emails to everyone (or no one) | Targeted messages by group, giving level, or interest |
| Volunteer coordination | Phone trees and sign-up sheets | Self-service portal with scheduling and hour tracking |
| Financial reporting | Manual spreadsheets, no fund tracking | Real-time fund balances and financial reports |
| Limited budget | Paying for 3-5 separate tools | One affordable platform for everything |
Top Affordable CRM Options for Churches in 2026
Here's how the most popular options compare. Pricing as of February 2026 — check vendor websites for current pricing.
| Feature | Alignmint | Breeze | ChurchTrac | Planning Center |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Member tracking | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Online giving | Built-in | Built-in | Built-in | Add-on |
| Fund accounting | Yes | No | No | No |
| Volunteer management | Yes | Basic | Basic | Yes |
| Event ticketing | Yes | No | No | Yes (services) |
| Email campaigns | Yes | Basic | Basic | No |
| AI assistant | Yes (Minty AI) | No | No | No |
| Free tier | Up to $100K donations | No | Limited | No |
| Per-seat fees | None | None | None | Yes |
| Starting price | Free | ~$72/mo | ~$7/mo | ~$0-199/mo (per module) |
For a deeper comparison, see our Alignmint vs ChurchTrac and Alignmint vs Planning Center reviews.
What Makes Alignmint Different
Most church CRMs handle member management and giving. Alignmint does that — plus fund accounting, volunteer management, event ticketing, email campaigns, and AI-powered insights. All in one platform.
Here's what churches tell us matters most:
- One platform, not five: Stop paying for separate accounting, CRM, email, volunteer, and event tools
- True fund accounting: Track tithes, offerings, building funds, and mission funds with real fund balances — not QuickBooks workarounds
- Free for small churches: The Starter plan is free for churches with up to $100K in annual donations
- No per-seat fees: Add your entire staff and volunteer team without extra cost
- Year-end statements in minutes: Automated giving statements that meet IRS requirements
How to Choose the Right CRM for Your Church
- List your must-haves: Do you need fund accounting? Volunteer management? Event ticketing? Start with what you can't live without.
- Check the real cost: Some platforms look cheap but charge per user, per module, or per transaction. Add it all up.
- Ask about data migration: Can you import your existing member and giving data? Will the vendor help?
- Test it with your team: The best CRM is the one your team will actually use. Look for a clean, modern interface.
- Think long-term: Will this platform grow with your church? Can it handle multi-campus needs if you expand?
If your church is paying for separate member management, giving software, accounting, and email tools — add up what you're actually spending. Most churches we talk to are surprised to find it's $200-$500/month across all those subscriptions, plus the volunteer hours spent keeping them in sync. That's budget that could be going to ministry.
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Related:
- Church Accounting Software — Features for modern ministries
- Best Free Church Accounting Software in 2026 — Full market comparison
- Alignmint vs ChurchTrac — Full feature comparison
- Donor Management — See how Alignmint handles church CRM
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