Before I ever taught HubSpot, I was in a church as a youth pastor, eventually associate pastor. "We needed to do graphics on the screen for our worship songs, and the church needed a website, and there was really nobody else to do it. I was like, okay. I can figure that out."
So I'll give that version of me the straight answer. Church management software (ChMS) runs the ministry: member records, check-in, groups, volunteer scheduling and giving. A CRM runs the relationships: one record for each human, with emails, conversations and follow-ups on a single timeline. They're built for different jobs. In my words: "Planning Center runs the ministry, and HubSpot becomes the one place every relationship and every message lives."
Here's what each one does, where each one stops, and how the two connect.
What Is Church Management Software?
Church management software, also called a church management system or ChMS, is the operating database for church life. It knows who's in which group, who's serving Sunday, which kids checked in and who gave to which fund. If you've searched for church membership software, you're looking at the people side of these same tools.
The vendors' own feature lists show the shape of the category:
- ChMS by Pushpay splits into tiers. Core covers people, groups, events, follow-up and attendance. Advanced adds volunteer scheduling, check-in and forms. Complete adds multi-site, metric dashboards and private notes (Pushpay pricing, read October 2026).
- ChurchTrac lists people, fund accounting, giving, website and app, child check-in, worship planning, groups and events, volunteer scheduling, basic messaging, registrations and automations on every tier (ChurchTrac pricing, read October 2026).
- Planning Center splits the job into separate apps: People, Services, Groups, Check-ins, Giving, Registrations and Calendar. People is free, with "Free unlimited database and reporting included" (Planning Center pricing, read October 2026).
Two Names That Changed
If you're comparing tools, two brands moved recently:
- Breeze is now Tithely Church Management. Tithely announced it on November 11, 2025, and said current customers' "account, data, and pricing remain the same" (Tithely).
- Church Community Builder is now ChMS by Pushpay. Pushpay's post, updated May 18, 2026, says the old name "will be phased out over time" (Pushpay).
What Is a CRM?
A CRM (customer relationship management platform) keeps one record for each human and a timeline of every interaction with them: emails, calls, meetings, notes, tasks and other communications (HubSpot KB). One HubSpot catch: on free accounts created on or after February 4, 2025, the timeline shows most activities from the last 30 days only, and older ones live on the activity index pages. Its job isn't the Sunday logistics. Its job is the relationship, and making sure the next step actually happens.
In HubSpot, the follow-up power lives in two places, and both depend on your tier:
- Workflows (automated, multi-step follow-up) need Professional or Enterprise in Marketing Hub, Sales Hub, Service Hub, Data Hub, Smart CRM or Revenue Hub (HubSpot KB).
- Sequences (a series of personal, one-to-one follow-up emails) need Sales Hub or Service Hub Professional or Enterprise (HubSpot KB).
Church Management Software vs a CRM, Side by Side
| Church management software | CRM (HubSpot) | |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | Running ministry operations | Running relationships and communication |
| Core record | The person inside church life: groups, teams, check-ins, gifts | The human, with a timeline of every touchpoint |
| Does well | Check-in, groups, service scheduling, giving statements and funds | Email, follow-up, automation, a full relationship history, one-time and recurring gifts on the giver's record |
| Communication | Built in, with limits (see below) | The main event: marketing email, workflows and sequences, by tier |
| Examples | Planning Center, Tithely Church Management (formerly Breeze), ChMS by Pushpay (formerly Church Community Builder), ChurchTrac | HubSpot |
Where Church Management Software Runs Out
To be fair, modern church management software does communicate. Planning Center People has workflows, rule-based lists, forms and automations, and its own page names a welcome email after a connection card as an example. It also sends texts from your own toll-free number for $5 a month, at $0.02 per text in credits (Planning Center People, read October 2026). Tithely Church Management lists "automation and follow-ups" in its $72 a month plan (Breeze pricing, as listed October 2026).
The limits show up when communication becomes the main job:
- History is short. Planning Center says email and text communication is tracked for up to three months (Planning Center People).
- The email handoff is thin. Planning Center's own Mailchimp integration "will only sync the first name, last name, and email address," with one Mailchimp account and one audience per organization (Planning Center help).
- A second tool is built into the plan. Planning Center built that Mailchimp integration itself. In a post on its blog, church-tech agency Digital Outreach recommends Planning Center People as the contact source and Mailchimp for the church-wide weekly email (Digital Outreach). And Text In Church, a Planning Center verified add-on (Planning Center integrations), adds two-way texting and automated workflows on top (Text In Church pricing).
So for a lot of churches, the question isn't whether to add a second tool for communication. It's which one.
Is HubSpot a Church Management System?
No, and this cuts both ways. A CRM isn't a church management system. HubSpot doesn't do check-in, groups or service scheduling.
Giving is the honest middle. HubSpot can take one-time and recurring gifts through payment links, and each gift lands on the giver's contact record (HubSpot KB). You don't need Revenue Hub for that. Payment links work on every plan. To process the money, you either use HubSpot payments, which needs a paid Starter, Professional or Enterprise subscription on any hub, is open to organizations in the US, UK and Canada, and reviews eligibility case by case, or you connect your church's own Stripe account. Revenue Hub Professional mainly adds a billing portal where givers log in to update their card, see their history or cancel a recurring gift.
What HubSpot doesn't do is the rest of church giving. The automatic receipt can't carry tax-deductible wording, there are no year-end giving statements, fund designation means one payment link per fund, and there's no text-to-give or in-person or kiosk giving. So it can take the gift, but that doesn't make it your church management software.
You can model some ministry structure inside HubSpot, but it takes the top tier. Custom objects, the kind you'd use for groups or volunteer teams, need an Enterprise hub (HubSpot KB).
So Do You Need Both?
Where I land: my platform line hasn't changed. "I'll take one platform your team actually adopts over five great tools they ignore." This is how that fits a church:
"I still believe in one platform. But HubSpot isn't a church management system. It doesn't do check-in, groups or service scheduling, and while it can take one-time and recurring gifts, it doesn't do giving statements, fund designations or in-person giving. Planning Center does those well. So Planning Center runs the ministry, and HubSpot becomes the one place every relationship and every message lives. Two tools, each doing the job it was built for, connected so nobody types anything twice."
That said, we can do a good amount around these: one payment link per fund for designations (report by link name), every gift landing on the giver's contact record, and cash and checks entered as manual payment records or a bulk import on every plan, though without batch entry or envelope numbers. For in-person giving, use a QR code to a payment link, or a tablet open to the link. Year-end statements aren't a feature, so exporting gifts for a mail merge is an idea to test, and none of this makes HubSpot a giving platform.
Not every church needs that second tool yet. If your church management software's built-in email and follow-up are working, and nobody is slipping through the cracks, a CRM is a cost without a job. Add it when communication and follow-up become the work your ChMS can't carry.
How Church Management Software and a CRM Connect
"Connected so nobody types anything twice" is the part that takes planning. Using Planning Center as the example:
- There's no native connector. As of October 2026, neither HubSpot's App Marketplace nor Planning Center's integrations directory lists one (HubSpot App Marketplace, Planning Center integrations).
- Zapier is one-way. Planning Center offers six Zapier triggers (New List Result, New Donation, New Form Submission, New Plan, New Profile, New Workflow Card) and zero actions (Zapier). That pushes Planning Center events into HubSpot, but nothing writes back. HubSpot's Zapier integration works on all HubSpot plans, some apps need a paid Zapier subscription, and datetime values sent through Zapier round down to UTC midnight (HubSpot KB).
- Two-way sync needs the API or a partner build. Planning Center has offered webhooks on People events since September 2017 (Planning Center). Agency Blue Frog documented a custom bi-directional Planning Center and HubSpot build for ONE Church, with Pushpay giving flowing one way into HubSpot deals (Blue Frog).
What Is the Best Church Management Software?
Search "church management software" and you'll get list after list. Those lists compare one ChMS to another. They rarely ask the question this article is about: what job does your church need done?
The main options, priced as each vendor listed them in October 2026:
| Tool | Price as listed |
|---|---|
| Planning Center | People is free. Services, Groups and Check-ins each start free, then run $15 to $239 a month per app depending on size (Services, Groups, Check-ins) |
| Tithely Church Management (formerly Breeze) | $72 a month, no contract (Breeze pricing) |
| ChurchTrac | $29 a month for 75 names, up to $119 a month for unlimited, same features on every tier (ChurchTrac pricing) |
| ChMS by Pushpay (formerly Church Community Builder) | No published prices. One, two or three year contracts, and early cancellation means paying the remaining balance (Pushpay pricing) |
Before you compare features, run the job test. Ask three questions:
- Where do our ministry operations live? Check-in, groups, volunteers, giving statements and funds. That's your church management software.
- Where does every relationship and message live? If the answer is "five places," that's the gap a CRM fills.
- Who types the same name twice? That's where the connection matters most.
Your Next Step
Inspiration without application is noise. So start with one honest look at how communication actually flows at your church today.
Take the Communication Chaos Scorecard. Use it to see whether your church management software can carry your communication, or whether it's time for a CRM beside it.
Sidekick Strategies gives churches and nonprofits 25% off our services.
