What is AI church management software?

Church management software you run by asking in plain words, where the AI does the work instead of suggesting it. Aligned Church by AlignedAI works that way: you run people, giving, website, app, social and follow-ups by chatting, and get real answers about your own records. Most systems instead add AI tools, such as plain-language people search or an email writer, to software you still run by hand.

Which church management software has AI?

Most do now. Rock RMS has AI agents that act on records; Planning Center, ChMeetings and Rock let ChatGPT or Claude read your data; and Pushpay, Subsplash, ChurchRaise, SteepleMate and Tithely search, summarize or draft. Aligned Church is run by chat.

Is AI church management software safe for church data?

It depends on each vendor's terms. At Aligned, we don't use your church's records or content to train general-purpose AI. Planning Center, Rock RMS and ChurchRaise say your data isn't used to train AI models (ChurchRaise sends prompts to OpenAI or Google), and Pushpay says the same of its profile summaries; Subsplash's terms let it train AI models on anonymized, combined customer data. If you connect ChatGPT or Claude, that provider's own settings decide whether your chats train its models, as Planning Center points out.

Is there free AI church management software?

Aligned Church is free ($0/mo) when you use Aligned Giving. ChurchRaise's Free Platform includes its nine AI assistants and 1,000 AI credits to start. Planning Center's AI list builder is part of People, which is free for any number of people, and Rock RMS has no license fee for a 501(c)(3) church, though hosting and its AI use cost extra.

Rock RMS or Planning Center: which has better AI?

Rock RMS's AI does more: its agents look up people, update records, add group members and draft communications, signed in as the person asking. Planning Center's AI mostly reads: the ChatGPT or Claude you connect can see every product but only add notes and fill out forms in People, and its list builder turns a description into a list. Rock needs a server of your own or a cloud-hosting partner; Planning Center's AI tools come with its products, with no separate price.

Best AI Church Management Software

Run your people, giving, texting and website just by asking.

Start free with Aligned Church See the comparison

No contract · No per-person pricing

Best overall#1 of 10

Aligned Church

Growing churches with small teams and big responsibilities

People, check-in, giving, worship and texting run by chat
Your website built and edited by chatting
Real answers about your own records
Free ($0/mo) when you use Aligned Giving

Price: Free ($0/mo) when you use Aligned Giving; otherwise $10/mo per module, up to $50/mo for all five

Start free with Aligned Church

Compared on this page

Aligned Church

The short answer

Aligned Church is the best AI church management software for growing churches with small teams and big responsibilities. Aligned AI's unique chat-based interface can run your entire church, from people, check-in, groups and worship to giving, texting and your website, and it's free ($0/mo) when you use Aligned Giving. If your team can host software, Rock RMS's AI agents look up people, update records and draft messages when you ask; if you'd rather use ChatGPT or Claude, Planning Center lets them read your data in every one of its products.

Updated October 19, 2026 · Prices verified October 19, 2026 · By the Aligned Team

We make Aligned. Aligned is best for growing churches with small teams and big responsibilities. Every fact about another tool comes from its own public pages, read on the dates listed under “How we compared”.

The best AI church management software does the work when you ask. Most church software now has some AI, but as tools added to a system you still run by hand, so we say what each one's AI really does, the plan it needs and what that costs.

At a glance

The 10 tools, ranked

#	Tool	Best for	Capterra	Price
1	Aligned ChurchOur pick	Growing churches with small teams and big responsibilities	4.9Capterra	Free ($0/mo) when you use Aligned Giving; otherwise $10/mo per module, up to $50/mo for all five
2	Rock RMS	Best for AI agents	4.9Capterra	No license fee for a 501(c)(3) church; hosting and AI use extra
3	Planning Center	Best for bringing your own AI	4.7Capterra	People, with the AI list builder, free; other products $15 to $239/month each
4	ChMeetings	Best for tight budgets	4.9Capterra	Free up to 50 people; AI tools on paid plans, from $12/month
5	Pushpay	Best for AI profile summaries	4.2Capterra	Quote only, on a 1-, 2- or 3-year contract
6	Subsplash	Best for sermon content	4.6Capterra	Subsplash One, quote only; Pulpit AI $39 to $129/month extra
7	ChurchRaise	Best for free AI drafting	—	Free; Plus+ $20/month
8	SteepleMate	Best for prayer insights	4.8Capterra	Free plan; Pro, with every feature, $69.99/month
9	Tithely	Best for one flat bundle	4.7Capterra	Church Management $72/month; All Access, with the AI-built app, $119/month
10	One Church Software	Best for itemized pricing	4.9Capterra	Core+, which lists AI Reporting, $82/month for 250 profiles

Star ratings from each product's Capterra listing, read October 6, 2026.

How we ranked them

The AI does the work: you ask, and it acts on your records, not only drafts or searches.
The whole church: people, check-in, groups, giving, texting and a website in one system.
A price you can see: the plan the AI needs, and what it costs, published.
A clear data promise: a plain statement on whether it trains AI on your data.

The rankings

The best AI church management software in 2026, ranked

Our pick first, then the nine that have added AI to a conventional system, ranked by how much of the work their AI does, what it takes to get it and what they say about your data.

1
Aligned Church
Best overall
Best for: Growing churches with small teams and big responsibilities
- Run people, giving, texting and follow-ups by chatting
- Real answers about your own records, in plain words
People, check-in, groups, events, worship, giving, texting and follow-ups in one workspace you run by chatting or by hand, your website included. Each automation is a rule you describe in a sentence, and nothing sends until you turn it on.
Price: Free ($0/mo) when you use Aligned Giving; otherwise $10/mo per module, up to $50/mo for all five
Start free with Aligned Church
2
Rock RMS
Best for AI agents
Best for: Churches with technical staff that want AI agents inside an all-in-one system
- AI agents look up people, update records and draft messages
- Each agent signs in as you and sees only what you can
- Drafts wait for your approval to send
Of the systems that added AI, Rock's agents go furthest. You host Rock yourself or pay a cloud-hosting partner, and its in-app AI chat runs under a monthly spending cap you set.
Price: No license fee for a 501(c)(3) church; hosting and AI use extra
Rock RMS's site
3
Planning Center
Best for bringing your own AI
Best for: Churches that want ChatGPT or Claude to answer questions about their church data
- Its MCP lets ChatGPT or Claude read every product
- Describe a list in plain English and it builds the rules
- No separate price for its AI tools
Its AI mostly reads: AI tools you connect can only add notes and fill out forms in People, and Ask AI answers from its help docs, not your data. The MCP and AI lists are PicoLabs experiments, which its terms say may be changed or deleted at any time.
Price: People, with the AI list builder, free; other products $15 to $239/month each
Planning Center's site
4
ChMeetings
Best for tight budgets
Best for: Churches on a tight budget that want AI help in a low-cost system
- AI search, forms and email writing on every paid plan
- Ask ChatGPT about your data through a read-only link
- An AI studio builds your branded app from your website
It has added AI steadily since June: an email writer, an MCP connection and a ChatGPT app that read your data without changing it, people search in plain language (in beta) and a form builder. Its release notes say the ChatGPT app means OpenAI processes your data.
Price: Free up to 50 people; AI tools on paid plans, from $12/month
ChMeetings's site
5
Pushpay
Best for AI profile summaries
Best for: Churches that want AI summaries of their people and giving
- AI profile summaries: attendance, groups, serving and giving
- Find people or chart giving by asking in plain language
Its AI reads and summarizes rather than acting: one clear summary of each person on their profile, people lists from a sentence and giving charts from a question. Leaving a contract early means paying its balance.
Price: Quote only, on a 1-, 2- or 3-year contract
Pushpay's site
6
Subsplash
Best for sermon content
Best for: Churches that want their app, streaming and sermon content from one vendor
- People Assistant finds people from a description
- Pulpit AI turns sermons into clips, guides and posts
- An AI generator drafts workflows from a prompt
The People Assistant is for Subsplash One customers only, and Pulpit AI, which Subsplash owns, is billed separately.
Price: Subsplash One, quote only; Pulpit AI $39 to $129/month extra
Subsplash's site
7
ChurchRaise
Best for free AI drafting
Best for: Churches that want free AI drafting help inside a free church management system
- Nine AI assistants, included free
- 1,000 AI credits to start, more in packs
- Nothing is sent or changed until you approve it
Its assistants draft bulletins, posts, graphics and service plans and summarize your giving, but they don't act on their own. It says church data isn't used to train external AI models; its privacy policy says prompts go to OpenAI or Google.
Price: Free; Plus+ $20/month
ChurchRaise's site
8
SteepleMate
Best for prayer insights
Best for: Churches that want AI follow-up and prayer insights at one flat price
- A follow-up worklist built from what you've recorded
- An AI note on prayer themes, with names replaced first
- Pro has every feature and unlimited users
Shepherd AI Insights reads what your church has already recorded: who needs a follow-up, the themes in prayer requests and community events nearby. Its pages don't say which AI provider runs it, or whether its free plan includes it.
Price: Free plan; Pro, with every feature, $69.99/month
SteepleMate's site
9
Tithely
Best for one flat bundle
Best for: Churches that want giving, an app and a website from one vendor at one flat price
- AI writes email headings and buttons and makes images
- An AI builder sets up your church app from your website
- All Access includes both, at one price at any size
Its AI helps write emails and set up the app; it doesn't run the church. Tithely AI, its assistant for questions about church data, is in a pilot with a handful of customers and no date for anyone else.
Price: Church Management $72/month; All Access, with the AI-built app, $119/month
Tithely's site
10
One Church Software
Best for itemized pricing
Best for: Churches that want itemized published prices and can use its Core+ plan
- AI Reporting listed on its Core+ plan
- Prices published for every size, up to unlimited
Only its 250-profile Core+ card names AI Reporting; the larger Core+ cards ($106 to $1,540/month) and its plan comparison don't mention it, and we found no page that says what it does. Every profile counts toward the price, archived people and guests included.
Price: Core+, which lists AI Reporting, $82/month for 250 profiles
One Church Software's site

About a minute

See Aligned Church at work

Side by side

Church management software with AI, side by side

Their AI comes in four kinds: people search and summaries, drafting, a link that lets ChatGPT or Claude read your data, and, in Rock RMS, agents that act on your records. In Aligned Church, the chat is how you run it.

	Our pickAligned Church4.9Capterra	Rock RMS4.9Capterra	Planning Center4.7Capterra	ChMeetings4.9Capterra	Pushpay4.2Capterra	Subsplash4.6Capterra
Does the work when you ask	YesRun people, giving, website, app, social and follow-ups by chatting	YesIts AI agents look up anyone, update records and draft communications, signed in as you	PartlyAI tools you connect can add notes and fill out forms in People	NoIts AI connections read your data but can't change it	NoIts AI searches and summarizes	NoIts AI filters people and drafts workflows
Answers questions about your data	YesGet real answers about your own records	YesIn Rock, or from Claude or ChatGPT	YesThrough ChatGPT or Claude, plus an AI list builder in People	YesThrough ChatGPT or another AI tool, plus AI people search in beta	YesPeople search, giving questions and profile summaries	PartlyThe People Assistant turns a description into a list, on Subsplash One only
Writes for you	YesBuilt to write sermon articles in your pastor's preaching voice, and website copy and captions in your church's tone	YesDrafts communications, which wait for your approval to send	No writing tools of its ownThe AI tool you connect can draft from your data	YesAn email writer and a form builder, on paid plans	Resi Studio AI, in its Resi streaming service, cuts video into clips and transcripts	Pulpit AI, billed separately, turns sermons into clips, guides, devotionals and blog posts
Trains AI on your data	We don't use your church's records or content to train general-purpose AI	Rock says it works only with AI models that never train on or keep your data	It says it doesn'tThe AI tool you connect might, depending on your account	Its release notes don't sayWith its ChatGPT app, OpenAI processes your data	It says profile summaries don't train on your church's data	Its terms let it train AI models on anonymized, combined customer data

Star ratings from each product's Capterra listing, read October 6, 2026.

The AI in ChurchRaise, SteepleMate, Tithely and One Church Software is in their cards above.

How to choose AI church management software

If your team is small and its workload keeps growing, and you want that work taken off its hands at a cost that doesn't scale as your church grows, choose Aligned Church: you run it by asking, and there's no per-person or per-member pricing.
If you have technical staff to host software and want AI agents that act on your records when you ask, Rock RMS fits.
If you already use ChatGPT or Claude and want it to read your church's data, Planning Center, ChMeetings and Rock RMS can connect it.
If your budget is close to zero, Aligned Church is free ($0/mo) when you use Aligned Giving, and ChurchRaise's Free Platform includes its AI assistants.
If you're keeping your current system, Text In Church adds AI beside it: a texting and follow-up platform that syncs with systems such as Planning Center and Rock RMS, it suggests text replies and drafts connect cards.
If you're on Breeze, Realm, ChurchTrac or Gracely, their public pages describe no AI feature a church can use yet; Realm's maker, ACS Technologies, has AI for MinistryPlatform, a different product.

To compare the whole field, see the best church management software; for AI across a church's work, our guide to AI for churches.

What church leaders say about Aligned

Reviews from our Capterra and Uneed listings.

The 10 tools, ranked

How we ranked them

The best AI church management software in 2026, ranked

Aligned Church

Rock RMS

Planning Center

ChMeetings

Pushpay

Subsplash

ChurchRaise

SteepleMate

Tithely

One Church Software