AI Church App Builder:
Build a Church or Ministry App with Giving, Sermons, and Live Streaming
Make your own church app with sermons, giving, events, small groups, and push alerts. Try for Free, publish to Google Play + App Store.
How to Make a Church App Free
To make a church app free, describe your congregation in Appy Pie’s AI church app builder (size, denomination, ministries), pick one of the six ministry templates below, and the AI drafts a starter Android + iOS app with sermons, giving, events, small groups, and a prayer wall. Building and previewing is free. Publishing costs $16 per app per month for Google Play and $60 for the App Store and Google Play together, plus the stores’ own developer fees ($25 once for Google, $99 a year for Apple). A single-campus app is ready to preview in under an hour.
Building a native Android church app? Publish through the Android app builder. Building for iPhone congregations? See the iPhone app builder. Already have a church website? The website to mobile app converter turns your existing site into a companion app in under 60 seconds.
How to Create a Church App in 5 Steps
From prompt to Play Store in days – not months. Every step handled inside the Appy Pie dashboard.
Describe Your Church + Ministries
Type your church name, size, denomination, and ministries into the AI prompt. The AI drafts a starter church app with sermons, giving, small groups, and events.
Choose Your Ministry Template
Pick a template that matches your context: community church, youth ministry, small groups, worship team, missions, or church plant.
Customize Brand + Colors + Logo
Drag and drop your church logo, brand colors, and typography. Preview live on your phone via the Appy Pie preview app.
Add Sermons, Giving, Events, Groups
Upload your sermon audio, connect Tithe.ly or Stripe for giving, add upcoming events, and populate the small groups directory.
Publish to Google Play + App Store
One-click build a signed .aab (Android) and .ipa (iOS). Appy Pie handles Play Store + App Store submission. Live in days, not months.
See Appy Pie’s Church App Builder in Action
Full walkthrough of building a church app for a local ministry – sermons, giving, events, small groups.
Watch: How to leverage Appy Pie’s Church App Builder for local churches (Appy Pie Academy · Lesson 28)
9 Features Every Church App Needs
Live streaming, giving, sermons, groups, prayer, and volunteer scheduling – included on every plan.
Live Streaming & Sermon Video
Stream Sunday services live to Android + iOS with chat, embed YouTube Live or Vimeo, archive past services for on-demand replay.
Sermon Audio & Podcast Feed
Auto-generated podcast feed from your sermon uploads, listen offline, background play with lock-screen controls, sermon series playlists. Running a 24/7 worship or sermon stream as well? The radio station app builder wraps a Shoutcast or Icecast stream on the same account.
In-App Giving & Recurring Donations
Accept one-time and recurring giving via Stripe, connect Tithe.ly / Pushpay / Planning Center Giving accounts, designate to specific funds.
Events + RSVP
Publish worship services, small group meetings, retreats, and outreach events with RSVP, calendar sync, and reminder push notifications.
Small Groups Directory
Browsable church directory app for connect groups: location, meeting time, host contact, group photo, and one-tap join request.
Church Text Messaging & Group Chat
In-app group text messaging for ministry teams, announcements, prayer chains, and Sunday servant coordination. Replaces spreadsheet phone trees.
Prayer Wall
Submit prayer requests, mark as praying, share testimonies of answered prayer, and get push alerts for urgent congregation needs.
Bible + Reading Plans
Weekly reading plans, verse of the day, note-taking, and links out to your church's preferred Bible translation (integration only, not a Bible library).
Volunteer Scheduling
Serve-team scheduling for worship, kids, greeters, tech, and hospitality with confirm/decline, swap requests, and Sunday reminder push.
Describe Your Church. AI Builds the App.
One sentence about your congregation – the AI drafts a working Android + iOS church app in seconds.
Why a No-Code Church App Maker Beats Hiring Developers
Custom church app development runs $20,000 to $75,000 up front in the 2026 cost guides. Appy Pie starts at $0 to build and $16 per app a month to publish. Same native Android + iOS output.
No Developers Needed
Describe your church in the AI prompt, pick a ministry template, and the builder assembles a working Android + iOS app. Zero code, zero dev team.
$0 to $16/mo vs $20K to $75K Custom Dev
Free plan for building and preview. Publishing starts at $16 per app a month for Google Play and $60 for both stores. Custom development starts around $20,000 up front, before hosting and changes.
Update Sermons + Events Yourself
Add this Sunday's sermon, update small group meeting times, publish an event – all from a browser dashboard in minutes. No dev ticket, no waiting on an agency.
White-Label Under Your Church Name
Your church name in the app title, your logo on the icon, your brand colors throughout. Nothing says “Appy Pie” to your congregation.
No Lock-In / Export APK & IPA
You own your content and can export the signed Android APK + iOS IPA on paid plans. If you ever leave, your Play Store + App Store listings stay yours.
Live Chat and Email Support
Sunday-morning stream broken? A real person answers on live chat or email, not just a knowledge-base article.
12 Church Ministry Types We Support
Same builder, different templates – pick the closest fit and customize from there.
Church App Templates: Six Ready-Made Starting Points
Every template opens with the screens that ministry needs already in place. Pick the closest one, rename it, add your logo and content, and preview it on your phone before you decide anything.
Community Church App Template
Ships with: Sermons (audio and video), events with RSVP, in-app giving, small groups directory, prayer wall, push announcements.
Fits: Single-campus congregations replacing a printed bulletin and an email list.
Youth Ministry App Template
Ships with: Weekly group schedule, event sign-ups, group chat, push reminders, photo feed, parent contact form.
Fits: Teen and college ministries whose members ignore email and open push.
Small Groups App Template
Ships with: Searchable groups directory (day, neighbourhood, stage of life), join requests, host contact, group chat, study notes.
Fits: Churches running connect groups off a PDF or a spreadsheet.
Worship Team App Template
Ships with: Set lists, rehearsal schedule, licensed chord charts and lyrics display, volunteer rota with swap requests, team chat.
Fits: Worship leaders coordinating volunteers across services.
Missions App Template
Ships with: Trip itinerary, packing checklist, team messaging, prayer updates, trip-fund giving link, photo journal.
Fits: Short-term trip teams and mission partners who need one place for updates.
Church Plant App Template
Ships with: Launch-team community, pre-launch small groups, prayer wall, giving to plant partners, event invites, location and service times.
Fits: New churches that need a meeting place before they have a building.
All six templates publish to Google Play and the App Store on a paid plan and can be mixed: a community church app can carry the youth, small groups and worship screens inside it. A worship band that wants its own albums in an app can start from the music streaming app builder.
Churches + Ministries That Ship With Appy Pie
From 100-member community churches to multi-campus networks and pre-launch church plants.
Senior Pastor
300-member growing congregation replacing a printed bulletin + email newsletter with one branded app for sermons, giving, and events.
Youth Pastor
Teen + college ministry running weekly small groups, monthly events, and summer camp – needs push alerts and group chat, not another email thread.
Communications Director
Multi-campus church coordinating announcements, sermon uploads, event RSVPs, and giving campaigns across three locations from one admin panel.
Volunteer Coordinator
Sunday servant scheduling for worship, kids, greeters, tech – replaces the Google Sheet with confirm/decline and swap-request workflows.
Missions Lead
Short-term trip planning for 12-24 participants: itinerary, packing checklist, cultural briefings, team messaging, and trip-fund giving link.
Church Plant Founder
New launch team building core-team community and inviting neighbors to pre-launch small groups – needs an app before the church has a building.
Church App Builder Comparison: Subsplash, Tithe.ly, Pushpay, Church Center and Shoutem
How Appy Pie stacks up against the church-app landscape, on the rows we can verify, with each alternative’s strength named.
| Feature | Appy Pie | Subsplash | Tithe.ly | Pushpay | Church Center | Shoutem |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starting price | $0 to build; $16/app/mo yearly (Google Play), $60 with the App Store | Custom proposal; Subsplash Giving $0/mo + 2.99% + 30¢ per gift | Custom church app in the $119/mo bundle; giving 2.9% + $0.30 per gift | Custom quote, demo-led | Free essentials; Plus $15/mo for custom pages and themes | From $49/mo DIY, per its own cost guide |
| Native Android + iOS apps | Yes (iOS on the Platinum plan) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| In-app giving | Stripe, or connect Tithe.ly, Pushpay or Planning Center Giving | Subsplash Giving, native | Tithe.ly Giving, native | Pushpay Giving, native | Planning Center Giving | Via integrations |
| Their strength (fair) | Speed, price, no code, one builder for the app and the website | Polished all-in-one with deep media features | Giving conversion and the giving-first bundle | Large-church workflows and engagement | Free if you already run Planning Center | Ranks first for the term; named church customers on its page |
| Best for | 50 to 2,000 attendee churches on a budget, plants, ministry teams | Established multi-campus churches | Churches optimising giving | 1,000+ attendee churches | Planning Center customers wanting a bundled app | Churches that want a built-for-you option |
Prices read from each vendor’s public pricing page on 21 September 2026; Shoutem’s from its own 2026 cost guide. Plans change; check the vendor before you commit. Rows we could not verify from public pages (streaming, groups, push, sermon archive, white-label, export) are left out rather than guessed. Comparing more church app tools? See our guide to the best church app tools for pastors.
How Much Does a Church App Cost?
Three ways to get a church app, with the prices as they stand in September 2026.
Build it yourself on Appy Pie
- Basic: $16 per app per month billed yearly ($32 monthly). Publishes to Google Play.
- Platinum: $60 per app per month billed yearly ($120 monthly). Adds the App Store, so one plan covers iOS and Android.
- Store fees, paid to the stores: Google Play $25 once, Apple Developer Program $99 a year.
- Giving runs through Stripe or your existing Tithe.ly, Pushpay or Planning Center account at their processing rates. Plan details on the app builder pricing page.
Church platforms with an app
- Church Center: free essentials with Planning Center; Plus $15/mo for custom pages and themes.
- Tithe.ly: the custom church app sits in the $119/mo bundle; giving 2.9% + $0.30 per card gift.
- GoodBarber: $36 to $135/mo by tier; Shoutem: from $49/mo DIY or $1,499 built for you.
- Subsplash and Pushpay: custom proposals; Subsplash Giving is $0/mo plus 2.99% + 30¢ per gift.
Custom development
- The 2026 cost guides on page one of Google put a custom church app at $20,000 to $75,000 to build, and $60,000 to $150,000+ for a fully custom platform.
- Semi-custom offers land around $150 a month plus a $500 to $1,000 setup fee.
- Add hosting ($100 to $500 a month in the same guides) and a change request for every menu or event edit.
Need a custom church app developer?
A builder covers everything on this page: sermons, giving, events, groups, prayer wall, push, both stores, published under your church’s name. You need a developer when the app has to do something a builder does not offer: two-way sync with a church management system, offline media with its own licensing, custom kiosk hardware, or a feature that exists nowhere else. If you are quoting agencies, build the free preview first anyway. It turns “we need an app” into a screen-by-screen spec, and the quote you get back will be for the right app.
Publish Your Church App to Google Play + The App Store
Signed native binaries. We walk you through submission for both stores; the step-by-step is in how to publish your app.
Google Play
Signed .aab bundle ready for the Play Console. A first Google Play review usually takes a few days.
- Auto-generated app listing screenshots
- Content rating questionnaire pre-filled
- Data-safety declarations included
- Church-appropriate age rating (Everyone)
Apple App Store
Signed .ipa ready for App Store Connect. Apple says 90% of submissions are reviewed within 24 hours; allow a week for a first submission.
- App Store screenshots at every iPhone + iPad size
- Age rating + privacy nutrition label auto-drafted
- TestFlight beta build available before submission
- In-app giving compliant with Apple guidelines
A Ministry App Live on Google Play and the App Store
Our published ministry customer story, with store links you can check. More customer stories on the stories page.
United States · Catholic ministry
My Catholic Life! – daily Catholic content for converts, seekers and lifelong Catholics
“The goal of this app is to present our glorious faith in a practical & personal way while remaining true to the teachings of our Church.”
Advanced Church App Maker Features
Tools that separate a starter church app from a professional multi-campus ministry operation.
Multi-Campus Support
One app with campus filters on service times, small groups, and events for churches with multiple locations.
Multi-Language Sermons
Tag sermon audio by language for bilingual congregations – English + Spanish, English + Korean, etc.
Recurring Giving
Weekly, monthly, or annual recurring donations via Stripe or Tithe.ly with fund designation and receipts.
Small-Group Directory
Browsable directory of connect groups with location, meeting time, host, photo, and one-tap join request.
Kids Check-In Link
Deep-link to your Planning Center Kids or Rock RMS check-in flow – replaces the paper check-in table.
Facility Booking
Members request use of church facilities (fellowship hall, kids room) with admin approval workflow.
Announcement Scheduling
Draft push notifications now, schedule them for Saturday-morning worship team reminders or Sunday-night giving nudge.
Sermon Transcription (AI)
Auto-transcribe sermon audio to text for search, sharing quotes, and improving accessibility. Uploads accepted in mp3/m4a/wav.
What Appy Pie Doesn’t Do
Straight talk on where the church app builder ends and other tools begin.
Not a Video-Editing Suite
We host and play sermon video, not edit it. For trimming, captioning, or color grading, use an external editor (Descript, Adobe Premiere, DaVinci Resolve).
No Live Real-Time Translation
Multi-language sermon audio is supported (upload separate tracks). Real-time closed-caption translation during a live stream is not on the platform today.
Not a Full ChMS Replacement
For deep church management (background checks, workflows, giving statements), keep Planning Center or Rock RMS. Appy Pie's church app is the member-facing front door, not the ChMS back office.
No In-App Music Licensing
Worship team volunteers need CCLI (or the equivalent in your country) licenses separately – our chord chart and lyric feature displays your licensed content, it does not license songs for you.
No Text-to-Donate Carrier Billing
SMS-based giving through mobile carrier billing is not supported. Use Stripe, Tithe.ly, Pushpay, or Planning Center Giving as the in-app payment processor instead.
Free Plan Excludes Store Publishing
The free plan supports unlimited preview and member-only rollout. Native Google Play + Apple App Store publishing requires a paid plan ($16 per app a month for Google Play, $60 for both stores).
What Ministry Leaders Say
Real reviews from church users on G2, quoted as written and dated.
“It has been a great addition to our media center for our church. The fact that we are not relying on F…….B….. in order to communicate with our members is a comfort. Our giving has been made much easier with this as well.”
“AppyPie is very user friendly and helped us build out a great app for both Google Play store and the Apple Store. We are using AppyPie for our church and sometimes it can be difficult to find good experienced technology people to help.”
“I solve communication problems between members of the Church and their families, I hope to reach hundreds or thousands.”
The honest cons, from the same reviews. Steven W. adds that “the quality of the support can vary” and that he “would like to see them add a live streaming option from youtube directly”; Austin M. says “submitting the app was difficult” and warns to “make sure you have a developer license for both Apple and Google before you start”. Fair points: the live stream feature now embeds YouTube Live and Vimeo, store submission is walked through by support, and the two developer accounts are the church’s own, $25 once for Google and $99 a year for Apple.
Frequently Asked Questions
The questions pastors and church staff ask before they start building.
How much does it cost to build a church app?
Do I need coding skills to make a church app?
Can I add in-app giving without a merchant account?
Does the app support live streaming Sunday services?
Can members send group text messages within the app?
Will my church app work with Planning Center / Tithe.ly / Pushpay?
How long does it take to publish to Google Play + App Store?
Can I run a multi-campus or church-plant network on one app?
Is the church app free? What’s the difference between plans?
Do you offer volunteer scheduling and small-group directory features?
Is there a church app template I can start from?
Who builds custom church apps, and when do I need one?
Which church app is best for a church plant on a limited budget?
What is the best free app for a church?
Need a church website too?
The church app pairs with a matching church site – use the Appy Pie Church Website Builder to launch a companion site with the same brand, sermons, and giving connection.
Ready to Create Your Own Church App?
Skip the $10K custom dev quote. Describe your church. Publish a branded Android + iOS app to Google Play and the App Store.
Build Your Church App
Abhinav Girdhar
Founder of Appy PieAbhinav founded Appy Pie in 2016 with a simple idea: any business, church, or ministry should be able to build a mobile app without hiring a dev team. Today the platform is trusted by 10M+ users across 190 countries, powering everything from local church apps to multi-campus ministry networks.