FellowshipOne Giving vs Tap.Giving: 5-Year Cost (2026)
FellowshipOne Giving is a Ministry Brands platform with software fees that recur month after month. Tap.Giving plates are a one-time hardware purchase that works with whatever URL FellowshipOne (or any other platform) hands you. Here is the side-by-side math for a 200-seat church.
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The 30-Second Snapshot
FellowshipOne Giving is the giving module inside Ministry Brands' FellowshipOne church management system. Public 2026 pricing for the giving piece lands in the $99 to $200 per month range, plus a setup fee in the $295 to $995 range and processor fees of about 2.5 percent plus $0.30 per card transaction. Tap.Giving plates are $3.50 to $4.50 each, one-time, with free shipping. The plates do not replace FellowshipOne. They are the in-service hardware that gets a phone to your giving URL in about 8 seconds, which is how NFC giving converts first-time guests at a rate that QR codes cannot match.
If you want the cheapest possible setup, drop FellowshipOne as your giving platform, pick a lighter alternative, and add tap plates. If you already rely on FellowshipOne ChMS, keep it and add plates on top. Either way, the plate cost is fixed and the bill never comes back.
What FellowshipOne Giving and Tap.Giving Actually Are
FellowshipOne Giving
- Ministry Brands SaaS, sold as part of FellowshipOne ChMS
- Targets mid-sized to large churches running a full ChMS
- Monthly subscription plus setup and per-transaction fees
- Handles donor records, statements, recurring schedules
Tap.Giving
- NFC tap plates, sold as hardware only
- One-time $3.50 to $4.50 per plate, no monthly fees
- Opens whatever giving URL you already use
- Works with FellowshipOne, Tithely, Pushpay, Subsplash, Donorbox, Givelify, Anedot, Planning Center Giving, Nucleus Giving
The two products do not compete on the same axis. FellowshipOne Giving processes online donations, holds donor records, and sends tax statements. Tap.Giving plates put a 4-inch chip on your pews and chairs so members can tap to give without scanning a QR code, signing into an app, or fishing for cash. You can use both at the same time, and most of our FellowshipOne customers do.
5-Year Cost Comparison for a 200-Seat Church
Ministry Brands does not publish FellowshipOne pricing on a public page, so the numbers below come from churches who shared quotes and from publicly visible church-tech reviews. Treat every line as conservative: real quotes can be higher when add-on modules (check-in, groups, mobile app) are stacked on top. Both columns assume the same online giving volume, so the per-transaction processor fee is a wash and is not double-counted.
| Line Item | FellowshipOne Giving | Tap.Giving Plates |
|---|---|---|
| Setup / activation | $295 to $995 (commonly $495) | $0 |
| Monthly software fee | $99 to $200 (commonly $99) | $0 |
| Annual software fee | $1,188 | $0 |
| 5-year software fees | $5,940 | $0 |
| Setup fee, total | $495 | $0 |
| Hardware (200 plates) | $0 (no in-service hardware) | $800 (200 plates at $4.00) |
| Transaction processor | ~2.5% + $0.30 per card | ~2.9% + $0.30 (your platform's normal rate) |
| 5-year total (fixed costs) | $6,435 | $800 |
| 5-year savings with plates | $5,635 in software fees alone. Once you factor in roughly 300 percent in extra in-room donations that NFC giving routinely produces, the all-in opportunity gap is closer to $7,140 or more over 5 years. | |
The point of the table is not that FellowshipOne is wrong. It is that recurring software fees compound silently while one-time hardware does not. For a deeper dive into the recurring-cost pattern across the category, see our hidden costs of church giving platforms breakdown and the full Tap.Giving pricing page.
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Feature Side-By-Side
| Capability | FellowshipOne Giving | Tap.Giving |
|---|---|---|
| NFC tap to donate hardware | Not in the box | Yes, the whole product |
| Online giving page | Yes | Uses the page you already have |
| Donor records and statements | Yes | N/A (your platform owns this) |
| Recurring giving | Yes | Yes, via your giving page |
| Monthly fee | $99 to $200 | $0 |
| Setup fee | $295 to $995 | $0 |
| Platform agnostic | No, FellowshipOne only | Yes, works with any giving URL |
| In-service participation lift | Depends on the page UX | 300 percent plus lift typical |
The simplest way to think about it: FellowshipOne owns the back-office side of giving, and contactless giving hardware owns the in-room side. Pairing them is normal. For broader context on tap technology for churches as a category, the church giving technology guide walks through the whole stack.
Using Tap Plates With Your FellowshipOne URL
If you keep FellowshipOne and add tap plates, the setup is short. Plates do not log into FellowshipOne. They store a single URL. That URL is your existing FellowshipOne giving page.
1. Grab the FellowshipOne giving URL
Sign in to FellowshipOne, open the giving module, and copy the public donation page URL. It usually lives at give.fellowshiponego.com/your-church or a custom subdomain Ministry Brands set up for you. Open it on a phone and make sure the page loads cleanly. If it does not, fix that first, see why a giving page loses donations.
2. Send the URL plus your logo to us
Add a vector logo (.ai, .svg, or vector .pdf) so it prints sharp at 4-inch diameter, plus the giving URL for the chip. The editable proof updates instantly, and manufacturing begins only after artwork approval. Most churches order 100 to 400 plates; see how many plates a church needs for sizing.
3. Mount and announce
Adhesive back for pews, pre-drilled holes for screws, or elastic bands for chairs without a flat back. Demonstrate one tap from the stage on a Sunday. The launch playbook has the script we send churches in week one.
Once the plates are mounted, every tap on a plate opens FellowshipOne's hosted giving page in the giver's phone browser. FellowshipOne processes the donation exactly as it would for an online gift. The plates do not see donor information at any point and the chip is unaware whether anyone tapped it.
When to Pick FellowshipOne Anyway
There are real reasons to stay on FellowshipOne, especially for larger churches that bought into the broader ChMS years ago.
Keep FellowshipOne Giving if your church is already paying for FellowshipOne ChMS and uses the people, groups, check-in, or reporting modules. Switching the giving piece alone rarely justifies the migration work, and FellowshipOne's tax statements, batch deposits, and pledge tracking are mature. Add Tap.Giving plates to that existing setup and you get the in-room participation lift without changing what your finance team uses on Monday morning.
Where FellowshipOne stops being a fit is when a church is using it only for online donations. At that point you are paying for an enterprise ChMS to do the job a $0 per month giving page from Givebutter, Donorbox, or Anedot would do for free. Pair the lighter platform with tap plates and the spending pattern flips from "monthly forever" to "one-time, done." Comparable cost arguments show up in our best online giving platforms for churches roundup and the tap to give platform comparison.
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FAQ
Is FellowshipOne Giving the same as FellowshipOne ChMS?
Not exactly. FellowshipOne is a church management system from Ministry Brands that bundles giving as one of several modules (alongside people, groups, check-in, and reporting). Giving can be added to the base FellowshipOne plan, and many churches sign up for both together. Tap.Giving sells hardware only, so it can sit alongside FellowshipOne Giving without replacing it.
How much does FellowshipOne Giving cost in 2026?
Ministry Brands does not publish FellowshipOne pricing publicly. Most churches we have talked to land somewhere in the $99 to $200 per month range after the giving module is added, plus a setup fee in the $295 to $995 range and per-transaction processing of about 2.5 percent plus $0.30 for cards. Treat any quote as the negotiated price for your specific size and add-on mix.
Can NFC tap plates work with FellowshipOne Giving?
Yes. FellowshipOne Giving generates a mobile-friendly giving URL for your church. Tap.Giving plates encode that URL onto an NFC chip, so a tap opens your existing FellowshipOne giving page in the giver's phone browser. There is no integration, API, or account to share. The donation flows into FellowshipOne the same way it would for an online gift.
Will switching from FellowshipOne to plates lose donor history?
You are not really switching. Tap.Giving is hardware, not a giving platform. If you keep FellowshipOne, every donor record stays where it is. If you move to a different platform like Tithely, Pushpay, Subsplash, Donorbox, Givelify, Anedot, Planning Center Giving, or Nucleus Giving, plan an export of donor history and recurring schedules before you cancel FellowshipOne.
What does a 200-seat church save by adding plates instead of paying more for FellowshipOne add-ons?
A 200-seat church pays $800 one-time for 200 plates at $4.00 each. Over five years that is the entire hardware spend. Compared with about $99 per month in FellowshipOne software fees that does not move with plate adoption, the plates pay for themselves before the end of year one through in-service participation gains alone. Most churches report a 300 percent plus lift in digital giving after launching tap to give.
Do FellowshipOne and Tap.Giving fight for the same job?
No. FellowshipOne is software that records donors, processes payments, and produces statements. Tap.Giving is the in-service hardware layer that gets a phone to your giving page in eight seconds. Many of our customers run FellowshipOne and Tap.Giving side by side and let each tool do what it does best.
Which churches should keep FellowshipOne anyway?
Churches that already use FellowshipOne as their full ChMS and rely on its check-in, groups, and reporting modules should keep it and add Tap.Giving plates on top. The plates point at the FellowshipOne Giving URL you already have. If you are only using FellowshipOne for online donations and never touched the ChMS side, a lighter platform plus Tap.Giving plates will almost always be cheaper.
Related Articles
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ComparisonShelbyNext Giving vs Tap.Giving
A sister product in the Ministry Brands stack, side-by-side cost math for a 200-seat church.
GuideHidden Costs of Church Giving Platforms
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