Realm Connect vs Tap.Giving: 5-Year ACS Cost (2026)
Realm Connect is ACS Technologies' all-in-one church management system with giving baked in. Tap.Giving sells NFC tap plates. Here is what each one actually costs a 200-seat church over five years, and why most Realm churches end up using them together rather than choosing between them.
$800 once
What a 200-seat ACS church spends, total, to add tap to give with Tap.Giving plates. No monthly fee added on top of whatever Realm Connect tier you already pay for.
The Short Answer (Read This First)
Realm Connect and Tap.Giving are not the same kind of product. Realm Connect is a church management system from ACS Technologies that handles membership, groups, contributions, attendance, and online giving processed through Vanco. Tap.Giving sells NFC tap plates: round, printed discs with an NFC chip inside that opens a phone to your existing giving page. We are hardware, not a payment processor and not a ChMS.
Over five years, a 200-seat church on Realm Connect at around $108 per month pays roughly $6,480 in subscription plus Vanco processing fees on every gift. Adding Tap.Giving plates costs $800 once, total. The plates do not replace Realm. They add tap to give, tap to donate, tap and give, and contactless giving in service without adding a monthly bill. The real comparison is not "Realm or plates?" but "Which giving platform processes the gift, and what does the in-service moment look like?"
Realm Connect Pricing in 2026
ACS Technologies sells Realm in tiers by church size: Realm Connect for smaller and mid-size churches, Realm Inform for larger congregations, and the full Realm Suite for the biggest. Most churches under 500 active records land on Connect. Pricing varies by record count, but the figures below reflect what churches commonly report paying as of 2026. Treat them as directional and confirm current numbers with an ACS Technologies quote.
| Realm Plan | Monthly Subscription | Card Processing (Vanco) | ACH Processing (Vanco) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Realm Connect (Small) | starting ~$59 | ~2.75% + $0.30 | ~$0.45 flat |
| Realm Connect (Mid) | ~$108 | ~2.75% + $0.30 | ~$0.45 flat |
| Realm Inform / Suite | $179 and up | Custom rate | Custom rate |
Source: ACS Technologies public materials and church-reported quotes as of 2026. Confirm current rates before purchase. For a side-by-side against other major ChMS giving platforms, see our Planning Center Giving comparison and our Breeze ChMS comparison.
The Realm Connect monthly fee never goes away. It pays for the ChMS itself: people records, groups, pathways, contribution statements. Adding NFC tap plates does not raise that bill. The plates send givers to the same Realm giving URL your members already use, so Vanco processes the gift exactly as it always has.
Tap.Giving Pricing in 2026
Our pricing has one shape: a per-plate price, one time, with free shipping. No monthly fee. No setup fee. No transaction fee from us. Quantity drives the rate.
| Quantity | Per Plate | Example Total |
|---|---|---|
| 100 to 199 | $4.50 | $450 (100 plates) |
| 200 to 399 | $4.00 | $800 (200 plates) |
| 400+ | $3.50 | $1,400 (400 plates) |
Promo code WELCOME10 takes 10% off the first order. Plates ship with adhesive backing, pre-drilled screw holes, and a QR code printed on the front for any phone that cannot read NFC. Full detail lives on our pricing page.
Need plates for your Realm Connect church?
100 plates from $450, free shipping, works with Realm, Planning Center, Tithely, Pushpay, Subsplash, and every major giving platform.
5-Year Total Cost: A 200-Seat ACS Church
Here is the dollar math for a 200-seat ACS Technologies church on Realm Connect (mid tier) running 200 plates and about $150,000 a year in digital giving, with a 75/25 split between card and ACH gifts. Vanco transaction fees are pulled from publicly available rates as of 2026 and applied conservatively.
| Line Item | Realm Connect alone | Realm Connect + Tap.Giving Plates |
|---|---|---|
| Plate hardware (one-time) | $0 | $800 (200 plates @ $4.00) |
| Realm Connect subscription (5 yr @ ~$108/mo) | ~$6,480 | ~$6,480 |
| Vanco card fees (~2.75% on 75%) | ~$15,470 | ~$15,470 |
| Vanco ACH fees (~1% on 25%) | ~$1,875 | ~$1,875 |
| 5-year total | ~$23,825 | ~$24,625 |
Plates add about $800 to a five-year window, or roughly $13 per month if you spread it. In exchange, in-service giving stops depending on cash, checks, or asking guests to type a URL. Churches using NFC tap plates have reported donation lift of 300% or more in service, with 81% of attendees willing to give in service when a tap option is available versus 24% who actually give without one. Tap to give is about 42 times more engaging than printed QR codes. If even a small share of seated givers shifts from cash to a mobile gift, $800 of hardware pays for itself well inside year one.
Nothing about adding plates raises the Realm Connect bill. ACS Technologies still charges the same monthly subscription. Vanco still charges the same per-gift rate. The plate just opens the same giving page faster, and for the 53% of NFC givers who turn out to be first-time givers, that friction drop is the whole game. See how it works for the full giver flow.
Feature Comparison
Because Realm Connect and Tap.Giving are different layers of the church giving technology stack, this comparison is less "winner take all" and more "what each one does." Pick the row that matters most for your context.
| Capability | Realm Connect | Tap.Giving |
|---|---|---|
| Processes donations | Yes (via Vanco) | No (hardware only) |
| Membership, groups, attendance | Yes (core ChMS) | No |
| In-service tap to give / NFC giving | Not native | Yes (core product) |
| Works with Apple Pay and Google Pay | Yes (on giving page) | Yes (via your page) |
| Monthly fee | ~$59 to $179+ tiered | None, ever |
| Per-transaction fee from this provider | ~2.75% + $0.30 via Vanco | $0 |
| Lock-in / platform migration | ChMS migration moves donor data | Platform agnostic |
For a wider field of view, see our 2026 guide to the best online giving platforms for churches or our tap-to-give platform comparison.
Why ACS Churches Use Both Together
A pastor at a Realm Connect church walks in on Monday and asks two questions: "Where did Sunday's gifts come from?" and "How do we make giving easier on Sunday?" Realm answers the first. NFC tap plates answer the second. Realm owns donor records, recurring schedules, contribution statements, and the whole ChMS spine. The plates own the in-service moment: an 8-second tap, no app to install, no QR to scan, no URL to type. That is also exactly the framing we recommend with our Realm tap-to-give setup walkthrough.
This is the same pattern we recommend with Tithely, Pushpay, Subsplash, Donorbox, Givelify, Anedot, Planning Center Giving, and Nucleus Giving. NFC tap plates do not care which giving platform sits on the other side of the URL. Same chip, same tap, different back end. For more on how digital giving for churches usually layers like this, see our complete buyer's guide to church NFC tags.
When to Pick Realm Connect Anyway
Honest carve-out: situations where Realm Connect is the obvious back-end pick.
- You are migrating off ACS People or PDS Church Office and want to stay inside the ACS Technologies family.
- You need the full ChMS spine: membership, pathways, groups, attendance, contribution reporting, all in one system.
- You want a single login for staff that covers people, communication, and online giving.
- You value an ACS-led migration team to move legacy data over instead of patching together exports.
Even then, NFC tap plates still earn their place the moment the offering window opens. Hardware that costs $800 once and never asks for a renewal is a low-stakes addition to any back end, including Realm.
Add tap to give to whatever platform you already use
One-time hardware. No monthly fee. Works with Realm Connect, Planning Center Giving, Tithely, Pushpay, Subsplash, Donorbox, Givelify, Anedot, and Nucleus Giving. Free shipping on every order.
Use code WELCOME10 for 10% off your first order
FAQ: Realm Connect and Tap.Giving Questions
Does Tap.Giving replace Realm Connect?
No. Tap.Giving sells NFC tap plates, not a giving platform or a ChMS. The plates open your existing Realm giving page when a member taps a phone, so you keep your donor records, contribution statements, and Vanco processing. The hardware adds an in-service tap to give option without forcing a Realm migration.
How much does Realm Connect cost in 2026?
Realm Connect is tiered by church size. Smaller churches commonly land around $59 to $108 per month, with larger congregations on Realm Inform or Suite paying $179 and up. Online giving processed through Vanco runs around 2.75% plus $0.30 per card gift and roughly $0.45 per ACH gift. Confirm current numbers in an ACS Technologies quote.
What does Tap.Giving cost in 2026?
Plates are a one-time purchase: $4.50 each for 100 to 199, $4.00 for 200 to 399, and $3.50 for 400 or more. Free shipping, no monthly fees, no transaction fees from us. A 200-seat church spends $800 once. Promo code WELCOME10 takes 10% off your first order. See our pricing page.
Do NFC tap plates work with Realm Connect giving?
Yes. NFC tap plates work with any giving platform that gives your church a mobile-friendly URL, and Realm Connect publishes a public giving page for every church on the platform. We encode the plate with that Realm giving URL, so the donation runs through Realm and Vanco exactly as if the giver had typed the URL. Step-by-step in our Realm tap-to-give setup guide.
Will I save money by adding NFC giving plates?
Most churches see a return inside the first quarter, because tap to give shifts in-service donors from cash to mobile gifts. Reported lifts of 300% or more in service are common, and 81% of attendees will give in service when a tap option is available versus 24% without one. Even a modest lift covers $800 of hardware quickly. See our contactless collection plate guide for the in-service rollout.
Is Realm Connect the same as ACS People or PDS?
Realm is the modern cloud product from ACS Technologies. ACS People and PDS Church Office are the older on-premise products that many ACS churches are migrating away from. Realm Connect is the giving and small-group tier of Realm. NFC tap plates work with all three, since the plate only needs the giving URL.
When should an ACS church pick Realm Connect over Tap.Giving plates?
Pick Realm Connect when you need the full ChMS: membership, groups, attendance, contribution reporting, and Vanco-processed online giving. Pick Tap.Giving plates when you want a simple in-service tap to donate option. Most ACS churches need both. See our story for the pastor-built backstory.
Related Articles
Realm Tap-to-Give Setup: 3 Steps
Step-by-step walkthrough of how to point an NFC tap plate at your Realm Connect giving page.
ComparisonPlanning Center Giving vs Tap.Giving (2026)
The other major ChMS-plus-giving comparison: Planning Center's stack, real pricing, and the 5-year math.
ComparisonBreeze ChMS Giving vs Tap.Giving
The small-church ChMS comparison: Breeze pricing, fees, and where NFC tap plates fit.