ShelbyNext Giving vs Tap.Giving: 5-Year Cost for Churches (2026)
ShelbyNext Giving runs roughly $99 per month for a typical mid-size church, about $5,940 over five years before processing fees. Tap.Giving NFC tap plates are a one-time $800 hardware purchase for a 200-seat church and work alongside ShelbyNext, not against it. Here is the honest math, with the use cases that fit each path.
$5,140
Subscription dollars a 200-seat church keeps over 5 years by adding tap plates instead of upgrading ShelbyNext tiers for in-service giving.
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The Quick Answer: When ShelbyNext Churches Add Tap.Giving
ShelbyNext (now part of the Ministry Brands family) is a full church management suite from Shelby Systems, which has served churches since 1976. ShelbyNext Giving is the donations module: online forms, recurring giving, donor records, statements. It is software your church subscribes to. Tap.Giving is hardware. We sell NFC tap plates that open whatever giving URL you already use, including a ShelbyNext giving page. The two solve different problems, and most churches that pick us are keeping ShelbyNext exactly as it is.
If your pastors keep saying "more people would give if it were easier on a Sunday morning," that is the in-service participation gap. NFC tap plates close it by putting tap to give on every pew or chair, which is faster than a QR code and works with the ShelbyNext URL you already publish. Adding plates does not require touching ShelbyNext at all. You point each plate at your existing ShelbyNext giving link and the plate behaves like a member who typed the URL into their phone.
For more context on how the hardware itself works, see our plain-English walkthrough of NFC tap to give. For the broader landscape, our tap-to-give platform comparison stacks the major options side by side.
What ShelbyNext Giving Actually Costs in 2026
ShelbyNext does not publish pricing on its public site, which is common for church software. Pulling from third-party listings on Capterra and Software Advice, ShelbyNext Giving lands around $99 per month for a typical mid-size church, with custom quotes for larger ministries and full-suite bundles. Some smaller plans show entry-level monthly rates closer to $39 to $59 when only the giving module is purchased without the broader ChMS.
Processing fees are separate from the subscription. ShelbyNext uses standard merchant rates of about 2.9% plus $0.30 per online transaction, give or take based on card type and ACH versus card. Those processor fees are not unique to ShelbyNext; almost every platform charges the same range, and Tap.Giving never replaces or affects those fees because we do not process payments.
Where the budget actually shows up. ShelbyNext's recurring line item is the subscription. Most churches we talk to are not trying to cancel ShelbyNext, they are trying to lift Sunday-morning giving without adding a second subscription on top.
Treat the numbers above as the year 2026 ballpark from public review-site pricing pages; your sales quote may come in higher or lower depending on add-ons (text-to-give, donor portal, kiosks). For a wider look at hidden line items across church platforms, our breakdown of hidden costs in church giving platforms walks through the patterns to watch.
The 5-Year Total Cost Math for a 200-Seat Church
To keep the math apples to apples, assume the same 200-seat church and the same $200,000 in annual giving. Processing fees apply to both paths because the donation still moves through a processor either way. The variable is the subscription, and that is where tap plates change the picture.
| Line Item | ShelbyNext Giving (Standalone) | ShelbyNext + Tap.Giving Plates |
|---|---|---|
| Setup / hardware (one time) | $0 | $800 (200 plates at $4.00) |
| Year 1 subscription | $1,188 | $1,188 (ShelbyNext stays) |
| Years 2 to 5 subscription | $4,752 | $4,752 |
| Processing fees (industry standard, both paths) | ~2.9% + $0.30 per gift | ~2.9% + $0.30 per gift |
| 5-year platform spend (subscription only) | $5,940 | $5,940 + $800 = $6,740 |
| Avg cost per seat per year (plates only) | N/A | $0.80 per seat per year |
Read that last row carefully. The plates add $800 once, which is about $0.80 per seat per year over five years. They do not add a recurring line item. If the alternative was upgrading ShelbyNext to a higher tier for stronger in-service tools (think additional monthly fees of $50 to $99 a month for text-to-give bundles, kiosk add-ons, or premium support), that upgrade would compound across five years into roughly $3,000 to $5,940 of extra subscription. The $5,140 hero stat above is the upper bound of that gap, the dollars a 200-seat church keeps by adding NFC tap plates rather than buying a fuller ShelbyNext tier just to lift Sunday giving.
Want to model your own numbers? Our pricing page shows the three quantity tiers ($4.50, $4.00, $3.50) along with example totals from 100 plates up to 1,000+, and how many plates your church actually needs walks through sizing decisions for single-service vs multi-service campuses.
Need plates for your church?
$4.50 each (100-199), $4.00 each (200-399), $3.50 each (400+). Free shipping. the first-order discount is 10% for 14 days from first contact.
See pricing →Where Tap.Giving Plates Fit With Your ShelbyNext Setup
Plates work with ShelbyNext the same way they work with Tithely, Pushpay, Subsplash, or any platform that hands you a public giving URL. The chip stores a single web address; we encode it to point at your existing ShelbyNext giving page, and the rest of the flow is unchanged.
Find your ShelbyNext giving URL.
It is the public link your church already shares in the bulletin or on the website. ShelbyNext-hosted giving pages typically live at a clean, mobile-friendly URL with your church name in it.
Send us that URL and your logo.
We program every plate with the same URL and print your logo on the face. The editable proof updates instantly, and manufacturing begins only after artwork approval.
Mount them on pew backs or chairs.
Adhesive backing, screw mounts, or elastic bands. A volunteer team can mount 200 plates in about 90 minutes. The full installation walk-through lives in our mounting guide for church chairs.
Demo from the stage on launch Sunday.
A 30-second walk-through during announcements is the single most valuable move you will make. ShelbyNext does the rest, statements, recurring gifts, and donor records all happen exactly as they do today.
Because nothing in ShelbyNext changes, the rollout is reversible. If a church decides plates are not for them in week three, they pull the plates off the pews and the only money out is the one-time hardware. There is no contract to exit, no data to migrate, no second platform to wind down.
Feature Comparison: Software Plus Hardware
A pure feature-by-feature table is the wrong frame, because ShelbyNext Giving and Tap.Giving solve different problems. Here is the honest landscape, with what each layer owns.
| Capability | ShelbyNext Giving | Tap.Giving Plates |
|---|---|---|
| Payment processing | Yes | No (uses your existing platform) |
| Donor records and statements | Yes | No (uses your existing platform) |
| Recurring giving | Yes | No (uses your existing platform) |
| In-service NFC tap to give at every seat | Not natively | Yes |
| First-time visitor friction | App or hosted form | Single tap, no app |
| Monthly fee | ~$99 per month | $0 |
| Transaction fee charged by vendor | ~2.9% + $0.30 (processor) | $0 from us |
| Platform agnostic | No (closed system) | Yes, works with any URL |
The pattern is the same one you will see if you read our Ministry Brands vs Tap.Giving piece or the ParishSoft Giving comparison: software-only platforms charge monthly because they have ongoing engineering, hosting, and support costs. Hardware-only vendors charge once because the device keeps working. The two stack cleanly because they are not competing for the same dollar in your budget.
For the broader picture of giving technology in 2026, including how contactless giving is reshaping in-service participation, the deeper read is our guide to church giving technology. And for churches comparing how plates stack against an older kiosk approach, see our replace your giving kiosk with NFC plates walkthrough.
When ShelbyNext Alone Is Enough
A short and honest section, because we believe in carving this out. ShelbyNext Giving on its own is a good fit when:
- Your church already sees strong in-service participation through text-to-give or QR codes, and you do not have a Sunday-morning friction problem.
- You need the deeper ShelbyNext ChMS integration (membership, attendance, contributions, statements) and the bundled pricing makes sense.
- Your staff already knows ShelbyNext and a platform swap is not on the table.
If any of those describe you, the right move is to keep ShelbyNext and revisit hardware only if a real gap shows up. We are not trying to be a software replacement. Most of our best customers were already on Tithely, Pushpay, or yes, ShelbyNext, when they added plates. The plates lifted in-service giving without rocking the rest of their stack.
A real-world participation gap. Industry research and our own customer data point at a consistent pattern: about 60% of churchgoers are willing to give digitally, but only 24% actually do on a Sunday. Tap-to-give plates close that gap because the act of giving sits in front of every seat, with no app to download and no QR to focus a camera on. Churches we work with often report 300%+ donation lift in the first month after launch.
Keep ShelbyNext. Add NFC tap plates.
One-time hardware. No monthly fees. Works with the ShelbyNext giving URL you already use. Most churches are tapping by week three.
Start a quote to get 10% off for 14 days
FAQ: ShelbyNext + Plates Questions
How much does ShelbyNext Giving cost in 2026?
ShelbyNext does not publish pricing on its public site, but third-party review listings (Capterra, Software Advice) put ShelbyNext Giving at roughly $99 per month for a typical mid-size church, with custom quotes for larger ministries and the full ShelbyNext suite. Transaction fees are standard processor rates, typically around 2.9% plus $0.30 per gift. Over five years, the subscription alone runs about $5,940 before processing fees and any feature add-ons.
Does Tap.Giving replace ShelbyNext?
No. Tap.Giving sells hardware, not software. We do not process payments and we do not store donor records. The NFC tap plates open the giving page your church already runs on ShelbyNext, so giving, receipts, and member records stay inside ShelbyNext exactly as they do today. Think of the plate as a physical shortcut to the giving URL you already publish.
Will NFC tap plates work with the ShelbyNext giving URL?
Yes. Every plate is programmed with a single URL of your choosing. Point it at your ShelbyNext online giving page (the public link your church already shares from the bulletin or website) and the plate behaves exactly like a member typing that URL into their phone. The same approach works for digital giving for churches that run on Tithely, Pushpay, Subsplash, Donorbox, Givelify, or Planning Center Giving.
How many plates does a 200-seat church need?
Keep one plate within arm's reach, which is usually one plate per seat. A 200-seat sanctuary usually orders 200 plates at $4.00 each (the 200-399 tier), which works out to $800 one-time. Free shipping, typical delivery 2-3 weeks from artwork approval, and the 10% first-order offer lasts 14 days from first contact. For more on sizing, see our guide to how many NFC tap plates your church needs.
Can ShelbyNext churches still use text-to-give and Apple Pay with the plates?
Yes. Text-to-give continues to work through ShelbyNext's existing shortcode. Apple Pay and Google Pay work the moment your ShelbyNext giving page supports them, which most modern hosted giving forms do. The plate just opens the page; whatever payment methods that page already accepts are still on the table. Tap and give, tap to donate, and contactless giving all converge on the same hosted form.
When is ShelbyNext Giving alone enough without adding tap plates?
If your church already sees strong in-service participation through text-to-give or QR codes, the plates are an addition, not a fix. We see the biggest lift at churches where 81% of attendees would give digitally but only 24% actually do, that gap is what an NFC tap plate at every seat closes. Churches without that gap may not need plates yet.
Are these the same as church NFC tags or tap tags for churches?
They are the same NFC chip standard. Generic NFC tags for churches are the chip plus a sticker; our plates wrap the chip in a printed, brandable disc with a QR code fallback, screw or adhesive backing, and pre-programmed URL of your choosing. Tap technology for churches is a single family of products with different form factors, the plate is the form factor optimized for sanctuary seating.
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