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Subsplash vs Tithely for Church Giving: The 2026 Comparison
Both companies offer online giving at $0 per month, so the decision is really about fees and about how each one sells you everything else. Tithely publishes every price on its website: cards at 2.9% + $0.30, American Express at 3.5% + $0.30, ACH at 1% + $0.30, and its full software bundle at $119 a month. Subsplash publishes $0 per month for giving and 1% + 0¢ on ACH, prints two different card rates on the same page (2.99% + 30¢ and 2.3% + 30¢), and quotes everything above the giving tier based on church size and usage. Verified on each vendor's own pricing page on August 2, 2026.
Which one should your church pick?
Pick Tithely if you want to know your cost before you talk to anybody. Every price is on the page, you can start giving today, and you buy the rest of the software one module at a time.
Pick Subsplash if the app, the media library and the website are the real reason you are shopping. Giving is the free front door to a platform built around media and engagement, and the rest is negotiated rather than listed.
I am a pastor, and I built Tap.Giving because our own church needed an affordable way to add tap-to-give without replacing the giving software we already used. So I have sat in the board meeting where somebody asks what the giving platform actually costs and nobody in the room can answer with a number. This page is built to give you numbers you can take to that meeting, with the date they were checked and a link to where they came from.
Neither of these is a bad product. They are two different buying models, and the model matters more than the rate. Tap.Giving sells hardware, not software, so nothing on this page is a competitor talking: the plates work with a Subsplash giving page and a Tithely giving page alike.
What Subsplash and Tithely actually are
They both take donations, but they are built around different centers of gravity.
Subsplash
Subsplash started as a church app and media company and grew outward. Its flagship package, Subsplash One, bundles custom mobile and TV apps, media hosting and delivery, live streaming, websites, people management, child check-in, service planning, events and giving.
Giving sits inside that world as a free product. If your sermon audio, your app and your streaming already matter more to you than your donor database, Subsplash is playing on its home field.
Tithely
Tithely started with giving and grew outward from the offering. Around free giving it sells church management, a custom church app, a website builder, messaging and text-to-give, and worship planning, each with its own published monthly price and a bundle that covers all of them.
If giving and the people database are the core of what you need, Tithely is playing on its home field, and you can price the whole stack without a phone call.
Subsplash pricing in 2026
Subsplash publishes its giving tier and quotes everything else. All quotes below are from subsplash.com/pricing and subsplash.com/giving, read on August 2, 2026.
Subsplash Giving: $0 per month
- Monthly cost: "$0/mo with no setup costs or hidden fees," in the company's own FAQ.
- Contract: "Subsplash Giving requires zero contracts and has no monthly subscription fee."
- ACH: 1% + 0¢. This is the one rate the page states consistently.
- Cards: the same page prints two figures. The Subsplash Giving feature list ends with "2.99% + 30¢ for standard cards, 1% + 0¢ for ACH," while the banner above it reads "Exclusive rates: Card: 2.3% + 30¢."
- GrowCurve: rates drop "as low as 1.9% for card and 0.5%" for ACH as giving grows. No volume threshold is published.
- American Express: not publicly listed.
What to do with that: ask for your card rate in writing on the proposal, and ask which of the two published figures applies to your account. A 0.69 point difference is not a rounding error, and the math further down shows what it is worth in dollars.
Subsplash One and Enterprise: not publicly listed
Subsplash One is described as "built to grow and scale with your ministry," with "pricing based on church size and usage." No dollar figure appears anywhere on the page. Enterprise is described as a "more tailored package," also with no price.
The pricing FAQ is direct about it: "To receive a personalized pricing quote, you can click any button on this page and fill out the contact form to request a demo." The One package does list better processing, at "2.3% + 30¢ for standard cards, 1% + 0¢ for ACH," with GrowCurve going lower as you grow.
That is a legitimate way to sell software. A 90-seat church and a five-campus church genuinely should not pay the same, and negotiated pricing sometimes beats list pricing. It just means your finance team cannot build a three-year budget from the website, and that a comparison like this one has to leave the field blank rather than guess.
Tithely pricing in 2026
Every figure below is printed on get.tithe.ly/pricing, read on August 2, 2026.
Giving: $0 per month, priced per gift
Tithely's giving product carries no subscription. Its page says "No monthly fees or contracts - EVER." The cost lands on each gift instead, at these published United States rates:
- Credit and debit: 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction.
- American Express: 3.5% + $0.30 per transaction.
- ACH and bank transfer: 1% + $0.30 per transaction.
- Outside the US: separate published rates for Australia, the UK, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong and more.
Tithely also offers a donor-pays option it calls Cover the Fees, and states that churches "typically see around 60% of donors cover their giving fees." Treat that as the vendor's own figure and watch your own dashboard for the real number.
Everything else has a listed monthly price
- Church Management: $72/mo
- Custom Church App: $89/mo
- Custom Church Website: $19/mo
- Messaging and text-to-give: $19/mo
- Worship Planning: $29/mo
- All Access (everything bundled): $119/mo, shown against a $228 regular price
$119 a month is $1,428 a year, and you can put that in a budget line today without speaking to a salesperson. That is the practical difference between the two companies, more than any decimal in a card rate.
Subsplash vs Tithely at a glance
Only what each company publishes. Blank fields mean the vendor does not list it.
| What you are comparing | Subsplash | Tithely |
|---|---|---|
| Giving subscription | $0/mo | $0/mo |
| Card rate | 2.99% + 30¢ or 2.3% + 30¢ (both printed) | 2.9% + $0.30 |
| ACH rate | 1% + 0¢ | 1% + $0.30 |
| American Express | Not publicly listed | 3.5% + $0.30 |
| Volume discount | GrowCurve, as low as 1.9% card / 0.5% ACH | Not publicly listed |
| Full software bundle | Quote required (by size and usage) | $119/mo All Access |
| Buy one module at a time | Not publicly listed | Yes, $19 to $89/mo each |
| Contract on the giving tier | None stated | None stated |
| Apps, media hosting, streaming | Core strength | App available at $89/mo |
| Best fit | Media and app driven churches wanting one vendor | Churches that want published prices and modular buying |
Every figure read from each vendor's own pricing page on August 2, 2026. Rates change, so confirm before you sign.
What the fees cost a real church
Percentages are hard to feel, so here is one church, run through both fee schedules. Every input is stated so you can swap in your own.
The assumptions
- $20,000 a month in digital giving.
- An average gift of $75, so roughly 267 gifts a month.
- 70% card and 30% ACH, which is the split Tithely itself uses in its published savings estimate. That is 187 card gifts worth $14,000 and 80 ACH gifts worth $6,000.
- No donor fee coverage, so the church absorbs everything.
| Monthly fees | Tithely | Subsplash at 2.99% | Subsplash at 2.3% |
|---|---|---|---|
| Card fees on $14,000 | $462.10 | $474.70 | $378.10 |
| ACH fees on $6,000 | $84.00 | $60.00 | $60.00 |
| Total per month | $546.10 | $534.70 | $438.10 |
| Total per year | $6,553.20 | $6,416.40 | $5,257.20 |
At the standalone published rates, it is close to a tie
$546.10 against $534.70 is a difference of $11.40 a month, or $136.80 a year. That is not a reason to move a church off a platform it already knows. If you are choosing between the two on fees alone, you are optimizing the wrong variable.
The one clean difference at the free tier is 30 cents on ACH
Both charge 1% on bank transfers. Tithely adds $0.30 per ACH gift, Subsplash lists 0¢. On 80 ACH gifts a month that is $24, or $288 a year. It grows with the number of gifts, not the dollars, so it bites hardest on a church with many small recurring bank drafts.
The gap inside Subsplash's own page is bigger than the gap between the vendors
2.99% and 2.3% are $96.60 a month apart for this church, or $1,159.20 a year. That is roughly eight times the Tithely-to-Subsplash difference. Which is why the useful action is not picking a logo, it is getting your actual rate written on a proposal.
Software cost dwarfs the rate difference either way
Tithely All Access is $1,428 a year, published. Subsplash One is quoted. Whatever those two numbers turn out to be for you, the spread between them will almost certainly be larger than $136.80. Compare the full stack, not the giving line. Our guide to hidden costs in church giving platforms lists the line items that usually get missed.
Who should pick Subsplash, and who should pick Tithely
Honest carve-outs, by what your church is actually trying to solve.
Under 150, giving is the whole ask
Pick Tithely. You can be live this week, you will never need a sales call to know your cost, and if you later want the people database it is $72 a month with the price on the page.
Push ACH hard and the 30¢ per bank gift is the only fee that will annoy you.
App, media and streaming driven
Pick Subsplash. Custom mobile and TV apps, media delivery and live streaming are what the company is built around, and giving rides along at $0 a month with a rate you can negotiate.
Get the One quote in writing before you commit to the giving side.
150 to 500 and replacing a stack
Run both quotes. Price Tithely's bundle at $119 a month from the page, ask Subsplash for One in writing, and compare three-year totals rather than month one.
Include migration time. Moving recurring donors is the real cost of switching.
Looking wider than these two? Our 2026 guide to online giving platforms for churches covers the rest of the field, and the church giving technology guide starts from first principles if you are early in the process.
Four questions to ask before you sign either contract
These are the four that decide whether the deal ages well. Ask them by email so the answers are in writing.
- 1. What is my exact card rate, and what changes it?
Get the number and the trigger. Volume tiers, card type surcharges and rate reviews all belong on the page you sign. - 2. What is the term, and what does it renew at?
The giving tier is contract free at both companies. The bundles are where terms live, and a renewal escalator is easy to miss in year one. - 3. How do I export my donor data, and in what format?
Ask for a sample export file before you migrate anything. This is the question that determines whether your next decision is free. - 4. What in my building has to be replaced if I switch?
Software migrates. Printed signage, kiosks and any hardware tied to one platform do not.
One decision that is not part of this one: your in-service hardware
Full disclosure, since it matters here: I am a pastor and I also run Tap.Giving, so read this section knowing who wrote it.
Both Subsplash and Tithely give you a giving page at a web address. Anything in your room that points people to that address is a separate purchase from the platform itself, and it is worth keeping it that way.
Keep the signage platform neutral and switching platforms costs you nothing physical. An NFC plate on a pew or chair back holds a web address. Change platforms, point the address at the new page, and the plates on your seats keep working. Hardware sold by a giving platform and locked to that platform has to be thrown away when you leave, which quietly raises the price of ever changing your mind.
Tap.Giving sells the plates. You keep the platform you already chose. Tap.Giving is not a payment processor and does not compete with Subsplash or Tithely. It sells one thing: custom NFC plates that mount on pew backs, chair backs, welcome desks and lobby walls, each encoded with whatever web address you give it. A guest taps a phone to the plate and your giving page opens, with no app to install.
Tap.Giving plates are $3.50 to $4.50 each, one time, with free shipping and no monthly fees. Custom 4 inch plates run $4.50 each for 100 to 199, $4.00 for 200 to 399 and $3.50 for 400 or more, minimum order 100 plates, delivery typically 2-3 weeks from artwork approval, with a 30-day money-back guarantee. They work with a Subsplash giving page, a Tithely giving page, or whatever you move to next. A first order gets 10% off for 14 days from first contact.
See the platforms the plates work with or check the plate pricing.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Subsplash or Tithely cheaper for a church?
At the free giving tier they are close. On a church running $20,000 a month in digital gifts, Tithely works out to about $546 a month and Subsplash to about $535 at its 2.99% figure, a gap of roughly $137 a year. The larger difference is software: Tithely bundles everything at a published $119 a month, while Subsplash prices its One package by church size and usage and quotes it on request. Verified August 2, 2026.
Does Subsplash publish its pricing?
Partly. Subsplash publishes $0 a month for Subsplash Giving along with processing rates. It does not publish a dollar price for Subsplash One or Enterprise. Its own FAQ says that to receive a personalized pricing quote you fill out the contact form to request a demo, and that the features you choose affect the price.
What are Tithely's transaction fees in 2026?
As published on Tithely's pricing page and verified August 2, 2026, United States rates are 2.9% + $0.30 on credit and debit cards, 3.5% + $0.30 on American Express, and 1% + $0.30 on ACH bank transfers. Tithely also publishes separate rates for Australia, the UK, New Zealand and several other countries. Giving itself carries no monthly fee.
Do Subsplash or Tithely require a contract?
Not for the free giving tier. Subsplash states that Subsplash Giving "requires zero contracts and has no monthly subscription fee." Tithely states "No monthly fees or contracts - EVER" for Giving. Neither publishes the contract term or renewal terms for its paid bundles, so get those in writing before you sign.
Can I keep my tap-to-give plates or QR signage if I switch platforms?
It depends on whether the hardware is tied to the platform. Signage encoded with a plain web address, such as a Tap.Giving NFC plate, can be pointed at a new giving page, so switching costs you nothing physical. Hardware sold by a giving platform and locked to it has to be replaced when you leave. Ask that question before you buy signage, not after.
Do NFC tap-to-give plates work with both Subsplash and Tithely?
Yes. Tap.Giving plates are encoded with a web address, so they open a Subsplash giving page or a Tithely giving page the same way. Tap.Giving sells the hardware only and is not a payment processor, so the church keeps whichever platform it picks. Plates are $3.50 to $4.50 each depending on quantity, one time, with free shipping and no monthly fees, and the minimum order is 100 plates.
Pick your platform. The plates point at whichever one you choose.
Subsplash, Tithely, or something else entirely. Tap.Giving plates carry a web address, so the decision you make above never strands the hardware on your seats. One-time cost, free shipping, no monthly fees from us.
$4.50 to $3.50 per plate depending on quantity. Free shipping, 30-day money-back guarantee, 10% off your first order for 14 days from first contact.
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