Comparison

Tithely vs Pushpay vs Givebutter vs Subsplash for Churches (2026)

The four church giving apps that come up most often on a pastor's shortlist are Tithely, Pushpay, Givebutter, and Subsplash. They are not the same product, and the wrong pick can mean $81,000 in unnecessary five-year cost. Here is the 2026 math for a 200-seat church, where each one earns its bill, and where NFC tap plates fit no matter which platform you keep.

June 12, 2026

10 min read

A smartphone using tap to give on an NFC tap plate next to a church seat back

$87,700

The five-year software cost gap between Pushpay (~$88,500) and Tithely Pro (~$7,140) for a 200-seat church. Tap.Giving plates for the same nave: $800 once, no matter which of the four church giving apps you keep.

The Short Answer (Who Each Platform Actually Fits)

These four platforms are not interchangeable. Tithely is a low-cost SaaS giving suite popular with small to mid-size churches. Pushpay is an enterprise giving and engagement platform aimed at multi-site churches with 1,000-plus regular attenders. Givebutter is a tip-supported nonprofit fundraising platform that has historically been free and is now layering optional paid tiers. Subsplash is an all-in-one app, website, media, and giving suite for churches that want one vendor for everything.

None of the four ships hardware to put at every seat. That is the gap NFC tap plates fill. A plate is a passive disc with an NFC chip the size of a grain of rice that hands a phone the URL of your existing giving page, whichever of the four platforms is on the other end. Tap to give, tap to donate, NFC giving, and contactless giving become a physical option in the room rather than a hidden link in the bulletin. The plate does not replace your platform; it points at it.

Pricing in 2026: What Each Platform Actually Costs

These are public figures from each vendor's pricing page or recent independent reviews as of 2026. Confirm with your account rep before signing a multi-year contract; pricing on the SaaS side is negotiable and changes more often than the public pages reflect.

Platform	Monthly	Transaction Fee	Setup
Tithely Pro	$119 / mo	2.9% + $0.30	$0
Pushpay (mid-tier)	~$1,475 / mo	2.9% + $0.30	Custom
Givebutter	$0 (optional giver tip)	2.9% + $0.30	$0
Subsplash Starter	~$159 / mo	Bundled	Varies
Tap.Giving (NFC tap plates)	$0	$0 from us	$3.50 to $4.50 / plate, one-time

Sources: tithely.com, pushpay.com (no public list; figure from published church teardowns), givebutter.com, subsplash.com, as of 2026. Tap.Giving figures from our public pricing page. For an external read on digital giving adoption, see the Vanco church giving research.

Tithely starts free, but the free tier is mostly a hosted giving form. Once you want recurring giving emails, dashboards, ChMS sync, and the Tithe.ly mobile app, you are at Pro at $119 per month. See our Tithely pricing post for the full tier breakdown.

Pushpay does not publish pricing publicly. Independent teardowns put a 1,500-member church around $17,700 per year, and that is before per-transaction fees and add-ons. Most 200-seat churches will not see enough engagement-feature use to justify that number. See our Pushpay comparison.

Givebutter is genuinely free at the platform level. It asks the giver for an optional tip on top of the donation, which works for nonprofit fundraisers and capital campaigns but can feel out of place in a weekly Sunday offertory rhythm. See our Givebutter comparison.

Subsplash bundles giving with an app, podcast hosting, sermon delivery, and a content management system. The bundle is the value proposition; you cannot buy just the giving piece. See our Subsplash pricing teardown for the bundle math.

5-Year Total Cost: A 200-Seat Church

Here is the math for a 200-seat church running roughly $200,000 a year through its giving page. Five-year software totals only; per-transaction fees of 2.9% plus $0.30 apply roughly equally on every platform and are excluded from the column to keep the comparison clean.

Platform	Setup	5-Year Subscription	Hardware	5-Year Total
Tithely Pro	$0	$7,140 ($119 × 60)	$0	$7,140
Pushpay (mid-tier)	Custom	$88,500 ($1,475 × 60)	$0	~$88,500+
Givebutter	$0	$0 (tips ~3% extra)	$0	$0 to ~$30,000 in tips
Subsplash Starter	~$1,500 est.	$9,540 ($159 × 60)	$0	~$11,040
Tap.Giving NFC tap plates	$0	$0	$800 (200 plates @ $4.00)	$800 (one-time)

Five years of NFC tap plates at every seat costs less than two months of Pushpay. Plates are not a replacement for these platforms (the church still needs a giving page somewhere), but they fix the seat-back gap that none of the four solves on its own. The lift side is real too: churches using NFC tap plates report in-service donation lifts of 300 percent or more, with 81 percent of attendees willing to give in service when a tap option is available compared to 24 percent who actually do without one. NFC tap plates are roughly 42 times more engaging than printed QR codes, and 53 percent of NFC givers are first-time givers. For the detail behind those numbers, see the NFC giving ROI numbers post.

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Feature Comparison: Where They Diverge

This is where the four church giving apps look least alike. Each one was built for a different shape of church and a different decision-maker.

Feature	Tithely	Pushpay	Givebutter	Subsplash	Tap.Giving
Recurring giving	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Inherited from your platform
Custom branded mobile app	Shared Tithe.ly app	Yes	No (browser only)	Yes	No (browser only)
Native in-pew NFC giving	No	VisitorTap (limited)	No	Subsplash Tap (priced separately)	Hardware-native
Custom church website	Add-on	Yes	No	Yes	No (we are not a platform)
ChMS / donor records	Basic	Deep	Light	Bundled	Through your platform
Monthly fee	$0 to $119	~$1,475+	$0	~$159+	$0 (ever)
In-pew hardware shipped	No	Limited	No	Limited	Yes (every seat)

Tithely is the cheapest single-vendor pick for a small church that wants a giving page plus the basics. Pushpay is the heaviest, with the deepest reporting and engagement features and the highest bill. Givebutter is genuinely free at the platform level, with the tradeoff that its product DNA is nonprofit fundraisers rather than weekly church offerings. Subsplash is a one-vendor bundle that includes app, website, and media. None of the four ships physical tap tags for churches at every pew, which is the one thing the in-room moment actually needs.

Where NFC Tap Plates Fit (Across All Four)

NFC tap plates work with all four of these church giving apps because the plate is just a programmed URL. We encode the plate with whatever giving page you already have. A church member taps the plate, the phone opens that page in the browser, the giver pays with Apple Pay, Google Pay, or a card, and the gift posts to Tithely, Pushpay, Givebutter, or Subsplash exactly as if the giver had clicked a link in the bulletin. Recurring schedules, receipts, reporting, and donor records stay where they already are.

The point of plates is the offering moment. None of the four platforms can place a physical object in the giver's line of sight during the offertory; they live on a phone the giver has to remember to reach for. A plate clipped to the pew back or the chair in front is the prompt. That is why a quiet 200-seat church with NFC tap plates routinely outperforms a 200-seat church on Pushpay alone: the plate makes tap and give a visible, one-second action.

For deeper reads on the underlying chip and the in-service experience, see how tap to give works for churches, NFC giving explained, and why tap plates speed up in-service giving. For platform-specific setup, see Tithely tap-to-give setup, Pushpay tap-to-give setup, and our how it works page.

When to Pick Each Platform Anyway

Honest carve-outs. Where each platform earns its bill.

Pick Tithely when you are small, cost-sensitive, and want one tool

Under 500 attenders, no full-time digital ministries staff, no need for a custom-branded app. Tithely Pro at $119 per month is the simplest version of digital giving for churches plus a light ChMS. Pair it with NFC tap plates at every seat and you have a complete tap technology for churches stack for under $8,000 over five years.

Pick Pushpay when you are multi-site and engagement is a job

1,000-plus attenders, a paid digital ministries director, and a real appetite for donor segmentation, automated journeys, and integrations with your ChMS and CRM. Pushpay's value lives in the reporting and the automation; below that scale, most of it goes unused. See our Pushpay setup post.

Pick Givebutter for campaigns, not weekly offering

Capital campaigns, mission trips, building funds, peer-to-peer fundraisers, anywhere the tip-on-top model fits the giver's expectations. For the weekly tithe rhythm, the tip prompt creates a friction your faithful givers will notice every Sunday.

Pick Subsplash when you want one vendor for the whole stack

App, website, sermon hosting, media, and giving in one contract. Worth it when the in-house bandwidth to maintain a separate church website is not there and the bundle pencils out per feature. See our Subsplash Tap comparison.

Whichever you pick, NFC tap plates on the seat backs convert the offering moment into a physical action. For more on stack assembly, see our tap-to-give platform comparison, best online giving platforms for churches, and hidden costs of church giving platforms.

Add tap to give to whichever giving app you already use

One-time hardware. No monthly fee. Works with Tithely, Pushpay, Givebutter, Subsplash, Donorbox, Givelify, Anedot, Planning Center Giving, and Nucleus Giving. Free shipping, 2-3 week delivery on every order.

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FAQ: Church Giving App Questions

What is the cheapest church giving app among Tithely, Pushpay, Givebutter, and Subsplash?

Givebutter is genuinely free at the platform level (it asks the giver for an optional tip). Tithely Pro is the next cheapest at $119 per month. Subsplash Starter is roughly $159 per month and bundles app, website, and media features. Pushpay is the most expensive and does not publish public pricing; published teardowns put a 1,500-member church around $17,700 per year. None of the four ships in-pew hardware; that is what Tap.Giving NFC tap plates add at a one-time $3.50 to $4.50 per plate.

How does Tithely compare to Pushpay for a 200-seat church?

For a 200-seat church, Tithely Pro at $119 per month totals about $7,140 over five years. Pushpay at a mid-tier $1,475 per month totals about $88,500 over five years. Both charge roughly 2.9% plus $0.30 per donation on top. Pushpay buys deeper reporting, a custom app, and engagement automations; Tithely buys a giving page, recurring giving, and a basic ChMS. Most 200-seat churches will not use enough of Pushpay's feature set to justify the $81,360 cost difference.

Is Givebutter actually free?

Yes, Givebutter does not charge churches a monthly fee. The platform is funded by an optional tip the giver is prompted to leave on top of the donation. In practice, many givers leave a tip, which means the church's effective cost is around 3 to 5 percent on top of the standard 2.9% plus $0.30 processor fee. That works fine for one-time fundraisers and capital campaigns; it is a less natural fit for a weekly Sunday offertory, where regular givers can find the tip prompt repetitive.

How does Subsplash pricing compare to the others?

Subsplash sells a bundle: app, website, sermon hosting, media, and giving in one contract. Starter pricing begins around $159 per month, with mid-tier custom-app pricing climbing significantly higher. You cannot buy Subsplash Giving separately. If you already have a website and a media stack, the bundle is overkill. If you want one vendor for everything, the per-feature cost can pencil out. Confirm current numbers with Subsplash directly before signing.

Do NFC tap plates work with all four of these platforms?

Yes. Every Tap.Giving plate is just a programmed URL, so we encode the plate with your Tithely, Pushpay, Givebutter, or Subsplash giving page URL. The giver taps the plate, the phone opens that page in the browser, and the donation flows to your existing platform exactly as it would if the giver had clicked a link in your bulletin. Your reporting, receipts, recurring schedules, and donor records all stay where they already are.

What does Tap.Giving cost compared to monthly giving platforms?

Tap.Giving plates are a one-time purchase: $4.50 each for 100 to 199 plates, $4.00 each for 200 to 399, and $3.50 each for 400 or more. There are no monthly fees, no setup fees, and no transaction fees from us. A 200-seat church pays $800 once. Promo code WELCOME10 takes 10 percent off your first order. The plate works with whichever of Tithely, Pushpay, Givebutter, or Subsplash you already have.

Which church giving app should I pick if I want the simplest stack?

If you want simple and cheap, Tithely Pro plus NFC tap plates is the lightest stack: a hosted giving page, a basic ChMS, and tap to give at every seat for a one-time hardware cost. If you want one vendor for app, website, and giving, Subsplash plus plates fits. If you run a multi-site church with a digital ministries director, Pushpay plus plates is the heavier option. Givebutter plus plates fits campaigns and short-run fundraisers more than the weekly offertory rhythm.