TL;DR: Most church management software was built for American megachurches with credit cards, unlimited email, and cheap Twilio SMS. That model breaks completely in Africa. SMS costs 10x more, nobody pays with Visa, half your congregation uses WhatsApp instead of email, and $99/month US pricing doesn’t make sense when your church runs on offerings in naira or shillings. Here’s what actually goes wrong, and what African churches should look for instead.
The Problem Nobody Talks About
Walk into any church software comparison article and you’ll see the same names: Planning Center, Breeze, Tithe.ly, Pushpay, Church Community Builder. They’re excellent tools… for churches in Dallas, Atlanta, and suburban Ohio.
But try to use any of them for a 300-member church in Lagos, Nairobi, or Accra, and you’ll hit walls immediately. Not because the software is bad, but because it was never designed for your context.
This isn’t a minor inconvenience. It’s a fundamental mismatch between how these tools work and how African churches actually operate. And it affects everything from communication to giving to basic member management.
Let’s break it down.
1. SMS Costs Will Destroy Your Budget
This is the biggest one, and almost nobody talks about it.
American church software uses Twilio for SMS. Twilio charges about $0.0079 per message in the US. Cheap enough that nobody thinks twice about it.
But Twilio’s Africa pricing is a completely different story:
| Country | Twilio SMS Cost | vs. US Price |
|---|---|---|
| Nigeria | $0.045/msg | 5.7x more |
| Kenya | $0.031/msg | 3.9x more |
| South Africa | $0.027/msg | 3.4x more |
| Ghana | $0.040/msg | 5.1x more |
Now do the math. A 300-member church sending a weekly service reminder via SMS:
- In the US: 300 × $0.0079 × 4 weeks = $9.48/month
- In Nigeria: 300 × $0.045 × 4 weeks = $54.00/month
That $54 per month on SMS alone might be more than the church’s entire software budget. And that’s just one message per week. Add event reminders, follow-ups, and birthday messages, and you’re looking at hundreds of dollars a month for SMS that costs pocket change in America.
The US-built platforms don’t account for this. They assume SMS is cheap everywhere because it’s cheap where they built the product. There’s no regional cost awareness, no smart routing to cheaper local providers, no fallback to WhatsApp.
What to look for: Software that uses local SMS providers like Termii (Nigeria) or Africa’s Talking (Kenya, Ghana, Uganda), which can cut costs by 60-80%. Even better: software that routes messages through WhatsApp first, where template messages cost $0.005-0.01 and have a 98% open rate.
2. Nobody Pays With Credit Cards
In the US, church giving has gone digital. Tithe.ly, Pushpay, and Planning Center all integrate with Stripe. Swipe a card, done. The assumption baked into every American ChMS is that your congregation has credit or debit cards linked to a US bank.
In Africa, that assumption collapses:
- Nigeria: Only ~6% of adults have credit cards. Most people use bank transfers or USSD (dialing a code on a basic phone to send money)
- Kenya: M-Pesa dominates. Over 30 million users. More people have M-Pesa accounts than bank accounts
- Ghana: Mobile money (MTN MoMo, Vodafone Cash) is how the majority transact
- South Africa: Better card penetration, but EFT bank transfers are still the default for recurring payments
If your church management software only supports Stripe, you’re excluding the majority of your congregation from digital giving. It’s like building a donation system that only accepts checks in a country that doesn’t use checks.
What to look for: Software with integrations for Paystack or Flutterwave (Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa), M-Pesa (East Africa), and local bank transfer options. The giving feature is useless if it doesn’t support how your members actually pay.
3. WhatsApp Is Your Communication Channel, Not Email
American church software treats email as the primary communication channel. Mailchimp integrations, email newsletters, HTML email templates. That makes sense in the US, where email open rates for churches hover around 20-30%.
In Africa, the communication hierarchy is completely different:
| Channel | Open Rate (Africa) | Why It Matters |
|---|---|---|
| 90-98% | Everyone has it. Checked constantly. | |
| SMS | 80-95% | Universal reach, even feature phones |
| 10-20% | Many members don’t check email regularly | |
| App push notifications | 5-15% | Requires smartphone + app install |
WhatsApp isn’t just a messaging app in Africa. It’s the internet. Church leaders coordinate via WhatsApp groups. Announcements go out on WhatsApp. Prayer requests come in on WhatsApp. Bible study discussions happen on WhatsApp.
Yet not a single major US church management platform offers WhatsApp integration. They’ll give you email, SMS, and push notifications, but not the one channel your entire congregation actually uses.
What to look for: Native WhatsApp Business API integration, not just a “copy this link and paste it in your WhatsApp group” workaround. Real integration means template messages sent from a verified business number, delivery tracking, and automated reminders, all inside the church management platform.
4. US Pricing in Local Currency Is Absurd
Let’s talk money. Here’s what popular US church software costs:
| Platform | Monthly Price (200 members) | Annual Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Planning Center | $100+/month | $1,200/year |
| Breeze | $82/month | $984/year |
| Tithe.ly | $49-149/month | $588-1,788/year |
| Pushpay | $200+/month | $2,400+/year |
| Church Community Builder | $100+/month | $1,200+/year |
Now convert that to local currency:
- $100/month in Nigeria = ~₦160,000/month (at current rates). For context, Nigeria’s minimum wage is ₦70,000/month. You’re asking a church to spend more than two minimum wages on software.
- $100/month in Kenya = ~KSh 12,900/month. The average Kenyan salary is around KSh 50,000. That’s 25% of one person’s salary just for church admin software.
These aren’t luxury megachurches. Most churches in Africa run on modest offerings. Asking them to pay Silicon Valley SaaS prices makes zero economic sense.
And it’s not just the sticker price. Add Twilio SMS costs, Stripe transaction fees (2.9% + 30¢), and potential add-ons, and the total cost of ownership can easily double.
What to look for: Software with regional pricing that reflects local purchasing power. A church in Lagos shouldn’t pay the same as a church in Los Angeles. Also look for transparent pricing with no hidden SMS surcharges or per-transaction fees that eat into giving.
5. The “Megachurch Feature Trap”
American church software is designed for a specific model: the 200-2,000 member suburban church with a paid staff, designated check-in kiosks, a production team, and multiple Sunday services.
The features reflect this:
- Service planning tools with ProPresenter integration
- Check-in kiosks with label printers for children’s ministry
- Volunteer scheduling with automated shift reminders
- Multi-campus management with location-based reporting
- Worship planning with CCLI song license tracking
These are genuinely useful features for that specific context. But a 150-member church in Ibadan doesn’t have check-in kiosks. A church plant in Mombasa doesn’t need ProPresenter integration. A house church network in Kampala needs simple member tracking, not multi-campus dashboards.
The problem isn’t that these features exist. It’s that they make the software complex and expensive for churches that need something simpler. You’re paying for features you’ll never use, and navigating around features that don’t apply to your context.
What to look for: Software that lets you start simple and grow. Member management, communication, and basic event tracking should work beautifully on their own, without requiring you to set up 15 modules you don’t need. The best software adds complexity only when your church is ready for it.
6. Offline? What Offline?
Every US church management platform assumes you have reliable, fast internet. Always-on cloud dashboards. Real-time sync. Video uploads. Heavy JavaScript single-page apps.
The reality in many African contexts:
- Internet connections are intermittent and expensive (data bundles, not unlimited broadband)
- Many church administrators use mobile phones, not laptops
- Power outages are common, especially outside major cities
- Some rural churches have no internet at all during the week
If your church admin can’t load the dashboard because the data bundle ran out, or the page takes 45 seconds to render on a 3G connection, the software is effectively unusable.
What to look for: Software designed to be lightweight and mobile-first. Fast loading on slow connections. Minimal data consumption. Ideally, some form of offline capability or at least graceful handling of poor connectivity, not a blank white screen when the connection drops.
7. Language and Cultural Assumptions
Smaller issue, but it adds up: most US church software assumes English-speaking congregations following Western church structures.
- Terminology: “Small groups” vs. “cell groups” vs. “house fellowships.” Different traditions use different language
- Church hierarchy: Not every church has “elders,” “deacons,” and a “senior pastor.” Some have prophets, apostles, and overseers. Some have no formal hierarchy at all.
- Calendar: The church calendar in Nigeria (with naming ceremonies, vigils, and harvest thanksgiving) looks nothing like the calendar in Michigan
- Names: Many systems struggle with naming conventions that don’t follow “First Name + Last Name” (patronymics, single names, clan names)
These aren’t dealbreakers individually, but collectively they signal that the software wasn’t built with your church in mind.
What to look for: Customizable role names, flexible member fields, and a system that doesn’t force you into a rigid Western church org chart.
So What Actually Works?
If you’re leading an African church and looking for management software, here’s your checklist:
Must-Have
- WhatsApp integration, or at minimum, affordable SMS through local providers
- Local payment methods like M-Pesa, Paystack, Flutterwave, bank transfers
- Regional pricing that’s priced for your economy, not San Francisco
- Mobile-first design that works well on phones over 3G/4G
- Simple core with member management, communication, and events without bloat
Nice-to-Have
- Offline/low-bandwidth support
- Customizable church structure (roles, groups, hierarchies)
- Multi-language support
- WhatsApp Flows for interactive forms (RSVPs, prayer requests)
- Giving reports that make sense for cash + mobile money mixed environments
Red Flags
- Only accepts credit card payments (Stripe-only)
- SMS powered exclusively by Twilio with no regional routing
- No WhatsApp support at all
- Pricing starts above $50/month with no regional adjustment
- Requires high-speed internet to function
The Market Is Changing
The good news: this gap is being noticed. A new generation of church software is being built specifically for the global church, not as an afterthought, but as the core design principle.
These newer platforms understand that the future of Christianity is in Lagos, Nairobi, São Paulo, and Manila, not just Nashville and Colorado Springs. They’re building with WhatsApp-first communication, local payment integrations, regional pricing, and mobile-optimized interfaces.
Gathrik is one of these platforms, built from day one for churches worldwide, with African churches as a primary audience, not a secondary market. But regardless of which tool you choose, the key is to stop trying to make American software work in a non-American context. You deserve tools built for how your church actually operates.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I use Planning Center or Breeze if I’m in Africa?
Technically, yes. Both are cloud-based and accessible from anywhere. But you’ll pay US prices, lose access to local payment methods, deal with expensive SMS, and have no WhatsApp integration. It works, but you’re fighting the tool instead of it helping you.
Is free church software a good alternative?
Free tools like ChurchCRM or ChMeetings can work for very basic needs. The tradeoff is usually a clunky interface, limited support, and no communication features. For a growing church, you’ll outgrow free tools quickly and face a painful migration.
What about just using WhatsApp groups to manage everything?
Many churches do this, and it works up to a point. But WhatsApp groups max out at 1,024 members, there’s no structured data (you can’t pull an attendance report from a group chat), and important messages get buried. WhatsApp is a great communication channel, but it’s not a management system.
How much should an African church expect to pay for management software?
A reasonable range is $10-30/month for a church of 100-500 members, with no hidden SMS surcharges. That’s roughly ₦16,000-48,000 or KSh 1,300-3,900, manageable for most active congregations. Be wary of any platform quoting US prices without regional adjustment.
Does church size matter when choosing software?
Absolutely. A 50-member church plant needs something different than a 5,000-member cathedral. Don’t buy enterprise software for a church plant. Start with something simple, affordable, and easy to set up. You can always migrate later when you’ve grown into needing more features.
Looking for church management software that actually works for your context? Gathrik is built for churches worldwide, with WhatsApp messaging, local payment support, and pricing that makes sense outside North America.