PewPrep vs Aplos
PewPrep vs Aplos: Which Is Right for Your Church in 2026?
Solid church-native accounting; no communications, no AI content layer.
Aplos genuinely understands church accounting. They've built fund-based bookkeeping the right way, their year-end statements are clean, and their nonprofit-specific reports (Form 990 prep, donor acknowledgments) are well thought out. For a church whose only software need is accounting plus giving, Aplos is a strong choice. The limitation: Aplos doesn't pretend to be a full church platform. There's no bulletin generator, no AI sermon prep, no kids check-in, no service planning, no communications automation. Most churches end up running Aplos + something else for the operational side — and that something else often costs as much as Aplos itself. PewPrep includes Aplos-quality fund accounting at the Plus tier ($89/mo) plus the entire rest of the church platform on top.
Aplos
$79/mo + giving fees
Aplos Core
Side-by-side comparison
Every row vetted against the most recent Aplos pricing and product docs.
| Feature | PewPrep | Aplos |
|---|---|---|
| Accounting | ||
| Fund-based accounting | Yes | Yes |
| Chart of accounts | Yes | Yes |
| Bank reconciliation | Pro+ | Yes |
| Donor giving statements | Yes | Yes |
| Budgets + variance | Plus+ | Yes |
| Form 990 prep | On roadmap | Yes |
| AI | ||
| AI expense categorization | Yes | No |
| AI board narrative | Yes | No |
| Giving | ||
| Online giving | 2.2% + 30¢ | 2.9% + 30¢ |
| Text-to-give | Yes | Yes |
| Recurring giving | Yes | Yes |
| Beyond accounting | ||
| AI bulletin + content | Yes | No |
| Sermon companion | Plus+ | No |
| Member directory | Yes | Limited (People) |
| Kids check-in | Pro+ | No |
| Service planning | Yes | No |
| Email/SMS to congregation | Yes | No |
| Sermon hosting + podcast | Pro+ | No |
Why churches choose PewPrep
- Aplos-quality fund accounting included in the Plus tier — same price, much more product.
- Lower giving rate (2.2% vs 2.9%) saves a typical church $700+/yr.
- AI does the expense categorization and board narrative work your treasurer does manually.
- Stop paying two subscriptions (Aplos + something else) — PewPrep is one platform.
- Modern interface that volunteers will actually adopt without training.
When Aplos might be the better choice
Honest take. We'd rather lose the deal than win it under false pretenses.
- You're a denominational or association office that does accounting for multiple churches and has Aplos workflows established across all of them.
- Your treasurer is heavily invested in Aplos and has built custom reports / templates that would take real time to recreate.
- Form 990 preparation is a critical workflow for you today — PewPrep has this on the roadmap but Aplos has it now.
Switching from Aplos to PewPrep
Aplos has an export API for accounting data + giving history. Migration imports your chart of accounts, opening balances, recent transactions, donors, and giving history. Plan for 2-4 weeks of parallel running to verify reports match before fully switching.
Questions, answered
- Is PewPrep's fund accounting truly comparable to Aplos?
- For the core workflow — fund designation, fund balances, fund-aware reports, designated giving auto-post, year-end statements — yes. Aplos has more depth on specialized nonprofit reports (Form 990, statement of functional expenses); PewPrep covers what most churches under 1,000 members actually use.
- What about churches with multiple ministries (school, day care, etc.)?
- Class accounting (separate ministry P&Ls inside one church) is supported via fund + cost-center fields. For genuinely separate 501(c)(3) entities, you'd run a separate PewPrep account per entity.
- Do you have an audit trail like Aplos?
- Yes — immutable audit log on every financial change with before/after JSON, captured for 2 years (or longer at Enterprise tier). Treasurer + Pastor can review who changed what, when, and why.
- Can our outside CPA still run our taxes?
- Yes — PewPrep exports CPA-ready year-end reports in PDF and CSV. We support optional two-way QuickBooks sync at Pro tier if your CPA insists on receiving QBO files.
Try PewPrep free for 7 days
No credit card. Cancel anytime. Compare it to Aplos in your actual workflow, not a sales demo.