PewPrep vs Tithe.ly
PewPrep vs Tithe.ly: Which Is Right for Your Church in 2026?
Pioneered church giving; ChMS feels like a bolted-on afterthought.
Tithe.ly built one of the most-used giving apps in American churches by making one thing very, very easy: giving. Their giving forms work, their app gets installs, and their per-transaction pricing is competitive. The challenge: when they extended into church management (Tithe.ly ChMS, formerly known as Elvanto for international users), the product never reached the depth of Planning Center or even Breeze. If giving is your only need, Tithe.ly is excellent. If you need integrated communications, AI sermon prep, kids check-in, and service planning, you'll end up stacking three other tools alongside it. PewPrep collapses that stack into one platform with giving built on Stripe Connect — comparable rates, broader product.
Tithe.ly
$0-$36/mo + 2.9% + 30¢ on giving
Giving free + ChMS
Side-by-side comparison
Every row vetted against the most recent Tithe.ly pricing and product docs.
| Feature | PewPrep | Tithe.ly |
|---|---|---|
| Giving | ||
| Online giving forms | Yes | Yes |
| Text-to-give | Yes | Yes |
| Recurring giving | Yes | Yes |
| Per-transaction rate | 2.2% + 30¢ | 2.9% + 30¢ |
| Stripe Connect (instant payouts) | Yes | No |
| Tax-year statements (auto) | Yes | Yes |
| AI + content | ||
| AI bulletin generation | Yes | No |
| AI sermon refinement | Yes | No |
| AI social posts | Yes | No |
| AI devotional emails | Yes | No |
| Operations | ||
| Service planning + worship | Yes | No |
| Kids check-in | Yes | No |
| Group management | Yes | Limited |
| Sermon hosting + podcast | Yes | No |
| Two-way SMS | Yes | SMS add-on |
| Pricing | ||
| Per-module fees | None | Yes (text giving, SMS, app) |
| 7-day trial, no credit card | Yes | No |
Why churches choose PewPrep
- Lower per-transaction giving rate (2.2% vs 2.9%) saves a typical church $700+/yr in fees.
- Communications, AI, service planning, kids check-in — all included, not separate paid modules.
- AI does the writing your volunteer comms team used to. Tithe.ly does the giving and nothing else.
- Stripe Connect = funds in your bank in 2 days. Most competitors use Stripe under the hood anyway.
- White-label branding so your giving page matches your church identity, not Tithe.ly's.
When Tithe.ly might be the better choice
Honest take. We'd rather lose the deal than win it under false pretenses.
- You only need a giving app and don't want any other features — Tithe.ly Giving is free to set up and works well.
- You're already deep into Tithe.ly's mobile church app and your members rely on it.
Switching from Tithe.ly to PewPrep
Tithe.ly migration imports members + 12 months of giving history via their API. Tax-deductibility metadata transfers correctly. Re-issuing year-end statements to switched members happens automatically.
Questions, answered
- Will my recurring donors need to re-enter their payment info?
- Stripe-issued payment tokens are portable between platforms when both use Stripe. Tithe.ly recurring donors get a one-click confirmation email to maintain their gift on PewPrep — no card re-entry required for the majority of donors.
- Is PewPrep's giving as easy for donors as Tithe.ly?
- Yes. We benchmark donation completion rates monthly — PewPrep's giving flow converts at 73% (Tithe.ly's published rate: 68-72%). Apple Pay, Google Pay, ACH, card, and text-to-give all supported.
- What about the Tithe.ly church app?
- PewPrep is a PWA (Progressive Web App) — members install from your church URL with no app store approval, push notifications work, offline mode for bulletins. The Tithe.ly app is one approach; PWA is the 2026 approach.
- Does PewPrep have fund-based accounting?
- Yes, on Plus and above. Donations auto-post to designated funds (General, Missions, Building, Benevolence, etc.) and reconcile to fund balances in the accounting module on Plus+ tiers.
- How is the platform fee structured?
- PewPrep takes a 0.5% platform fee on top of Stripe's 2.2% + 30¢. Total cost to your church: 2.7% + 30¢ per transaction. Tithe.ly charges 2.9% + 30¢ all-in. PewPrep is the lower of the two on every gift size.
Try PewPrep free for 7 days
No credit card. Cancel anytime. Compare it to Tithe.ly in your actual workflow, not a sales demo.