White-label 30 min readKingdom / Enterprise plan

How to get your own custom branded church app

Instead of members downloading the shared "ChurchLinker" app, your church can have its very own app with your name, your logo and your colours, listed in the App Store and Google Play under your church's name. This guide shows you how to set that up.

Shared app vs. your own branded app

📱 Shared ChurchLinker app

✅ Available immediately, no setup required
✅ No App Store accounts needed
✅ Updates happen automatically
⚠️ App icon and name says "ChurchLinker"
⚠️ Members select your church on first launch

⭐ Your own branded app

✅ Your church name and logo in the App Store
✅ Members are taken straight to your church, with no selection screen
✅ Your church colours throughout
✅ Your own push notification sender name
⚠️ Requires App Store accounts (~£99/year + $25 one-time)
⚠️ Takes 2 to 4 hours to set up (first time)

Both options connect to the exact same ChurchLinker backend. The difference is only in how the app appears to your members; the features are identical. The white-label option is purely cosmetic and branding-focused.

What you need before you start

Check all of these before starting. This process takes about 2 to 4 hours spread over a few days (some steps require waiting for approvals).

Kingdom or Enterprise plan on ChurchLinker
Your church logo as a high-resolution PNG (at least 1024×1024 pixels, square, no white background)
Your church brand colour as a hex code (e.g. #1d4ed8 for blue; your designer or website will know this)
An Apple Developer account, costing £99/year. Sign up at developer.apple.com.
A Google Play Console account, with a one-time fee of $25. Sign up at play.google.com/console.
An Expo account (free). Sign up at expo.dev.

Part 1: Prepare your brand assets

Prepare your app icon

Your app icon needs to be a 1024×1024 pixel PNG with no rounded corners (the phone adds those automatically) and no transparency.

Use your church logo on a solid background. If you don't have a designer, tools like Canva (canva.com) can help. Simply search for "app icon template".

Save the file as icon.png. You will place this in the mobile/assets/images/ folder.

Prepare your splash screen

The splash screen is the image members see for about 1 second when the app loads. It needs to be 2048×2048 pixels.

Keep it simple: your logo in the centre on a white or brand-coloured background.

Save as splash.png and place it in mobile/assets/images/.

Note your brand details

Write down these details, as you'll need them in Step 5:

App name: what members will see (e.g. "King's Christian Centre" or "KCC App")
Church slug: your ChurchLinker subdomain (e.g. kcc-swindon from kcc-swindon.churchlinker.com)
Brand colour: in hex format (e.g. #1d4ed8)
Bundle ID: a unique reverse-domain identifier. Use com.yourchurchname.member (e.g. com.kcc.member)

Part 2: Configure the white-label build

Set up EAS (if you haven't already)

If you haven't done this from the App Store guide, install EAS CLI and log in:

npm install -g eas-cli
eas login
cd mobile
eas build:configure

Update eas.json with your church details

Open the file mobile/eas.json in a text editor (Notepad on Windows, TextEdit on Mac or VS Code if installed).

Find the whitelabel section and fill in your details. Here is an example for King's Christian Centre:

"whitelabel": {
  "distribution": "store",
  "env": {
    "CHURCH_SLUG": "kcc-swindon",
    "CHURCH_NAME": "King's Christian Centre",
    "CHURCH_COLOR": "#1d4ed8",
    "BUNDLE_ID": "com.kcc.member",
    "EXPO_PUBLIC_API_URL": "https://kcc-swindon.churchlinker.com",
    "EXPO_PUBLIC_TENANT_SLUG": "kcc-swindon",
    "EXPO_PUBLIC_CLERK_PUBLISHABLE_KEY": "pk_live_..."
  }
}

Replace all the REPLACE_ME values with your church's details. Save the file.

The EXPO_PUBLIC_CLERK_PUBLISHABLE_KEY is the same key used on the web. Find it in your Clerk Dashboard at dashboard.clerk.com.

Part 3: Set up App Store accounts

Create your App Store Connect record

Go to appstoreconnect.apple.com → My Apps → + → New App.

Fill in your church's app details. Under Bundle ID, first go to developer.apple.com → Identifiers and create a new App ID with your bundle ID (e.g. com.kcc.member). Then select it from the dropdown in App Store Connect.

Create your Google Play app record

Go to play.google.com/console → Create app and fill in your church's name and details.

Part 4: Build and submit your white-label app

Build both platforms with the white-label profile

In your terminal, from the mobile folder, run:

eas build --platform all --profile whitelabel

This builds both iOS and Android simultaneously using your church's branding. It takes 15 to 30 minutes. Grab a coffee!

When finished, Expo will show you the build files and ask if you want to submit. You can also do it manually:

Submit to both stores

# Submit to Apple App Store
eas submit --platform ios

# Submit to Google Play
eas submit --platform android

Follow the App Store upload guide for full instructions on completing the listings and screenshots. Everything from Step 6 onwards in that guide applies here too.

→ Read the full App Store upload guide

How your app stays up to date

When ChurchLinker releases new features, your white-label app gets them automatically via OTA (Over The Air) updates, with no need to resubmit to the App Store. Members will see the new features next time they open the app.

If you change your church's branding (logo, colours, name) and want the app to reflect that, you'll need to rebuild and resubmit. This takes about 15 minutes to build and then 24 to 48 hours for Apple to approve.

Your app is locked to specific versions of iOS and Android libraries. Roughly every 12 months, you'll need to do a full rebuild to stay compatible with new iPhone/Android releases. ChurchLinker will notify you when this is needed, and the process takes about an hour.

Checklist: ready to submit?

App icon prepared (1024×1024px PNG, no transparency)
Splash screen prepared (2048×2048px PNG)
Church slug, brand colour and bundle ID noted
eas.json whitelabel section updated with church details
Apple Developer account created
App record created in App Store Connect with correct bundle ID
Google Play Console account created
App record created in Google Play Console
eas build --platform all --profile whitelabel completed successfully
eas submit run for both platforms
App Store listings (description, screenshots, keywords) completed
Submitted for review

What the £79/month covers

The monthly subscription is not just for hosting. It covers the ongoing work of keeping your app live, up to date and compatible.

✓App rebuilds every time ChurchLinker ships new features, so your app stays current
✓App Store listing management, including responding to Apple and Google policy changes
✓Annual compatibility rebuilds when new iOS or Android versions require it
✓ChurchLinker notifies you in advance whenever a rebuild or action is needed
✓Support for any submission issues or rejections from Apple or Google

Don't want to do this yourself?

Prefer to hand it all over? For a one-off launch fee, ChurchLinker will handle the entire setup: configuring your app, building it and submitting it to both the Apple App Store and Google Play on your behalf. We write your App Store listing too. You just send us your branding assets and we take it from there.

Pay in full

£499 once

Single invoice. Done.

Pay over 3 months

£170/mo × 3

Auto-charged monthly. Cancels after the 3rd payment.

✓Full app configuration using your colours, icon and branding
✓Build and submission to both Apple App Store and Google Play
✓App Store listing written and optimised
✓Handed over ready for your congregation to download

Request managed setup View pricing