ChurchLinker vs ChurchSuite
A long-established UK church management system used by many medium and large churches. Here's how the two compare for a UK church today, written by the team behind ChurchLinker. We've kept it honest about where ChurchSuite is the better fit.
What ChurchSuite does well
ChurchSuite has years of UK-shaped product depth, particularly around small groups, rotas and the directory. The desktop interface is dense but powerful for staff who've grown up with it.
Where ChurchLinker is different
- 0% platform fee on giving. Gifts go straight from donor to your Stripe account, no application fee from us.
- AI-drafted Sunday notices, sermon summaries, anniversary stewardship notes and a member-facing sermon Q&A. None of those sit natively in ChurchSuite.
- Member-facing 'Your Year at Church' Spotify-Wrapped-style recap that members actually share.
- Sunday Morning Command screen + 'Service-ready' tile so the duty leader gets one live view of the next service.
Feature comparison
| Feature | ChurchLinker | ChurchSuite |
|---|---|---|
| UK-first (Gift Aid, GBP, DD/MM, UK GDPR) | Native; HMRC-ready Gift Aid + GASDS schedules | Native; mature Gift Aid |
| Platform fee on giving | 0%, Stripe Connect direct to your church's bank | Per-platform pricing varies; ask them |
| Free plan | Yes, up to 50 contacts, never expires | No free tier |
| Native mobile app for members | Included on every plan | Included |
| WhatsApp messaging | Built in (Thrive plan and above) | Add-on / not native |
| AI sermon summaries + Q&A | Built in (Grow plan and above) | Not native |
| AI rota builder | Built in (Thrive plan and above) | Manual |
| Stewardship anniversary notes | Built in | Manual |
| Sermon → vertical video clips | In-browser MediaRecorder, no transcoding bill | Not native |
| Visitor → member workflow | Kanban + welcome-team submission with pastor approval inbox, fully audit-logged | Workflow but no formal request / approval split |
| DBS lifecycle management | Reminders cron, coordinator inbox, renewal pause, bulk import, portal link, anti-phishing agency card | DBS fields on a profile |
| Charity Commission members register | First-class entity, bulk-tick, snapshot reports, AGM PDF | Add it to a custom field |
| Delegatable permissions (Treasurer / People / Visitors / DBS / Charity) | Five flags any admin can delegate per-user; pastors auto-have them | Role-based only |
| Pastoral care heatmap | Days-since-contact view, encrypted notes | Pastoral notes module |
| CSV import from other systems | Auto-mapping for ChurchSuite, Breeze, Planning Center, Elvanto | Standard CSV import |
| Public REST API + signed webhooks | Documented JSON API at /api/v1 with bearer auth, cursor pagination, six HMAC-signed webhook events. £19/mo add-on or included on Kingdom. Wires into Zapier, Make, MailChimp and your own dashboards | Limited public API; check current docs for scope |
| Years of product maturity | Newer (a few years) | 10+ years |
| User base size | Growing | Large established UK base |
Best-effort summary. ChurchSuite updates its product regularly. If anything here is out of date please email hello@churchlinker.com and we'll fix it.
When ChurchSuite is the right choice
If you already run ChurchSuite well and your team is fluent in it, the switching cost may not be worth it. Likewise, if you need very specific reporting workflows their depth has built up over the years.
Try ChurchLinker free for your church
Free up to 50 contacts forever. Migrate from ChurchSuite via our CSV importer with auto field-mapping. UK support.