Realm vs Church Windows

Planning Center

Servant Keeper

Tithely Church Management

ShelbyNext Financials

ShelbyNext Membership

Compare Realm and Church Windows based on features, pricing, verified reviews, integrations & more on GetApp. Find out which software is best for your business in 2026.

ShelbyNext Membership offers attendance tracking, events scheduling and automating processes & workflows for churches and other non-profit organizations

Planning Center is an all-in-one church management system made to help you organize information, coordinate events, communicate with your team, and connect with your congregation. 

Use different tools for your ministry needs while keeping everyone informed about what's happening around the church.

Breeze is a cloud-based church management software designed to assist small & mid-sized churches in managing events, donations, follow-ups, volunteers, and more.

Try a free 30-day trial of Breeze today and see why more than 11,000 churches love Breeze!

Realm by ACS Technologies is a church management system with an emphasis on online community

Accounting

Accounting Integration

Accounts Payable

Accounts Receivable

Activity Tracking

Alerts/Notifications

Attendance Tracking

Bank Reconciliation

Budgeting/Forecasting

Built-in Accounting

Child Check-in

Compliance Management

Credit Card Processing

Customizable Reports

Customizable Templates

Data Import/Export

Donation Management

Donation Tracking

Donor Management

Electronic Payments

Event Management

Financial Reporting

For Religious Organizations

Fund Accounting

Fund Management

General Ledger

Member Communication

Member Directory

Member Portal

Membership Management

Mobile Access

Multi-Location

Online Calendar

Online Giving

Payroll Management

Pledge Management

Recurring/Subscription Billing

Reporting & Statistics

Small Group Management

Volunteer Management

Worship Planning

Realm

Android

Web-based

iPad

iPhone

Finance Manager

Our overall experience with Realm has been great, we truly enjoy using this product; our senior members love using the Realm app for their giving and enjoy the accounting module.

Administrative Assistant

Probably the best part might be the database end. It's pretty good at keeping all the information for our people, and creates a nice directory.

communications coordinator

The directory is helpful, and the customer support is good. My favorite part about Realm is the annual conference.

Realm is simply the best solution available in a market without many well-integrated products available yet. Constant improvement will only make it better.

As a former IT/programmer this software is the worst... very frustrating to use... slow.

Treasurer

The cost is probably the best feature for us as a small church. It also allows our members and friends to donate an online gift and have it immediately posted to the member's  statement.

Parish Administrator

I have had a positive experience with Realm. I have not had any questions that couldn't be answered or any tasks that could not be accomplished.

Director of Family Ministries

Compared to our previous ChMS, Realm is very good, and the frustrations are surpassed by a solid experience and feature set.

Office Administrator

I highly recommend the investment of time and finances to get the full benefit of the software by getting the training needed. I wish we had done so when we got it.

Realm Administrator

You can buy (which we did) the integrated accounting module, thus eliminating the need to double post donation summary information. Customer support is excellent.

Coach

I like the marketplace section as well as the ability to chat through the app with people in the community.

I am constantly calling Realm to see if there is a solution to one problem or another, and every time I am basically told "we don't do that" and "we have no plans to do that.

Rector

Sometimes confusing for users when it comes to privacy management and notifications.

Director of Operations & Communications

Easy to use for members and staff; cloud-based means you can access it from anywhere. We are still growing into attendance and check-in functions but look forward to using them.

administrator

It is too expensive for what you get. It's difficult for our members to understand so they don't use it.

Worship Pastor

The online interface is much friendlier than the old version, and it generally has good features and capabilities, but as with any database/CRM, it's all in how you set it up and implement use.

Generating year end tax statements is especially user friendly.

Everything is easy to navigate and it manages  people and contributions very easily. They are always adding improvements which is a plus.

Realm screenshot: Realm users can track event attendance

Realm screenshot: Realm displays attendee demographic on its attendance dashboard

Realm screenshot: Users can set up multiple fund accounts in Realm to hold donations for specific purposes

Realm screenshot: Realm enables users to batch enter contributions, such as Sunday collections

Realm screenshot: Donors have multiple giving options with Realm, and multiple payment types can be accepted

Realm screenshot: Realm automatically generates donation statements

Realm screenshot: Users can filter groups in Realm using multiple criteria

Realm screenshot: Realm allows users to specify in which situations they would like to be notified

Realm screenshot: Administrators can restrict which information in Realm other users can access

Realm screenshot: Realm includes self-service check-in functionality

Freelancers

Large Enterprises

Mid Size Business

Non Profit

Small Business

ACS is a church management software designed to help churches of all sizes handle finances, members, services, background checks, contributions, accounting processes, payroll, purchase orders, and more on a centralized platform.

ShelbyNext Financials is a cloud-based accounting and financial management software designed for churches, non-profits, ministries, and other religious organizations. Key features include general ledger, payroll, accounts receivable, accounts payable and more.

Servant Keeper is a church management software that will streamline your ministry, available as on-premises or on-cloud deployment.

Church Windows is a church management software for modern churches to manage memberships, donations, church receipts, budget and employee payroll

Activity Dashboard

Asset Tracking

Attendance Management

Billing & Invoicing

Check Printing

Contact Database

Customizable Branding

Email Management

Expense Tracking

Financial Analysis

Financial Management

Invoice Management

Invoice Processing

Role-Based Permissions

Transaction History

Visitor Tracking

Website Management

Church Windows

Windows

Financial Secretary- Adm. Asst.

Later, we added the Donation module and this was the greatest asset for the software. First in importance was the accuracy of the entry and the availability of almost instant reports.

I love that this program is very user friendly. Coming from an accounting background I appreciate the similarities.

Office Secretary

I would rate it very well. Adequate support makes all the difference in helping to apply a good experience in working with any kind of software uses.

Administrator of Finance

The software makes tracking out money really simple and the ability to call with questions and receive same day help is wonderful.

Office Manager

We've been using Church Windows for about 15 years now. I love the history of transactions, how easy it is to use, and the good price for customer support.

church secretary

I like that the support team is very helpful and will return your quickly. The dashboard feature help to quickly get you to what you are working on.

Parish Secretary

The customer support is fantastic. Always willing to help you when you need it.

Financial Assistant

When trying to correct mistakes or errors it can sometimes be tricky to do. I think this software requires more training than one would expect.

I do like that you can put in attendance, have member information at one touch, and that our payroll can all be done from this software. The support they offer is great.

lead

Easy to go look something up if needed. Then it has the little help button to help explain something to you if you don't understand.

The scheduler program is used by our church, but must be handled separately from all our other calendars due to lack of integration with other programs.

Church Coordinator

I have worked with the Church Windows people for over 15 years-maybe 20. I have always received great customer service, both through emails, and by phone.

If I were to chose a negative, I suppose it would be the learning curve.

Computer Services Specialist

It's modules are well integrated, and when it is working, it works beautifully. The local version, (as opposed to the Web version) is reasonably priced.

I like the interface of each category because it has its own picture icon that represents its group.

The search functionality can be hard to location your specific request.

Communication Coordinator

User interface is not intuitive and is difficult to use.

Stay at home mom

Customer service is hard to contact in a timely manner. Once this issue is resolved I will have a horrid time thinking of a con.

Realm vs Church Windows Comparison (2026)

Realm

Church Windows

Overview

Video & Screenshots

Pricing

User reviews

Key features

Integrations

Alternatives