Tithely (tithe.ly) is a giving and church management platform built for churches. Its giving has no monthly fee. You pay per-gift processing fees, which match Stripe's standard US rate for Visa and Mastercard and are higher than Stripe's for bank transfers. Donor Merchant is a free WordPress plugin that only handles online donations. It has no app, text giving, kiosk mode or church management.
If your church wants one system for giving, people, check-in and an app, Tithely offers that and a plugin does not. If you already run a WordPress site and only need online giving with records and statements, a plugin can cost less. Tithely's figures below were read on its own pricing and help pages in October 2026. Verify current pricing with Tithely.
What does Tithely charge?
Giving is free to start, and you pay processing on each gift. Tithely's pricing page says "Tithely Giving is free. There are no setup fees, no monthly fees, no contracts, and no hidden costs. You only pay standard payment-processing fees when a donation is actually processed." Its US rates:
- 2.9% + $0.30 per credit or debit card gift
- 3.5% + $0.30 per American Express gift
- 1% + $0.30 per ACH bank transfer, with no cap listed
Tithely also says there are "no extra charges for refunds, disputes, PCI fees, or deposits." You do not need a separate merchant account, because processing is built in.
Other products are monthly subscriptions. Its help center lists Text Giving at $19, Messaging at $19, Sites (website) at $19, the Custom Church App at $89 and Church Management at $72 per month. The All-Access bundle is $119 a month for giving, text giving, church management, messaging, the app, the website and worship tools. It has a 30-day free trial. Tithely's pricing page also offers about 25% off Church Management + Engagement for yearly billing.
What do churches get with Tithely that a plugin does not offer?
- Five ways to give. Tithely lists online giving, its iOS and Android app, text-to-give, kiosk giving, and administrative giving for cash and checks staff enter.
- Text giving. Donors text an amount to the church's own 10-digit number. New numbers need about 3 weeks of carrier activation after you submit a verification form.
- Kiosk giving at no extra charge. It runs in a tablet's browser and resets after each gift. Tithely says kiosk mode "is not compatible with any external card readers," so donors type card details on screen.
- Recurring giving weekly, every two weeks, monthly or on a custom schedule. Donors change or stop it from their giver account or the app.
- Tax statements for any date range, emailed or printed.
- Check scanning with remote deposit and QuickBooks Online, listed in the free giving plan.
- Church management: member directories, attendance, groups, volunteer scheduling, kids check-in, email and text messaging, in the paid plans.
- Help moving in. All-Access includes data migration and onboarding, and Tithely says "the Tithely onboarding team handles data migration for you" for church management.
Tithely hosts the giving form and the app, so there is no plugin for you to keep updated.
How do Tithely and Donor Merchant compare?
| Donor Merchant | Tithely | |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly software cost for online giving | $0 | $0 (Free Giving) |
| Card fee (US) | Stripe 2.9% + 30¢ for domestic cards, or PayPal 2.89% + $0.49 for donations | 2.9% + $0.30; American Express 3.5% + $0.30 |
| Bank (ACH) fee (US) | Stripe 0.8%, capped at $5 | 1% + $0.30, no cap listed |
| Dispute fees | Stripe charges $15 per dispute, plus $15 to contest one (returned if you win) | None |
| Payment account | Your own Stripe and/or PayPal | Built-in processing |
| Donor covers the fee | Yes, an unticked box the owner can switch off | Yes ("Cover the Fees"), shown by default; the church picks whether it starts ticked |
| Recurring frequencies | Weekly, every 2 weeks, monthly, quarterly, yearly | Weekly, every 2 weeks, monthly, custom |
| Donor manages recurring gift | Stripe donors update the card or cancel in the donor portal | Giver account or app |
| Funds / designations | Yes | Yes, unlimited, split across funds |
| Annual giving statements | Yes, printable | Yes, email or print |
| Cash and check entry | Yes, entered by hand or chosen by the donor on the form | Yes, plus check scanning with remote deposit |
| Text giving | - | $19/month, included in All-Access |
| Kiosk mode | - | Yes, browser-based, no card readers |
| Giving app | - | Yes, iOS and Android |
| QuickBooks Online | - (CSV export, webhooks) | Yes |
| Church management, app, website | - (WordPress is your website) | $72, $89, $19 a month, or $119 for All-Access |
| Where donor records are stored | Your WordPress database | Tithely's platform, with CSV export |
| Countries | Where your Stripe or PayPal account works | US, Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, and some European countries |
Tithely, Stripe and PayPal prices as published October 2026. Verify with each vendor.
What does each one cost? A worked example
The assumptions are made up but typical. A US church receives $100,000 a year online in 2,000 gifts averaging $50: 1,200 by Visa or Mastercard and 800 by bank transfer. No American Express, no donor covers the fee, and no Stripe nonprofit discount.
| Tithely Free Giving | Donor Merchant + Stripe | |
|---|---|---|
| Card fee per $50 gift | $1.75 | $1.75 |
| 1,200 card gifts | $2,100 | $2,100 |
| Bank fee per $50 gift | $0.80 | $0.40 |
| 800 bank gifts | $640 | $320 |
| Processing per year | $2,740 | $2,420 |
| Add text giving | +$228 a year | Not available |
Card gifts cost the same. The $320 difference comes from bank transfers, and it grows with gift size. On a $2,000 bank gift, Tithely's rate is $20.30 and Stripe's is $5.00, because of Stripe's cap.
Software is the bigger question. If your church would buy church management anyway, compare All-Access ($1,428 a year at the monthly price) with what you pay now for a church management system, an app and a website. Donor Merchant replaces none of those. If you only need online giving on a WordPress site you already have, the plugin costs $0 beyond processing. Stripe offers discounted processing to eligible nonprofits but publishes no rate, so it is not counted here.
Both let donors cover the fee. Tithely's help center works a $75 card gift up to $77.55 so the church receives $75.00. Donor Merchant's fee recovery works the same way: $100 on a card becomes $103.30.
What should a church know about Donor Merchant's limits?
- It runs only on WordPress, and someone has to keep the site and plugin updated.
- You open and manage your own Stripe and/or PayPal account and pay their processing fees.
- No text-to-give, kiosk mode, giving app, check scanning or QuickBooks sync.
- No church management: no directory, attendance, groups, check-in or volunteer scheduling.
- Only Stripe recurring donors can update a card or cancel in the donor portal today.
What it does cover: one-time and recurring gifts, funds, offline gifts, printable receipts, annual giving statements, a donor portal, and donor records you can export. What a statement must say is set by the IRS in Publication 1771. This page is information, not tax advice.
Who should pick which?
Pick Tithely if your members give by text, app or a lobby kiosk, or you want giving, people, check-in and messaging in one place with support and data migration included. It also fits a church with no one to look after a website, since Tithely hosts and updates the software.
Pick Donor Merchant if your church already has a WordPress site, you want giving inside it on your own Stripe or PayPal account, and online forms, recurring gifts and statements cover what you need. It costs less when many gifts come by bank transfer, especially large ones.
How do you move from Tithely to a WordPress plugin?
Export your giving transactions and people from Tithely, then import the history into Donor Merchant, so this year's statements stay complete. Active recurring gifts cannot be moved by any plugin. The saved payment details sit with the processor that set them up. Tithely's own guide for churches arriving from another provider asks donors to set up their repeat giving again and cancel the old one. Leaving works the same way in reverse. Keep Tithely running until each new gift has charged once. The step-by-step order is in how to leave a donation platform and keep your donors.
You can run Donor Merchant in Stripe test mode before changing anything. Download Donor Merchant
Sources
- Tithely: Pricing, plans and FAQ (read October 2026)
- Tithely Help: Transaction fees and subscription pricing (updated February 6, 2026; read October 2026)
- Tithely Help: All Access FAQs (read October 2026)
- Tithely Help: Text Giving (read October 2026)
- Tithely Help: How to set up Kiosk Giving (read October 2026)
- Tithely Help: Cover the Fees explained (read October 2026)
- Tithely Help: Generating tax statements (read October 2026)
- Tithely Help: Accepted payment methods by country and supported countries (read October 2026)
- Tithely Help: Export giving transactions and Exporting people (read October 2026)
- Tithely Help: Migrate and grow your recurring givers (read October 2026)
- Stripe: Pricing (US) (read October 2026)
- Stripe Support: Fee discount for nonprofit organizations (read October 2026)
- PayPal: Merchant fees (US) (read October 2026)
- IRS Publication 1771: Charitable Contributions, Substantiation and Disclosure Requirements (read October 2026)